Macadamian product camp - uxd for product managers research and design techniques - sara fortier march 2013

UxD FOR PRODUCT MANAGERS RESEARCH & DESIGN

TECHNIQUES FOR THE REAL WORLD

Sara Fortier [email protected]

Confidential 13-03-23

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PART 1 Who we are? PART 2 10 PRINCIPLES for the real world PART 3 Final Thoughts

AGENDA

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Sara Fortier

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! Sara Fortier is a Lead UX Designer for Macadamian, an integrated software and design consulting firm in the bay area.

! She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design and a Masters in Interdisciplinary Design from Carleton University. She is an evangelist for design and design research in her own company, and is passionate about inspiring organization change, motivating and leading cross-disciplinary teams to embrace varying perspectives to collaborate and produce meaningful and compelling experiences for clients and users.

Confidential 13-03-23 4

We create compelling user experiences for: !   Consumer and enterprise desktop applications

!   Healthcare applications – both mobile and desktop !   Interfaces embedded into physical products

!   Mobile interfaces and applications on multiple platforms !   Web applications and cloud-based applications

ABOUT MACADAMIAN

Design + Development



Ottawa 14 designers 48 developers

San Mateo 6 designers 2 developers

Yerevan 2 designers 42 developers

Cluj 0 designers 12 developers

WHAT WE DO: UX services

! UX Strategy §  Goal setting and strategy

workshops §  SWOT Analysis §  Competitive Analysis §  Secondary Research §  User Centric Maps and Models

! UX Research §  Customer Interviews, Observation,

and Contextual Inquiry §  Task Analysis §  On-line Surveys §  Focus Groups §  Usability Testing §  Card-sorting

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! UX Design §  Information Architecture §  Content Modeling §  Interaction Design §  Visual Design

! UX Training §  UX Strategy and Customer Centric

Models §  UX Design §  Mobile Design §  Agile Design §  UX in Your Organization §  Usability Testing

10 PRINCIPLES FOR THE REAL WORLD


#1: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH

! Turn your organization into a design project ! Incorporate UX methodologies ! Consider user needs and research ! Collaborate ! Push back ! Embrace change ! Bring in others to complement your skill set


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#1: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH: Macadamian Customer Journey Map


#2: BREAK DOWN WALLS – relationships matter


#2: BREAK DOWN WALLS – relationships matter

! Don’t throw it over the wall! ! Interdisciplinary collaboration

§  Collaborative project planning §  Collaborative requirements and design sessions §  Sketchboards and design thinking

! Actually talk to people ! Collocate teams whenever possible

! Trust ! Emotional literacy – know who you’re talking to and appreciate the context ! It takes time to build relationships… ! But your design iteration time will be reduced!


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#3: GIVE A DAMN – care about your work


#3: GIVE A DAMN – care about your work

! Find your passion ! Or find another job ! You’re not going to do great work if you don’t believe in your product ! Care about the product and the users


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#4: SUPPORT THE CAUSE – evangelize for user research and UX Design

! Doesn’t matter who’s doing the UX – you win ! Repetition, data-driven points

! Invest time required for change ! Create an environment conducive to design and innovation

§  Pipe cleaners §  Conferences §  White boards §  Sharpies §  Relationships!


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#5: BUILD EMPATHY – get to know your users

! Create an emotional connection for your users ! Internal research team

! External research team ! Involve the whole product team - have them listen in ! Friends of friends

§  Friends, coworkers, people on the street, everyone! §  But… Your wife/husband is not your user

! Consider Context



! Many Ways to Get User Feedback §  Observation §  Contextual inquiry

§  Participatory design §  Card sorting and structured in person activities

§  Usability §  Surveys




! Consider Context – understand your users as people with busy, complex lives and many external influences.

#6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES


#6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES

! Design thinking approach §  Agile and iterative §  Cross-disciplinary §  User-centric

! Methods worth adopting §  Personas, mental models, design principles and other user-centric models §  Usage scenarios/use cases §  Sketchboards, paper prototypes, and other collaborative design techniques §  User research as a part of the design process §  Allow design to inform requirements §  Simplify simplify simplify where you can §  Process guidelines to help organization cooperate


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#6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES simple models to help educate and evangelize

#6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES documented process – how would your organization benefit?

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! Reinforce collaboration and check points

! Include guidelines knowing everyone won’t really follow the process

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#6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES Find your North Star North Star could be 3-8 Guiding Design Principles

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! People typically connect with stories better than reports

! Paint a picture of key user types

! Demonstrate use cases and priority tasks

! Use a quote to express the impact the product has on the user

#6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES personas are a tool to rally the troops

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! Explore more ideas faster

! It takes a while to get it right

! Sketchboards as a collaborative design tool

! Roll it up and take it with you

#6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES sketch! and sketch again!


! Who are you trying to convince?

! What are their needs? What do they care about?

! What will you highlight?

#6: LEARN, ADOPT & ENCOURAGE UX TECHNIQUES different audiences require different methods

#7: BEWARE OF UX TOP 10 LISTS & DOGMATIC ADVICE

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Checklists are helpful. But they can’t replace expertise.

! Like this one! J ! “Make sure users can get to everything in three clicks!”

! One list isn’t the end all, be all – it’s not that simple ! Figure out what works for you and your organization

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#7: BEWARE OF UX TOP 10 LISTS & DOGMATIC ADVICE

#8: IF YOU LIKE IT, STEAL IT

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! It doesn’t need to be your idea ! Learn from people, processes, methods, and designs out there

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#8: IF YOU LIKE IT, STEAL IT

! Design something out of scope ! Participate in an unexpected way

! Data is important, but so is instinct! ! Get users involved regardless of scope ! Don’t be afraid to be wrong ! Throw it out and start again

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#9: BREAK SOME RULES

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#10: HAVE FUN!

YOU CAN’T BECOME A HERO OVERNIGHT

! Pick one thing to start with: §  Invite a designer to collaborate on requirements §  Call a cross functional brainstorm §  Print out sketch templates §  Identify one piece of user feedback that would help your product §  Identify one type of project that would benefit from formalized UX process §  Share this presentation with coworkers §  Reach out to a UX agency or individual for help

! You don’t need to do it all yourself, but you need to enable it!

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! Was this inspiring? ! Are you walking away with at least one actionable technique?

THANKS!

Sara Fortier Lead User Experience Designer [email protected]

REFERENCED RESOURCES

! The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation, Marty Neumeier

! Innovation Workshop, Marty Neumeier ! Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, Chip Heath and Dan Heath ! Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspired

Innovation, Tim Brown ! Inside Apple, Adam Lashinsky

Sketchboard Resources: ! http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/sketchboards-discover-better-faster-ux-solutions ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVFTBj_BYy0 ! http://www.slideshare.net/ugleah/sketchboards-prototypes-presentation

Persona Resources: ! http://www.cooper.com

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CHECK US OUT! www.macadamian.com

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Macadamian product camp - uxd for product managers research and design techniques - sara fortier march 2013