This is a tricky question. If you deal with future development of an existing site, it is obvious to ask your customer base. In all other cases, you are confronted with a sampling task. Getting the sample for a user survey right is a job for your statistician (if you have one) who knows his job, since the best survey questions mislead you when you ask the wrong people.

How should I post my Questions in a User Survey?

Considering the fact, that not only in a user survey the answer most often depends on how you pose your question (‘leading question, your honor’), you can again fall into many traps along the path. The question is also whether you want to get qualitative or quantitative results. With just a few users, you can post open questions, like: ‘What are you missing, when using our site?’, ‘Which feature do you love most and why?’ etc. Is it a quantitative user survey, you will trade inspiration from your users for statistically calculable results – the according question for the latter would rather be like: ‘Please rate this site in terms of performance on a scale between 1 and 7’.

My personal Conclusion about conducting User Surveys

User surveys are a complementary usability method to common analytics tools. You will find out more about the motivation and feelings of (potential) users and gather insights for creating great user experience. Unfortunately there is no ‘cook book’ on how to do it right and you simply need some experience. When it comes to quantitative analysis at least some statistical background (for sampling and analyzing the results afterwards) is helpful.
If you are more interested in methods and tools for the user centered design process, check out this wireframe software, and for those interested in digging deep into user surveys, check out this book.

But even if screen designs have already been made in some high-fidelity graphics software (e.g. InDesign, pidoco° can add value to the work flows by bringing interactivity to static screens. Adding ‘click areas’ to the finished screenshots enhance the collaboration and interaction capabilities of a former static screenshot. Colleagues, clients and test users can now easily be integrated in the designs process and online discussions can be held. Just like web conferencing, but with real-time editing never seen before!

Our conclusion of Rapid Digital Prototyping: It’s got the look and feel of handmade scribble prototyping, but adds interactivity (making wireframes clickable) and accelerates developing speed through re-usable elements and layers. Many (real-time) collaboration components enable interface designers to new ways to work with higher efficiency, leaving more time for the creative process that really counts.

But even if screen designs have already been made in some high-fidelity graphics software (e.g. InDesign, pidoco° can add value to the work flows by bringing interactivity to static screens. Adding ‘click areas’ to the finished screenshots enhance the collaboration and interaction capabilities of a former static screenshot. Colleagues, clients and test users can now easily be integrated in the designs process and online discussions can be held. Just like web conferencing, but with real-time editing never seen before!

The pidoco° interface design software consists of three main modules which complement each other perfectly. In combination, they accelerate the interface design process and optimize the general workflow in all stages of user centered web design.

Clickable wireframes are quickly sketched with the Prototype Creator (just by drag&drop) and can later easily be shared and reviewed by colleagues, test users or clients. If there is need for even more in-depth feedback on individual aspects of the concept sketches, just use the clickable wireframes to perform a one-on-one remote usability test where moderator and test user are connected remotely by a shared screen and an integrated phone. All modules are aimed to increase productivity of the interface design process and ease communication within the team.

When you are into interface design, Rapid Paper Prototyping is old school! But ever considered doing interface design on screen?

With pidoco’s web-based prototyping software, graphic designers and screen developers can save valuable time, enhance the creative process and build better usability for the internet.

Rapid Paper Prototyping has already been in the know for a while to get a website started. Rapid Paper Prototyping is about sketching ideas with pen an paper to be tossed around in the team. This basic screen concept will then be put through a refinement process by implementing feedback from different stake holders. This paper prototype will finally act as a roadmap for the whole project – from beginning to the end (but is there a real end?). Some screen-designers even use these very limited paper prototypes for running usability tests. Revealing usability issues in an early stage of development can save a lot of money, since later alterations in the so called ‘finished’ website are minimized.

Anyway, there are several drawbacks to Rapid Paper Prototyping.  Prototypes are difficult to add to the project documentation and also difficult to collaborate on in larger teams. Transforming paper sketches into interactive, digital documents for web testing is also a time consuming task as we all know!

That is why many screen designers create their prototypes directly in MS PowerPoint or InDesign and have them send to the relevant sources. True, that way one can share the data more effectively but it is not really more interactive than making copies of a piece of paper handing it to the team. The prototypes still do not show the real capabilities for test user excitement:  links, dynamic menus and work-flows etc. cannot be reproduced effectively and need to be explained individually in long paragraphs. Again, more time and effort has to be invested to get the message across.

A small company from Berlin, Germany has spotted this problem and made it their mission to tackle it by providing a simple web-based interface design software.

Everybody who is into interface design, Rapid Paper Prototyping is an old hat! But ever considered doing screen design on screen?

With pidoco’s web-based interface design software, screen designers and web developers can save valuable time, easily integrate other stakeholders and build better interfaces for the internet.

Rapid Paper Prototyping has already been in the know for a while to get a web-project started. Rapid Paper Prototyping is about sketching ideas with pen an paper to be shared and iterated within the team. This prototype will then be put through a refinement process by implementing feedback from colleagues or even clients. This paper-built prototype will at last act as a rough guide for the whole project – from beginning to the end (but is there a real end?). Some web designers even use these sketches for performing usability tests. Revealing usability issues in the prototyping phase can save a lot of time, since later alterations in the so called ‘finished’ web application are minimized.

Anyway, there are problems with Rapid Paper Prototyping.  Paper prototypes are only scanned to add to the project documentation and also difficult to collaborate on over different locations. Transforming paper prototypes into clickable wireframes for testing use cases is also a time consuming task as we all know!

That is why many interface designers create their sketches directly in MS PowerPoint or other diagramming tools and have them send to the relevant sources. True, that way one can share the data more effectively but it is not really more dynamic than copying a piece of paper handing it to the team. The Visio-type static wireframes still do not show the real capabilities for test user excitement:  links, dynamic menus and work-flows etc. cannot be reproduced effectively and need to be explained individually in long paragraphs. Again, more time and effort has to be invested to get the message across.

pidoco° has spotted this problem and made it their mission to tackle it by providing a easy web-based interface design software.

But sketching and refining ideas is not the only thing wireframes are good for! With a wireframe you can communicate your ideas and specifications to other stake holders in the project team. And as we all know, programmers speak a completely different language than designers, with a wireframe both parties communicate in a universal language: with animated pictures! The perfect thing about communicating on the basis of a wireframe is that your programmer can really see and experience what you want, ask the right questions and help finding solutions where certain (may be technical) requirements not have been considered (making changes in the concept necessary – lucky me who created a wireframe instead of spending long hours on designing all detailed pages first).

A website or interface wireframe is a first visual outline used in interface design and web development. With a wireframe, you plan and communicate the overall idea and structure of a website and specify it down to its pages. Wireframes have first been used in rapid paper prototyping in which interface concepts are drawn by hand with pen on paper. All elements of the website are just outlined (in the narrower sense of the word) and placeholders for pictures and other content (e.g. text) are used. Typically, wireframes with all link structures are completed before any artwork is developed.