WINNING HEARTS & MINDS: TIPS FOR EMBEDDING USER EXPERIENCE IN YOUR ORGANIZATION. Michele Ide-Smith Red Gate Software

Transcription

1 WINNING HEARTS & MINDS: TIPS FOR EMBEDDING USER EXPERIENCE IN YOUR ORGANIZATION Michele Ide-Smith Red Gate Software

2 As their usability approach matures, organisations typically progress through the same sequence of stages, from initial hostility to widespread reliance on user research. Jakob Nielsen

3 A bit of background Photo by Kaptain Kobold

4 About me UX Specialist at Red Gate Software I work on tools for tsql developers

5 My UX journey Web developer Information Architecture Web accessibility Head of Interactive Production MSc in Human Computer Interaction UX Specialist Project Manager & Information Architect Observed usability testing Web Strategy Manager

6 UX maturity takes time Occasional usability survey Dedicated UX Architect UX techniques and skills embedded

7 UX Maturity Model diagram from an article In 5 years, we got to here

8 How do you get started? Photo by Sarah and Mike probably

9 UX techniques are not hard to pick up

10 But knowing when and why to use them takes experience

11 Tip #1 Start small, show value

12 Start with small but perfectly formed projects Research Improve Design Evaluate Prototype

13 Tip #2 Provide evidence

14 Some stakeholders have strong opinions

15 Use data to tell a story about your users Usability tests and site visits Surveys and feedback forums Support centre Analytics

16 Tip #3 Be considerate

17 Highlighting poor design and content requires tact and diplomacy

18 Always point out something positive as well as the negatives Use familiar language e.g. customer focus, customer experience Photo by hatalmas

19 Tip #4 Evangelise

20 It s your job to sell the value of UX Photo by Alice Bartlett

21 Doing UX work early reduces the cost of development and testing

22 Bad UX costs the business through increased calls to customer support Photo by ntr23

23 UX can be a differentiator

24 Tip #5 Find a UX champion

25 A UX champion can help gain organisational support and resources UX rocks!! Photo by Dunechaser

26 Tip #6 Develop in-house skills

27 If you have budget available and decide to use external expertise

28 Find a supplier who ll work collaboratively Work collaboratively And help transfer skills to inhouse teams Photo by Lollyman:

29 The whole team can learn UX skills

30 Everyone in the team can learn to do expert reviews, run usability sessions or analyse data Photo by Oblong

31 Consider some training delivered on site for the whole team

32 Tip #7 Encourage ownership of UX

33 Anyone can have design ideas

34 The person who created these sketches had no prior UX experience

35 Run sketching sessions with the team to generate design ideas

36 Increasing ownership of UX in the team means that everyone thinks pro-actively about your product

37 Tip #8 Observe your users

38 Usability testing is an invaluable way to get early feedback on designs Photo by Kaptain Kobold

39 Recruiting users can be time consuming and expensive

40 Maximise opportunities to recruit users Opt in on surveys or feedback forms Advertise on your website

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42 Use virtual meeting software to do usability testing with remote users

43 Observe people using your product in real contexts you might be surprised! Photo by coleydude

44 Tip #9 Co-locate

45 Embed UX specialists within product teams

46 Developers Testers (Insert picture of team with UX person) Project Manager Product Manager User Experience

47 UX should attend the daily standups and other team meetings

48 Get immediate design feedback on stories you are implementing e.g. the Daily Demo

49 UX can pair design with a developer to make iterative UI improvements quickly and cheaply

50 Tip #10 Make UX work visible

51 Use whiteboards and walls!

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53 Include UX stories and tasks in the backlog and on the Kanban / Scrum board These are the UX tasks

54 Tip #11 Collaborate

55 Collaboration increases team buyin to UX and can save time

56 Invite the team to observe user testing, then analyse findings together

57 Categorise the findings Design solutions / ideas become stories on the backlog Observers write issues on pink stickies, observations on yellow stickies

58 Play collaboration games to generate and explore ideas

59 Collaboration games Check out the Gamestorming book, or

60 Tip #12 Communicate

61 Set up a blog or wiki to communicate what you are doing and learning

62 Do you know who your users are? Photo by Joe Shablotnik

63 Collect observations from site visits, interviews and usability tests

64 Create personas with the team to bring your research data to life Photo by Canned Tuna

65 Tip #13 Measure improvements

66 Benchmark, set targets and evaluate using consistent metrics to show improvements Photo by Alice Bartlett

67 Example metrics Qualitative System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire Usability problems Satisfaction Quantitative Task completion Time on task Errors (number of errors and task failure) Conversion rate / funnels

68 Tip #14 Align UX & Product Management

69 UX and Product Managers should work with, not against, each other Photo by Stéfan

70 Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989)

71 A successful product is both useful and easy to use* * And hopefully desirable too!

72 Tip #15 Reach out to your organization

73 Procurement decisions are often only based on cost and business requirements

74 Do usability and accessibility evaluations before purchasing offthe-shelf systems

75 Tip #16 Standardise processes

76 Standardising processes, tools and templates saves time and helps with a UX roll out

77 Method cards helps educate the team Method cards courtesy of

78 Leave room to experiment with new techniques don t be too prescriptive

79 Tip #17 Get some friends

80 UX can become a full time job, but it s often only a small percentage of your job role

81 You may need to make a case for dedicated UX roles

82 In conclusion

83 A model for embedding UX Collaborating Developing UX skills Evangelising & Communicating Listening to customers Embedding UX Defining processes & tools

84 No matter how impassioned your approach, it s impossible to take a company straight from UX indifference to UX maturity. The demands are too disruptive. Focus, as the undercover manifesto suggests, on big change through small victories, slowly winning the hearts and minds and convincing your team of the need for UX approaches. Cennydd Bowles, James Box

85 It can feel like climbing a mountain, but working as a team you ll get there Photo by Rob Young

86 Thanks for listening! Photo by brieuc_s

87 Get in touch Michele Ide-Smith User Experience Specialist Red Gate Software b: