Collecting

I use this website to collect, and eventually syndicate, my thoughts and interesting links.

  1. What Really Matters - Focusing on Top Tasks

    My notes on researching Gerry McGovern’s Top Tasks article for an upcoming project

    The problem

    • The ease of publishing content leads to bloated website and admin systems that eventually require redesigning
    • These redesigns become glossy facade fixes atop of the unchanged mess of information and content

    Introducing Top Tasks Management

    Top tasks are:

    • Small set of the most important tasks for your customers
    • Numbering between 2-10 tasks

    The objective is to get these core tasks working as well as possible otherwise, you run a high risk of losing your customer. Doing this by reducing the complexity by identifying what really matters to the customer.

    Additionally involves deemphasising the smaller less important tasks that, over time, contribute to a much bigger drain of resource and value to the customer.

    Less important tasks typically generate more content by the organisation.

    Identifying Top Tasks

    Get the organisation involved gathering tasks

    Objective - build empathy with the customer, understand how they think.

    Change the mindset - what does the customer want rather than what the organisation want.

    Data sources for gathering tasks:

    • Organisational philosophy - strategy, vision and objectives
    • Customer feedback - survey, help inquiries, support team insights
    • Stakeholder insight - considerations for top tasks
    • Competitor or peer websites - review similar tasks across domain
    • Traditional and social media - open discussions on various channels
    • Site behaviour analysis - top visited and interacted pages and assets
    • Search analysis - most popular site and public search engine search terms

    Two reasons why most popular pages and search keyword aren’t enough:

    1. They reflect what content you have maybe not what your customers want. These pages might also be a mix of top and tiny tasks.
    2. Search doesn’t give you the bigger picture. Bookmarked top tasks and well-constructed navigations mean tiny tasks are more likely to be searched for.

    The gathered lists usually contain duplicates, overlapping areas, internal jargon.

    Generate a shortlist with stakeholders

    Objective - cut the list down to a maximum shortlist of 100 tasks.

    Duration - 4-6 weeks to do the research and generate the shortlist.

    Tips on shortlist generation:

    1. Use clear language - avoid jargon and other technological or marketing-centric terminology.
    2. Omit specific references to products or features and avoid using group names - use general terms that can cover all instances of product related tasks.
    3. Merge overlapping tasks - consider combining similar tasks into a single more generic task.
    4. Avoid high-level concepts and goals - try to maintain tasks to a similar level and differentiated from the overall customer goal. Goal = the change, Task = the thing the customer needs to do to help achieve that goal.
    5. Exclude audience and demographic - tasks should be universal.
    6. Use nouns for tasks - avoid using for tasks if possible, scannability is improved by omitting verbs.
    7. Avoid repetition - aim for no more than 4 tasks that have the same first word.
    8. Keep it brief - max of 7 words or 55 characters per task.

    Subtasks should include 2-3 examples and added to parentheses e.g. Task (subtask, subtask, subtask)

    The objective here is to involving as many teams and gain consensus from as many key stakeholders as possible. There may be a need to bend the rules to prove that one top task isn’t needed or to observe customers reactions.

    Get customers to vote and rank

    The shortlist is then sent to a representative sample of customers to complete.

    They must:

    1. Choose 5 tasks that matter most to them
    2. Rank the chosen 5 tasks - 5 = most important, 1 = least important

    The survey design is such for two reasons:

    1. It forces a gut reaction - what customers do vs what they say
    2. It exposes the top tasks and the tiny tasks as a hierarchy of importance

    Order tasks by highest/lowest vote

    Results of the survey will expose the top, medium, small and tiny tasks.

    See article for example results{:target="_blank"}

    Benefits

    Top Tasks Management is an evidence-based collaborative approach which can be applied periodically to check customer’s top tasks.

    The value is also found for the organisation in cross-team collaboration and shared understanding.

