UX & Photography
Ignite UX lightning talk
Ignite UX lightning talk
Role
Speaker at Ignite UX in Ann Arbor, MI in September 2015.
Speaker at Ignite UX in Ann Arbor, MI in September 2015.
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Opportunity
I don't speak publicly a lot, but when I do, I get really nervous. So I jumped on the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and spend 5 minutes talking about 2 things I'm really passionate about - UX research and photojournalism. I want to thank Ignite UX Michigan organizing committee for selecting and inviting me to speak and for documenting the experience. |
My goal is to show you all why it’s worthwhile for UX people to think like photographers. Photography is a hobby of my own. I own a Canon 7D and I take it everywhere I travel. I am obsessed with photoessays and photojournalism.
In my previous life, I was an architect. And in architecture, we like to tell stories with photos as well. Sometimes we do what are called “walkthroughs.” These walkthroughs map the experience of the user. It tells a story. Here you can see someone (me) navigating from room to room and interacting with the space in a certain way, in a particular order. By the way, this is the Meyer-May House in Grand Rapids, MI, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Highly recommend you see it. It’s free! |
In UX, there’s already a growing use of photography to map a user’s experience. A few weeks ago, I was in a workshop at UX Week, where Chris Risdon from Adaptive Path was talking about service design. He said that every customer journey has a few key moments that he calls “touchpoints.”
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Touchpoints are moments when the customer has a need that should be addressed by the service, and the interaction that takes place as a result. And I said, “aha!” Photographs. Because to me, these moments are the guiding structure for your service design. And the most effective way to capture these touchpoints is through photos.
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For example, when I go to the doctor’s office as a patient, I want to know exactly how much my insurance will cover, and how much I have to cover. Now there’s a user need. Hopefully, your doctor’s office has someone at the front desk who can answer your question. Or maybe you have a fancy doctor and you have a kiosk.
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But we can do more.
By photographing and understanding the environment of the user, you will better understand [pause] the user! How are they interacting with their devices? Where are they using their devices the most? How often do they use their devices? Are they standing, sitting? Or God forbid, driving? |
A few months ago I had the luxury of traveling to Thailand.
This is a photo I took just outside of Bangkok. |
Just by looking at this photo, are these hands more familiar with the grip of a pencil, or a smartphone? [picture of Thai artisan]. Do his fingers follow all the physical interactions we use on a touch screen? What about his glasses? How might your design change with visually impaired users?
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Or this woman? Look at her work environment.
What services or features do you think she would use the most on her phone? |
Maybe something like a note-taking app? Or this type of environment even conducive to using apps? Maybe she just wants her phone to have an awesome speakerphone so she can call someone to bring in more fruit and be able to do that without her hands.
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So, just by looking at a photo, you can generate so many questions that can reveal so much about a user. And, you know, everytime I make this point, someone always wises up and asks me, Mike, what about video?? A movie.
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And then I say, well a video is just a bunch of photos being shown at you around 24 frames per second. But really, video tells us a bit too much. I often make the analogy that a photo is like a lo-fidelity prototype and a video is like a hi-fidelity prototype. And as UX people, we know that it’s better to spend more time iterating with lo-fidelity prototypes before moving on to hi-fidelity.
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And also, photos have no dialogue. There’s no narration. [pause]
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To illustrate this point, here’s SenseCam, which if you haven’t heard of before, it’s a life-logging camera currently developed by Microsoft Research. You wear it fashionably like a necklace and it takes a picture of whatever you’re doing every 30 seconds. Put all the photos together and you have a pretty good understanding of your user -- perhaps too good of an understanding.
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So what now? Yup, you guessed it. Go forth and photograph! If you don’t have a camera, sketch out what you saw. Use a comic strip template. I’m serious. They’re awesome for storytelling. They’ll help you to organize your photos in a way that asks the right design questions.
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Think about the product or service that you’re working on and who’s using it. Whatever your current research tells you. Now, your goal is to visit the environment where you think your product is being used. Maybe it’s Lab coffee [a nice, hipster-ish coffee shop in downtown Ann Arbor]. Maybe you want to stand next to the line of people waiting to get into Habana for salsa night.
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Wherever you end up, choose around 5 photographs that you can take back to your office or class. You don’t need to edit them or try 20 different instagram filters on them. Just show them to your team and ask, “Where are the touchpoints? Who are my users, really?” And along the way, you’ll become a better designer, researcher, and photographer. I promise.
Thank you! |