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Innovation

Ross, March 7th, 2011 in UX Musings

Innovation is a great word. It’s filled with such hope and is ambiguous enough to let great ideas and thoughts shine through. Innovation is a critical concept when working through brainstorming and idea generation sessions but I have come to dislike the word innovation. These days, the word innovation makes me shudder and cringe but only within a certain context: when I am working on projects that are limited by some sort of constraint that does not allow the free flow of ideas yet we have the task of “innovating”. What is a UX Designer to do?

I’ve been giving this issue some thought lately because it seems to crop up on a fairly regular basis and I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason for my aversion is really quite simple:  lack of a shared understanding between the people paying the bill at the end of the day (we’ll call them the client) and the people doing the work (we’ll call them the service provider) on what exactly innovation means and how it will be measured. I am working on a project right now that is going through this exact pain point. We keep hearing the “i” word and we have tried numerous times to draw out exactly what the client expects from us in terms of innovation but it is a little bit like pulling teeth. We even went so far as to create a document that laid out what the client’s expectation of innovation was and how our solutions were addressing their expectations. All fine and good but we’re still hearing the “i” word which may be a case of bad communication, but I think there more to it than simply not seeing eye to eye.

I think the most important this to consider when discussing innovation is the context and domain of the product/service deemed to become “innovative”. How does the innovation fit into the existing “ecosystem”? Is it something new or is it an already established product/service? Are there customer expectations around what your product/service should do? How far can you push things before making customers grumpy? This discussion will lead directly into the details surrounding the innovation. Great ideas and innovations cannot live a vacuum and need a channel/medium for delivery so really we can’t discuss the where without simultaneously discussing the what.

It is kind of like doing a risk analysis for ideas and agreeing on how far innovations should go and if there is any real value in the proposed innovations or is it simply innovation for the sake of innovation…

Once we’ve all agreed on what innovations are going to happen where, the next thing to be discussed should be success metrics. How will we know if our innovations are working? Ideas that involve tangible products or sales are easy but service offerings are trickier simply because they are typically surrounded by more qualitative measurements and don’t translate as well to fancy pie charts and line graphs touting the awe-inspiring growth of our innovation ;) Regardless, we still need to decide what success looks like. And now that we all agree on what innovation means to the project and how we’re gong to measure success, we can move forward and build something great, solve the problem and, most importantly, INNOVATE!

In hindsight, we should have stopped everything the first time we heard the “i” word and made sure we all understood and agreed upon the definition, scope and metrics of innovation. Needless to say, I will be adding the “Innovation Full Stop” tactic to my list of tricks.

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Book Review: “A Project Guide to UX Design” by Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler

Ross, March 7th, 2011 in Book Reviews

January was the last Calgary UX Book Club meeting as autonomous entity (we have since been merged into the Calgary UX Group) and we ended on a high note by chatting with author and IA guru Russ Unger. We had heard that Mr. Unger was a lively speaker and he did not disappoint! We talked through the process both authors endured to get their book published as well as the good and not so good moments of the book. Russ explained and defended his work well and gave sound reasons for making certain decisions. I left the meeting feeling good about reading the book and, more importantly, hearing Russ’ point of view.

The premise behind “A Project Guide…” is to introduce the reader to the basics of user experience (UX) and the various methodologies, deliverables and phases of UX project work, and based on this assertion, the book is well-written. The first four chapters layout typical UX project ecosystems and serve as a great high level overview of what needs to happen in the very early stages of a project. The rest of the book is then dedicated to the key methodologies typically used in UX design work. The book deliberately did not go into much detail, and because the language used was very conversational and easy, the choice to keep the book as a high-level introduction was a suitable match for the writing style.

The best part of “A Project Guide…” is the fact that you can hand this book to almost anyone involved in a UX design project and they will find some value in it. The book’s subtitle—For user experience designers in the field or in the making—gives a clear demarcation as to the experience level of the intended audience (anyone from newbie to intermediate level UX designer) but the audience for this book is larger and that is where its strength lies.

Seasoned Pro
Make no mistake, if you are a seasoned pro who has been cranking out wireframes, doing card sorts and gathering user requirements for years you may not see the value in reading this book, unless you need a refresher on certain methodologies every once in a while (not every project goes through the same cycle of deliverables and methodology and I am certain I will be picking up this book again). There are also some chapters that I found to be a pleasant surprise. The chapter on SEO was quite interesting and refreshing, simply because I had never seen it discussed in a UX book before and it generated a good conversation in our book club as well ;)

Newbie
If you are brand new to the UX field, looking for a great “how-to” manual “A Project Guide…” is a great find. Although the overarching theme of the book is ‘overview’, the author’s use of categories (Surfing, Snorkelling, Deep Diving) for additional information allow the reader to find out more on certain topics based on how much time a reader wants to invest; each category has an associated time allotment assigned to it with Surfing being quick and Deep Diving being longer. This system in itself is a great example of the exceptional thought being given to the user/reader and is a nice touch.

