User Experience research lives or dies by the appropriateness of the participants in the study.

UX researchers just don’t talk about actively recruiting, do they? Many researchers ignore it, throwing it over the wall to an agency. It’s complicated, time consuming, and nerve-wracking. In this UIE Virtual Seminar, you’ll learn four strategic steps to make recruiting a fun, useful, and interesting benefit to user research.

If you are involved with user research projects and spend any amount of time worrying about getting the right people in the room, then this UIE Virtual Seminar is for you.

Find out more about Dana’s seminar and register?

Or learn more about our Usability testing bundle which includes two seminars and the UIE report, “Recruiting Without Fear.” 

Tell us how you source and screen participants? What concerns do you have about the recruiting process? Share your thoughts, questions, and concerns below.

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I had the chance to talk to Dietmar Offenhuber, key researcher of LBI, and Moritz Stefaner, designer of the “X by Y” project commissioned by LBI, about the project. They mentioned that the data originated from the Prix Ars Electronica, founded in 1987. As one of the oldest media art competitions in the world, so far there are almost 40,000 submissions in the archive. Since this data is considered unique in terms of the history of media arts, it is also an interesting database for meaningful analysis.

“Mapping the Archive” was located at the history lounge exhibition in the Brucknerhaus, which also featured many important projects from the long history of Ars Electronica Festival, and consisted of 6 different data visualization pieces created by Dietmar Offenhuber, Evelyn Münster, Jaume Nualart, Moritz Stefaner and Gerhard Dirmoser. You may check the team page of this group at the brand-new LBI Visualization showcase new website, which also has all the datasets available for download.

Dietmar explained that the projects were developed by studying 3 main points of the data:

1. Quantitative Analysis: What are the submissions, how many they are and how they are categorized.
2. Social Networks: Who were the jury members throughout the years? How they are connected to each other as well as awarded artists.
3. Art Historical Context: What is the effect of awarded projects in the history? Where they appeared after the awards(i.e. books,exhibitions), how they influenced the genres and fields of media arts.

The first project in the lounge was about the competition submissions: “X by Y” by Moritz Stefaner shows all the past submissions to the Prix Ars Electronica, from the its beginnings in 1987 up to now. Moritz stated that the most complete dataset included the basic types such as country of origin, year and demographic information on submitters. Here, the goal was to characterize the “ars world” in quantitative terms. A series of finely detailed diagrams group and juxtapose all the submissions according to years, category, prize and country. The graphics are composed of little colored-coded dots, with each single dot representing a unique submission in the database. In order to provide a readable diagram, Moritz finally decided to work on print medium. The team believed that only a giant print would reflect the quantity and details of submissions.

“Media Art as Social Process” by Dietmar Offenhuber and Gerhard Dirmoser examines the social networks formed by jurors and awarded artists: “Each year a combination of new and recurrent jury members meet to identify the winning projects. Often the awarded artists from the previous year are invited as jury members. A social network has evolved over the years.” Some interesting results revealed themselves: it is not possible to see small islands or independent nodes in the jury network; however the final look is a complete big mesh created by people and social connections. The second interesting point to explore is that some of the jurors are extremely permanent in some categories over the years; in a sense, they shape the vision of that specific category. Another interesting visual outcome they discovered was that the boundaries of different categories were merging and dissolving into each other during the years.

The Prix Ars Electronica Jury always writes a statement for each winning project. Over the years, these statements have been growing into a large collection of texts. Each of them is visualized as a “texty“: a small visualization showing the structure, length and topics of each text at a glance. The project explores the semantic relationship between different statements. There is a special navigation system created for browsing keywords in the texts.

“Proxemantics” generates another network of keywords comprising of all the Prix Ars Electronica jury statements. It uses the structure of texts (sentences, paragraphs, etc.) to harvest semantic relationships between annotations based on their spatial proximity.

In the “winners” section of the poster, the “Prix Landscape Interactive Art” displays all the works that have been awarded in the category of “Interactive Art”, since its inception in 1990 up until now. The landscape is created by using a taxonomy provided by Katja Kwastek. The proximity of 2 works represents their similarity. The terms that are assigned to a work are symbolized by petals, whereas each term has a unique shape. When several terms are applied, the combination of petals results in an individual profile for each work. The color saturation communicates the year of production of a piece: older pieces are represented in a lighter shade.

