Healthopeda.com (fictitious site) considers itself the “best online health resource for people of any age and any health level who want to achieve a state of optimal wellness.” Their primary source of revenue at this point is ads.

This case study focuses on designing Healthopedia for Information. A Healthopedia Design for Emotion case study was also done.

Healthopeida.com’s Primary Persona
Jenny Davis

Age: 36
Location: Manhattan, New York
Occupation: Owns interior design business

At 36, Jenny looks 26 and claims to feel 17. She loves that people never believe her when she tells them her real age.

Things were different a few years ago. Jenny remembers her 30th birthday as the low point in her life. Although she had a wonderful family, a loving husband and profitable interior design business, she had a host of health and beauty issues. She was 30 pounds overweight, depressed and chronically fatigued. She also suffered from digestive issues, and her fair skin, which had been damaged by too much time in the sun, was beginning to show significant signs of aging.

She took this as a wake-up call and began educating herself about health and wellness issues. She subscribes to many health-oriented magazines, and is always interested in checking out health-oriented websites, although if the site doesn’t show its value right away, she usually won’t stick around.

Jenny’s Goals

• Fight aging
• Learn about methods and products that will help her optimize her health
• Don’t waste her time on things that don’t work
• Connect with and learn from others who are also interested in health

Card Sort
A card sort was conducted involving 8 participants. After gathering all the data, and entering it into an excel spreadsheet, I analyzed the patterns and standardized categories, which produced statistics to help determine the information architecture.

Findings
There were high agreements on an About, Articles, Discussion Forum, and Quizzes & Polls section. The difficulty was deciding between a general Healthy Living category versus a specific gender/age group health (ex. Women’s Health) which had a mixed agreement between the sorters. I looked at competitor sites such as WebMD and Yahoo! Health to get an idea of how their information architecture worked and after careful evaluation,
decided on using Healthy Living since it was a broader topic and the specific gender/age group could be grouped underneath it as a secondary navigation. In the end, I decided upon a global navigation of Home, Health Articles, Healthy Living, Community, and Quizzes & Polls.

Requirements
Next, I researched and identified content and features for the system based on Jenny’s goals. The following is a list of general requirements with the goal number the requirement satisfies in parenthesis.

• Site shall contain health articles (1, 2)
• Site shall contain daily health tips (1, 2)
• Site shall allow Users to subscribe to an RSS feed of the latest articles, healthy living reviews, tips, or a personalized feed (1,2,3)
• Site shall contain a community discussion forum, blogs, and Ask the Doctor feature (1, 2, 3, 4)
• Site shall contain Healthy Living product and method reviews with User ratings and comments (ex. Amazon) (1, 2, 3, 4)
• Site shall contain interactive quizzes and daily polls (2)
• Site shall allow for member login/registration to personalize the site and participate in the community (1, 2, 4)
• Site shall be able to personalize homepage based on User settings and/or past actions (1,2,3,4)
• Site shall contain a search box on each screen (1,2,3)
• Site shall contain unobtrusive advertisements that are relevant to health (Company’s Source of revenue)

Conceptual Framework
Looking through the findings from the card sort and the requirements, I thought about and sketched possible ways to organize the content.

I decided on a global top navigation scheme, where horizontal secondary navigation would appear when rolled over. Although I really liked the use of tabs for the global navigation, I didn’t want Users to have to click in order to see the secondary navigation. I decided since this site was designed for information, I would use tabs in the main content to allow for more information to be seen on the homepage.

Featured articles and product reviews can also be expanded or minimized to see a short summary and many shortcuts to particular topics, features, and information are placed throughout the site.

When I finally had a look and feel I was satisfied with, I used Photoshop to put together the design of the homepage.

User Benefits
With Jenny as the primary User of the website, I needed to be sure that not only would she be able to access and find the information that was important to her but also that the site would provided a benefit that would make her continue to use the site.

By having a feature that would personalize Jenny’s experience based on her input and/or past actions, Jenny would be able to have her own personal member area where the topics and that were important to her would appear and constantly be updated.

Daily polls and tips would keep the content fresh and interesting and a big emphasis on a community of others interested in health would promote sharing and advice. Product and method ratings and reviews would make it easier to find out what really works and what other’s think. Search would be predictable, like Google Suggest, to assist the User in getting optimum and accurate results.

Final Word
The design of Healthopedia as an information source was the result of a primary persona and limited card sort findings. The persona helped portray a person to design the site for and focus on her goals. The card sort data gave an idea of how Users picture the site’s navigation and terminology. More studies of the brand, interaction design, and usability testing would be needed in order to produce a more complete site; however, the preliminary design shows that data about the Users, their goals, and how they think can and should be used when considering the design of a website or any product for that matter.

It is often said that the best designs are ones that elicit some sort of emotion out of someone, good or bad. What do you say then with the FedEx logo? It certainly has created a great deal of emotion to me, so much so, that I chose to create a blog entry on it, do additional research about it, and feel the need to point it out to my friends whenever I am with them and see a FedEx truck. At the same time, a majority of people do not see this “visual bonus” and thus, do not experience as great of an emotional response until they do. Good design or not?

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, I should forewarn you that reading any further may change the way you look at the FedEx logo for the rest of your life. Proceed at your own risk…

The logo design is simple, using a two color scheme with big letters, yet a closer look at the negative (white) space between the ‘E’ and the ‘x’ produces a subliminal arrow, symbolic for movement and speed. See it? Now whenever I see a FedEx truck, I feel inclined to look for the arrow and reaffirm its existance. I enjoy the amazement on my friend’s face when they finally see it.

The logo has been around since 1994. I have seen it countless times and yet I did not discover this arrow on my own. I first learned about it from a classmate while taking an introductory class in design communication, while being exposed to figure/ground relationships. Was the arrow intentional or a result of the font and spacing of the letters? The FedEx logo, which has won countless number of awards, is indeed a secondary design element that was created by Lindon Leader of Leader Creative. So is it a good design when the majority of people do not see it? Originally, FedEx wanted to bring out the arrow to leverage their “speed/precision” position but Leader was against it.

The power of the hidden arrow is simply that it is a “hidden bonus.” It is a positive-reverse optical kind of thing: either you see it or you don’t. Importantly, not “getting the punch line” by not seeing the arrow, does not reduce the impact of the logo’s essential communication. The power of the logo and the FedEx marketing supporting the logo is strong enough to convey clearly FedEx brand positioning. On the other hand, if you do see the arrow, or someone points it out to you, you won’t forget it. I can’t tell you how many people have told me how much fun they have asking others “if they can spot ’something’ in the logo.” – Lindon Leader

The logo has certainly changed the way I look at design and has inspired me to create similar emotion in everything I do

It’s hard enough to try and create enjoyable user experiences through intuitive human machine interfaces. But when you factor in life threatening situations, you better make sure the usability is not just good, but really good. Such is the case with navigation systems. What was once a luxury has become a standard. Whether is be factory installed systems, portables, or even using the cell phone – going to MapQuest and printing out directions has become archaic – a thing of the past.

Users of all ages using systems of all sizes. The problem is not so much who uses the product or the product size (although these are factors as well), it is the interaction with these products while driving. Here then lies the problem – reducing or minimizing the driver distraction. Usability becomes a very important factor here. Some companies lock out the entire system while the vehicle is in motion. Great for minimizing the distraction but frustrating for the user experience. What if they have a passenger or if they were in the middle of entering an address and the light turns green? There has been so much complaint of the lockouts that those clever enough have figured out ways to bypass it, effectively voiding their warranty and accepting full liability. Some systems only allow you to access certain features or set a speed limit before locking you out. Others provide an annoying warning message each time you want to access the menu, claiming no liability if something terrible were to happen to you and/or your vehicle. And then there are those that do nothing and let the User use the system as they please. Either the usability and design of their systems are top notch or they simply like playing with the house’s money (read: lawsuit).

