Slides from a presentation given by Nick de Voil to IIBA UK on 20 July 2020

1. User-Centred Design
Solutions that Walk the Walk
Nick de Voil
@nickdevoil

2. UX value ladder for BAs
Not aware or
not bothered
Understand
colleagues
better
Use UX
techniques in
your work
Have an
integrated
team view of
how to “do”
BA and UX
etc.
Use a
evidence-
based UCD
approach
leveraging all
the strengths
of both
skillsets

3. You are a designer.

4. “A complex system that works is invariably found to have
evolved from a simple system that worked.
A complex system designed from scratch never works and
cannot be patched up to make it work.
You have to start over with a working simple system”
John Gall, Systemantics

6. “1. Step-by-Step Adaptation
Each adaptation is about ‘good fit,’ things get fitted closely to a harmonious whole.
2. Feedback
Continuous and relatively immediate feedback about whether what has been done is a living structure in sufficient degree.
In human society, this requires a shared understanding of what “life” is all about.
3. Unpredictability
Unfolding cannot occur except in a framework which allows the whole to go where it must go.
The dire modern passion for planning and advanced control must be replaced by an attitude which recognizes that openness to the future,
and lack of predictability, is a condition for success.
4. Awareness of the Whole
Fourth, the most difficult for us, there must be an ever-present awareness of the whole, throughout the process.”
Christopher Alexander
The Nature of Order
Four necessary conditions for “unfolding”
in the human-made world

7. “When we speak of design,
the real object of discussion is not the form alone, but
the ensemble comprising the form and its context.”
Christopher Alexander
Notes on the Synthesis of Form

8. User-centred design principles
1. The design is based upon an explicit understanding of users, tasks and environments.
2. Users are involved throughout design and development.
3. The design is driven and refined by user-centred evaluation.
4. The process is iterative.
5. The design addresses the whole user experience.
6. The design team includes multidisciplinary skills and perspectives.
ISO 9241-210

9. The user-centred design cycle

10. The user-centred design helix

11. Users
Goals
Problems /
opportunities
Solutions
Visible
outcome
Design
Experiment
Observations
Learning
Decisions
Filter
Knowledge about:
Evidence-based
UCD process
in detail

12. A requirements catalogue is
not the most helpful tool
• No shape
• No dynamism
• Usually far too much detail to be ready understood
• Usually too little detail to be genuinely rigorous
• Structure doesn’t reflect the shape of either the problem or the solution
• Boring
• Most useful if it’s kept to high level “business” requirements
• Categorising requirements is at best a waste of time

13. “The principal features of a complex configuration are
always created by overlap… when we examine the overall
design …you will see that this kind of overlap, and
ambiguity, is essential and pervasive. . . . This is the glue
in any system of wholes. Wholeness itself is directly
created by this apparent overlap, or ambiguity”
Christopher Alexander
Battle

14. The double diamond

15. The Aran sweater

16. The problem with Agile

17. Resources
Author Title Key idea
Nick de Voil User Experience Foundations
Gojko Adžić Impact Mapping Impact Mapping
Stephen Toulmin The Uses of Argument
Clayton Christensen The Innovator’s Dilemma
Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden Lean UX The Lean UX Canvas
Teresa Torres Opportunity Solution Tree
John Cutler
David Bland & Alex Osterwalder Testing Business Ideas Test Card, Learning Card
Jez Humble Lean Enterprise
Eric Ries The Lean Startup
GDS User Research Knowledge Kanban
Tony Ulwick Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)

18. Thoughts, comments, questions