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User Experience Deliverables

It’s an exhilarating time for the user experience community. Rising awareness of our value plus emerging technologies and transmedia trends have created conditions for a step change in our practice.

As an information architect, I’m enjoying the new challenges immensely, even as they sweep me outside my comfort zone. I’ve designed social software and rich user interfaces. I’ve sketched scenarios for the future of mobile search. I’ve mapped the user experience across channels and applications. And, I’ve increasingly found myself striving to clarify ideas for folks in the executive suite.

Consequently, I’m rethinking my role, redefining my deliverables, and embracing new forms of interdisciplinary collaboration. For instance, I’ve ensnared Jeffery Callender as co-author of Search Patterns, a new book (in process) about design for discovery and the future of search.

Tear Down The Wall

Together, we’re hoping to bring search to life with colorful, compelling stories, maps, and illustrations, which brings us back to deliverables.

Tools for Thinking

Two books have inspired me to think differently about discovery, communication, and design. First, Made to Stick challenged me to think simple. This book reveals the power of short phrases and surprising, personal stories to change minds and shape memories:

Proverbs are the Holy Grail of simplicity. Coming up with a short, compact phrase is easy. Anybody can do it. On the other hand, coming up with a profound compact phrase is incredibly difficult [yet] enduringly powerful.

We need to open gaps before we close them. Our tendency is to tell people the facts. First, though, they must realize that they need these facts.

This realization – that empathy emerges from the particular rather than the pattern – brings us back full circle to the Mother Teresa quote: “If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.”

The story’s power, then, is twofold: It provides simulation (knowledge about how to act) and inspiration (motivation to act).

Second, The Back of the Napkin encouraged me to think visual. This book shows how sketching can help us discover and sell ideas:

Visual thinking means taking advantage of our innate ability to see – both with our eyes and with our mind’s eye – in order to discover ideas that are otherwise invisible, develop those ideas quickly and intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way that they simply “get.”

These two books are gems, and yet their simple ideas are surprisingly difficult to apply. Making things easy is hard. But, for our projects and our book, we’re convinced it’s worth the effort. So, building on Dan’s garage-sale principle: “everything looks different when we can see it all at once,” Jeff and I have begun collecting user experience deliverables, and laying them all out, so we can look, see, imagine, and show.

The Deliverables

This list describes twenty user experience deliverables with links to relevant resources and examples. Clearly, these artifacts of the process are not the whole story. We must also think about the relationship between goals, methods, and documents. And yet, for many of us, deliverables are the coin of the realm and merit special attention.

  1. Stories. A good story about a user’s experience can help people to see the problem (or opportunity), motivate people to take action, and stick in people’s memories long after we’re gone.Stories
    Storytelling in Business
    The Secret Language of Leadership by Stephen Denning
    Articles by Dave Snowden
  2. Proverbs. High-concept pitches, generative analogies, and experience strategies invoke existing schemas to put the world in a wardrobe.Proverbs
    Experience Strategies by Jesse James Garrett
    High Concept Pitches for Startups
    English Proverbs (Wikiquote)
  3. Personas. Portraits and profiles of user types (and their goals and behaviors) remind us all that “you are not the user” and serve as an invaluable compass for design and development.
    Personas
    Personas (Dey Alexander)
    Personas are NOT a Document by Jared Spool
    Personas (Wikipedia)
  4. Scenarios. Positioning personas in natural contexts gets us thinking about how a system fits the lives of real people.
    Scenarios
    What is a Scenario?
    Scenarios by Shawn Henry
    Use Cases and User Scenarios (IxDA)
  5. Content Inventories. Reviewing and describing documents and objects is a prerequisite to effective structure and organization. The artifact (often a spreadsheet) is a sign of due diligence.
    Content Inventories
    Doing a Content Inventory by Jeff Veen
    Why You Shouldn’t by Leisa Reichelt
    The Rolling Content Inventory by Lou Rosenfeld
  6. Analytics. We learn by wallowing in interaction, search, and navigation data. And, we teach by uncovering and charting the most pivotal landmarks, portals, paths, and patterns.
    Web Analytics
    Web Analytics (Wikipedia)
    Web Analytics and IA by Hallie Wilfert
    Search Log Analysis (Dey Alexander)
  7. User Surveys. Asking the same questions of many users across multiple audiences can reveal existing gaps and common needs, and show how they map to customer satisfaction.
    User Surveys
    When to Use Which by Christian Rohrer
    American Customer Satisfaction Index
    Pew Internet & American Life
  8. Concept Maps. In the territory of concepts, a good map can help us see where we are and decide what to do by establishing landmarks, clarifying relationships, and identifying true north.
    Concept Maps
    Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
    What is Your Mental Model? (Indi Young)
    Flickr User Model by Bryce Glass
  9. System Maps. A visual representation of objects and relationships within a system can aid understanding and finding for both stakeholders and users. Shift gears from “as-is” to “to-be” and you have a blueprint for structural redesign.
    System Maps
    Map – Territory Relationship (Wikipedia)
    London Underground Maps (Ask Edward Tufte)
    Developing Taxonomy by Christian Ricci
  10. Process Flows. How do users move through a system? How can we improve these flows? A symbolic depiction can enlighten desire lines and show the benefits of (less) chosen paths.
    Process Flows
    User Flows (Google Images)
    Improving User Task Flows by Austin Govella
    Desire Path (Wikipedia)
  11. Wireframes. Sketches of pages and screens can focus us on structure, organization, navigation, and interaction before investing time and attention in color, typography, and image.
    Wireframes
    Where the Wireframes Are by Dan Brown
    Real Wireframes by Stephen Turbek
    Wireflow Trading Card (nForm)
  12. Storyboards. A series of sketches with narrative displayed in sequence can tell a story and paint a picture by showing interaction between users and systems in context over time.
    Storyboards
    Comics by Rebekah Sedaca
    Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (Video)
    Swimlane Diagram (nForm)
  13. Concept Designs. Interface designs and composite art invoke an emotional response and capture people’s attention by presenting a high-fidelity image of how the product could look.
    Concept Designs
    Concept Designs (Flickr)
    Concept Design Tools by Victor Lombardi
    Found Futures (Stuart Candy)
  14. Prototypes. From paper prototypes to pre-alpha software and hardware, working models drive rapid iteration and emotional engagement by showing how a product will look and feel.
    Prototypes
    Paper Prototyping by Shawn Medero
    Prototyping with XHTML by Anders Ramsay and Leah Buley
    WineM (Technology Sketch)
  15. Narrative Reports. Writing is a great tool for thinking and organizing. And, it’s hard to beat a written report for presenting detailed results and analysis or formal recommendations. Reports can serve as a container for most other deliverables.
    Narrative Reports
    Style by Joseph M. Williams
    Strategy Report by Morville & Rosenfeld
    Business Brief (Adaptive Path)
  16. Presentations. As the lingua franca of business, slideshows (and videos) can be great for telling a story or painting a picture. They can also be dead boring, unless you present in person, hit the highlights, and beware the bullets. Presentations can serve as a container for most other deliverables.
    Presentations
    The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint by Edward Tufte
    In Defense of PowerPoint by Don Norman
    IA Summit Presentations (SlideShare)
  17. Plans. Project plans, roadmaps, and schedules guide design and development activity by clarifying roles and responsibilities.
    Plans
    Gantt Charts
    Project Management (Wikipedia)
    The Deadline by Tom DeMarco
  18. Specifications. An explicit set of requirements describing the behavior or function of a system is often a necessary element in the transition from design to development.
    Specifications
    Usable Software Specifications by Brian Krause
    Painless Functional Specifications by Joel Spolsky
    Just a Fairy Tale? by Dan Willis
  19. Style Guides. A manual that defines a set of standards for identity, design, and writing can promote clarity and consistency.
    Style Guides
    Guidance on Style Guides by Chauncey Wilson
    Web Style Guide (University of Pennsylvania)
    Web Style Guide by Patrick Lynch and Sarah Horton
  20. Design Patterns. A pattern library that shows repeatable solutions to common problems can describe best practices, encourage sharing and reuse, and promote consistency.
    Design Patterns
    About Patterns by Jenifer Tidwell
    Yahoo! Design Pattern Library
    Implementing a Pattern Library

