8 steps to great UX by Damian Rees

damian@experienceux.co.uk

@damianrees

8 steps to Great UX

I was a lone UXer in a company of 280.

I loved my job. I thought I was awesome.

One day all that changed.

“You are the enemy of design!”

I questioned everything I thought I knew.

A chat over a beer saved me.

I became a better UXer &wanted to stay that way.

8 steps to great UX

1. Few UX people really stand out from the crowd

Few UX people really stand out from the crowd

UX talent is in high demand, there’s a massive appetite for what we do and how we do it. Even globally, its still a relatively small pool, so the ability to put together a really cracking team is a challenge, and expensive too.

Adam Powers, BBH

Passion for UX

Thirst for learning

Humility

Few UX people really stand out from the crowd

Being genuinely willing to learn from their users and question assumptions. Be willing to test hypotheses and for it to be okay for them to be a hypothesis rather than, “This is what we are going to do.” and be very solutions orientated.

Naintara Land, GDS

Excellent communicators

Few UX people really stand out from the crowd

You can be quite a good UX person and not deal with stakeholders very well. You can be quite a good UX person and maybe feel a bit nervous about speaking to users. You can’t be a great UX person unless you can do both of those things well.Jane Murison, BBC

Commercial awareness

2. Make face to face user research your favourite tool

Investigate the why, not just the what

Watch people fail to use something

Make user research your favourite tool

Now that I’ve seen the power of doing regular small research and gradually moving towards a great solution, that’s one thing I can’t live without.

Jane Austin – The Telegraph

3. Get users more engaged in your research

Live data for each user

Go to where your users are

Recruit people in the right mindset

4. Don’t let ego and opinion guide decisions

Don’t let ego and opinion guide decisions

Ultimately if users don’t want it, it doesn’t matter how well it works or how good it looks. It just isn’t going to work.

Chris Bratt – Graze

Don’t let ego and opinion guide decisions

We launched a product, and all the research was telling us it wasn’t the right thing to do. My biggest mistake was not arguing enough on the side of the user, and letting it go.

David Oliver – LV=

Don’t let ego and opinion guide decisions

I never used to validate ideas, and when I first started out I didn’t know I had to. But what I’ve learned is that I’m often wrong.

Grant McAllister - Booking.com

5. Test like you know you’re wrong

Test like you know you’re wrong

If we build an idea, code it up, put it live and it hasn’t worked, it’s cost us a lot of money, a lot of time and we just cant get that back.

Paul Stevens - Autotrader

Test like you know you’re wrong

My prototyping tool - Axure. I love it. It enables me to not only talk about how something could be done, but to show it. For me it’s a role changer and makes my life so much easier

Leanne Churcher - Fatface

Initially, we release to a very small amount of people for 24 hours, to see if it would really tank things. If not, then it get’s opened up. We don’t want the technical overhead of supporting things that don’t really have an impact

David Hamill – Skyscanner

Test like you know you’re wrong

6. Look beyond the UX team

Work closer with people on the frontline

70% decrease in damage

7. Do it for the love, not the money

Find your passion

Walmart UX team visits at midnight

8. Ask more questions

It’s ok to ask stupid questions

1. Stand out from the crowd 2. Do more face to face user research 3. Help users engage more in research4. Fight against opinions and ego with research5. Validate solutions before launching6. Make friends with people on the front line7. Work on stuff you’re passionate about8. Ask more questions

8 things you can start doing

experienceux.co.uk/ux-blog

Get to know your users

damian@experienceux.co.uk

@damianreesThank you!