var tumblr_api_read = {"tumblelog":{"title":"Instinctive User Experiences","description":"Find out how we can help improve your user experience at <a href=\"http:\/\/tigersense.com\/\">tigersense.com<\/a>","name":"tigersense","timezone":"Europe\/Dublin","cname":"blog.tigersense.com","feeds":[]},"posts-start":0,"posts-total":4,"posts-type":"regular","posts":[{"id":1052692722,"url":"http:\/\/blog.tigersense.com\/post\/1052692722","url-with-slug":"http:\/\/blog.tigersense.com\/post\/1052692722\/hunt-down-our-new-blog-at","type":"regular","date-gmt":"2010-09-02 10:31:52 GMT","date":"Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:31:52","bookmarklet":0,"mobile":0,"feed-item":"","from-feed-id":0,"unix-timestamp":1283423512,"format":"html","reblog-key":"t8CBQd7A","slug":"hunt-down-our-new-blog-at","regular-title":"Hunt down our new blog at http:\/\/tigersense.com\/tigertalk\/","regular-body":"<p>Our new blog is called TigerTalk and you can hunt it down here: <a href=\"http:\/\/tigersense.com\/tigertalk\/\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tigersense.com\/tigertalk\/\">http:\/\/tigersense.com\/tigertalk\/<\/a><\/a><\/p>"},{"id":738179600,"url":"http:\/\/blog.tigersense.com\/post\/738179600","url-with-slug":"http:\/\/blog.tigersense.com\/post\/738179600\/userhappy-com-putting-a-smile-on-your-interface","type":"regular","date-gmt":"2010-06-26 12:34:00 GMT","date":"Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:34:00","bookmarklet":0,"mobile":0,"feed-item":"","from-feed-id":0,"unix-timestamp":1277555640,"format":"html","reblog-key":"vFUZv0tt","slug":"userhappy-com-putting-a-smile-on-your-interface","regular-title":"Userhappy.com - Putting a smile on your interface","regular-body":"<p><strong>TigerSense launch dedicated usability improvement service: Userhappy.com<br\/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re really pleased to announce the latest addition to the TigerSense family, <a href=\"http:\/\/userhappy.com\/\">Userhappy.com<\/a> - Putting a smile on your interface.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So what is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Userhappy provides a quick and affordable way to <strong>improve the user experience<\/strong> of interactive products such as websites, web apps and intranets.\u00a0 We do it by carrying out an <strong>expert usability review<\/strong>, which identifies problems using design principles rather than users in a lab.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Which design principles?<br\/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We use relevant parts of <strong>ISO 9241 Ergonomics of human-system interaction <\/strong>to identify potential usability problems. As an international standard, ISO 9241 is an authoritative and trusted source that gives our reviews the credibility they need to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why expert usability reviews?<br\/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Things move quickly in the agile world of software development and, as a result, people need quick and affordable ways of getting things done.\u00a0 Even though full blown usability testing is arguably the most thorough means of discovering problems, very often there isn&#8217;t the time or budget available to run one - especially if you&#8217;re a small business.<\/p>\n<p>In these cases, an expert usability review is a great alternative because it&#8217;s:<\/p>\n<ul><li>much <strong>quicker <\/strong>than a usability test;<\/li>\n<li>much <strong>cheaper <\/strong>than a usability test;<\/li>\n<li>likely to identify the <strong>same major problems<\/strong> as a usability test (if done by an expert!).<\/li>\n<\/ul><p>What&#8217;s more is that it can be used to deliver a <strong>manageable set of recommendations <\/strong>that don&#8217;t overwhelm the development team.\u00a0 What could be worse than receiving 30 pages of problems to fix after you&#8217;ve worked your socks off to develop a product you&#8217;re proud of!\u00a0 Those sorts of reports often get filed away never to surface again.<\/p>\n<p>A Userhappy expert review delivers a manageable set of improvement recommendations developed by one of our experts, supported by ISO standards, crafted with care,  and delivered with happiness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sounds good, how do I order one?