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has proposed a recommended practice, known as the 15-second rule. The rule states that if a given route guidance destination entry function can be completed in 15 seconds or less by a sample of drivers without concurrent driving, then that function may be accessible while the vehicle is in motion. The point I am trying to make is this – no matter what the system does or does not do, the usability and design is of utmost importance. Could someone have improved the design of the navigation system that locks you completely out so Users would be able to to accomplish their task faster and easier? Could users use voice commands instead of interacting with the touch screen while the vehicle is moving?

Navigation systems are here to stay and the ones with the best user interaction while minimizing the driver distraction will not only be the ones that people like best but could possible save the company a lot of future legal fees.

We are now in the Web 2.0 era. Where blogging has become cool, social networking rules, and terms like AJAX, tags, RSS and podcasts have become commonplace. But how do these next generation websites enhancing the User Experience? Flickr is one such site that has taken digital photo organization and sharing to the next level.

Before and After
Before Flickr, sharing photos with others was a pain that was not very user-friendly. Users had to create folders/albums, upload photos, add descriptions, and figure out a way to distribute it to their friends and family. Flickr has taken the album analogy out of the equation, instead focusing on interconnectivity of user tagging and using the metadata already available.

The Users
With 30 million unique visitors each month and over 8 million registered members, Flickr has to appeal to many different kinds of Users of different ages and computer knowledge, which means the user experience, is of utmost importance. Each User has a different purpose for visiting the site. A registered member may go on the site to upload his or her latest photos. A regular visitor may use it to search for a photo. A first time visitor might have heard or read about it and wants to see what all the fuss is about.

Sign Me Up
Flickr’s goal is to sign up new visitors for their service to become a member. The homepage and site itself is done pretty well to try and accomplish this task. A button to create an account is proximately displayed up top. Their tagline “Share your photos. Watch the world.” is big and bold and immediately gives a first time visitor an idea of what the site is all about. Below that, a familiar search box. The use of white space around the sign up button, tagline, and search help make each of these important parts of the site stand out and be more noticeable. The bottom half of the screen allows someone to learn more about the features and functions Flickr provides. The tour itself is well organized, clearly explaining the features and benefits with matching screenshots. At the bottom of each page of the tour there is another big button to sign up to be a member.

Searching
A search for “apple ipod” brings up a lot of results but also a confusing screen with many different options to look at. Not only is there a main search box but there is another one on the top right corner. What makes matters worse is there are text links for a “Camera Search” and another link for an “Advanced Search”. Scrolling down a little further below the advertisements is a third search box for Yahoo! search. With so many search options, it can be quite confusing of which one to use and what results to expect from each. Flickr should just have one and only one search box so there is no ambiguity.

Layout
On my fully maximized browser I only was able to see 2.5 photos because of so many links and options up top,. It would be better to clean up the top so it is not as confusing and so the User can see more photos initially. Also, the ads on the left hand side of the screen do nothing except diminish the user experience. Studies have shown that web visitors initially focusing on the left side. For a site that stresses photos, why show them ads when they expect pictures? Simply switching the photos to the left and the ads to the right would benefit the User (although probably would lower Flickr’s advertising revenue). A simple rearranging of the layout produces a search screen that looks much more visually pleasing and would enhance the user experience:

Current		Improved

Final Word
Flickr has all the social aspects of a Web 2.0 site. The interface design of Flickr is done well considering the vast differences of Users age and experience they have to satisfy. But with so many users and visitors daily to the site, the usability of the search results page could probably be improved. Hopefully, when Flickr comes out of their perpetual beta, they will make changes that focus on the User and improve the usability of their site.

“Interaction Design is the creation of a dialog between a person and a product, system or service. The dialog is both physical and emotional in nature, and is manifested in form, function and technology.” – Jon Kolko, Thoughts on Interaction Design

When someone asks what I do for a living, I sometimes have a hard time explaining what Interaction Design really is. I find that giving them a real life example that they can relate to works really well. Jon Kolko simplifies his definition by simply saying:

Interaction Designers are shapers of behavior.

I think I’ll try that next time.