Management
I think the most interesting (and difficult to reach) audience for “A Project Guide…” would be those who don’t necessarily know and/or understand the various methodologies and deliverables typically involved in a UX design project but have been tasked with improving some facet or instance of a customer/user interaction for their company. This audience wouldn’t need to read the entire book front to back, but having a high level understanding of what to expect from a UX team wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing… (Project Managers, Directors, VPs I’m nudging and winking at you!) Imagine a project where all the key decision makers understood what the UX team/person was doing and why—can you say utopia! I guess the trick now is how to get non-UX people to read this book…

One of the most interesting discussions during our book club meeting with Russ Unger was a conversation we had around what we want our job title to be. One of our members answered, “CEO, Chief Experience Officer.” Russ quickly responded to this with, “No, I think you mean Chief Executive Officer.” He then went on to explain his vision of the CEO of the future who will be well versed in experience design and understand the value and necessity of understanding the motivations, goals, constraints and challenges of their customers. It may sound lofty, but I think once people start to really understand the value and competitive advantage of UX design we will see more and more companies start to embrace our practice, and I think Mr. Unger is correct in his vision that if this new way of thinking starts at the top, then the entire culture and mindset of a company can be affected. Rome was not built in a day and “A Project Guide…” is a great way to get the wheels in motion towards building a business around the people who matter the most, your customers.

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The Emotional Power of Wireframes: Part 1 (Practitioner)

Ross, March 7th, 2011 in UX Techniques

We all know that wireframes are great for communicating design concepts and rationale before a pixel is ever pushed in Photoshop or a bezier curve is laid out in Illustrator, but I was wondering if anyone has ever considered how wireframes make people feel? This curiosity extends to both the people building the diagrams and the people taking in all the ideas being conveyed through wireframes.

As a wireframe-type guy, I can only speak to my own personal emotional response to the process and final outcome of building wireframes, so that is where I will start.

Ross, tell us how you really feel…

I’ve been building websites for over ten years and I’ve done everything from concept models, to visual design layouts, to writing client-side code line by line. The biggest thing I’ve learned is not to get too attached to ideas or concepts because there is a good chance they will be changed, edited or rejected at some point. Throughout my career I’ve had clients who have loved my design work and other projects where it’s been flat out rejected; it’s the nature of the business and my skin has grown thick over the years. But even now, I find myself much more anxious about reviewing visual design concepts when compared to reviewing wireframes and the reason is really quite simple: emotional investment.

For me, drawing boxes, arrows and lines in varying shades of gray does not create the same kind of internal emotional response when compared to designing the visual look for a project. When I’m wireframing, I have my analytical hat on. I’m thinking about the page’s functionality, the primary objective of the page, making sure blocks of content are located in a logical place for the user, etc.; it’s hard to muster emotions when you’ve got the analytical hat on. When I do visual design work the emotional hat replaces the analytical hat. I am much more focused on colours, shapes, depth and creating an overarching visual theme. I am still aware of the logic behind the wireframes but because more detail is being given to the visual design, and those details are intended to trigger emotional responses in users, I find myself getting much more connected and attached to my work.

How many times have I felt crushed, dejected and forlorn if a client comes back with some harsh criticism of a wireframe? Almost never. That is the one of the strengths of wireframes which is often overlooked; it’s hard to get upset if someone tells you your box is the wrong shade of gray. Wireframes keep me emotionally distanced from my work. This is not to say that I don’t take pride in what I do, because I do, but emotional distance has, time and time again, provided me with a clear head and sharp focus for solving problems without bogging down on how I am internalizing criticism or feedback. More often than not, my ego remains intact and the client ends up getting a great solution.

I was working on project recently which had many, many iterations and the wireframes for one particular section had turned into a bit of a moving target. One evening, I realized that I was not getting nearly as frustrated or overwhelmed as I could be given the circumstance. After some self-reflection, I came to the conclusion that I was not emotionally attached to what I was doing. But this was not a negative feeling, it was actually liberating and somewhat empowering. I simply thought about the feedback I had received and started to form a few different options for solutions. No hurt-feelings, no ego, just focusing on the solution; I love wireframes!

For part 2, I will try to get into the head of a client and see how they are reacting to and internalizing the process of wireframing.

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Book Review: “Wired to Care” by Dev Patnaik with Peter Mortensen

Ross, February 18th, 2010 in Book Reviews

In November of last year, the Calgary UX Book Club read “Wired to Care” and were fortunate enough to have a video conference during our monthly meeting with co-author, Peter Mortensen. The video conference was fantastic and gave Mr. Mortensen a chance to share his insights and anecdotes around the process of writing the book and “Wired to Care” has been lingering in my subconscious ever since…

Make no mistake, “Wired to Care” is a business book but it offers a new approach to improving business and that is what makes the book so engaging. The entire premise of the book is based around changing the cultural fabric of business and Patnaik and Mortensen give a convincing argument for empathy as the conduit for change. Companies that wish to prosper and endure should be creating a culture where empathy for customers becomes a primary driver for every employee¾from the CEO to the summer intern. Each chapter is dedicated to a concept which ties back to the book’s overarching theme of creating a culture of empathy with wonderful narratives and anecdotal stories employed to illustrate every single concept. It’s an easy read because it is so authentic; stories of real people solving problems and creating solutions is about as engaging as it gets for me.

So how does the notion of empathy fit into user experience design? Well, it is actually one of the most important concepts when approaching a design problem and this is why “Wired to Care” continues to bubble up to the surface when I am thinking about design problems. If a company can’t understand what is happening when a customer interacts with their product or service—the challenges, the constraints, the “ah-ha” moments—then it is going to be a very tall order to gather requirements and create solutions that actually solve any sort of problem relating a customer and/or user. User experience design should not be done in a vacuum without the insight of the people who have the most to gain, the customer! If nothing else, “Wired to Care” has solidified the importance and value of user research in the user experience design process.

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