<br\/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/userhappy.com\/get-a-free-quote\">Place an order right here&#8230;<\/a><\/p>"},{"id":631843687,"url":"http:\/\/blog.tigersense.com\/post\/631843687","url-with-slug":"http:\/\/blog.tigersense.com\/post\/631843687\/tigersense-wins-award-for-enterprise-2010","type":"regular","date-gmt":"2010-05-25 18:09:00 GMT","date":"Tue, 25 May 2010 19:09:00","bookmarklet":0,"mobile":0,"feed-item":"","from-feed-id":0,"unix-timestamp":1274810940,"format":"html","reblog-key":"wfdBgymQ","slug":"tigersense-wins-award-for-enterprise-2010","regular-title":"TigerSense wins award for Enterprise 2010","regular-body":"<p><strong>Start me up!<br\/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After submitting our business plan to a panel of judges, we were awarded an <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ucl.ac.uk\/advances\/awardsforenterprise\/awardsforenterprise10\">Innovation Central Bursary by UCL<\/a> to help get off the ground.\u00a0 The money will really go a long way towards covering some of those essential things most tech startups need such as web hosting, marketing, client visits and data backup!<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;ll also help us roll out our flagship web app: <a title=\"TigerTask\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/tigertask.com\/\">TigerTask<\/a>.\u00a0 TigerTask is a simple and easy to use social project management app that helps you stay on top of things.\u00a0 We&#8217;ll be using it to manage our own projects so maybe it&#8217;s useful for you too!<\/p>\n<p>During this economic low, we&#8217;re also very much focused on helping you reduce costs and maximise the chances of people doing whatever it is you want them to do on your website e.g. buying things.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A great way to do that is by ordering one of our ISO compliant usability assessments.\u00a0 For a very affordable price (around \u00a31500-\u00a32500), we&#8217;ll evaluate your product using ISO standards and our very own USER framework. Then we&#8217;ll tell you exactly how to improve the user experience in a lovely TigerSense report.\u00a0 Get in touch and order one today&#8230;<a href=\"mailto:info@tigersense.com\">info@tigersense.com<\/a><\/p>"},{"id":472451246,"url":"http:\/\/blog.tigersense.com\/post\/472451246","url-with-slug":"http:\/\/blog.tigersense.com\/post\/472451246\/goals-needs-and-tasks-the-why-what-and-how-of-user","type":"regular","date-gmt":"2010-03-25 12:58:00 GMT","date":"Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:58:00","bookmarklet":0,"mobile":0,"feed-item":"","from-feed-id":0,"unix-timestamp":1269521880,"format":"html","reblog-key":"xGHQaRFR","slug":"goals-needs-and-tasks-the-why-what-and-how-of-user","regular-title":"Goals, needs and tasks: The why, what and how of user experience","regular-body":"<p><strong>What&#8217;s the difference between goals, needs and tasks in HCI?\u00a0 Why are they useful for designing or evaluating interactive systems?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I decided to focus my MSc dissertation on answering these questions.\u00a0 Being slightly obsessed with the subject now, I&#8217;ve put together this article based on my research.<\/p>\n<p><strong>My research in a nutshell<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Please note: <\/em><em>The following points stem from <\/em><em>past work in the HCI field.\u00a0 However, I&#8217;ve left out references in this article because there&#8217;s simply too many!\u00a0 If you&#8217;re interested in tracing the roots <\/em><em>of this work, please download my entire dissertation using the link at the end - cheers.<\/em><strong><br\/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A goal is an &#8220;aim or desired result&#8221;, and represents the motivation for doing things in the world.<\/p>\n<p>We all have goals, like having a great day at the beach or getting to work on time.<\/p>\n<p>A goal is defined by measurable success criteria, like whether you actually get to work on time or not and how early\/late you are.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Needs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To achieve goals, we have needs e.g. <em>I need to wake up at 7:30am<\/em> and <em>I need to travel to work<br\/><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tasks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To fulfil needs, we perform tasks e.g. <em>set my alarm clock for 7:30am<\/em> and then <em>catch the 8:30 train<br\/><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The difference<\/strong><em><br\/><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Goals and needs can be described as <em>abstract<\/em> - they don&#8217;t involve any real world interactions e.g. <em>Get to work on time<\/em>.