Paul
Sherman
ShermanUX

Usability
testing
≠
a
good
user
experience!
Strategic
user
experience
planning
can
yield
a
unified
and
consistent
user
experience.
And
strategic
design
leads
to
great
user
experiences.
2

Usability
testing
is
almost
always
tactical
and
short-­‐
term
focused.
Even
when
done
across
releases…the
results
are
almost
always
used
tactically.
3

Usability
testing
and
evaluation
can
find
problems
with
your
site
or
product.
But
the
method
is
not
well
suited
for:
 Crafting
a
unified
user
experience
 Planning
for
tomorrow’s
user
experience
 Creating
delight,
loyalty,
stickiness
4

Delight
Loyalty
Stickiness
How
do
you
attain
these?
5

By
designing
the
user
experience:
For
now.
For
next
year.
And
the
years
after
that.
6

And
designing
the
entire
experience…
Not
just
your
product
or
web
site’s
user
interface.
Or
your
email
campaign’s
HTML
formatting.
Or
the
user
assistance
content.
7

Strategy
vs.
tactics
8

“[Strategy
is]
A
long
term
plan
of
action
designed
to
achieve
a
particular
goal.”
“Strategy
is
differentiated
from
tactics
or
immediate
actions
by
its
orientation
on
affecting
future,
not
immediate
conditions.”
Wikipedia.org
9

10

Strategic
plan:
Go
from
airport
to
hotel
Tactics:
Make
some
turns
11

“Find
and
fix”
usability
is
like
making
a
turn.
It’s
a
good
thing
to
do…
If
you
know
where
you’re
going.
Do
you?
12

13

At
many
companies,
various
groups
and
departments
are
not
aligned
around
creating
the
best
user
experience
possible.
In
fact,
some
groups
are
incented
to
create
a
bad
user
experience.
How
can
that
be?
Easy…unintended
consequences
of
incentive
structures.
14

Example:
Imagine
a
fictional
company
where
a
marketing
department
is
responsible
for
shipping
and
fulfillment.
Imagine
they
charged
$15.95
USD
to
ship
a
box
of
software.
And
this
made
the
department
500K
yearly.
How
many
people
do
you
think
abandoned
their
shopping
carts
when
they
saw
that
price?
15

…and
how
many
customers
do
you
think
were
lost
because
of
this
one
short-­‐sighted
decision?
16

Usability
testing
and
user-­‐centered
design
can
only
do
so
much.
To
create
great
user
experiences,
you
have
to
take
a
holistic
-­‐
and
strategic
–
approach.
17

I’m
not
the
only
person
saying
this:
Steve
Baty
–
“Being
An
Experience-­‐Led
Organization”
http://bit.ly/40xrLP
Jared
Spool
–
UPA
2009
keynote
(I’ll
find
a
link
somewhere…)
And
many
others.
18

Usability
and
user
experience
19

What
is
usability?
 Your
intended
users
can
accomplish
what
they’re
trying
to
do
on
your
site
or
with
your
product.
What
is
user
experience?
 The
positive
AND
negative
attitudes
and
affect
generated
from
interacting
with
your
offering,
on
several
dimensions.
20

From
Peter
Morville:
http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php
21

…but
only
a
part.
22

Measure
it
 There
are
many
ways
to
do
this.
 NPS
(net
promoter
score)
is
one
of
them,
but
it
doesn’t
capture
all
the
dimensions
of
user
experience.
There
is
no
one
best
way
 My
advice:
multiple
methods,
multiple
measures.
 Both
quantitative
and
qualitative.
23

The
first
step
is
to
become
aware
of
the
problems!
How?
Walk
through
the
entire
customer
experience.
24

From
sign-­‐up
to
initial
use…free
to
pay
conversion…calling
and
emailing
help,
tech
support,
and
billing…even
closing
the
account.
25

If
you
don’t
know
about
this
concept,
talk
to
your
product
managers.
They
do.
A
typical
product
manager-­‐y
image…

26

Check
your
IVR!
Most
are
horrible!
(IT
typically
designs
the
prompts
and
call
flows.)
27

Just
because
you
do
GUI
doesn’t
mean
you
can
do
VUI…
VUI
expert
Susan
Hura
“Is
Your
Goal
To
Get
Rid
Of
Money?”
http://bit.ly/2yehF
“Are
You
Working
Hard
To
Suck
Less?”
http://bit.ly/18vVP1
28

She’s
my
wife.
She’s
also
the
best
VUI
usability
expert
around.
29

How
do
you
“do”
strategic
user
experience?
It
sometimes
means
big
changes.
It
often
drives
process
and
organizational
structure
changes.
30

