WordCamp Miami 2017: You Are Not Your Audience, How to Create User-Centered Design

Though I was over 1,300 miles away, thanks to the WordCamp Miami 2017 livestream, I was able to attend their WordCamp this past weekend.

The free livestream covered both Saturday and Sunday sessions, with talks for users, designers, developers, business owners, and marketers.

I kicked off Saturday with the first content/design talk of the day, You Are Not Your Audience: How to Create User-Centered Design by Tracy Apps, which focused on using design to solve problems for your audience.

Tracy shared insights for looking at our design process and steps we can take for a more successful design project.

Here are my notes and some of the social media conversation from Tracy’s talk.

You Are Not Your Audience, How to Create User-Centered Design

• Create content that your audience understands. We are often too close to our projects and use words, phrasing that our users don’t use. Use plain language, avoid jargon.
  

  “It’s better to be clear than clever.” –@tapps #WCMIA #wordcamp #usercentereddesign #WordsOfWisdom pic.twitter.com/kDp1xNkc5W

  — Shelby Elliott (@ShelbElliott) March 25, 2017

• Be inclusive. Find out what words users use: check Google for word patterns for what people look for. Consider a survey to find out what words people use and understand.
• What is the purpose of your site? Invest time and effort in your website discovery process.
  • Conduct stakeholder interviews to identify the purpose of the web project, what success looks like, how the site will solve problems for users.
  • Include user behaviors and goals rather than demographics in your user stories/personas
    

    Good point about personas: focus on user behaviors, not demographics. #wcmia

    — DeborahEdwards-Onoro (@redcrew) March 25, 2017

  • In design meetings, always think of the user first
• When creating user-centered design, consider accessibility. Add captions and descriptions to videos. Did you know 85 percent of Facebook videos are watched without sound?
• Not focusing on accessibility means you’re not focusing on usability
  

  “If it’s not accessible, it is not usable.” @tapps #WordCampMiami #WCMIA #LeadersGetSocial pic.twitter.com/okykMUWFWd

  — Natalia Ortega (@Nat7Ort3) March 25, 2017

• Resources for testing web accessibility:
  • Usability testing. Ask friends, family, or others who have never used the site to see if they can use it. Prepare your goals and questions. Conduct test, analyze results, repeat.
    

    My favorite tool for testing for web accessibility: a person. Check for keyboard navigation and focus first. #wcmia #a11y

    — DeborahEdwards-Onoro (@redcrew) March 25, 2017

  • Free WAVE Chrome and Firefox extension from WebAIM
  • Chrome Accessibility Developer Tools extension
  • Firefox Web Developer-Add-on
  • Joe Dolson’s WP Accessibility plugin:
    

    Free WP Accessibility plugin fixes common accessibility issues in your WordPress site. https://t.co/0YN9MaCNdH #a11y #wcmia

    — DeborahEdwards-Onoro (@redcrew) March 25, 2017

Slides

Tracy graciously published You Are Not Your Audience: How to Create User Centered Design presentation slides on SpeakerDeck.

Thanks Tracy for an excellent talk on user-centered design!

If you weren’t able to attend WordCamp Miami 2017 and didn’t catch the livestream, look for the videos to be published soon on WordPress.tv.