What is Object-Oriented User Experience (OOUX)?

What is Object-Oriented UX? a a a a a Rik Willi ms, Senior Content Str tegist, Government Digit l Service (GDS) rikwilli ms.net/t lks/ooux/

Hi, I’m Rik

Content Architecture IA User Research Inclusive Design

Structure IA refresher What is OOUX? ORCA process walk through Bene its f Discussion

Information Architecture refresher

“Information architecture is the practice of deciding how to arrange the parts of something to be understandable.” IA Institute

OOUX is a philosophy and method in information architecture (IA)

You’re in front of the donut counter in your local supermarket at 2130 in the evening. What is the information? 🧐🤔

Information ≠ Content ≠ Data

Information is the meaning extracted from a particular sequence of things

Information is what a player understands to be true based what they experience

Content is whatever is being arranged or sequenced for a player to interpret

Data are the facts, observations and questions that a player has about a game

You cannot create information. Instead you make content that is able to be perceived in a way that you hope will be based on what players know

Without thinking about how your content is perceived and the data players might have available, you might not be creating the information intended

“If you’ve ever tried to [play a game] and thought, ‘where am I supposed to go next?’ or ‘this doesn’t make any sense’, you are encountering an issue with an information architecture.” IA Institute

What is OOUX?

fi ft OOUX deliberately aligns so ware to a user’s realworld mental model of concrete, de ned, objects, so that abstract digital worlds can be as naturally intuitive as the physical world we evolved in

OOUX is a philosophy for designing digital systems that respects the fact that people think in objects and need consistent, recognisable objects to understand an environment or product

A mental model is an explanation of someone’s thought process about how something works in the real world

Mental models play a major role in cognition, reasoning and decision-making

Mental models are an overarching term for any sort of concept, framework, or worldview that you carry around in your mind

a f Source: https://www. lickr.com/photos/rik-willi ms/

“‘Object oriented’ in this sense has nothing to do with whether object-oriented programming is used. Instead, it means that the interface as perceived by the user is aligned to the their domain objects rather than to the computer so ware paradigms.” ft a Tom D yton

fl Traditionally, digital product teams breakdown complexity by the verbs — feature, user story, task ow

However, action based architectures can easily become disjointed, confusing and fragmentary

OOUX breaks down complexity by nouns — the tangible things that naturally make up our real and digital worlds

“Object-based thinking is part of human nature” a Everyl Y nkee

“Humans think in objects. Users are human. And so are you.” a a Sophi Pr ter

When a user wakes up in the morning and starts to organise the day, which mental model is more likely? 🧐🤔

“Today I want to wash things” verb-noun thinking

“Today I have “Today I want dog things to to wash!” do” Noun-verb thinking

“Showing users things they can recognise improves usability over needing to recall items from scratch because the extra context helps users retrieve information from memory.” a a R luc Budiu

Dog Cut Style Wash Hair noun-verb thinking Colour Brush

In OO, navigation is centred around objects — nouns, not verbs

Objects are always the primary representations in the interface

Actions (verbs) performed on the objects comprise the tasks

Tasks are secondarily represented by actions on objects

“When users enter a digital environment you designed, you’ll want them to easily be able to answer the simple questions: “What are the things here? Where are the objects? How do they relate to each other? How do they relate to me? What can I do to them?” a a Sophi Pr ter

OOUX is a piece of your existing process (not a new process)

IA Source: Design Council

Source: Sophia Prater

Source: Sophia Prater

Source: Sophia Prater

“OOUX takes user research insights and synthesises them into structure” a a Sophi Pr ter

“Well-de ned leads to well-designed.” fi a Linds y Eryn Sutton

ORCA, a framework to practise OOUX

OOUX seeks to answer the following questions before interaction design/development:

What are the Objects in the users’ mental model? R What are the objects Relationships to each other? C What Calls-to-action do objects o er users? A What are the Attributes that make up the objects? ff O

Round 1: Discovery (uncovering complexity) Object discovery Relationship discovery Call-to-action discovery Attribute discovery Call-to-action requirements Attribute requirements Call-to-action prioritisation Attribute prioritisation Round 2: Requirements (untangling complexity) Object requirements Relationship requirements Round 3: Prioritisation (for users’, for the business) Object prioritisation Relationship prioritisation Round 4: Representation (sketching basic interfaces and interactions) Sketching Prototyping Validation

“The more complex the environment, the more OOUX brings clarity.” a a Sophi Pr ter

