Talk It Out, Or Write It Down? Thoughts on communicating digital experience design

the next 30 min 1. What is this guy talking about?

2. Evaluate process with 5 questions

3. Real-world scenarios

4. Takeaways / Q&A

Hi, I’m mike I consult with early-stage product companiesto help them create awesome digital experiences!

@jefftheturtle

At the time that I was asked to speak to you,I was co-teaching UXD at General Assembly.

When teaching, Core UX valueswere on my brain more than ever.

Not  me

We are meant to empathize with our usersand advocate for their needs !That we are meant to instill purpose in products and experiences!We are meant to educate our collaboratorson the human centered design process

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I believe…

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they never stopped to think if they should” – Dr. Ian Malcom

Spread the “why” •We all agree that our work should be research driven…but we are

practiced in being investigative

•We have to be as adept at communicating our informedreasoning to our collective team as we are at forming it

•Top quality design is more than the sum of our deliverables

Unless you are a one-person product company, design work never occurs in a vacuum.

Unicorns are great, But it’s all about playing well with others.

Consistent Methodology,Tailored process •Embracing communication starts by accepting that

one size does not fit all

•Even in a stable company, the environmental elements that impact a project will always vary

•Advocate for the time to evaluate process just as youwe evaluate our design problems

•Don’t abandon methodology, scale it

•Talk, talk, talk, talk… then consider what to write down

Evaluate your task’s goals and resources

!Customize the macro approach

!Employ a standard library of deliverables

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To be custom yet consistent…

Be  really,  really  respectful  of  your  team4

When you kick off a project, start here.

5 questions that will Ensure everyone profits

1. What is our environment? •Are we working in-house at a product company,

as a freelancer, at an agency, for ourselves?

•Are we bootstrapped? Funded? Part of a marketing campaign? Retained?

•Is this a new concept or an evolution/iteration?

•How established is our team? Seasoned together, recentlyassembled, cross-department? Are we all in one place?

2. Where are my developers? •Are my developers sitting next to me, on the other side

of the office, or on the other side of the ocean?

•Are there natural communication barriers such as language, technical vocabulary, or time zone?

•Are their software formats they are not adept at using?

3. What stages of the project are UXD’s directly involved in? •Are we in the room from day 1 to completion? Or are we

responsible for just research, just strategy, just design, just development, or some combination of several?

•Do we have equal voice? Do we own a particular stage but are subordinate in others?

•Did we weigh in on scope or has that been predetermined?

4. To whom are we handing off? •Are we presenting to a group or 1 to 1?

•Is the primary recipient a designer, a developer, a project manager, or a business stakeholder?

•Is the recipient in place because of their hard skills or because of their bureaucratic position? What is their level of design/tech knowledge?

5. How long is the lifespan of our deliverables? •Are they selling an idea or providing actual reference

for future actions?

•Do they instantly get converted into a new format or do they maintain their original format during ongoing use?

•Are they digitally or physically archived?

Funded digital product companyConsumer applicationMVP live in the app store Senior internal design & tech team !Mid-sized Eastern European agencyDedicated project staff!Research, strategy, concepting, UX design, visual design!Deliverables presented to internal design & tech leadershipUX documents are appended to Jira storiesDevs begin from UX handoff, prior to visual design!Rapid agile development, deliverables are “archived” quickly

Example 1

Re-envisioning an IOS AppEnvironment

Developers

Involvement

Hand Off

Lifespan

Re-envisioning an IOS App:

Process

Audit of existing research data

Additional user/competitive research

Documentation / presentation of strategic approach

Updated personas

Steps 1-4 were independent from sprints

Steps 5-7 were modularized and integrated with development sprints

Paper prototyping Invision prototyping Annotated wireframes

Consumer goods companyCustomer audience No prior versionInternal design, social media, & tech team!In-house Wordpress dev Dedicated project staff!Visual design, QA!Deliverables presented to project management, design, and social media stakeholders UX documents used by dev in support of Photoshop comps to fill in the blanks!Deliverables are trashed once dev is complete

Example 2

In-Progress marketing blogEnvironment

Developers

Involvement

Hand Off

Lifespan

Bailing out a marketing blog

Process

Audit of existing design

Audit of existing user research

SketchingAdditional research

Steps 1-6 were completed after visual design and prior to development

Annotated zone diagrams

Strategic presentation

Constantly self-evaluate your process looking for means to improve the communication !Respect your collaborators, respect you scope, and create documentation accordingly !Never abandon UX methodology, but always scale to achieve maximum efficiency

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Takeaways…

Thank you Questions?