I am currently working on writing some interaction/high level patterns for social systems with Andrew Simpson. These will serve as base content for a wiki of such patterns that we will be launching as we develop Rilli. These patterns are part of what Rilli is based on.
So, I think I’ll be posting each pattern that I write about here as I try to make these things. I would love feedback and criticism and additions and suggestions on everything from what I am writing to how I am structuring it.
So here is “Quick Wins”.
Use Contexts
This pattern can be particularly useful for sign-ups, data entry processes and for helping users learn a new system. The concept is to provide positive reinforcement, encouragement and maintain flow by breaking tasks and processes down into short steps.
Our case studies have indicated that the barrier to entry on many social networking sites is quite high. There were many mental models unique to each service for users to grasp and few standards being set or followed. For example – understanding how to browse photos on Facebook does not help you understand how to browse photos on Flickr and vica versa. In order to minimize the barrier of use in your system, you can map out mental models and patterns using Journey Frameworks and also build on existing standards and user mental models. This can help gauge the rate at which you are introducing new concepts and elements, then scale the entry process accordingly.
Base Concepts
One of the concepts this revolves around is Flow, a concept proposed by psychologist Mihály Csiksentmihályi (a Hungarian name pronounced “Me high - Chicks sent me high-y!”) and referenced across a variety of fields.
“Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.”
Wikipedia
It can be also referred to being in the zone, on the ball, in the groove, or even stoked - if you will. Another way to put it would be,
“…being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”
Mihály Csikszentmihályi
By helping users maintain their flow we are able to provide a more pleasurable experience and create motivation and energy during normally uninteresting or difficult processes. Users feel they are reaching milestones and getting the reward of productivity when larger tasks are segmented into smaller, easy-to-achieve tasks.
This concept is not only useful for design but for company dynamics. 37 Signals has written many articles about their unconventional work methods that avoid interruptions, face to face time, meetings and other things that disrupt productivity and flow. Along these lines they have put together a very extensive and informative post on flow.
37 Signals - All About Flow
Jeffery Veen also talks about similar concepts for building easy to use CMS systems and other systems for first time users. Start with easy to achieve tasks which are rewarding to complete. This gets the user feeling confident and gives them time to get into flow before hitting any major road blocks.
“Give first-time users a series of quick wins that become increasingly complex. …I want to feel successful with your system within a few minutes. I don’t want to you to present the stunning power at my fingertips until I’m comfortable with my surroundings. Please save the content ranking, on-the-fly PDF creation, community forums, and user polls for later. I may eventually want that stuff, but not the first time I log in.”
Jeffery Veen
Applying It
There are many ways Quick Wins can be applied. Here are a few.
Truncated Initial Processes
Data entry systems such as sign up processes, account management, forms, etc should require only the absolute minimum of content and allows users to enter more data later on their own. By keeping initial time investments to a minimum you give your user a much lower level of commitment to, for example, join your service. Lowering the barriers to entry is important, because once they are in – they will slowly get emotionally invested in your service and your brand. “But we need more then just the minimal data!” you say? Rich input will come with buy-in into the system. Once a user is excited about your service, they will happily spend time building their profile or account information.
Figure 1
Vimeo does a very good job of this (Figure 1), and even Facebook. While their sign up process is quite long, each step is not more then about 5 fields long. You never get a page of endless fields to make you question your time investment. Furthermore, the data entry potential on Facebook is huge. Profiles have incredible amounts of information in them, and once users are hooked and buy-in is achieved, they happily fill it all out.
Patterning System Concepts
Quick Wins can be used to help a user learn how to use a system in an intuitive way that progressively builds on each new concept he or she has to learn. By creating a list of new concepts or mental models a user has to learn to operate your system, you can then try and design the entry model so that the are only exposed to one or 2 of these concepts or “interaction patterns” at a time. One good way to do this is through Journey Frameworks.
Journey Frameworks are information models that overlay the roles, thoughts and needs of the various stake-holders throughout an interaction. You can use journey frameworks to map the system entry experience. First identify several different ways a user could find and enter the system. For example, some of the points of entry could be through direct url access to the front page, email invite, google search, etc. You can then map all the touch points as the user starts to experience the system and the brand. At each touch point consider the users’ concerns and the designers’ concerns. Also note which of the interaction patterns were present at each touch point. Using this information model you can begin to designing methods of entry where the users are introduced to only a few patterns at each touch point. This can reduce cognitive load and allow them to build on their previous knowledge at each subsequent touch point.
A Journey Frameworks from the early stages of Rilli Prototyping (Figure 2):
For more examples of Journey Frameworks in use you can find a case study of IDEO using one to redesign the hospital experience.
The Ideo Cure (pdf)
Christopher Hawthorne, “The Ideo Cure,” Metropolis Magazine, October, 2002
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10.07.07 / 11am