3/9/23, 5:05 PM User Experience Design

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User Experience Design

I’ve been practicing information architecture since 1994, and from Gopher to
Google have seen dramatic changes in the landscape of organization, search and
retrieval. Through these ten tempestuous years, I’ve found the infamous three
circle diagram to be a great tool for explaining how and why we must strike a
unique balance on each project between business goals and context, user needs and
behavior, and content.

Three Circles of Information Architecture

While this diagram was conceived with IA in mind, it’s equally useful for explaining
UX. In conjunction with Jesse’s masterpiece, I use the three circles to illustrate the
distinction between user experience and user-centered design. I’m still not

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convinced UCD exists outside the realm of theory, but I practice user experience
design every day.

Facets of the User Experience

When I broadened my interest from IA to UX, I found the need for a new diagram to
illustrate the facets of user experience – especially to help clients understand why
they must move beyond usability – and so with a little help from my friends
developed the user experience honeycomb.

User Experience Honeycomb

Naturally, the jump from three circles to seven hexagons gave me a buzz, but after
months of road testing, I can safely say this diagram has survived the honeymoon.

Here’s how I explain each facet or quality of the user experience:

Useful. As practitioners, we can’t be content to paint within the lines drawn by managers.
We must have the courage and creativity to ask whether our products and systems are

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useful, and to apply our knowledge of craft + medium to define innovative solutions that
are more useful.

Usable. Ease of use remains vital, and yet the interface-centered methods and
perspectives of human-computer interaction do not address all dimensions of web design.
In short, usability is necessary but not sufficient.

Desirable. Our quest for efficiency must be tempered by an appreciation for the power
and value of image, identity, brand, and other elements of emotional design.

Findable. We must strive to design navigable web sites and locatable objects, so users can
find what they need.

Accessible. Just as our buildings have elevators and ramps, our web sites should be
accessible to people with disabilities (more than 10% of the population). Today, it’s good
business and the ethical thing to do. Eventually, it will become the law.

Credible. Thanks to the Web Credibility Project, we’re beginning to understand the design
elements that influence whether users trust and believe what we tell them.

Valuable. Our sites must deliver value to our sponsors. For non-profits, the user
experience must advance the mission. With for-profits, it must contribute to the bottom
line and improve customer satisfaction.

The honeycomb hits the sweet spot by serving several purposes at once. First, it’s a
great tool for advancing the conversation beyond usability and for helping people
understand the need to define priorities. Is it more important for your web site to
be desirable or accessible? How about usable or credible? The truth is, it depends on
your unique balance of context, content and users, and the required tradeoffs are
better made explicitly than unconsciously.

Second, this model supports a modular approach to web design. Let’s say you want
to improve your site but lack the budget, time, or stomach for a complete overhaul.
Why not try a targeted redesign, perhaps starting with Stanford’s ten guidelines as
a resource for evaluating and enhancing the credibility of your web site?

Third, each facet of the user experience honeycomb can serve as a singular looking
glass, transforming how we see what we do, and enabling us to explore beyond
conventional boundaries.

A Different Way of Seeing

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For example, I realized some time ago that while “information architect” describes
my profession, findability defines my passion. Since then, I’ve found my focus on
findability has opened my eyes, leading me beyond IA while simultaneously
making me a better information architect.

Last Summer, while redesigning the Q web site, we identified findability as a top
priority. Our quest to make this small site more findable took me beyond the
discipline of information architecture and deep into the realm of search engine
optimization.

That experience proved useful last Fall, during a redesign project for the National
Cancer Institute, in which we used findability concepts and SEO statistics to
alleviate an unhealthy fixation on the home page, raising awareness of the need to
design findable documents for direct access via the Google, MSN, and Yahoo!
search engines.

And this Spring, I was hired to perform my first findability audit for a major
international nonprofit. Feeling a bit concerned about dedicating four weeks
exclusively to findability, I asked whether I should also consider usability factors.
“No thanks,” my client replied. “We already had Jakob in last year to focus on
usability.”

A Big Hive

Though the findability audit was a success, it did feel ironic to once again be
ensnared inside a box (or hexagon) of my own making. But I’m sticking with
findability for now. Between my new seminar, my new book, and findability.org,
I’m busy as a bee. And anytime I feel trapped, I can explore other facets of the user
experience honeycomb, or perhaps even create a new diagram. For me, user
experience design is a big hive: a dynamic, multi-dimensional space where there’s
still plenty of room to build new boxes and draw new arrows, at least for the next
ten years.

by Peter Morville

JUNE 21, 2004 SUBSCRIBE

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