UX Coaching - helping developers become better generalists

UX Coaching
Helping developers become better generalists
Chris Nodder

The concept of the UX person as a specialist is hurting their interaction with developers because it encourages ivory tower thinking (and whining)
Solutions:
Hire a UX person who can also do testing, coding and/or bottle washing
Embrace specialism: consider UX people as coaches to help whole team be empathetic to user needs
Flickr/bbaunach

Team’s UX skills
Coach’s UX skills
T-shaped teams…

Empathizing-systemizing theory
ScientistsEngineers
Autism
Male
Female
Systemizing Quotient (SQ)
Empathizing Quotient (EQ)
Simon Baron-Cohen et al, Autism Research Center
William Hudson “Reduced empathizing skills increase challenges for user-centered design” (CHI '09)

Men in IT
Women in IT
Dev team members systemize more and empathize less than users

It’s a preference, not a handicap
“Seeing is believing” – increase empathy by having lower empathy team members watch users interact with product
Increase investment: team proposes product goals, UX helps them find ways to measure
Pairing across disciplines can help balance systemizing and empathizing in the product
Needs patience from both parties
Personas, scenarios, storyboards, screenshots all appeal to systemizers
Personas and scenarios help with empathy
Storyboards and screenshots show relation to underlying system
Ensure systemizers are involved in creation, not just consumption

Message to the UX coach
Best way to share data with the team is to have them experience it
Get the team to suggest research agenda
Show them how to make the research agenda valid (reduce bias, increase effect)
Teach them how to do the research
Once they see user behavior first hand, the need for communicating results is reduced/incorporated into the current process
Formalizing/incorporating UX is a red herring. Instead it's a mindset-change thing
You have to CREATE the mindset through constant coaching
If you don't do that, developers will (continue to) route around UX
Satisfaction comes from sharing skills, not from being an expert that nobody listens to

Message to the team
You are not your users, and your product suffers as a result
UX skills are very valuable on a resume. Spending time with UX people will make you smarter and a better generalist
Even if you are back-end rather than UI focused you still need to be able to predict how users will work with your system
Time with users is time well spent
Reduces rework
Prevents arguments
Produces more focused product that people will like better

UX Coaching in action
1-week engagement with team developing a social media platform
Whole team involved (incl. biz sponsor & devs)
I facilitated, they directed
Field visits
Intensive design sessions (incl. user specification, scenarios, charrettes)
Paper prototypes
User testing
NO CODE written during this time – devs were focused on understanding user needs
Generated large list of issues/research topics to track
Subsequent coaching support during development and user testing (run by team)
Refer back to personas, storyboards, wireframes, shared visit experiences, user test sessions
More empathetic team members “got it” faster, and started coaching systemizing team members to help them understand. I began to step back.
Whole team more cohesive and focused because understood product goals in terms of user need
Easy to see how well goals were being met via user testing/metrics
Product has been well received by pilot audience (goes live in Oct.)

chris@nodder.com

UX Coaching - helping developers become better generalists

by Chris Nodder on Sep 26, 2011

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UX Coaching - helping developers become better generalists — Presentation Transcript

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