Start Using UX as a Strategic Weapon

Start Using UX as a Weapon christian crumlish & erin malone aol tangible uxwe are not talking about social interface patternsclick the remote

what’s ux?8 secondslet’s clear this up once and for all - just what is UX?Reference:Design is the new black: The growing importance of user experience and designAlong with Apple’s success — or perhaps because of it — design has become a critical skill for startups. Apple’s fanatic obsession with simplicity and user experience has also become a priority for consumer-focused startups in particular.The most notable example of this is one of my former portfolio companies, Mint.com, acquired by Intuit in 2009. As with Apple, the Mint team had a never-ending passion for design and UX (user experience), and many people attributemuch of Mint’s successes to their unique and compelling Web design. I expect the design trend to continue and even accelerate; look for growing and continuing investment in design-driven and UX-driven products.Dave McClure - 500startups.com/blog 01/15/2011

design user-centered learnability aesthetics usability innovation design thinking ui visde interaction research copy creative architecture what’s ux? data brand content strategy editorial information marketing visualization customer touchpoints relevance ideation45 secondschristian - defineerin - so what’s design...all these things are part of UX - many of the disciplines that contribute to UX. We often hear UX and design used interchangeably but UX is the holistic experience, how things work, what it lookslike, how you get there and how you feel about it before, during and after.

i hear you want to be: the apple of cloud solutions the mint of healthcare the foursquare of car sales your example here30 secondserin - in my consulting I often hear....what does this really mean? it’s easy to say but hard to do...how do you get there.

so what’s it going to take?10 secondsChristian - Your arsenal needs to be made up of a few overarching things:have a vision and infuse it into the cultureit’s a mindset and an attitude throughout the company....holistic: justin maxwells quotation about teams that work together well make great user experiences

vision40 secondsChristian -The best brands are all guided by a clear vision for the world, a unique set of values, and a culture that makes them truly unique and that no user insights could ever change.

culture40 secondsChristian -It takes a village to build a great consumer experiencepart of the corporate strategy built off the vision“the bar of design quality is rising all over the world--and any company that wants to compete internationally must have very good design.”“The companies that are succeeding at managing the more difficult parts of design--that build incredible design competencies both internally and externally, that take responsibility for service design and the entire customer experience, andthat strive to solve the right problems--will reap the advantages in the years to come. These companies make sure that design is part of corporate strategy and they integrate design thinking throughout the organization.”Think Apple, think Zappos, and a host of other companies where it is part of the culture to think about the offerings from the customer’s point of view.

all touchpoints40 secondsChristian -email, social media presence, conversion flow, application and website, helpevery touchpoint is part of the experience and should be considered.

sounds great in theory...?15 secondsChristian -what kinds of things can I do tomorrowhow do I apply this - beyond just changing the culture and having a vision since those take a long time to infuse throughout the org.

flow TWITTER60 secondserinAnecdote from one of the twitter staff who worked on the conversion project: “It wasn’t just that we added a step to the flow, it was that we re-thought the flow to provide a much better introduction to Twitter. When we surveyed users who were new to Twitter (working with Adaptive Pathon this research), we found out that many of them had signed up for Twitter because either there were famous people, brands, businesses, etc that they wanted to follow using Twitter for updates, or there werespecific people they knew and wanted to follow. The previous experience didn’t really help users discover either of those groups — either you’d do the address book lookup (which a lot of people do, but it’s still aminority) or you’d hopefully find someone recommended in the bucket of 20. If you didn’t find the right people to follow and weren’t committed to doing additional work, you’d be stuck without an interestingexperience and many users bolted and never came back saying “I don’t get Twitter”. With the revamp of the flow, we focused on starting users with categories to browse some of the more popular users by interest (determined algorithmically) and added a final step to search users to find thosecouple of folks who you had heard were using Twitter before you joined. This flow also improved the effectiveness of the address book lookup because people weren’t thinking it was just another social network sincethey had already seen many popular users they may have already heard of outside Twitter.” Josh Elman, I work on the product...

