Visualising the

User Experience
Grant Robinson
Senior Interaction Designer at Xero
grant@xero.com
Let’s talk about...
1. Rapid prototyping
2. Visualising the UX with screenflows
3. Movement and transitions
Rapid prototyping
Is this rapid prototyping?
Is this rapid prototyping? Nope!
What is rapid prototyping?
• User-centered design methodology
• For designing, communicating and evaluating
user interfaces
• Getting feedback as early as possible
• Fast
Prototyping life-cycle
Prototyping life-cycle

The more cycles the better

Agile development mantra:

release early, release often

Agile design mantra:

fail early, fail often

"If you’re not failing now and again, it’s a sure sign
you’re not doing anything very innovative."
Woody Allen
No designer is an island
1. Fellow designers
2. Project team
3. Wider team
4. Users
5. Your mum
Common techniques
• Paper prototyping
• Wireframes and page schematics
• HTML wireframes
• Interactive prototypes
Paper prototypes...
Paper prototypes
Love:
• Quick & dirty
• No software needed
• Very inclusive

Hate:
• Not quick enough
• Too dirty (lack context & scale)
• Hard to share amongst team
• Still needs a separate documentation step
Wireframes & page schematics...
http://gapingvoid.com/2007/05/15/random-thought/
Wireframes
Love:
• Good for defining content
• Good for documenting screens

Hate:
• Bad at showing interactivity / flow
• Can’t really use them for testing
• Slow. Too much time spent describing.
HTML wireframes...
• Better success rate
• Much faster
• Less confusion
HTML wireframes
Love:
• Can show interactivity / flow
• Good for simple interaction (links, buttons etc)
• Experienced in the browser (correct context & scale)

Hate:
• HTML, CSS (and JS) knowledge necessary
• Time wasted on hacking layout & advanced functionality
• Design only what you can build
• Can’t throw away, but should
Other interactive prototypes...
Axure (www.axure.com)
Axure (www.axure.com)
SketchFlow (www.microsoft.com/expression)
Other interactive prototypes
Love:
• Good for testing moderately complex interactions
• Some support collecting feedback
• Some can generate specs

Hate:
• Difficult to get custom interactions working
• Can require expertise in proprietary languages
• Often not cross-platform (no love for Mac users)
• Often low-fidelity only
• Make me think like a developer, not a designer
Choosing a prototype technique
What a dilemma!
Visualising the UX
with screenflows
http://gapingvoid.com/2007/05/15/random-thought/
So how do we describe what users do?

Visualise the experience...

• Show every step to complete a task
• Show every click
• Preview the experience - see and feel how
everything flows together
It’s like stop motion
From low to high fidelity
• 32 iterations
• 5 released
Using Flash as a design tool
{eh, what?}
Flash: Not just a development tool
Flash: Not just for video
Flash: History in drawing & animation
FutureSplash Animator
FutureSplash Animator
Anatomy of a screenflow
Screenflows
• Perfect fit for agile teams
• Very effective communication tool
• Easy to evaluate
• Ideal for explaining changes over time
• Easy to share. Experienced in the browser.
• Obvious focus & limits
• Significantly reduces documentation
• Support low to high fidelity
• No coding necessary
Getting serious about
movement & transitions
How did this...
...become this?
...become this?
How did this...
...become this?
How did this...
...become this?
"Unless you can show me where you've
fleshed out the character and aspects of the
transitions at the same level of thought,
rational, exploration and fidelity as you have
the states - you're fired."

Bill Buxton
HCI pioneer
Currently Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research
Movement: the new affordance
• Use movement to orientate user and keep
them in flow

• Explain changes/transformations

• Use physical metaphors to describe the

action: zoom, slide, reveal
• Not just for fun: Research on the importance
of movement is just starting to come in
 Yahoo Design Pattern Library
http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/richinteraction/transition/
 Yahoo Design Pattern Library
http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/richinteraction/transition/
Transitions decreased task completion times
Reduced error rates for reading tasks
0.3 seconds - optimal transition speed
Some takeaways...
{nom nom nom}
The timeline is your friend
• Efficient digital sketching tool
• Best way to manage changes over time
• Supports low to high fidelity
• Natural starting point for exploring
movement and transitions
Visualising the experience
makes you a better designer
• Puts you in the user’s shoes
• Keeps you focussed on user flow
• Best way to communicate your designs to
team and stakeholders

• Cuts documentation in half. Less time

describing = more time designing
Any questions?
Please feel free to flick me an email: grant@xero.com

Photo credits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/editor/3370897686/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fuyoh/748118128/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/celloc/3145987130/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eraphernalia_vintage/3777808203/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcourtie/3500123702/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcourtie/3500124362/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21218849@N03/3902295700/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21218849@N03/3901459255/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21218849@N03/3902296466/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21218849@N03/3901509379/