Introducing… Quick-UX
There are many procedures, rubrics, methods, analyses and theories with respect to assessing the overall User eXperience of a product. Most User eXperience assessment approaches require a heavy investment of time, analysis and effort.
Often, a quick assessment of User eXperience is more aptly called for. A quick assessment allows for rapid compilation of simple heuristics that can be very handy in providing…
- a summarized view of a product’s overall User eXperience,
- directional guidance for a product’s future development, and/or
- metrics for comparison with other products.
More detailed and extensive heuristics (many with hundreds of variables to evaluate) exist that delve into the finer details that lead to more directly actionable steps, but they are neither cheap in time nor money.
Quick-UX is a method that I have developed and refined over time and frequently utilize when quick assessments are best suited to the task. The method that I describe below is a great way to build a summary description with quantifiable and comparable metrics, representing the understanding of the overall User eXperience of a product.
The Quick-UX evaluates the degree to which a product successfully addresses the following 3 questions:
- Can I use it? (Usability)
- Should I use it? (Usefulness)
- Do I want to use it? (Desirability)
The elements evaluated in response to each question constitute a minimal representative subset that accurately addresses the question posed while adhering to the goals of Quick-UX.
Evaluating Usability
Whether or not something can actually be used is critical to a product. Quickly evaluating the ease with which the typical consumer can use a product consists of looking at the following variables:
- Accessibility,
- Consistency,
- Recognition (also including Intuitiveness),
- Navigation (also including site-flow, transitions, and interactions), and
- Page Load Time.
Each variable here, as well as those making up the other 2 evaluation categories (‘questions’), possess specific rubrics to generate repeatable and quantifiable values (each normalized to be of the range from 0 through 1 or 2) that can consistency be understood and compared to like evaluations. For the Quick-UX, each category can, through the summing-up of each of its values, achieve a maximum category score of 5 (minimum being 0).
Evaluating Usefulness
What good is a product if it isn’t useful? Does the product solve a new problem, or an existing problem? Does it do so in an innovative and creative way? The quick evaluation of Usefulness is constituted by an assessment of these variables:
- Functional Expectations (expectations are created via marketing, content, branding, etc.; put another way, ‘were the functional expectations of the product, from the perspective of the consumer, achieved?’),
- Errors (including handling, recovery, and prevention),
- Product Differentiation (including memorability),
- Findability (i.e. search engine friendliness), and
- Credibility.
Evaluating Desirability
The Desirability of the product, its appearance and the feelings it can stir in the user through the methods of presentation, can often be a good proxy for the organic word-of-mouth campaigns and buzz that spring up around it. Desirability taps into the emotions of the product’s users through:
- Aesthetics (and Minimal Design),
- Page Layout,
- Color Scheme (including Contrast), and
- Typography.
Desirability consists of only 4 variables. Aesthetics, unlike all of the other variables in the Quick-UX, is normalized to a range from 0 through 2, due to its greater impact on the overall desirability of a given product.
Try it. Use it. Tune it.
All of the values, when summed up (max. value of 15), form the UX (User eXperience) Rating for the evaluated product. The higher the rating, the better the product’s overall User eXperience. My favorite use for this evaluation is to quickly compare the User eXperience of multiple products with one another.
As the Internet and online products evolve I update and adapt my approach to quick evaluations. Let me know how the Quick-UX works for you. Tweak it, adjust it to suit your particular goals. Please share your findings.
What sort of quick User eXperience evaluation methods do you use?
More Information
You can read more about alternate User eXperience evaluation heuristics and theories at these websites…
- Ten Usability Heuristics (link)
- Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility (link)
- The User Experience Wheel (link)
- Metrics for Heuristics: Quantifying User Experience (part 1 part 2)
- User Experience Design (link)
- User Experience Strategy (link)
- How To Quantify the User Experience (link)
- Designing Interfaces (link)
Enjoy & Post experiences with Quick-UX and other methodologies.
Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy
March 25, 2008 at 6:21 am
[...] read more | digg story [...]
March 26, 2008 at 1:21 am
[...] Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience. « The Product Guy [...]