Remember,
in
many
organizations,
departments
and
teams
are
incented
to
create
bad
user
experiences.
Changing
organization
structures
and
incentives
to
refocus
on
the
customer
is
hard
work.
31

Offline:
Nordstrom’s.
Virgin
Air.
Online:
Zappos.
Amazon.
Land’s
End.
(Offline
too.)
Who
else?
32

The
sad
truth:
most
organizations
don’t
align
on
the
user
experience.
33

Everybody’s.
And
nobody’s.
That’s
the
problem.
34

How
do
you
take
a
strategic
approach
to
creating
a
great
user
experience?
Four
very
hard
easy
steps…
35

1.
Alignment
Find
the
disincentives
to
delivering
a
good
user
experience,
then
surface
them
to
your
leadership.
Eliminate
them.
Advocate
for
tweaking
the
business
model
if
you
need
to.
Don’t
take
“bad
profits”.
Bad
profits
are
unsustainable
profits.
36

2.
Values
Be
open
to
learning
about
and
improving
the
user
experience.
Those
aphorisms
about
the
customer
always
being
right?
They’re
all
true.
Remember
the
guy
who
complained
about
the
food
on
Virgin
Air?
He’s
now
a
taster.
Stunt?
Yes.
But
effective
and
revealing!
37

3.
Assess
the
user
experience
holistically
Traverse
the
customer
corridor.
Assess
the
total
experience
–
not
just
the
UI.
Find
the
sticky
points,
the
little
trapdoors.
Remember,
one
bad
touchpoint
affects
the
whole
brand.
38

4.
Leverage
user
experience
design
Don’t
just
fix
the
little
user
experience
trapdoors
and
holes.
Assess
and
redesign
the
customer
touchpoints…
all
of
them.
Even
the
IVR.
39

Yeah,
but…
how
do
I
get
my
organization
to
do
this?
“Initiative”
40

Give
yourself
a
new
job:
“Change
agent”
UX
“Initiative”
Easy
to
say…
harder
to
put
into
practice.
41

A
person
who
leads
a
business
initiative
by:
 Defining
and
researching
the
problem
 Planning
the
intervention
 Building
business
support
for
the
intervention
 Enlisting
others
to
help
drive
change
Isixsigma.com
UXmatters.com
–
“The
User
Experience
Practitioner
As
Change
Agent”
42

“Change
agents
must
have
the
conviction
to
state
the
facts
based
on
data,
even
if
the
consequences
are
associated
with
unpleasantness.”
Isixsigma.com
Uxmatters.com
–
“The
User
Experience
Practitioner
As
Change
Agent”
43

Successful
strategic
user
experience
is
not
just
about
delivering
a
design
or
testing
the
UI.
44

It’s
about
aligning
the
organization
to
measure
and
improve
the
user
experience…
Using
the
tools
and
techniques
of
user
research,
interaction
design,
and
usability
assessment.
45

If
you’re
doing
your
job
right,
you’re
changing
your
organization.
“Initiative”
46

Get
out
of
your
silo,
comfort
zone,
etc.
Be
nosy.
Really
understand
your
business’s
revenue
and
profitability
goals.
And
who’s
responsible
for
delivering
what
part
of
it.
Plan
and
influence
Advocate
for
planning
the
user
experience
of
the
product(s)
you
support.
Socialize
the
plan,
sell
the
plan.
Measure
and
improve
Measure
the
user
experience
to
know
how
to
improve
it.
47

You
might
not
get
to
focus
on
strategic
issues
yet.
But
start
thinking
about
it
now.
Start
talking
with
your
colleagues
about
the
long-­‐term
direction
of
the
products
and
services
you
support.
Find
the
problems
with
usability
testing
and
evaluation.
Fix
the
ugly
parts
now,
but
plan
to
overhaul
the
whole
experience.
48

Connecting
Cultures,
Changing
Organizations:
The
User
Experience
Practitioner
As
Change
Agent.
Paul
Sherman.
http://uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000162.php
Customer
Support
on
the
Web:
Don't
Call
Us,
We'll
Call
You.
Dan
Szuc.
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2007/11/customer-­‐support-­‐on-­‐the-­‐
web-­‐dont-­‐call-­‐us-­‐well-­‐call-­‐you.php
The
Bizarre
Myth
of
Customer
Service:
An
Interview
With
David
Jaffe
http://www.infodesign.com.au/uxpod
(Look
for
#42…
see,
it
IS
the
answer
to
everything.
)
49

Paul
Sherman
http://www.shermanux.com
paul@shermanux.com
Twitter:
@pjsherman
50