Journey over Destination: creating an effective framework with UX tools

Journey over Destination

creating an effective
framework with UX tools
Stephanie Troeth
ParisWeb 2010

Friday, October 15, 2010

Who?
User eXperience Strategist/Designer
Previous hats:
* Co-founder of an innovative publishing startup
* Director of Interactive Technology & Solutions
@ a Montreal web agency

Played active part(s) within the Web Standards Project
since 2002 until 2 months ago.


This is a
conversation
about “how”...


which depends on “what”...
d eliverables
tools

and “when we do what”.
process


Classic Waterfall

a plan!
plan
reports
requirements
deﬁne
research Specs / briefs
design
concept code
develop
build
deploy
launch
key performance indicators
extend
measure
Adapted from Chapter 4: Project Objectives & Approach, A Project Guide to UX Design, Russ Unger & Carolyn Chandler.


Agile approach
user stories

deﬁne design
roadmap sketches/wireframes
plan mockups
adapt

code

deploy
measure


“It's really the act of designing that
matters, so we should focus on
designing rather than design.”

Mark Baskinger
“From Industrial Design to User Experience: The Heritage and Evolving Role of
Experience-Driven Design”, UX Magazine, June 2010
http://uxmag.com/design/from-industrial-design-to-user-experience


Designing vs design?


Process = act of designing?
Deliverables = design?


It’s easy to see design
represented as deliverables of
a design process.
you get
st uff at the end
of e ach design activity


Todd Warfel’s
Design Process Diagram

plan define design develop deploy

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/files/banda/card_sorting_a_definitive_guide/designProcessDiagram.jpg


What’s good about
deliverables?


tangible tools for
communication?

easy to estimate the cost?


What’s wrong with
deliverables?


“Wireframes are representations of a design made before final specifications exist,
which is problematic because in comparison to sketches they are higher fidelity

wireframes are
representations of design. Unfortunately, although

meant to inform design processes and design
decisions, they often can be viewed as more concrete than sketches, and
therefore considered more final.”

Will Evans, “Shades of Grey: Thoughts on Sketching”, UX Magazine.
http://www.uxmag.com/design/shades-of-grey-thoughts-on-sketching


“Wireframes, flow diagrams, personas, card sorts, content strategy documents, etc. All of
these things are important to design, and designers need some combination of them to
synthesize their user research and communicate what they’re doing with the other members
of the team.

But too often these deliverables are the last line of contact for designers. Too often these
deliverables are what designers prepare and then hand off to implementors. Then they
shuffle off to create more deliverables and the cycle is repeated.

In the end deliverables are merely artifacts of the
design process. They are not the final design, they are not the artifact of
experience. The end user never interacts with them…they interact with the product or
service that is actually delivered.”

Joshua Porter, “Deliverables vs Delivery”, 52 Weeks of UX
http://52weeksofux.com/post/346650807/deliverables-vs-delivery


“We get so lost in our deliverables and sharing
information that we forget that we’re really trying
to collect and share knowledge. Just like the software we build, the
persona document is hopefully an interface to a much deeper connection and store of insight
or ‘institutional memory.’ In most cases, I fear that we’re just leaving the document, not the
knowledge.”

Chris Baum in response to Jared Spool’s post, “Personas are NOT a Document”, UIE.com
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/24/personas-are-not-a-document/#comment-104179


Mini-survey/interview:

“Do people you work with expect detailed
wireframes and functional speciﬁcations
even if they may or may not be necessary,
or the best tool?”


Response #1

“They do expect [it], unfortunately.”


Response #2

“For the most part, yes, that has been my
experience, when it hasn’t been just Photoshop
mockups.”


Response #3

“They do. Totally. And it's freaking moronic. Clients tend
to get all focused on the list of deliverables they'll get
for their money. The thinking, of course, is what they're
paying for—the deliverables are just for communication
purposes.”


Response #4

“In my experience freelancing, small clients don't
expect any UX deliverables, they just wait for the
designs. At larger companies, they seem to fixate on
process and lose sight of outcome. Agencies get
fixated on deliverables. Seems like a lot of ‘thought
leaders’ in the UX space fall prey to that too. Seems
like so often people obsess over the terms we use,
the steps we follow, etc. thinking of problem solving
as a one size fits all type of thing.”


If we’re not careful:


Having a recipe book
doesn’t make you a
good cook.


What can we do?


Cook up the procedure
based on the
ingredients we have.


1

Establish context:
Frame the problem


Classic Agile
waterfall approach

plan deﬁne design

deﬁne
plan
research
design
adapt

concept
develop

build
deploy deploy
measure
launch

extend

measure


What’s the goal/objective?
What’s the actual problem
we are solving?
Who are we solving it for?
What impact do we want
to have?