March 31, 2008 at 11:35 am
[...] Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience. [...]
April 7, 2008 at 6:54 am
[...] Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience. [...]
April 14, 2008 at 3:53 pm
[...] Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience. [...]
April 29, 2008 at 2:58 pm
[...] Reveal More April 29, 2008 — Jeremy Horn Dynamic, expanding, dropdown… These are all terms that are often associated with interesting and, sometimes, fun interface elements. But, they can also contribute to the obfuscation of the interface and deterioration of the User eXperience. [...]
June 23, 2008 at 1:33 pm
[...] The most elementary components of Credibility are Design, Contact, and Team, and also used by Quick-UX in determining product Usefulness and Credibility. Beyond Quick-UX, [...]
July 2, 2008 at 1:03 pm
[...] way to think about the interplay between User eXperience (quantified via Quick-UX) and Modular Innovation (quantified via Quick-MI) is to draw, metaphorically, from physics, namely [...]
July 9, 2008 at 2:36 pm
[...] Top Posts Best Free Online Wiki Announced!The Product Guy’s Weekend Reading (July 4, 2008)Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience. [...]
July 23, 2008 at 4:18 pm
[...] Posts Best Free Online Wiki Announced!Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience.At and Between. Evaluating Interoperability through [...]
July 29, 2008 at 3:35 pm
[...] abiding with the overarching goals of both Quick-UX and Quick-MI (quick assessment for summary, directional guidance, and quantitative comparison), the [...]
August 6, 2008 at 8:07 am
[...] abiding with the overarching goals of both Quick-UX and Quick-MI (quick assessment for summary, directional guidance, and quantitative comparison), the [...]
September 16, 2008 at 4:18 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Desirability, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Aesthetics is one of frequent discussion, especially in the latest wave of online products and how they handle content presentation and interaction. [...]
September 22, 2008 at 1:45 pm
[...] September 22, 2008 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
September 29, 2008 at 1:20 pm
[...] September 29, 2008 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
October 6, 2008 at 8:53 am
[...] October 6, 2008 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
October 13, 2008 at 11:04 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usability, "Can I use it?" the sub-category of Recognition is one of frequent discussion, especially in the latest wave of online products and how they handle content presentation and interaction. [...]
October 21, 2008 at 9:27 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usability, "Can I use it?" the sub-category of Recognition is one of frequent discussion, especially in the latest wave of online products and how they handle content presentation and interaction. [...]
October 27, 2008 at 2:56 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usability, "Can I use it?" the sub-category of Recognition is one of frequent discussion, especially in the latest wave of online products and how they handle content presentation and interaction. [...]
November 3, 2008 at 8:07 am
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usability, "Can I use it?" the sub-category of Recognition is one of frequent discussion, especially in the latest wave of online products and how they handle content presentation and interaction. [...]
November 9, 2008 at 7:07 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usability, "Can I use it?" the sub-category of Consistency often does not get the attention it deserves, in turn leading to more confusing, more frustrating, less Usable products. [...]
November 12, 2008 at 3:50 am
[...] The Product Guy wrote some words about a quick assessment of user experiences: [...]
November 17, 2008 at 10:17 am
[...] Posts Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience.Best Free Online Wiki Announced!The Product Guy’s Weekend Reading (November 14, [...]
November 24, 2008 at 6:21 am
[...] November 24, 2008 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
December 1, 2008 at 9:24 pm
[...] Posts Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience.Best Free Online Wiki [...]
December 8, 2008 at 8:57 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Desirability, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Layout is one of frequent discussion, especially in the latest wave of online products and how they handle content presentation and interaction. [...]
December 22, 2008 at 11:49 am
[...] from High to Low December 22, 2008 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
December 30, 2008 at 8:17 pm
[...] Domain of GoDaddy December 30, 2008 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
January 8, 2009 at 4:06 pm
[...] Report Card: Could Do Better January 8, 2009 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
January 12, 2009 at 10:34 pm
[...] January 12, 2009 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
January 21, 2009 at 4:36 pm
[...] Posts Best Free Online Wiki Announced!Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience.Tunnel’s [...]