Organizing the Deliverables

Of course, compiling a list is only the first step. For each project, we must strive for the optimal mix. Since our deliverables resist a taxonomy, asking questions may help derive their folksonomy.

  • Audience. Who must you reach?
  • Content. What is the message?
  • Context. Where is the conversation?
  • Process. When is the message?
  • Problem. Why are you communicating?

And, the questions never end. Should your argument be simple or elaborate? Quantitative or qualitative? We can organize and describe these deliverables until the end of time. We’ve made a start. Perhaps you can help. Will you tag a few in our collection on Flickr?

Treasure Map

If you’ve made it this far, you deserve a reward. That’s a lot of words about a lot of deliverables. And, that’s the problem. It’s hard to find the best trees when we can’t see the forest. So, we often fall back on old habits. We churn out wireframes when a story may be worth its weight in gold. Some great deliverables stay hidden in plain sight. That’s why we created this treasure map for our wall (and yours).

User Experience Treasure Map

Good luck exploring! And, please let us know what you discover!

by Peter Morville

January 27, 2009 Subscribe

  • Semantics archive

You might also be interested in:

UX Deliverables in Japanese Translated by Noriyo Asano.

Wireframes Magazine Published by Jakub Linowski.

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods Ralph Lengler & Martin J. Eppler.

Intertwingled Book by Peter Morville.

The Back of the Napkin Book by Dan Roam.

Made to Stick Book by Chip Heath & Dan Heath.

See More

Communicating Design A Book by Dan Brown.

Video Sharing in Plain English Explanations by Common Craft.

Relationships Between Deliverables Diagram by Fulcher, Glass, Leacock.

User Experience Trading Cards Produced by nForm.

UCD Methods & Techniques Toolkit from Rotterdam University.

User Experience Downloads Samples from Adaptive Path.

User Experience Diagrams A List by Luke Wroblewski.

Information Architecture Deliverables A List by Glen Doss.

Design and Documentation Polar Bear Book Chapter 12.

Defining IA Deliverables Article by Christina Wodtke.

IA Deliverables & Tools Published by the IA Institute.

The Holy Grail of IA Article by Christopher Fahey.

Visual Vocabulary Created by Jesse James Garrett.

The Five Competencies of UX Design Article by Steve Psomas.

Audiences & Artifacts Slides by Nathan Curtis.

Instant Deliverable Mix Poster by Nathan Curtis.

The Real Information Architect Slides by Gail Leija.

Information Architecture 3.0 Article by Peter Morville.

Getting the Most from Deliverables Article by Jared Spool.

User Experience Design Article by Peter Morville.

User Experience Strategy Article by Peter Morville.

Ubiquitous Service Design Article by Peter Morville.

UX Deliverables on Flickr Search Patterns Collection.

UX Deliverables Treasure Map Jeffery Callender & Peter Morville.

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morville@semanticstudios.com

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