The last 2 maps of the large installation were created by Gerhard Dirmoser. “Thesaurus of Electronic Media Art” is an ongoing project and this print is the 2nd version of the project. It shows the winning projects of Prix Ars Electronica contextualized in their art historical environment. The field of “digital performance” is represented based on terms from the theoretical publication of the same title by Steve Dixon. Although this topic is not actually a category in Prix Ars Electronica, it highlights overall aspects which various categories have in common.

The 2nd piece on display includes all people who submitted a work to Prix Ars Electronica more than once or who were awarded at least once. Genres have been coded with single letters, however they are not identical to the Prix categories; e. g. N represents all net-based categories. The individual persons are concentrated to clusters according to their “similarity”, which means a similar behavior in the way they submit to categories as well as public presence (number of citations in publications and other relevant media).

After talking about all projects in detail, our discussion makes us raise a number of questions such as “What is the function and importance of information visualization in the field of art history?“, “Does information visualization only serve as an analysis of the existing texts written by art historians or does it bring a new dimension to the field of art history?” If you have any opinion regarding these issues, please feel free to leave comments to keep the discussion alive.

*Images: Courtesy of Moritz Stefaner.
This guest blog post was written by Mahir M. Yavuz with the support of Moritz Stefaner! Mahir is an instructor at Interface Cultures in Kunstuniversität Linz and researcher at Ars Electronica Futurelab.

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Tomorrow. Wednesday at 7PM. Here. Make it.

Get ready for our first ever UX Booth Town Hall tomorrow, September 16th at 7PM EST.

We’re hosting a group discussion to go over some exciting new things around UX Booth, to hear your feedback, and get to know the community a bit better. If you’re interested in connecting with others in the community, improving the booth, and having your voice heard—this is the place to be tomorrow night.

We’ll be hosting the chat at UXBooth.com/chat tomorrow night at 7PM EST. If you make it, you’ll get a sneak peek at what’s coming very soon to UXBooth.com, and even have the opportunity to influence the way things are done around here in the future!

So again: Mark your calendars, set an alarm, or do whatever you gotta and be here tomorrow night at 7PM sharp. We can’t wait to see you there!

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Using a feedreader and can’t see the video?

This video went viral a couple of years ago and has had about 12.5 million views, so you may have seen it before. When interviewed later, little Jonny admitted “I was just having nervous thoughts in my mind and thinking about turtles, I found a snapping turtle there that was really cool and I just wanted to blurt it all out.”. Ah, bless!

Also speaking last night was Gareth White, Director of Vertical Slice, a new Brighton-based gameplay research agency. Among other things, he talked about some of the differences between playability and Usability. He showed a clip this hilarious Zero Punctuation video by Ben Croshaw, which highlights the importance of baseline Usability in gameplay design. It’s well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it (contains lots of swearing). Fast forward to 2:20 if you’re in a hurry.

If you like that video, there’s loads more here.

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Professionals within our industry are completely awash with opportunities by which they can tweak and cajole better User Experiences from their projects. The difficult part is maintaining quality across all of these channels. Because of how multifaceted User Experience is, a User Experience designer begins to take on a more directorial position within a project/company, which I see as analogous to that of a creative director.

The role of the Creative Director

Creative Directors “oversee all aspects of product design” (so sayeth wikipedia.org). Historically, this means that creative directors focus on matters of branding, vision and, of course, direction. In traditional mediums, such as print or television, this meant strategic use of color, typography, music, imagery, etc. And that was a full–time job—Mass–market creative campaigns have never small endeavors. These types of endeavors require a “man behind the curtain,” (or a very closely-nit team) controlling the madness. In sum, the creative director’s goal is quality and consistency.

To reiterate, the formula for a successful brand has always been quite simple: consumers trust companies that are holistic and strategic in their approach: nothing is left to chance and everything works towards the same goal. Everything from product design and packaging design to branding and customer service builds a relationship with a consumer. By creating brands that are beautifully consistent and consistently beautiful, a creative director sends positive messages to consumers, building the trust that successful brands live by.

