Designing Engaging Experiences for Multi-Device Consumption

1. Experiences / Content

2. Change in media environment • US Teenagers are consuming 11 hours of media in 7.5 hours • Multi-tasking makes functions/experiences shorter and simpler • Multiple devices at the same time • TV • Ipad • phone

3. experience > content • Content is reliant on the user experience to be relevant • The same story • Printed out as a book • Printed out on the TV • Printed out on a computer screen • Printed out on a mobile phone

4. experience • The right type of content for the right type of user/audience experience • Big Media Myth of reusability of content • Limited benefit re-utilising content • Need to change for different media types • TV/Internet video are closest linked (but not for long due to interactivity) • What is the true experience the audience/user wants from you in this medium?

5. experiences trump content Ratings from 3 (strong) to 0 (non existent)

11. User Experience n. the overall experience and satisfaction a user has when using a product or system

12. User Experience is multifaceted!

13. User Experience is… • a multi-disciplinary • process of design - Information Architecture - Interaction Design - Ethnography - Branding - Library Science - Usability

14. What is an experience?

15. Language for communication: Signs, Signals & Labels

16. Experiences can be designed

17. Redefine the problem

18. Observe, Listen, Try then do it all over again

19. Do you want to know the weather? Or what to wear tomorrow? Or how long the commute will take?

20. Creating an “experience” • what do you want the user to feel • How often do you want them to engage • How long per engagement • Which devices will they engage on for what • Why will they come back • Why will they share it • Why will they find it • What is your competitive advantage

27. Experience is a Sum of Moments

28. How do you welcome people?

29. Make people smile 

30. Make it tactile

31. “Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work properly yet”- Douglas Adams

32. What is Technology for? • To help people perform tasks?

33. What is Technology for? • To help people achieve goals?

34. What is Technology for? • To help people

35. Who is Technology for? • One of the most important questions for any project is “who is this device for?” • For example, how do you present information on a website to… • Kids • Teens • Adults • Elders • Would you use the same tone, navigation, visual style?

36. One size doesn’t (often) fit all • Strategies for designing for people • Design a system that can be used by anyone • Design specialised systems for each type of audience • When to design “one size fits all” • Public access terminals - e.g. train ticket machines • Even then it pays to understand who you’re designing for and to design for the most challenging case

37. Self-Referential Design Designers know what they like. Left unchecked it’s very easy to end up designing for yourself. Designers are not representative of the intended audience however. Engineers even more so! By constantly referring back to Personas designers can ensure that they are not just designing something they like. Graphic/Visual design also suffers from this problem.

38. Personas

39. What is a Persona • A Persona is a description of a character that the site will be designed for. Acts as a focus for design • It is • An archetype, a stereotype • A design target • Specific (but not excessively so) • It is not • Politically correct • A marketing demographic • An average

40. What is a Persona • A Persona includes information such as… • Personal profile • age, sex, education, job, hobbies, family, socio-economic group, etc • Role • job role for work-centred sites • position in household for home-centred sites (eg mother) • “Flavouring” • back-story, what sort of house they live in, how long they’ve had their job, where their parents live, when they got married, where they went on their honeymoon, etc

41. Should be recognisable • A good persona generally gets… • “oh, I know someone just like that” • The designer should feel they know them well enough that they can answer questions about them • Once into design that’s exactly what you’ll be doing! You need to know them well enough to get into character - rather like method acting!

42. An Example: Marjorie Bannet • Biography • 78 years old • Just moved to Penrith from Windermere • Has a son in Hastings, and a daughter in Newcastle • Doesn’t know anyone else in Penrith yet • Hasn’t been driving for a few years now • Sometimes feels lonely • Has a help come in once a week • Would like to be able to read more

43. An Example: Marjorie Bannet • Health • Has trouble sleeping from time to time. Will wake up in the early hours and often not get to sleep again for 2-3 hours • A little arthritis in her hands • Early cataracts, so less acute vision • Can move about, perhaps not quite as quickly as she could 10 years ago • Sometimes has a rest in the afternoon

44. An Example: Marjorie Bannet • Technology • Has never used a computer before, and is a little nervous about them • Has a mobile phone, and instructions on how to use it from her son • Uses the microwave to prepare many of her meals • Uses a video recorder, but can’t be bothered setting it to record things

45. What’s the right level of detail? • A persona should be rich enough that they are a believable person. The designer must be able to feel empathy for the persona for them to be effective. • They should be ‘normal’ people, not laden down with quirks, although they should have typical preferences. • Demographics are important, but you also need a few personal titbits. These help you see a person - not just a statistic, and develop empathy.

46. A Persona has Goals • A persona has goals they want to achieve, not tasks they wish to perform • Tasks pre-suppose a solution, goals are invariant • The goals should be mostly relevant to the device being designed, although some may be more general and include lifestyle goals

47. An Example: Marjorie Bannet • Goals • To not be lonely • Keep in touch with her sons and their families • Avoid frustrating technology experiences! • Not be reliant one anyone

48. How do Personas help? • A persona acts as a focus for the design • As design options are created each one can be very rapidly tested by asking “would Marge understand this?” • The personas goals direct the design towards an solution which genuinely solves the correct problem • The next step is creating design, starting with Scenarios

49. Different types of Personas • There are several types of personas • Primary - this is the person you’re mostly designing for. If you only have one persona they will be primary • Secondary - not the main target, but they should be satisfied if it can be done without upsetting the primary • Negative - this is someone who are explicitly NOT designing for - useful to avoid “but what about Fred the freak who wants…” arguments • Bit Part - not always a full persona, but someone who interacts with a persona in a significant way

50. Scenarios