Aaron Rosenberg
April 10 11:30AM
Social networking? - check
Rich internet applications? - check
E-commerce with customized products? - check
Deploying Endeca? - check
Huge technical limitations? - check
Redesign the whole site? - check
...In eight months? - check
Wait!? What did we just agree to?
The photo sharing space is a mixture of rich internet applications, social
networking, and e-commerce, all in one site. In this presentation, the UX team
at PhotoWorks.com will share our experiences in undertaking a major redesign of
a complex website. From business requirements to wireframes to technical
reviews to user studies to sitewide testing, we'll cover the gamut of issues
that arise in a redesign and how we dealt with them. We invite the audience to
come and learn from our successes and our mistakes.
We'll walk you through:
-The process we adopted to tackle this project (and the iterations on
those processes)
-Tips for weaving diverse backend systems into a coherent user
experience
-The pros and cons of the UX team owning parts of the site
-Techniques for working with stakeholders and development teams
-Integrating user research into our deliverables and the final website
-Sacrifices...and how to make them without losing
PhotoWorks.com is one of the brands of American Greetings Interactive (AGI).
AGI was recently named 19th in an annual ranking by InformationWeek of the top
500 companies with new ideas that drive business results.
April 11 10:45AM
This presentation will explore a quantitative research approach to identifying
the effectiveness of UX design models such as "cores and paths" and epicenter
based design. By measuring the effectiveness of these methods through click
data and eye gaze patterns, we have the potential to create a predictive model
of user behavior that could dramatically alter the trajectory of user research.
The effectiveness of qualitative user research has led to its wide adoption,
but interface improvements made through qualitative study and iteration are not
always systematically implemented within organizations. Models such as
epicenter based design which identify key interface components are easy to
communicate to business stakeholders and clients. Providing quantitative
evidence of their effectiveness through predictive models of success will
strengthen the business case for UX.
By calling upon the history of American beekeeping as a backdrop for
understanding insight gained through quantitative measures, I hope to show that
incremental improvement comes from qualitative observation, while giant strides
can be achieved through quantitative insight. Beekeeping enjoyed incremental
linear improvement until the dramatic events of 1851 which introduced "bee
space". All modern bee hive equipment can still be traced back to the events of
1851. Using the lessons of historic events in beekeeping and the idea that
measurement and prediction can help foster great insight and innovation, we
lean on the next generation of user researchers to apply quantitative methods
to our study of user behavior on the web.