Faced with an industry-wide talent drought, HUGE took drastic measures to snare new prospects for our UX department. The solution? One summer, 10 Trainees from around the globe, and some good ol’ UX Fundamentals. If we can't find people, we will create them. This presentation covers how we built an unprecedented school to teach trainees the basics of interaction design and the way HUGE approaches challenges of all kinds. It includes how we designed the program: what’s in the curriculum (and what’s not), other aspects of the training experience, and how we worked the best minds at HUGE into the mix. Presented at Internet Week in London 2011.

1. 9 November, 2011
Birth of the HUGE UX School
hugeinc.com
info@hugeinc.com
60 Sloane Avenue
London SW3 3XB
+44 (0)20 7584 5033

2. Agenda:
1. About HUGE
2. UX @ HUGE
3. The challenge
3. The UX School is born
4. What we learned
5. Questions

3. About HUGE.

4. About us.
We help companies build
digitally-driven businesses.
Our stats.
£7.8 billion per year.
150 million people per month.

5. How we’re structured.
Founded in 1999.
Leading full-service digital agency within Interpublic.
400 employees across all interactive disciplines.
London.
Brooklyn.
Los Angeles.
Rio de Janeiro.

6. Disciplines.
Research & Analytics. Creative.
Focus Groups & Surveys Visual
Ethnography & Audience Research Motion
Usability Studies & Listening Labs Digital Branding
Website, Social and Campaign Analytics Mobile, Emerging & In-Store Digital
Dashboard and Reporting Tool Development Asset Development (copywriting, video)
Strategy & Planning. Technology.
Brand Planning & Marketing Technical Leadership / Architecture
Product Strategy User Interface Development
Business Consulting Mobile and Emerging Platforms
Communications Planning Social Platforms
Search Strategy (SEO, SEM) Rapid and Enterprise Development
Discipline Specialists (e.g CRM, mobile) Quality Assurance and Deployment
User experience. Social engagement.
Content Strategy Social Strategy
Information Architecture Social Media Management
Interaction Design Blogger and Influencer Outreach
Product Design Editorial Development & Management

7. A brief history of Huge.

8. Work.

13. UX @ HUGE.

14. Hi, I’m the UX Partner.
14.

15. User experience drives our
entire design process.

16. 7 steps:
1. Discovery
2. Plan & Concept
3. Invent
4. Define
5. Build
6. Deploy
7. Manage & Grow

17. 78
interaction designers, content
strategists and product designers.
17.

18. They came from all different
backgrounds.
18.

19. Interaction Information
Designers Architects
Graphic Product
Designers Managers
Developers Librarians
Engineers Architects

20. Interaction Information
Designers Architects
Artists Actors
Graphic Product
Designers Managers
World travelers Trekkies
Developers Librarians
Musicians Athletes
Engineers Architects

21. M.E. @ Stanford
Product Hardcore
design engineering
21.

22. But we all have a few things
in common.
22.

23. curious
logical
analytical
nerdy

24. creative
empathetic
passionate
human

25. The
Challenge.

26. New UXers have been hard to find.

27. Why is it so difficult?
1. Competitive field
2. We’re particular
3. WTF is an agency?

28. Why so hard to find?
1. Competitive field
2. We’re particular
3. WTF is an agency?

29. Why so hard to find?
1. Competitive field
2. We’re particular
3. WTF is an agency?

30. However, we’ve been really good
at growing talent from within.
30.

31. So we decided
to take the
plunge.

32. The
UX School
is born.

33. How we designed the school.
1. Defined our goals and vision
2. Recruited at lots of universities around the world
3. Conducted internal interviews across departments
4. UX leadership shared & discussed our core deliverables
5. Created curriculum and work-shopped exercises
6. Assigned teachers from all departments
7. Created raw lessons then finalized lessons with teachers
8. Assigned UX mentors & managers
33.

34. UX School:
The Class.

35. We got here by
ditching our egos, observing
users, reframing the problem,
thinking holistically, taking risks,
working together, pushing the
work, caring about details,
iterating, iterating, iterating.
And by failing & learning from it.

36. The inaugural class.
36.

37. 4
masters
6
bachelors
37.

38. From all different backgrounds:
5 industrial design, 5 graphic/
interactive design, 3 architecture,
and 1 HCI.
38.

39. 6
already graduated
4
returning to school
39.