January 29, 2009 at 9:20 am
[...] Lost and Naked January 29, 2009 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
February 3, 2009 at 9:27 pm
[...] Clean Groups February 3, 2009 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
February 10, 2009 at 5:16 pm
[...] Top Posts Best Free Online Wiki Announced!Stardoll: Lost and NakedQuick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience. [...]
February 18, 2009 at 11:50 am
[...] State of Massachusetts SSAA Grouping February 18, 2009 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience [...]
April 8, 2009 at 12:02 pm
[...] Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience [...]
April 21, 2009 at 9:58 am
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
April 28, 2009 at 6:24 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
May 4, 2009 at 9:50 am
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
May 11, 2009 at 11:09 am
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
May 18, 2009 at 10:28 am
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
May 24, 2009 at 2:15 am
Are there any Quick-UX software/web app tools that you recommend to make the process easier?
Tks, @AAinslie
May 26, 2009 at 5:56 am
I am looking into bringing all of the variables of Quick-UX into a single quick reference guide. Typically, most of the evaluations take a few minutes to perform — and all but 1 or 2 variables lend to any sort of automation. I would be curious to hear what sort of software ideas you may have.
May 25, 2009 at 3:49 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
June 1, 2009 at 8:56 am
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
June 8, 2009 at 7:34 am
Great Post!
and specifically addressing the “keywords” of UX Usability, Usefulness and Desirability
Anil
Twitter@wailblog
June 8, 2009 at 4:29 pm
[...] Top Posts The Product Guy's Weekend Reading (June 5, 2009)Best Free Online Wiki Announced!Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience. [...]
June 15, 2009 at 5:14 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
June 22, 2009 at 12:17 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
June 29, 2009 at 9:27 am
[...] Pogby Renewed June 29, 2009 — Jeremy Horn Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). [...]
June 29, 2009 at 1:12 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, “Should I use it?” the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
July 13, 2009 at 1:43 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
July 20, 2009 at 1:26 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
July 27, 2009 at 12:48 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products. [...]
August 3, 2009 at 6:01 pm
[...] to Etsy August 3, 2009 — Jeremy Horn As a brief postscript to the series exploring Quick-UX and Credibility I would like to share a back of napkin sketch that I made at the beginning of the [...]
August 17, 2009 at 6:05 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Desirability, "Do I want it?" the sub-category of Color Scheme plays an important role. [...]
August 24, 2009 at 12:03 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Desirability, "Do I want it?" the sub-category of Color Scheme plays an important role. [...]
August 31, 2009 at 9:29 am
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Desirability, "Do I want it?" the sub-category of Color Scheme plays an important role. [...]
September 7, 2009 at 9:16 am
[...] Posts The Product Guy's Weekend Reading (September 4, 2009)Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience.Best Free Online Wiki [...]
September 14, 2009 at 2:00 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Desirability, "Do I want it?" the sub-category of Color Scheme plays an important role. [...]
September 17, 2009 at 3:17 am
[...] Quick Heuristics for User Experience – Best Practices for Designing Faceted Search Filters – Contextual Interviews and Ethnography: Two [...]
September 21, 2009 at 6:11 pm
[...] Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Desirability, "Do I want it?" the sub-category of Color Scheme plays an important role. [...]
December 28, 2009 at 2:33 pm
[...] #1 Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience. [...]
January 11, 2010 at 1:14 am
[...] Experience (UX). Among the various components that define a product’s Usability, as well as Quick-UX’s, [...]
January 17, 2010 at 9:42 pm
[...] Experience (UX). Among the various components that define a product’s Usability, as well as Quick-UX’s, are Accessibility, Consistency, Recognition, Navigation, and Page Load [...]
January 25, 2010 at 3:11 pm
[...] Experience (UX). Among the various components that define a product’s Usability, as well as Quick-UX’s, are Accessibility, Consistency, Recognition, Navigation, and Page Load [...]
February 8, 2010 at 10:19 am
[...] Experience (UX). Among the various components that define a product’s Usability, as well as Quick-UX’s, are Accessibility, Consistency, Recognition, Navigation, and Page Load [...]
