Why Designers Might Want to Redesign Company Processes to Get to Better UX DesignMeghan Ede – SAP AribaGarett Dworman, Ph.D. – VMware

A Case Study for CHI 2016, San Jose

PlotThis CASE STUDY…

…includes information from multiple clients.

Like a good fairy tale

• It is a good STORY

• About everyday PEOPLE encountering a PROBLEM

• That they RESOLVE

• With SIGNS & TIPS – so you can resolve this problem yourself!

9 May 2016 2Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Once Upon a Time…Assignment:Redesign Account Creation screens

of an out-dated and hard to use Product

Warning Signs:Each of our Attempts to do GOOD DESIGN…

Met with Resistance

9 May 2016 3Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Plot Twists

A Story about UX Design…… Became a story about Process Redesign

With Warning Signs, like:Design Dead End Ahead

Pointing out a Need for Changeo Creating a new “design culture”

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DESIGN

DEADEND

Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

We were asked to Redesign…

Change this:Account Creation

9 May 2016 5Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

But NOT this…

Needed Fixing:• Too many steps• Outdated UI• Too wordy• Broken workflow• Manual data

entry• …

DON’T Change this:On Boarding Flow

9 May 2016 6Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

We began to notice the signs…

Sign: Screens vs Flows

Redesign THESE SCREENS – and NO others..!

…Asked to design (or redesign) discrete features or single screens, rather than full task flows.

DESIGN

DEADEND

9 May 2016 8Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

…Products that look like Frankenstein’s monster:“random parts, stuck together”

Sign: Frankenstein’s monster DESIGN

DEADEND

A sign that redesigning SCREENS but NOT

FLOWS has become a HABIT.

9 May 2016 9Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Sign: Because John said so……When product design decisions are made solely by an influential person in the company -- and these decisions have no rationale, other than that person’s position.

DESIGN

DEADEND

CFO -- CEO -- CIO

I like Vista’s

black on black.

-- Do that.

9 May 2016 10Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Sign: Repeated Flows…When a single activity is repeated multiple times, each using a different look-and-feel.

DESIGN

DEADEND

These steps do nearly the same thing!

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LoginLog In: ______

Sign In

Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Sign: No Overview…When a large complex product is built in bits and pieces, with no person or team monitoring the overall impact.

DESIGN

DEADEND

Known by: Sally

Known by: Jerry

Known by: none

9 May 2016 12Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Sign: Mystery Rationale…When the story and rationale for a product design cannot be discovered or conflicting stories and rationales are provided.

DESIGN

DEADEND

No one knows why this steps is here.

9 May 2016 13Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Looking for the RIGHT path…We floated ideas for UI improvements -- to many people

…as much to gauge reactions as to propose actual redesigns.

Result: Negative responses whenever our ideas addressed:

• Overall flow

• More than a few screens

9 May 2016 14Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Sign: Unreasonable Negative Responses

…When all important (or minor) design changes are rejected.

Courtesy: The Monsters’ Monster, Patrick McDonnell

DESIGN

DEADEND

9 May 2016 15Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Our “Big Bad Wolf”– We have a Process problem

No GOOD DESIGN can occur in this environment.

The Wolf we battled…

Changing a “Siloed” environment into

…a cooperative, innovative one.

Using only our Wit (Design Skills)(full details about this battle and success – in the Paper)

YOU can be the HERO of the Story!

Address the Process problem using your design skills…

… So, you can get back to Design

9 May 2016 18Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Battle Overview

Do Research -- understand the root-causes (fix the right problems)

Create a Plan -- get feedback (learn and revise)

Get a Champion -- If your culture is top-down, find an Exec to “lead” the redesign

Create a Shared Vision – get everyone working towards a common goal

Do the work – this won’t happen overnight

9 May 2016 19Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

The Battle

Our Goal: unified and holistic redesign effort for one flow - Onboarding

o Uncover and pull together -- all teams / people working on PARTS of onboarding

o Teach New Ways -- design thinking and design skills

o Pick holistic sub-projects -- within the Onboarding flow

o Create cross-functional work groups – no more “silos”

o Keep work groups aligned – central Steering Committee (us, in disguise)

o Get Permission – point to “Exec Champion” as “approval”

9 May 2016 20Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Successes…

• Moved focus from SCREEN to FLOW

• Consensus on “real” problems

• Cohesive, innovative, effective Redesign Projects

• Cross-functional teams – working together

• Support, excitement, and commitment – to start the actual redesign

• Communication across formerly “siloed” teams

9 May 2016 21Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Did this work? Hmmm….

… In more than 6 months – hadn’t quite gotten to: redesigning onboarding…

BUT

– we now had the right cultural context for redesign to succeed

9 May 2016 22Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

TipsIt’s easy to miss a Process problem

Try these tips…

(only listing two, rest are in the Paper)

Tip: Get off the Computer…to see the WHOLE product or large task flows, you need a LARGE visual area - like a wall

DESIGN

DEADEND

9 May 2016 24Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Tip: Talk to many people…many people are involved in getting products “out the door” – try talking to people in many functional areas (PM, Ops, QA, business, sales…)

DESIGN

DEADEND

9 May 2016 25Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

Takeaways:UX is

…More than the sum of UI screensProduct lifecycle

Complete Flows

…Created by more people than just the UI designers Business decisions on features to create, maintain, and evolve

“Ownership” of products and decisions

Team interactions and communications -- across many company functions

Development resources (and how they are used)

9 May 2016 26Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016

See alsoConference & Paper Details

ACM SIGCHI Conference, 2016https://chi2016.acm.org/wp/CHI 2016 Extended Abstracts – Citation and link to Full Paperhttp://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2851609&CFID=784556388&CFTOKEN=51669932Full Paper (PDF) – direct linkhttp://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/2860000/2851609/ea840-ede.pdf?ip=108.202.177.246&id=2851609&acc=OPEN&key=4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E6D218144511F3437&CFID=784556388&CFTOKEN=51669932&__acm__=1463070644_f1c8b740963ee294901d69bc4d30f505Slidesharehttp://www.slideshare.net/meghanede/chi-2016-redesigning-company-processes-to-get-to-better-ux-design

Authors:Meghan Ede: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanede

Garett Dworman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dworman

9 May 2016 27Meghan Ede & Garett Dworman -- presented at CHI 2016