“OOUX is a process to get project questions from the future so that there are fewer surprises later in a process.” a a Sophi Pr ter

“It’s like IA and Business Analysis had a genius baby and UX raised it. That’s OOUX.” a a Sophi Pr ter

Working with Objects and ORCA

Objects the t ngible things th t m ke up the users’ ment l model nd/or the business process model Think… People Places Content types Products Services Things a a a … a a • • • • • • •

University Course Expert Subject School Paper Project Building News

Hospit l a Condition Treatment Consultant Location Appointment Research Project Training Course Press Release

Shop Shop Product Seller Buyer Review Collection Blog Policy

Government Minister Statistic Decision Press Release Dept. Report Guide Case Study

Bro dc ster (BBC Food) a a Recipe Chef Show Ingredient Occasion Diet Technique Story

Tangible Recipe Agnostic Durable

Recipe inclusive, gnostic, dur ble, future-proof a a ??

Structure Recipe Instances Purpose

Structure does proto-Object h ve content (title, im ge, video) nd/or met d t (ID, d tes, r ting)? Recipe has Content? has Metadata? Publish da te Title a a a a a a a a a Star rating Image

Instances does proto-Object h ve m ny inst nces in the system, or is it Object Inst nces a a a a a a Object Stencil unique/bespoke design?

Object Stencil a Recipe Object Inst nces

“People don’t care about the containers. They care about the things they contain.” a a a Mike Atherton nd C rrie H ne

🎩 School 🎓 University 🧢 Pub

📱 a Screen 🤖 M chine 📄 Print

Purpose “I want to know how popular a Recipe is before I choose it.” a a a a a a “I want to know how to properly prepare an Ingredient.” “I want to be able to make a copy of the Recipe for my recipe book.” a user would w nt to t ke? a does the object h ve re l/v lid ctions/t sks

“Structuring content within a well-de ned content model makes content scalable, reusable, adaptable, and measurable.” fi a a M xwell Hoffm nn

O Objects

Object Discovery 4 ctivities to ind nd de ine proto-Objects 1. Noun foraging 2. Object Consolidation 3. Object Instancing f a f a 4. Object Lists

“Noun foraging: the process of nding nouns in content, based on both its de nition and its context.” fi fi Me

Recorded interviews, us bility engineering sessions nd text-rich survey d t re gre t sources of prim ry d t Tip: automatic audio transcription services are true game changers. Record in tools like Zoom/Teams, or upload recordings to Otter.ai, Trint and Dovetail etc. a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a A user rese rch interview recorded in udio tr nscription en bled a a User research data Microsoft Te ms meeting with utom tic

PDF A justly m ligned form t, but still strong source of text-b sed nouns Tip: look for domain de nitive PDFs, both from your own organisation, competitors and the world, like: • • • • annual reports user manuals factual advice for users 5-year strategies … a a a a a a a fi f a a a a a An ex mple of vi PDF single dom in de initive d t source, of type typic lly served

Social conversations Use soci l listening d t , or mine d t b se t ble exports from user forums Tip: consider partnering with a social listening agency/partner to get the social data, at the greatest scale from the best mix of sources. a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a Soci l listening d t from 1 million re l convers tions bout termin l dise se

CRMs For ge your customer rel tionship records for nouns they cite when the eng ge with you Tips: • • look for rich content about user experience and user needs, usually captured by textArea form elds. ask your CRM developer for an en bloc export of speci c data, perhaps as CSV. a a a a fi a fi a a a a a A CRM for dementi service — extr ct rich user-centred d t entries t sc le

Content inventories Well formed titles, he dings, met descriptions nd URLs re ll noun sources Tips: look beyond your own website. a a a a a a a An inventory gener ted in 10-mins for Cr te & B rrel using Scre mingFrog Spider a • use machine-built inventories for their speed, scale, accuracy and (meta)data types. I use ScreamingFrog SEO Spider. a •

Project documents P rticul rly useful so th t ‘intern l only’ d t c n be included Tip: a good start point if you’re joining, or specifying, a project at its outset. But note that these are secondary and non user verbatim sources. a a a a f a a a a a a a a f f a A speci ic tion brief for public tender process to ind/select n gency p rtner for Moor ields Eye Hospit l.

