What is object oriented UX?
How Organising Objects Over Actions Can Improve UX Architecture.
Introduction
An object-oriented project approach has been a fairly recent and now staple part of developers’ and programmers’ processes for years. The model is organised around objects rather than actions, or even data rather than logic. Historically, designers have opted a natural tendency to immediately consider how the interactions of a design will function. This action-first philosophy works fine, but there are occasions where a more structured view could improve the process further, which is where an object-oriented approach to UX design in particular comes in. The model does not replace any current process, but can be included where necessary.
Typically as UX Designers, we adopt a process of defining a problem statement, a user story and later creating a high fidelity prototype. Or at least something similar. However, when dealing with complex amounts of data and complex intentions of data manipulation, sometimes defining a tree of information architecture is not enough as we have not defined meaningful connections between this data. By mapping and analysing this data ‘objectively’, we can discover these connections and potentially result in a simple and efficient user experience.
What is Object-Oriented UX?
The philosophy of OOUX is to encourage us as UX Designers to think about our core content as objects, and to think about this before considering any procedural actions. So before we dive straight into technical workflows and think about how the interface will function or appear, we can consider how our users will think about data as objects and align the product with a user’s mental model. Typically, users as humans think about their environment as a system of objects, and so the theory here is that if we consider the content/data within our product/project as objects, we can connect with our users better by providing a user experience that aligns with their mental model.
What Is The History of OOUX?
Although many of us may already be including an object-oriented approach as part of our processes, its use in UX design was not discussed as a truly useful model to apply to UX, until designer Sophia Voychehovski Prater recently proved its value in her work and later coined the term object-oriented UX in 2015. Of course we can attempt to go back further to examine earlier use of an object-oriented approach in both development and design as well, for example Dave Collins discussed its use in interaction design back in 1995. The true origins of an object-oriented philosophy can be traced back to the 70’s and 80’s when object-oriented languages became favoured over procedural ones, however the terminology was first coined in the 50's.
How Can We Utilise OOUX?
We can apply an OOUX approach in all of our work by considering data/content as objects before we begin to think of actions. We can achieve this from the beginning of our process, but can also be defined later to enhance your project, and can also live dynamically throughout. The model expects the use of sticky notes, with different colours to represent different components.
Step 1
Extract Objects (Sticky note colour: BLUE)
With a problem statement defined, and perhaps even a user story defined to support it, we can examine this text to simply find the nouns. Recognising the nouns that will become objects is quite tactful, with special care to be taken to avoid using nouns that may be better defined as perhaps an organisation or grouping method. Some objects may also be generated as a result of requirements stated in a problem statement or user story.
Step 2
Define Core Content of Objects (Sticky note colour: YELLOW/ORANGE)
Next, the more detailed content expected to be contained with each recognised object needs to be defined. For example, if one of our objects was called ‘Shoe’, some of the core content could include things like Description or Size. These can sit directly beneath the objects. We can also go a little deeper here and define more metadata-like content that can be filtered or sorted, such as the shoe’s Target Market or Stores That Sell This. We can label these are a little differently but nest them underneath the core content.
Step 3
Nest Cross-Linked Objects (Sticky note colour: BLUE)
At this point we can include objects that may have some relationship to the primary object at hand. This could mean displaying an alternate version of an already pre defined object, or be a more detailed type of object.
Step 4
Forced Ranking
Now that everything is in place, we can rearrange the order of all items beneath each primary object by most to least important. This process may take some time and could also be reviewed for frequent iterations.
Step 5 Optional
Add CTA’s(Sticky note colour: GREEN)
This step was introduced more recently as a way of transitioning from an object-oriented process to an action-oriented process. We can add in specific actions such as those that may be expected in a primary interaction within that object’s experience.
The end result is an object based system that can drive and motivate our projects by having data/content defined and understood in regards to their importance, and in line with a user’s mental model. The process above may not be evidently clear without examples, so take a look at some of the learning resources below to see the process in action.
