User Experience Foundations

5 ILLUSTRATING THE CONTEXT OF USE

Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1939)

INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes how to document our understanding of the context of use in a way that will help the team to take the design forward. We start by reviewing the elements of the context of use that should be documented. We then explore a handful of key techniques for doing this, including the use of personas, user journey maps and scenarios. We introduce the concept of user needs. We consider the importance of keeping the interface simple, as shown by Hick’s law, and note how defining key tasks can help us do this. Finally, we describe ...