February 15, 2010 at 11:55 am
[...] Experience (UX). Among the various components that define a product’s Usability, as well as Quick-UX’s, are Accessibility, Consistency, Recognition, Navigation, and Page Load [...]
March 1, 2010 at 3:44 pm
[...] the products and platforms that make up Modular Innovation. The Quick-MI method, much like Quick-UX, is a great way to build a summary description with quantifiable and comparable metrics, [...]
April 19, 2010 at 10:50 am
[...] abiding with the overarching goals of both Quick-UX and Quick-MI (quick assessment for summary, directional guidance, and quantitative comparison) the [...]
May 3, 2010 at 10:11 am
[...] abiding with the overarching goals of both Quick-UX and Quick-MI (quick assessment for summary, directional guidance, and quantitative comparison), the [...]
May 31, 2010 at 1:19 pm
[...] abiding with the overarching goals of both Quick-UX and Quick-MI (quick assessment for summary, directional guidance, and quantitative comparison), the [...]
July 5, 2010 at 1:33 pm
[...] and identifying areas of improvement for real products — along the components that make up Quick-UX. Now, through the help of Google Docs, as I did the other week with the release of the Quick-MI [...]
July 12, 2010 at 11:55 am
[...] Evaluating Accessibility: The Quick-UX Way July 12, 2010 — Jeremy Horn Accessibility is the measure of how many differently skilled/abled types of people (including individuals with disabilities) in varying locations (e.g. mobile web) can make use of a given product. There exist many, very thorough, guidelines for determining the degree to which a product adheres to accepted accessibility standards. However, many can be very complex and time-consuming, also requiring the study of a good deal of the underlying code — much of which goes against the goals of the ‘quick’ part of Quick-UX. [...]
July 26, 2010 at 11:10 am
[...] Well-Rounded Accessibility July 26, 2010 — Jeremy Horn Accessibility is the measure of how many differently skilled/abled types of people (including individuals with disabilities) in varying locations (e.g. mobile web) can make use of a given product. There exist many, very thorough, guidelines for determining the degree to which a product adheres to accepted accessibility standards. However, many can be very complex and time-consuming, also requiring the study of a good deal of the underlying code — much of which goes against the goals of the ‘quick’ part of Quick-UX. [...]
August 2, 2010 at 10:51 am
[...] Accessibly UseIt August 2, 2010 — Jeremy Horn Accessibility is the measure of how many differently skilled/abled types of people (including individuals with disabilities) in varying locations (e.g. mobile web) can make use of a given product. There exist many, very thorough, guidelines for determining the degree to which a product adheres to accepted accessibility standards. However, many can be very complex and time-consuming, also requiring the study of a good deal of the underlying code — much of which goes against the goals of the ‘quick’ part of Quick-UX. [...]
August 3, 2010 at 4:48 pm
[...] way to think about the interplay between User eXperience (quantified via Quick-UX) and Modular Innovation (quantified via Quick-MI) is to draw, metaphorically, from physics, namely [...]
August 9, 2010 at 6:26 pm
[...] Nearly, Like an Eboy August 9, 2010 — Jeremy Horn Accessibility is the measure of how many differently skilled/abled types of people (including individuals with disabilities) in varying locations (e.g. mobile web) can make use of a given product. There exist many, very thorough, guidelines for determining the degree to which a product adheres to accepted accessibility standards. However, many can be very complex and time-consuming, also requiring the study of a good deal of the underlying code — much of which goes against the goals of the ‘quick’ part of Quick-UX. [...]
August 22, 2010 at 9:36 pm
[...] Most Moderate of News: Bloomberg & NY1 August 22, 2010 — Jeremy Horn Accessibility is the measure of how many differently skilled/abled types of people (including individuals with disabilities) in varying locations (e.g. mobile web) can make use of a given product. There exist many, very thorough, guidelines for determining the degree to which a product adheres to accepted accessibility standards. However, many can be very complex and time-consuming, also requiring the study of a good deal of the underlying code — much of which goes against the goals of the ‘quick’ part of Quick-UX. [...]