The role of the User Experience Designer

Today, the the prominence of UX designers has increased as many products and services occupy the online landscape. While User Experience, certainly is nothing “new,” its modern practices reference many aspects of professions that were heretofore only related tangentially. For example: System Architecture, Product Design, and Human–computer Interaction.

It’s not surprising, then, that the artifacts of UX design are many and varied: sketches, sitemaps, user–flow diagrams, mental models, user research, website analytics, etc. ( None of which adds perceived value to a client. Clients want to know when their website will be done and why it hasn’t been done faster.) These UX artifacts, in turn, expedite future processes and, hopefully, direct the project in its (often forgotten) effort for quality and consistency. Sound familiar?

What makes the role of the UX Designer even more challenging is that there exists a sort of “brand preemption” online—users begin to with a number of expectations for products and services they use online. This means that not only does a UX Designer have to ensure a consistent and quality experience, they have to appeal to their users sensibilities. All in all, there are plenty of responsibilities to go around when it comes to UX direction on a project.

The state of things

Today, project roles are loosely defined because many project teams are small in scale. It doesn’t take too many distinct roles to create an online identity: generally one designer and one or two developers. Cap this off with a CEO or a project manager, add in a nice budget, and in a couple of months you’ll have a shippable product.

Especially with the economy the way it is, it seems that this model has become the norm. For success or failure, depending on the weather. How do CEOs and investors hedge their bets? They hire a project manager. Projects managers have traditionally been good at making teams deliver a functional application on time and within budget. But as a UX designer, I know that isn’t all that matters.

To begin with, “functional” requirements only determine if an application can do something, not how one goes about making an application do something. The evolution of the application landscape says that the latter has quickly become a key differentiators. Therefore, the importance of the role of someone who understands users rises.

I would like to suggest the necessity of championing the UX Designers role on projects. Indeed, if modern brands are built entirely online, their role may supersede (or cannibalize) the role of the Creative Director. If the modern User Experience director/designer doesn’t replace the creative director within an organization, she must certainly work hand-in-hand with her colleague, as each of these roles promotes the other one.

If nothing else, that’s the one thing we can be assured of: as long as there are products (online or off) the field of User Experience will always have a market.

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The researchers built a prototype to study the potential of such a feedback device in the form of “LEDs assembled on a stick”. In the study, ecologically conscious participants showed positive behavioral changes (i.e. mean water consumption decreased by approximately 10 liters), although this was not maintained after the removal of the display.

The paper is based on the assertion that ambient displays are suitable for a constant and subtle persuasion by providing continuous and unobtrusive feedback. show-me gives the user feedback and an impression of the amount of water going down the drain. This impression is achieved by exploiting the metaphor of the drain being closed, and the water level increasing within the closed shower. The imaginary water level is visualized in the form of LEDs that are vertically assembled on a stick. During operation, one (additional) LED is lightened up for every five liters of water consumed. In multiple different trials it was discovered out that an amount of 5 liters per LED was ideal: a high water consumption would stay within the 16 LEDs limit, while a lower water consumption is still sensibly shown within 4 to 6 LEDs.

“The prototype also triggered some interesting side effects. A couple used to argue that one of them always took longer in the shower and consequently used more water. After they installed the display, they learned that the woman used only half as much water, even though she spent more time in the shower. This discovery stimulated the man to further reduce his own water consumption.“

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Date: Tuesday 8th September, 6.30pm – 9pm
Location: iCrossing, Central Brighton, BN1 1ND
Price: Free, but you must book a ticket on stubmatic

“Gameplay Field Research and Designing for Kids”
By GiGi Demming, User Testing Manager at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

“User Research and the Future of Gameplay Experience Design”
By Gareth White, Co-director of Vertical Slice and ex-Rockstar Games developer.

We may also have another mystery guest and possibly a demo, we’ll find out in the next few days.

After the talks, we’ll continue the conversation over a drink at The Black Lion (next door to the venue).

→ Book your place on stubmatic

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Contact forms can fail in many ways. Be sure they do not by following these guidelines.

There are some simple steps you can take to create the best bridge possible between you and your clients. The most obvious way to receive that feedback is through a contact form. It is an essential component for owners of websites. It creates a channel to hear feedback, suggestions, and even sell services.

