User Experience 2008
Chicago
Nov 2-7		 Amsterdam
Nov 16-21

Designing Complex Applications and Websites 1

  • Chicago: Thursday, November 6
  • Amsterdam: Thursday, November 20

Lynn Pausic
Full-Day Tutorial

Applications and websites that require users to sift through and act on rich data sets to accomplish their tasks pose special user interface challenges. Examples of these user experiences are everywhere: call centers, compensation management, process mapping, pricing, supply chain, Web analytics, B2B marketplaces, and more.

Creating user experiences for end-users who engage in complex problem solving requires an approach that’s different from traditional user-centered design methods. In this class, we’ll explore more than 25 interaction design patterns geared toward these complex-problem solving activities.

What You’ll Learn

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

  • Identify user experiences that require complex problem solving
  • Understand and design for the unique domain expert user audience
  • Modify UCD methods for complex applications and websites
  • Distinguish between usefulness and usability
  • Identify interaction design patterns geared toward complex problem-solving activities
  • Apply interaction design patterns

Course Outline

  • Defining the problem space
    • What makes an application or website complex?
    • Examples of complex problem solving
  • A unique user audience
    • Who does complex problem-solving tasks?
    • How are complex problem-solving tasks unique?
    • Identifying and overcoming barriers to use
  • Requirement and UCD pitfalls
    • Why use cases and personas don’t work
    • Rethinking UCD methodology
    • Where requirements and definition processes fall short
    • Usefulness versus usability
  • Designing for complex tasks
    • Tools for comprehending the problem
    • Interaction design patterns for complexity: Displaying large data sets; searching and filtering; bloated hierarchy alternatives; displaying metadata; tables; system messages; help
  • Recognizing and applying patterns

Format

This full-day tutorial includes exercises and discussions.

Handouts

Copies of the presentation slides.

Who Should Attend?

This tutorial is designed for information architects, interaction designers, visual designers, usability specialists, product managers, UI developers, managers of those functions, and anyone involved in the design of complex applications or websites.

The tutorial assumes familiarity with user interface design or usability principles. No knowledge or experience with complex problem solving is required.

See Also:

Designing Complex Applications and Websites 2 moves beyond Day 1 to explore new techniques for understanding and mapping expert users’ mental models, as well as advanced interaction design patterns and how you can manage and apply them in the design process.

Instructor

photo of Lynn Pausic Lynn Pausic is Founder and President of Expero Inc., a consulting firm specializing in the definition, design, and usability of user experiences for websites and applications. Pausic has an extensive background in user experience design, ranging from graphical and voice-driven user interfaces for wearable devices to enterprise software used to streamline the business processes of Fortune 500 companies. Her recent clients include Curbside.MD, Charles Schwab, Freescale, Lincoln-Mercury, Oracle, and Motorola. Prior to founding Expero, Pausic was the Director of Product Management for 2Vox, a wireless security company. She has also managed human-computer Interaction teams and served as a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University’s Engineering and Design Research Center. Pausic holds a B.S. in communication design from Carnegie Mellon.