Webpages At more th n 50 billion p ges, the WWW is n inexh ustible source! Tip: consider trialling Sketch Engine which can nd and fetch textual data via its automatic corpus builder. It can compile nouns at scale via its:… • • • web search, URLs list, website download (up to 10k pages) …functions. a a a a a a a a fi a a a Look for dom in relev nt sources, like blog posts, rticles, p pers, dvice. Both from your own org nis tion, competitors or the wider web.

a a a a rikwilli ms.net/t lks/m chine-noun-for ging/

Recipe Meal Method Recipe Chef Chef Cook Baker Cuisin ier Program Show Broadca st Podcast

e p i c Re x e d n I f e Ch x e Ind m a r g o r P x e Ind Recipe Chef Program Name (Gingerbr ead men) Name (Delia Smith) Name (Delia’s Christmas)

R Relationships

“You only understand something relative to something you already understand.” a a a Rich rd S ul Wurm n

a Recipe Chef Program Recipe has 1many has 1many has 1 Chef has 1many has 1many has 1many Progr mme has 1many has 1many has 1many

Chef h s 1-m ny Progr mmes h s 1-m ny Chefs h s 1-m ny Recipes h s 1-m ny Chefs Recipe Program h s 1 Progr mme a a a a a a a a a a a a a h s m ny Recipes

C Calls-to-Action

Content Designer User Recipe Rate Favourite Create Delete Print Share Update Review Chef Approve

A Attributes

Recipe Chef Program Name (Gingerbr ead men) Featured? Name (Saturday Kitchen) Lead Image Name (Delia Smith) Lede Rating Score Photo Latest episode Lede Bio Program Chef Recipe Recipe

fi Bene ts of OOUX

user-centred mapping real mental models to content objects creates naturally intuitive digital spaces

content- rst fi fi thinking of data objects forces teams to de ne and validate content, metadata, labels and their interrelationships before moving to interaction design

visible discovering, validating and mapping objects and relationships enable cross-functional teams to understand the proposed system

system-agnostic postponing detailed interface design allows data to be modelled independently of its ultimate contexts of use

sustainable real-world mental models are simple, authentic, and slow to change (vs digital/design)

lower-risk understanding objects, their interrelationships, content attributes and calls-to-action (ORCA) at the outset helps to ‘get project questions from the future’ early so that there are fewer nasty surprises later on

consistent OO thinking enables and informs aesthetic, functional, and internally consistent design in a system. Consistency improves learnability, usability and quality

accessible the consistent predictability of design components reduces cognitive load for everyone, including people with some cognitive impairments

scalable fi the more complex the problem domain, the more lucidity, coherence and consistency the ORCA process can bring by detangling/de ning requirements for the product(s) and/or the project team

e cient ffi decreases the need for work (and re-work)

serendipitous fi fi it creates inherently discoverable, usable and relevant heterarchical relationships between instances of objects. This enables people to nd unanticipated, but highly pertinent, content/results during their search and way nding

fi fi Role-speci c bene ts of OOUX

researcher-friendly synthesising research insights into an OO structure will expose high-risk assumptions/questions early

writer-friendly gives content designers early engagement in the design thinking process and provides them with visibility to the types and scale of content that might need designing and governing

content architect-friendly breaking data into its fundamental components helps ‘make sense of mess’ by wrangling complexity into understanding. This is particularly true if data/content is missing, duplicated, distributed or devolved across a system, siloes or organisation

designer-friendly provides a methodology of identifying objects which will need patterns in any design system and a framework for organising and governing it as the product/service develops over time

developer-friendly many coders already use Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) approaches and architectural decision records. Collaborating with a shared model for data can help join-up design with development and create better projects/models

business analyst-friendly the ORCA process helps BAs understand the system domain, its complexity, likely requirements and dependencies. In turn, this helps them to accurately forecast and monitor resources, budgets and risks for the project

consultant-friendly the ORCA process, is an excellent way to collaborate with clients and stakeholders. Socialising decision making improves the quality of the product/service and makes for happier project teams

What OOUX can’t do

detailed interface/interaction design fi ft it will help de ne calls-to-action for objects, but not what happens a er they’re used. Similarly, it can inform, but not create, interface design patterns

creating front-end content design fi it will de ne and scope the types of content and metadata needed, their hierarchies, relationships, and some labels. But it won’t deliver the outputs of detailed UX writing, media creation and broader aspects of a content strategy

representing every object fi whilst OOUX and OOP support each other, developers will still need to factor for, and de ne, additional objects in their code and databases

designing one-of-a-kind items fi fi factoring for facets of an object, like calls-to-action, content and metadata can help de ne single instance designs. However, the real bene t of OO thinking is at the system scale

Feedback

“Design depends on critique as an engine.” a D n Brown

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