\u00a0 Being abstract, they are also technology independent.\u00a0 This means they are likely to sustain their validity over time as technology changes.<\/p>\n<p>Tasks, on the other hand, do involve real world interactions e.g. <em>setting my alarm clock<\/em> or <em>buying a train ticket from the machine<\/em>. As a result, they are more susceptible to change as technology progresses.\u00a0 Think about how communication has changed over the years: from letters, telegrams, and telephones to texts and tweets.\u00a0 Who knows, one day your &#8216;smart&#8217; home might know when you need to get to work and wake you up in time, meaning you don&#8217;t need to do anything!<\/p>\n<p>The other main thing goals have that tasks don&#8217;t is measurable success criteria.\u00a0 Where a task is simply measured by whether you complete it or not, a goal has additional criteria that give it the &#8216;desirability&#8217; factor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The getting to work goal, for example, is measured not just by whether you get to work, but also by whether you get there <em>on time<\/em>.\u00a0 By comparing the time you <em>aim <\/em>to get there to the time you <em>actually <\/em>get there, you can work out the extent to which you achieved that goal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The relationship<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While goals, needs and tasks are fundamentally different, they are related to each other through hierarchies.\u00a0 Most HCI practitioners will be familiar with Task Analysis, which is concerned more with <em><strong>what <\/strong><\/em>people do than <em><strong>why <\/strong><\/em>they do it.\u00a0 Goals and needs can easily be added to a hierarchical task analysis though by taking a broader view of a particular context.\u00a0 Consider the getting to work on time example:<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Goals hierarchy\" src=\"http:\/\/tigersense.com\/images\/blog\/goals_hierarchy.png\" width=\"570\" align=\"middle\" height=\"273\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Here we can see the three levels of human behaviour starting with the goal.\u00a0 Of course, we could take an even broader view and ask <em>Why does someone want to get to work on time?<\/em>\u00a0 It might be because they want to keep a job they enjoy, or because they want to appear punctual and professional.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Implications for user experience<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For usability and interaction design, goals tell us what users want to achieve in a particular context, and what makes a positive user experience<\/p>\n<p>From a usability perspective, they tell us which high-level metrics are important to the user e.g. To help get to work on time, I need to buy my train ticket <em>quickly <\/em>and <em>easily<\/em>.\u00a0 Here, <em>speed <\/em>and <em>ease of use<\/em> can be broken down into low-level usability metrics such as <em>time on task<\/em> and <em>number of errors<\/em>.\u00a0 By setting target values for these metrics e.g. 2 errors max per task, we can measure how well an interactive product fulfils the goals of its users i.e. its usability score<\/p>\n<p>From an interaction design perspective on the other hand, goals tell us what users want to achieve in a given context regardless of the current technologies or methodologies available.\u00a0 This helps designers think outside the limitations of specific technologies and fulfil user goals in new and innovative ways.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Goals motivate people to interact with products in the real world. Understanding them, and how they differ from needs and tasks helps you\u00a0 improve the user experience and design better ways of doing things with technology.<\/p>\n<p>- Ashton King<\/p>\n<p>The whole dissertation can be found here:<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk\/distinction-projects\/2009-King.pdf\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk\/distinction-projects\/2009-King.pdf\">http:\/\/www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk\/distinction-projects\/2009-King.pdf<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We can help you discover and better fulfil your users&#8217; goals:<\/p>\n<p>Visit <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/tigersense.com\/\">tigersense.com<\/a> for more information<\/p>"}]};