How “out there” is it?

evolutionary revolutionary

analytics

prototyping

SWOT analysis

competitive analysis

user research


Longevity?

ephemeral permanent

set process

more iterative process

market research

user research


What type of solution?
content interactive
-focused application

information architecture interaction design

content strategy

visual design

copywriting

user research


Social context?

individual social/community

support
community management

social design

mental models


Common user research methods
surveys
card sorting
“feedback army”
focus groups
“ﬁve-second test” interviews
usability testing
“listening labs”
heuristic evaluation “contextual enquiry”
personas

close-ended open-ended

refi nement
discovery


Common design tools
dynamic
realistic
prototypes
functional
paper prototype
prototype

functional
low-fidelity storyboard hi-fidelity
specifications
flow diagrams
hi-level detailed graphic
sketches mockups
wireframes wireframes

content
inventory
static


Example: user modelling (motivations)

Making sense of
research,
extrapolating
user models.


2

Set the stage:
Design together


Creating
sketches help
you think.
Sketching together helps you
think together.


Example technique: Leah Buley’s six-up.

Sketch six different
versions of
interface within a
limited time.


Sketchboarding example

James Downes, “Using Sketchboards to Design Great User Interfaces”
http://www.boxuk.com/blog/using-sketchboards-to-design-great-user-interfaces


Engage everyone in the process, so
that everyone’s in on the journey.


“Sketching is hardly a new technique in UX design. I would imagine
that the vast majority of UX / UI designers start by putting their
thoughts on paper, but how often do clients get to see these
We ﬁrmly believe that this collaborative
sketches?

technique can communicate the ideation
process much better than wireframes, can
save you time and make your clients happier.
What’s not to like?”

James Downes, “Using Sketchboards to Design Great User Interfaces”


3
Document.


Document all the time,
but not everything!


Keep trace of changes
and decisions made.


Think of it as leaving
pebbles to remember
whence you have come.


4. Hang in there...

lo y!
ep
...till the end
d
y to
re ad
and beyond.


Ensure vision is
carried all the way
through.


Time is saved in maximising
communication and not
generating artifacts.


Act of designing is
the act of
crystalising ideas.


Choose your
weapons tools
wisely.


“We tend to try and automate everything in our lives so that we can achieve
the power of design is its ability to
more, faster. However,

make the inanimate more human. This is not
something that happens when design becomes a
checklist, a process or a formula. Inevitably, as the designer
yields to the design system, we ﬁnd ourselves faced with products that don’t
emotionally resonate with us as human beings.”

Joshua Brewer, “Design Systems Need to be Challenged”, 52 Weeks of UX
http://52weeksofux.com/post/1215278826/design-systems-need-to-be-challenged


Embrace the
design journey.


Thanks!
Questions?

Stephanie Troeth
hello@stephanietroeth.com
@snifﬂes


Borrowed wisdom
With thanks to:
Chris Baum, Ralph Brandi, Robert Hoekman Jr, Denise Jacobs, AJ Kandy,
Olivier Thereaux, Aarron Walter
Unger, Russ and Carolyn Chandler. “A Project Guide to UX Design”, New Riders/Peachpit.Berkeley 2009.

http://www.slideshare.net/ugleah/ux-team-of-one-sxsw-2009-1161299
http://alanhogan.com/being-a-ux-team-of-one
http://www.slideshare.net/jgothelf/lean-ia-getting-out-of-the-deliverables-business
http://www.slideshare.net/pboersma/ux-deliverables-in-practice-1466984
http://www.slideshare.net/purplepurr/ux-design-deliverables-experts-choice-3448105
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/ﬁles/banda/card_sorting_a_deﬁnitive_guide/designProcessDiagram.jpg
http://52weeksofux.com/post/346650807/deliverables-vs-delivery
http://52weeksofux.com/post/1215278826/design-systems-need-to-be-challenged
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/24/personas-are-not-a-document/#comment-104179
http://www.365webapplications.com/2010/03/14/sxsw-interactive-ux-designdeliverables/
http://uxexchange.com/questions/2027/what-ux-deliverables-are-successful-in-an-agile-environment
http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000228.php
http://www.uxmag.com/design/shades-of-grey-thoughts-on-sketching
http://www.uxmag.com/design/shades-of-grey-wireframes-as-thinking-device
http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/under-the-cover-an-interview-with-the-authors-of-undercover-ux/
http://www.uie.com/articles/design_deliverables/
http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/category/deliverables/
http://bokardo.com/archives/activity-centered-design/


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