  7. 5 Steps to Create Good User Interview Questions By @Metacole — A Comprehensive Guide

    5 Steps to Create Good User Interview Questions By @Metacole — A Comprehensive Guide

    • User interviews enable you to:
      • speak directly to your users
      • have specific questions answered
      • uncover previously unknown details and directions
    • Badly scripted questions can:
      • result in biased questions and therefore biased answers
      • lead to a flawed foundation to product and business decisions

    1. Start with a problem statement

    • What are the questions you want answered?
    • Create a list of all the questions you need answered to gain better understanding

    2. Reframe the problem statements

    • Rephrase the questions from different perspectives:
      • logical/rationale-driven
      • emotion/desire-driven
      • product/consumer-focused
    • Benefits:
      • uncovers additional opportunities to learn about your users, specifically those you hadn’t previously considered
      • creates the foundation of your interview questions

    3. Develop your questions

    • Avoid leading questions
      • Leading questions will influence the answers you receive from you interviewees
      • They infer that something is true where it might not be
    • Avoid speculative questions
      • if asking about the past, be as specific as possible
      • speculative questions invite interviewees to fill in the gaps or completely invent a scenario
      • aim for genuine and insightful data
    • Ask open-ended questions
      • open-ended questions invite interviewees to add details around the central theme
      • answers to open-ended questions unpack invaluable information that would otherwise be undiscovered by a more specific question
    • Ask multiple questions to inquire about one thing
      • offers an opportunity to verify that you’ve understood the interviewee and check for contradictions
      • avoid asking these questions concurrently, instead pick a the next natural moment in the flow of conversation
      • data triangulation{:target="_blank"} can also help
      • Avoid asking if an interviewee would purchase or use the product
        • this is an uncomfortable position for your interviewee to be put in and they will probably say “yes” even if they don’t mean it
        • instead, ask about their intent to purchase{:target="_blank"}

    4. Be prepared to paraphrase your questions

    • it’s possible an interviewee won’t understand your question
    • being prepared to rephrase a question will keep the interview flowing

    5. Add structure to your question list

    1. Introduction
    • put the interviewee at ease by explaining the purpose of the interview and where the data is going
    • avoid explainig too much to maintain natural responses to questions
    • Thank the interview for attending and introduce yourself
    • keep the introduction brief
    • ask permission: audio and video recording, photos etc
    1. Warm up
    • ask 3-5 generic questions
      • occupation/what’s an average day like?
      • hobbies
      • internet usage
    1. Main
    • ask as much as possible
    • start with specific past events then speculative questions
    • ask questions that suit the conversation, introduce the theme then dig deeper
    1. Wrap up
    • make it clear that the interview is over
    • ask if they have any questions
    • thank then for their time and contribution

  8. Interviewing Users

    Jakob Nielsen’s advice on interviews.

    • What users say and what they do are different
    • User interviews are appropriate when used in cases where they generate valid data

    What interviews can’t provide

    • Where user interviews fail:

      • when a user is asked to recall the past
      • when a user is asked to speculate the future

    • Our memories are fallible - we construct stories to rationalize what we remember, or think we remember, to make it sound more plausible or logical

    • The present is the only valid data a user can offer, everything else is recollection or speculation

    • Users are pragmatic and concrete - users (non-designers) can’t naturally visualize something that doesn’t yet exist, and similarly, designers don’t see the world from a users’s perspective. This explains the failure of a specification document and waterfall product development. It speculates that the product will succeed.

    • In contrast, An Agile team focused on learning will validate design decisions at each iteration.

    • Decisions on colours, html form element types, number of items, tone of voice are not something to ask users. Instead, these decisions will be determined from observing users use the product.

    • Avoid asking users:

      • Would you use (unbuild feature) - again, this is speculation
      • How useful is (existing feature) - these questions may lead to confused responses and unreliable data. caveat - if you do ask “how useful is (existing feature)” also ask the same for a non-existing feature

    • To gain this feedback more accurately:

      • pay attention to user comments while using these features
      • ask questions immediately after use

    What interviews can provide

    • Overall feelings of using the site after use
    • Acquiring general attitudes or “how they think of a problem” - use this feedback to design solutions
    • Use the critical incident method to ask to recall stand-out examples:
      • when they faced particular difficulty
      • when there was little friction
    • Avoid idealised examples by:
      • avoiding asking for their “usual” workflow - asking this can result in the omission of details that remove them from what they actually do

    The Query Effect

    • People make up opinions when asked for one
    • Asking leading questions can act as a catalyst
    • Be cautious not to use these opinions to make design or business decisions
    • To gain this feedback more accurately:
      • resist asking about particular attributes that might result in forced comments
      • take note of unprompted comments during usability testing

    Combining methods

    • User testing will always give you the most valuable data
    • Triangulate the findings to gain a better understanding