What Are The Benefits Of Using OOUX?
An object-first approach improves the communication and collaboration between UX and the rest of the engineering team. Since developers and programmers are familiar and likely already utilise this approach, we can therefore speak the same language and build more efficient relationships with them. This will make it easier to explain our work and our reasonings.
Defining objects for later use/reuse saves time. By defining content by objects at the beginning of the project, allows quicker and easier reference and usage at later parts of the project.
The consideration of user mental models supports a better UX. Since OOUX is built on representing the mental model of our users, we are ensuring that our work is aligned with how the user is thinking.
Unexpected complexities are minimised. When objects are defined at the beginning of the process, there’s a good chance a later addition has already been defined, allowing smoother iterations.
Adaptable and responsive compatible. If and when the product needs to be displayed on a device other than desktop, an object-oriented design system can be easily modified to adapt to this, or even used without change as a foundation.
Relationships can be visualised. It’s easy to forget to include or reference another part of our product within a designed experience, but OOUX allows us to map out these relationships before hand and visually see how everything could connect.
The activity can help create organisation amongst chaos within content. If there’s lots of data/content that is scattered or doesn’t make sense, applying an OOUX approach assists in organising this and encourages understanding of the content itself.
What Are Some Good OOUX Learning Resources?
Object-oriented UX is often mentioned in more recent courses, books and articles discussing methods of user experience. However here are some stand-out picks:
Object Oriented UX
https://alistapart.com/article/object-oriented-ux
Prater’s article on how she first introduced OOUX (and effectively coined the terminology by adding ‘UX’ at the end!) into her projects is one of the most well known and insightful articles on the process. She goes into detail on how the model helped her and how to apply it yourself in detail too.
OOUX: A Foundation for Interaction Design
https://alistapart.com/article/ooux-a-foundation-for-interaction-design
Following from Prater’s article above, this one discusses how and why she decided to integrate CTA’s into the model afterwards and how you can use them too.
A Daring Tool For a Traditionally Analog Audience
https://uxdesign.cc/a-daring-digital-tool-for-a-traditionally-analog-audience-ed700875e4c8
This recent article shows how a software company utilised the model in their work in detail.
Crosslinked: A UX Storytelling System Design Game
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/crosslinked-a-ux-storytelling-system-design-game
If you want to have a bit of fun learning and practicing OOUX, this physical card-based game looks worth a try!
Final Thoughts
Object-oriented UX is not a rule, nor does it contain specific rules to adhere by, in fact it can be manipulated to suit the needs of your project. There may also be reasons not to use it, perhaps a project’s priority is within its actions rather than content, or the content has already been defined previously. The principle of considering actions is still important to align with user needs, however an initial OOUX exercise can also align with closely with user mental models, supporting better decisions when considering actions. Where possible, give it a try to see if it can support your project.
References
Prater, S. (2019). Object-Oriented UX. [online] Alistapart.com. Available at: https://alistapart.com/article/object-oriented-ux [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
Prater, S. (2019). OOUX: A Foundation for Interaction Design. [online] A List Apart. Available at: https://alistapart.com/article/ooux-a-foundation-for-interaction-design [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
zipBoard. (2019). Understanding Object Oriented UX: Interview with Sophia V Prater. [online] Available at: https://blog.zipboard.co/understanding-object-oriented-ux-interview-with-sophia-v-prater-4df6f422e484 [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
Collins, D. (1995). Designing object-oriented user interfaces. Redwood City, CA: Benjamin Cummings.
Medium. (2019). Chapter 3: What is Object-Oriented Programming? — Learn How To Program — Medium. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/learn-how-to-program/chapter-3-what-is-object-oriented-programming-d0a6ec0a7615 [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
Web.eecs.utk.edu. (2019). [online] Available at: http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~huangj/CS302S04/notes/oo-intro.html [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
