Designing for the Usage Lifecycle

Design

People who use our web applications go through a series of stages: first they find out about us, then they get interested and maybe try us out, then they progress to become a customer (hopefully for the long term). Moving from stage to stage is what causes most of the friction for the people who use our software…and thus getting people from one stage to the next becomes a primary hurdle in creating a great user experience.

In this workshop Joshua Porter will illustrate how to improve the overall effectiveness of the usage lifecycle of your web application. You will learn the primary hurdles of the usage lifecycle and the major design challenges of each stage, including:

• How to create seamless sign-up sequences.
• How to delight people using your software for the first time.
• How to design for flow and long-term engagement.
• The importance of microcopy in moving people along the lifecycle.

Attendees of this workshop will come away with a clear picture of how to design for their own usage lifecycle, dozens of examples of companies who do it well (and not so well), and will have dozens of tactics to implement immediately.

Microcopy: How to write small, deadly copy for all occasions

The difference between a happy user and a confused one is small…many times our success using software hinges on the smallest of interactions. In this talk Joshua Porter will discuss microcopy, or the tiny bits of copy that helps users in times of need. Examples include reminding people to use the right email address, informing them that their credit card is not needed, or that they don't have to create an account to continue. In many ways an interface is made up of many of these bits of copy…here's how to write it well and make users confident they're on the right track.