The Basics

There are several things that a basic contact form should include. Meeting these standards will ensure you are on the right path for creating an excellent contact form.

What to include

Studio 7 Designs‘ contact form is clear and to the point

For the most basic contact form, you will need to include several key components. These almost always include the senders name, a way to get in touch with them, and a message. Also be sure to include a clear submit or send button. Failing to meet these basic needs will insure in a quick failure.

Make sure not to get too lengthy in what you are asking for. Remember that the user is simply contacting you not asking for a quote on their next large project they want to hire you for. If they are requesting a quote it is best to allow contact in two forms, one for simply contacting you and one for quotes. If too much is required a user will abandon ship.

How to structure it

When structuring your contact page it is best to place your fields in a traditional location that leads from who is sending to what they are saying. This can easily be done in two ways. One is to offer a single row of fields to fill out. The other is to create a two column contact page by presenting a few fields on the left (possibly including name and email) and then presenting the message field on the right. Both of these structures are intuitive and easily understood.

Breaking these conventions (Redd has discussed conventions in the past) can often lead to confusion or a failed attempt to contact you. It is also of utmost importance to offer a tab through order that is conducive to your contact form. For example, do not set your form up so that if you tab from one field to what you expect to be the next that it goes to the header of the page.

Clearleft utilizes a two column contact form that is beautiful in every sense.

Submission is Key

Submitting the message in the contact form is yet another seemingly simple part that many people overlook. There are two key components that must be considered when asking the user to send a message to you through a contact form:

The call to action button

Looking back to David Hamill’s discussion on Good Call to Action buttons we can learn much about what we must consider when choosing our “send” button. When choosing what word to use, we must always consider our audience. The two most common choices are ’send’ and ’submit.’ Both of which convey their message clearly. Another option to consider is describing your action more clearly. This could be worded as ‘Send Email.’

Submitted. Now what?

Once an email is submitted, a user expects for a sign showing them that their intended action was successful. If the message sends and no confirmation is offered, then a user may have doubts of whether or not their message will be received. We always want to leave the users feeling confident about their actions.

At UX Booth we show our users a message highlighted in green that reads ‘Thank you – your message has been sent.’ You may also consider including a more detailed message. If you know that you don’t ever answer emails over the weekends that may be something you would like to include, or tell the user that you will work hard to respond within 48 hours.

UX Booth offers a confirmation message to inform users their message has been sent.

Going the Extra Mile

So that covers the basics. That is how you can make an effective contact form, however, maybe you want to go a bit further. I believe the following tips should be done to create the optimal experience.

Fail Gracefully

If a user encounters an error on your contact form, it creates a barrier between yourself and feedback or even a sale. When a user encounters an error be sure to offer useful feedback. An example of what to avoid could be “Error 4055″. What does that mean? How is that going to help the user correct his or her problem?

Offer helpful hints along the form to help guide users while they are attempting to get contact in contact with you. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is through jquery. Be sure to visit Web Resource Depot’s ‘16 Free Ajax Contact Forms‘ for some excellent examples.

One particularly interesting jquery option is one that is truly geared towards Usability. Comments are often presented to a user in the respective fields, but when the user clicks it, the text disappears and becomes lost. Now there is a way to keep the tip in the field when clicked. Be sure to check it out and consider it on your next design: In-Field Labels: A Better Way + jquery Plugin.

Offer an Alternative to the Form

FireHost offers many forms of contact along side their contact form.

One of the best ways to avoid a total loss of communication is to also offer an alternative to the contact form.

Depending on your audience you may notice you receive fewer emails and more phone calls if the chance is offered. This is a common difference in generational use of the internet. David Hamill (yet again) saves the day by writing about the basics of <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.goodUsability.co.uk/2009/06/providing-contact-details/”>providing contact details. In this article he discusses many different ways to include information that should not be left out.

Conclusion

Your contact page is often the only way for clients, readers, and users to reach you. Make it as easy and pleasurable as possible for them. In many circumstances it can be the make or break point in terms of a sale or networking opportunity. By incorporating a few of these simple guidelines, you can increase the chance of that user getting through to you.

What contact form blunders do you hate? How have you made your contact form easier to use?

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