Redesign Must Die

Redesign Must DieLou Rosenfeld • Rosenfeld Media • rosenfeldmedia.com UX London • April 13, 2011

Hello, my name is Lou

Hello, my name is LouMore importantly, #uxlondon

What is redesignand why should it die?

Why I’m so down on redesign

A redesign story aboutmy alma mater

A story in the Ann ArborNews

UM was going to redesign itsGateway

Leadership and $ were onboard

Leadership and $ were onboard$250,000

student labor

student labor+ some software .

student labor+ some software . successful redesign

They even had a ribbon-cutting

This became...

...this

Then they did itall over again

Then they did itall over againand again

Then they did itall over againand againand again

Then they did itall over againand againand againand again

Where we are today

Redesign ishollow,meaningless,and vain.Endlesslyrepeated,it is a trueexample ofinsanity.

Ill-deﬁned problemscause insanity and vanity

Ill-deﬁned problemscause insanity and vanity We attempt the impossible: “boil the ocean” in no time at great cost

Ill-deﬁned problemscause insanity and vanity We attempt the impossible: “boil the ocean” in no time at great cost We believe the unbelievable: unwarranted claims from agencies and software vendors

Ill-deﬁned problemscause insanity and vanity We attempt the impossible: “boil the ocean” in no time at great cost We believe the unbelievable: unwarranted claims from agencies and software vendors We become irresponsible: we serve ourselves and declare victory at the expense of our teams and users

See the problem differently

Reframe the problem

Reframe the problem redesign

Reframe the problem

Your site is acomplex adaptive systemJohn Holland:“A Complex Adaptive Systemis a dynamic network ofmany agents acting in parallel,constantly acting and reactingto what the other agents aredoing.”

Examples of CAS

Your site is a moving targetbuilt upon moving targets

Your site is out of your control more John Holland: “The control of a complex adaptive system tends to be highly dispersed and decentralized... “The overall behavior of the system is the result of a huge number of decisions made every moment by many individual agents.”

The constant pendulum swing

Regime A:“We’ve gotconstant The to pendulum swingget control of this mess”

Regime A:“We’ve gotconstant The to pendulum swingget control of this mess” Regime B: “Let’s let a thousand ﬂowers bloom”

Regime A:“We’ve gotconstant The to pendulum swingget control of this mess” Regime B: “Let’s let a thousand ﬂowers bloom” Regime C:“We’ve got toget control of this mess”

Friends are hard to ﬁnd and harder to keep“Three weeks after the redesign, unique daily visits tothe ﬂagship Gawker blog slumped by 50 per cent...”

Friends are hard to ﬁnd and harder to keep Andy Budd: "People expect the pain of losing something to be greater than the value gained from its replacement" http://ind.pn/gSKcnH“Three weeks after the redesign, unique daily visits tothe ﬂagship Gawker blog slumped by 50 per cent...”

“The perfect is theenemy of the good.”Voltaire mighthave added:“Constant changemeans never havingto say you’re sorry.”

So you can’t redesign

But you must reﬁne1. Prioritize: Identify the important problems regularly2. Tune: Address those problems regularly3. Be opportunistic: Look for low-hanging fruit

#1: Prioritize becausea little goes a long way

The Zipf DistributionThe Zipf Distribution

The Zipf DistributionThe Zipf Distribution SHORT HEAD: love it

The Zipf DistributionThe Zipf Distribution SHORT HEAD: LONG love it TAIL: leave it

Zipf displayed textually

Unveriﬁed rumor:90% of Microsoft.com’s content has never been accessed

Zipf is everywhere• A few search queries go a long way• A few documents go a long way• A little bit of navigation goes a long way• A few of your audiences matter the most• ...

Important audiences, essential wants and needs

#2: Be an incrementalist:tune because things change

Things change: you must ﬁx theairplane while ﬂying it

Impact of change on design(queries)

IRS before 4/15

Before April 15IRS before 4/15

IRS after 4/15

After April 15IRS after 4/15

From projects to processes:a regular regimen of design Example: the rolling content inventory

User Research Landscapefrom Christian Rohrer: http://is.gd/95HSQ2

User Research Landscape Which of us can you do monthly? weekly? daily?from Christian Rohrer: http://is.gd/95HSQ2

#3: Be an opportunist:ﬁnd the low-hanging fruit

#3: Be an opportunist:ﬁnd the low-hanging fruit➡ High priorities with low costs

#3: Be an opportunist:ﬁnd the low-hanging fruit➡ High priorities with low costs➡ Semantic webs to support contextual navigation

#3: Be an opportunist:ﬁnd the low-hanging fruit➡ High priorities with low costs➡ Semantic webs to support contextual navigation➡ Small improvements to search

Care for some low-hanging fruit?

More fruit: contextual navigationMore fruit: improvingcontextual navigation a la BBChttp://slidesha.re/fzChQB

More fruit: small searchMore fruit:teaching the search engineto be smart at Hewlett-Packard

Life by a thousand cuts 50% of users are search dominantx 5% of all queries are typos, fixed by spell checking. 2.5% improvement to the UX 50% of all users are search dominantx 30% (add best bet results to top 100 queries) 15% improvement to the UXDitto for improving content, search results design,navigation design…

Reﬁning, not redesigning:What it means for us

Design Design gets easier because we address small, discrete challenges

Rinse and repeat Our work gets trickier as we movefrom projects to processes

Our ethicswill becompletelychallenged

Why I’m not worried

We’re gap-ﬁllers

We’re foxesArchilochus (by way of Isaiah Berlin and Nate Silver): "the foxknows many little things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing".

We’re humanists

Say helloLou RosenfeldRosenfeld Media www.louisrosenfeld.com | @louisrosenfeldwww.rosenfeldmedia.com | @rosenfeldmediawww.slideshare.net/lrosenfeld/

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Redesign Must Die

by Louis Rosenfeld

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