simplify DROPBOX60 secondschristianSyncplicity versus Dropbox -Anecdote from the past founder of Syncplicity:“After I left Syncplicity, I ran into the CEO of Dropbox and asked him my burning question: "Why dont you support multi-folder synchronization?" His answer was classic Dropbox. They built multi-folder support early on and did limited betatesting with it, but they couldnt get the UI right. It confused people and created too many questions. It was too hard for the average consumer to setup. So it got shelved.”

rethink HIPMUNK60 secondschristianversus the other - user pain pointsReally tapping into how people feel when they travel. Not just the booking - but the whole experience even if they couldn’t affect the post booking experience.misery factor

delight ETSY60 secondserinetsy versus ebaypersonal, encourages community, it celebrates the hand crafted and quirky versus utilitarian spareEtsy is delightful to use - features products, sometimes by color, sometimes by them - hand picked. Also features sellers. Has tools that are fun for use when browsing.Etsy regularly meets with users to get feedback on various site features and policies, Etsy has double the craft listings compared to rival eBayReflects the aesthetic of the community - understanding the users

that’s nice, but8 secondschristian

i have data15 secondserin - Data can be a great tool.A/B testing is powerful and when used to rethink whole flows, and not just which button color is best, can add millions of dollars of extra revenue to the bottom line.We have a client who has been using A/B testing for years and refining different flow as well as some smaller stuff and it has paid for itself 100 fold.

Data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions. i have data ~ Doug Bowman Fast Company, Mar. 200930 secondserin - 41 shades of blueData eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions. - Doug Bowman, former designer at GoogleA/B testing - data for goodBut - isn’t substitute for making a decision, for innovation.It doesn’t substitute going out and watching user, and looking for unmet opportunities.It doesnt replace trying new things or being DARING - fail early fail often

but1.5 seconds

we’re a startup8 secondserin -Great products start with a great user experience—one that makes customers happy and brings them back for more. - 500Startups.com

Addictive user experience (Design) and scalable distribution methods (Marketing) are the most critical components of success in consumer internet startups, not pure engineering talent. we’re a startup ~ Dave McClure Business Week, Jan. 201040 secondserin -You only get one chance to make the first impression.You can infuse UX into your startup by committing to the things Christian talked about - and you can also:Have a UX person as a founder - easier said than done... but it happens.Hire a senior UX person a few hours at a time.Bring a senior UX person onto your Advisory board - tap them for advice. Get them to help hire.I advise a startup and talk with them a couple of times a month. Not a huge time commitment for me, very helpful for them.Hire a great ID who can also prototype and do guerilla user testing - outsource your visual design - it is the least important at this stage in terms of staffing - even though it has a lot of bang - if it doesn’t work right, no one cares how pretty itis.

but1.5 seconds

change is hard8 secondschristian

What Apple has in Steve Jobs is what every organization looking to embrace design as a genuine differentiating factor needs: a business expert who is able to act as a whole hearted champion of the value of design. ~ Helen Walters, Former editor of innovation & design @ Bloomberg BusinessWeek March 201130 secondschristian -Become a champion - starts at the topEmpower the organization to embrace UX and understand customersHire smart people and trust themDon’t ghettoize innovation, ideation

200%45 secondsTangible benefits to the bottom line of the businessDesign Council Study -http://www.designfactfinder.co.uk:8080/design-council/showSection.do?path=FactsInDetail,onDesignAndBusPerf,DesignledBusinessesDoBetterThanTheFTSE“Our Design Index – an index of 61 design-led businesses – has out-performed the FTSE (footsie) 100 by more than 200% over the past decade.”“This proves that businesses using design effectively do better than their peers, by a long way, and over a long time.”“And it’s clear evidence of a relationship between design investment, business performance and long-term stock market value.”

finchristian crumlish & erin malone @mediajunkie @emalone

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Start Using UX as a Strategic Weapon

by erin malone on Mar 31, 2011

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Start Using UX as a Strategic Weapon — Presentation Transcript