Ux on the cheap
We’re always on the look out for cheap and easy (and quick and dirty) ways to get user feedback on products that don’t break the bank or mess up our schedules. Ux simply doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. To this end, we definitely use a lot of the more common Ux tools that are out there: Visio and Omnigraffle for prototyping; Google Forms for quick surveys; the odd iPhone sketch pad to jot down ideas; a range of screen capture/sharing services like GoToMeeting, Webex, and, when we have to, Morae :: shudder :: All this in addition to our in-house user research tool, EchoUser Analytics.
And every so often we come across a tool that’s intended for one thing but, with a little tweaking, can easily be bent to our Ux will. Enter Posterous.
That’s prePosterous!
Preposterous indeed. Posterous, as I’m sure you know, is a super slick tool that lets people share thoughts, photos, video and other content on the web with ease. You simply email post@posterous.com, and voila, you have a new blog showcasing your content. Think of it as a slimmed down Tumblr on steroids.
Anyway, so there I was one day, working hard at understanding Stitcher’s user base, when I had an epiphany: why not use Posterous to help people track their Stitcher experience?! We already had a half dozen users participating in a 4-week diary study, so why not harness Posterous to let people take screenshots of their app experience, and add comments for more detail? Diary studies are great because they put you in touch with the user’s voice (on paper), but they’re a little tough because it’s hard to actually see what the user sees – Posterous was an elegant way to fill this gap.
Harnessing Posterous
Here’s how it worked:
1. I created a custom site on Posterous that went something like UsabilityAtStitcher.posterous.com. Was a total breeze.
2. I emailed the diary study participants and asked them to send screenshots of any user experience moment that came to mind (good and bad). Because not everyone knows how to take a screenshot with their iPhone, I include this how to image:
3. I let the pictures and comments roll in.
In the end it was pretty fascinating to see which moments people decided to comment on and why. Some issues I was sure would come up didn’t, and others were total surprises. It was also great to be able to show the Stitcher team the evolution of a user’s experience over time with images and words. So the next time you’re looking for a new Ux tool to add to your toolkit, maybe you don’t have to look very far, after all.
Courtesy of Wikipedia
When I heard that iOS4 was going to enable some kind of multitasking, my first reaction was a resounding “meh”. You see for me, even though I use my iPhone to do business related tasks and the like, I simply didn’t see the need to be able to switch between apps and keep things running. I had no trouble booting in and out of email (since it’s native, it would save my state for later, really useful when writing an email), checking my calendar, or being on a call and looking up Google Maps. For me, and I’ll wager most iPhone users, this was multitasking enough.
But then something strange happened – namely, I started using my iPhone to listen to music, specifically Pandora and Stitcher (disclaimer below). I have a pretty nice sound system at home, and since I recently re-purposed my AirPort for an extra WIFI network, I took to plugging in my iPhone instead. Everything was working wonderfully until “Ding Ding!”. I received a text message.
Now, it’s not the text message alert that was annoying so much that every time I checked the message I’d have to boot out of whatever music app I was using – and interrupt the music. The first few times this happened I dismissed it with a “Tsk tsk. That’s kind of annoying”, and thought nothing of it. But a few weeks in and I was ready to throw my iPhone across the room. Not to mention that I work from home, and the incessant stop-and-start of the music was driving me batty. I eventually stopped using Pandora, Stitcher and a ream of other apps on my iPhone because I couldn’t take all the interruptions (I did switch to Pandora One on my computer, though, so Pandora should be happy).
Enter iOS4. With more open multitasking I could all of a sudden start Stitcher, then check a text message, write a quick email, or check Things without the jarring audio cut-off. What was once a thoroughly painful exercise became, in an instant, seamless. And, you guessed it, my use of Pandora and Stitcher has gone through the roof (same with my roomies).
I’d wager that iOS4 practically saved some music apps, and will rapidly increase user adoption from here on out – because let me tell you: there’s nothing worse than interrupted music, and iOS4 just saved the day.
Thoughts?
Disclaimer: EchoUser has done some work with the fabulous team over at Stitcher, so we’re definitely biased 
