DWCNZ - Creating a Great User Experience in SharePoint

Creating a Great User
Experience in SharePoint
Marc D Anderson

Session Overview
Building solutions in SharePoint isn’t simply about
getting the functionality right based on the
business requirements.
Developers and designers must think about the
entire user experience.
‒ How should the user feel when they use this piece of functionality?
‒ Will they see it as saving them work or creating new work?
‒ How will it compare to what they see on the consumer Web?
We’ll look at good and bad examples from
SharePoint itself, as well as specific
customizations.

Forrester Report on SharePoint Adoption
“Dissatisfaction is centered on several areas,
including adoption challenges, a dislike for
the SharePoint user experience, a
preference for other tools like email and
skepticism over its business value.”
“Business management’s dissatisfaction
with SharePoint and perception of its value is
hurt by uninspired user experiences.
Microsoft SharePoint faces a challenging future: Forrester | PCWorld
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2027391/microsoft-sharepoint-faces-a-challenging-future-forrester.html
SharePoint Adoption Faces Three Barriers: Mobile, Social, Cloud
http://www.slideshare.net/johnrrymer/share-point-survey-2012-slideshare

What’s the Solution?
 Use SharePoint as an out-of-box application whenever possible - We
designed the new SharePoint UI to be clean, simple and fast and work
great out-of-box. We encourage you not to modify it which could add
complexity, performance and upgradeability and to focus your energy on
working with users and groups to understand how to use SharePoint to
improve productivity and collaboration and identifying and promoting
best practices in your organization.
SharePoint
Microsoft Doesn't Advise You Customize SharePoint 2013
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/information-management/microsoft-doesnt-advise-you-customize-sharepoint-2013-016608.php

User experience (UX or UE) involves a person's emotions
about using a particular product, system or service. User
experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful
and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and
product ownership.
How does the user feel when they are
finished with using SharePoint?
“User experience” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience

Consumer Web
 The consumer Web is both a
source of inspiration and an
anathema for enterprise
developers
 Our users expect no less than
what they see on Facebook,
Dropbox, Google, etc.
 It’s an expectations problem
Image from The Conversation Prism http://www.theconversationprism.com/

Form vs. Function
The Form v Function Ratio by Dan Antion http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/The-Form-v-Function-Ratio

Information Architecture
A sound Information Architecture provides:
Consistency
Simpler maintenance
One version of the truth
Use wisely:
Content Types
Managed metadata
List-based Site Columns
Image from “Explain IA Poster” http://userallusion.com/blog/2010/10/explain-ia-poster/

Be the User
Don’t think about what
SharePoint does or how it does
it. Think about what your users
want.
Too many developers eschew
SharePoint as a collaboration
tool. Use what you build.
If it’s too slow or cumbersome
to you, guess what? It’s worse
for your users.

Collaborative Development
Sit with your users
Listen to what they are asking for
Repeat what they want
Iterate, iterate, iterate
Lather, rinse, repeat – It’s never “done”
Agile with a small “a” – roll with the punches

Consultative Services
Don’t expect your users to
understand all functionality
Training can’t cover everything:
demonstrate patterns
Be an internal consultant
“How can I help you to solve
your requirements?”

Use the “Mom Test”
•
•
•
•
•

Don’t Talk About Budget (Too Much)
Your end users don’t care about your
budget
Figure out how to help them
Look for quick wins – they can help
fund the big changes
Decide if the workloads SharePoint
supports are important enough
Find executive support

Speed Matters
Two Seconds
Boston Globe, February 02, 2013: Instant gratification is making us perpetually impatient ow.ly/i8Pth
Ramesh Sitaraman, a computer
science professor at UMass
Amherst, examined the viewing
habits of 6.7 million Internet
users in a study released in
2012. How long were subjects
willing to be patient?
Do you think that’s gotten any longer?

Size Matters
Views should show the amount
of information required to
make decisions, no more
Carefully balance server side
and client side code
Large images can kill the UX

Lowest Common Denominator
Know your user base
‒Browsers
 Brands
 Versions
‒Screens
 Size
 Resolution
 Shape
‒Bandwidth
Available RAM
Image from NetMarketShare – timeframe = Q1 2014
http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&qpcustomd=0&qptimeframe=Q
“It works on my machine”
doesn’t cut it.

Mind the Fold
If users have to scroll every
time they land on a page,
you’ve put things in the wrong
place
Eyes scan from upper left to
lower right, much as a TV
“paints” the screen
Image 2: F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/

Use Real Estate Wisely
Decide on your design
aesthetic
‒Few dense pages vs. many
sparse pages
‒Graphics vs. text
‒Color vs. monochrome
Pet Peeve: Executive
images or senseless
banners

Error Messages
Please, please, please NEVER:
“Contact your administrator”
Correlation IDs – Good idea,
horrible execution, especially
for SharePoint Online
 Tell the user:
‒ What happened?
‒ What did I do to make it happen?
‒ How can I fix it?

Relinquish Control
Remove the developer from the
equation
List-Based Settings vs. Property
bags
Give users control – it’s their
system
Focus on important
development work

Seek and Ye Shall Find…
Search is about finding, not searching
Search is not just a search box
Requires regular care and feeding
Use search to drive effects

Additional Thoughts and Contradictions
Consistency to a fault - Don’t be
constrained by what SharePoint
gives you
Yet, you’ve bought a box, don’t
stray too far out of it
Name it – it’s not SharePoint
Visual cues – not just text
It always comes back to “It Depends”

Contact Information
Email marc.anderson@sympraxisconsulting.com
Twitter @sympmarc
Blog http://sympmarc.com
SPServices http://spservices.codeplex.com
SPXSLT http://spxslt.codeplex.com
Books http://sympmarc.com/books
The Middle Tier Manifesto http://bit.ly/middletier

DWCNZ - Creating a Great User Experience in SharePoint

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