40. 4 from outside the U.S.
Korea, Germany, Italy, & the
Dominican Republic.
40.

41. UX School:
Curriculum.

42. A totally immersive training program.

43. Every lesson:
Purpose & intent.
Deconstruct & analyse.
Conceptual  concrete.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
43.

44. The curriculum
Intro.
First 2 weeks Focused intensives on
scenarios, structure, wireframes.
Next 8 weeks Projects.
Additional skills and special topics.
Last 2 weeks. Client work.
Final presentation & evaluation.
(plus fun activities sprinkled throughout)
44.

45. Practice project: NYC Visit.

46. Scenarios.
• Anatomy of a digital experience: User, user goals,
business goals, entry and exit points, common user flows
• Deep dive into scenarios: what they accomplish, how-to,
conceptual & concrete examples
• Practice Exercise: write a scenario for a short story
• Practice Project: Scenarios for NYC visit
46.

47. Structure.
• Basics of digital structure: anatomy, common types of
structures, what structure is
• Deep dive into structures: types of structure diagrams,
how to create a structure and what to consider
• Practice Exercise: conceptual model of your
Facebook friends
• Practice Project: Structure for NYC visit
47.

48. Wireframes.
• Basics of a web page: anatomy, critical page types
• Deep dive into wireframes: what they are, types, how
we make them, how we design, other considerations
• Practice Exercises: deconstruct some common page
types, sketch à critique à wireframe
• Practice Project: Sketches and wireframes for NYC visit
48.

49. Then
some real
experience…

50. We can’t talk about them.
(boo!)

51. 2 projects, 2 teams, 1 love.
• Full project from upfront research to strategic definition to
post-usability test wireframes
• Included: project plan, client meetings, road bumps, no-
holds-barred criticisms, and full-on presentations
• Final presentation to entire UX team.
51.

52. Early stage deliverables.
User research. Stakeholder interviews. Analysis.
Personas. Strategic vision. Design concepts.
52.

53. Bread and butter ID work.
Feature prioritization. Roadmap. Content strategy.
User scenarios. Structure. Wireframes.
53.

54. Each project is different so
we have no rules about process.
Just make the work great.

55. Additional topics:
1. Simplicity
2. Brand identity
3. Persuasion
4. Writing decks
5. Presenting
6. Best practices

56. Support & Culture.
• Each trainee had a mentor & a separate manager
• They had a mid-point review and final review including peer
& manager input
• They joined ongoing HUGE activities: UX team meetings,
HUGE talks, company meetings, open crit, company BBQ
56.

57. The final presentation.

58. Both teams blew us away.

59. UX School:
Outcome.

61. 5 questions they now ask themselves:
1. What’s the fucking point?
2. Does it build on the vision?
3. Is it simple and elegant?
4. Will users know what to do?
5. Is every bit necessary?

62. 5 questions they now ask themselves:
1. What’s the fucking point?
2. Does it build on the vision?
3. Is it simple and elegant?
4. Will users know what to do?
5. Is every bit necessary?

63. 5 questions they now ask themselves:
1. What’s the fucking point?
2. Does it build on the vision?
3. Is it simple and elegant?
4. Will users know what to do?
5. Is every bit necessary?

64. 5 questions they now ask themselves:
1. What’s the fucking point?
2. Does it build on the vision?
3. Is it simple and elegant?
4. Will users know what to do?
5. Is every bit necessary?

65. 5 questions they now ask themselves:
1. What’s the fucking point?
2. Does it build on the vision?
3. Is it simple and elegant?
4. Will users know what to do?
5. Is every bit necessary?

67. We’re happy to announce…
67.

68. 9/10
received full-time offers…
and accepted!
68.

69. What we
learned.

70. 1. Go big…
70.

71. 2. Don’t underestimate
the logistics
71.

72. 3. Make adjustments on the fly
72.

73. 4. Make it as real as possible
73.

74. 5. Give them the
freedom to succeed
74.

75. HUGE UX School starts again on
20 Jan, 2012 in Brooklyn.
We are expanding to Visual
Design & Project Management.
Adding Tech, June 2012.
75.

76. Questions?

77. Thanks to…

78. Cheers.
hugeinc.com
info@hugeinc.com
60 Sloane Avenue
London SW3 3XB
+44 (0)20 7584 5033