“It’s More of a Mindset Than a Method”: UX Practitioners’ Conception of Design Methods

colin gray
colin grayAssistant Professor at Purdue University
“IT’S MORE OF A
MINDSET
THAN A METHOD”
UX Practitioners’ Conception 

of Design Methods
COLIN M. GRAY | Purdue University
Work Practices of 

UX Designers
Design 

Methods
(e.g., Goodman,
Stolterman, & Wakkary,
2011; Stolterman, 2008)
(e.g., Jones, 1970;
Hanington & Martin, 2012)
Lack of focus 

on praxis
(e.g., Goodman, 2013; Gray, Stolterman, &
Siegel, 2014; Roedl & Stolterman, 2013)
Work Practices of 

UX Designers
practitioners’ 

everyday use of
methods
situated judgments 

to select and use
methods
PRAXIS
Design 

Methods
AGENDA
• Situating design methods within HCI research and
UX practice
• Details of the interview study
• Methods that are used and desired in UX practice
• Appropriation and recontextualization of methods
in practice
1970 2010s
Jones, 1992, p. 48
METHOD AND PERSPECTIVE
Design
Activity
ACADEMIA
less rigorous than
prescribed method
PRACTICE
reduced complexity
for ease of
communication
(see Gray, Stolterman, & Siegel, 2014)
“ingredients” and
“meals,” not “recipes” 

(Woolrych et al., 2011)
“designerly tools” 

(Stolterman et al., 2008;
Stolterman & Pierce, 2012)
competence

(Gray, 2014)
Design
Activity
ACADEMIA
less rigorous than
prescribed method
PRACTICE
reduced complexity
for ease of
communication
(see Gray, Stolterman, & Siegel, 2014)
METHOD
METHOD
Stratified 

Sample
Interview
Study
Thematic 

Analysis
PARTICIPANTS
Name
Experience 

(Years)
Educational
Background Job Title Practice Context
Avery 21 Computer Science Independent Consultant
CONSULTANCYTerence 11 Linguistics/Cognitive
Science
Independent Contractor/
Consultant
Marla 11 Leadership Studies Director of User Experience
and Research
CLIENT-FACING
AGENCY
Hugh 6 Visual Design Director of User Experience
Bruno 10 Computer Information
Systems
Director of UX
Jean 4 HCI Design Strategist
LARGE COMPANY
Diane 15 Visual Communication
Design
Senior UX Architect
Philip 2 HCI UX Manager
Ganesh 3 HCI Senior Experience Designer
Prakash 3 HCI Senior User Experience
Designer
Scott 3 HCI Senior Interaction Designer
SMALL COMPANYEric 3 HCI Senior IxD Design Lead
Dhaval 6 HCI Senior Interaction Designer
n=13
Most identified as UX or user
experience practitioners
Stratified by practice context
DEFINITION OF DESIGN METHODS
We define a design method as any intellectual or practical
support that a practitioner might use to support the design
process in a positive way, encompassing everything from
everyday methods, techniques, and tools for idea generation
and collaboration, such as the pen and paper, whiteboard,
brainstorming, dialoguing, to methods and applications for
sketching and refining ideas. We also include formal,
axiomatic, and algorithmic methods that are designed for
design purposes, as well as intellectual tools, such as methods,
approaches, frameworks, and techniques that support the
design process as a thinking reflective process, as well as
abstract theories.
An intentionally
inclusive framing of
design methods}
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
• educational background
• years of experience
• composition of work team
• use of methods in everyday practice, company
practices, adaptation or codification of methods
• methods for starting UX designers
FINDINGS
FINDINGS
METHODS 

existing practitioners 

reported using
METHODS 

new practitioners 

should know how to use
METHODS 

existing practitioners 

reported using
METHODS 

new practitioners 

should know how to use
Participant
Agile
Strategic+design
Feedback
Collaboration
Company+wiki/blog
Business+terms
Persuasion
Brainstorming
Contextual+inquiry
Mental+models
Affinity+diagramming
Problem+framing
User+journey/experience+map
Heuristic+evaluation
Usability+testing
Persona/scenario
Interview/focus+group
Storyboard
Sketching
Whiteboarding
Avery ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Terence ! ! !
Marla ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Hugh ! !
Bruno ! ! ! ! ! !
Jean ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Diane ! ! ! ! ! !
Philip ! ! ! ! !
Ganesh ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Prakash ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Scott ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Eric ! ! ! ! !
Dhaval ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
RepresentationAnalysis
LARGE3
COMPANY
SMALL3COMPANY
Approach Communication
User3
Research
CONSULTANCY
AGENCY
Participant
Confidence
Mindset/judgment
Empathy/listening
Strategic9thinking
Feedback
Collaboration
Business9terms
Articulate
Broad9knowledge
Contextual9inquiry
Card9sorting
Competitive9analysis
Problem9framing
Usability9testing
Persona/scenario
Interview/focus9group
Prototyping
Sketching
Wireframing
Creative9Tools
Avery ! !
Terence !
Marla ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Hugh ! ! !
Bruno ! ! ! !
Jean ! ! ! ! ! !
Diane ! ! !
Philip ! ! ! !
Ganesh ! ! ! ! ! !
Prakash ! ! !
Scott ! ! ! !
Eric ! ! !
Dhaval ! ! ! !
Approach Communication
AGENCY
Analysis
User8
Research
SMALL8COMPANY
CONSULTANCY
LARGE8
COMPANY
Representation
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
APPROACH
COMMUNICATION
ANALYSIS
USER RESEARCH
REPRESENTATION
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
Agile
Strategic design
Confidence
Mindset/judgment
Empathy/listening
Strategic thinking
APPROACH
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
Agile
Strategic design
Confidence
Mindset/judgment
Empathy/listening
Strategic thinking
APPROACH
Methods you are forced to do because of management or
agile that aren’t design-positive happen, and are not
necessarily a good thing—you should push back 

against them. —Scott
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
Agile
Strategic design
Confidence
Mindset/judgment
Empathy/listening
Strategic thinking
APPROACH
The other set of skills is—that I really look for lately […] is the
ability to empathize with your coworkers, with your users,
with clients, with stakeholders. The ability to get people to
talk and really listen to what people have to say. And that is I
feel is one of the most important skills. —Bruno
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
Company wiki/blog
Persuasion
Feedback
Collaboration
Business terms
COMMUNICATION
Articulate
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
Company wiki/blog
Persuasion
Feedback
Collaboration
Business terms
COMMUNICATION
ArticulateThe business owner or business unit comes to us and asks for advice, from
a very high position. Sometimes they cannot even clearly define exactly
what their visions are. […] So when that is the case, the method will be very
different. There will be a lot of whiteboarding, will be a lot of
brainstorming, conversation—mostly trying to translate their vague
unsolidified vision into something more concrete. —Diane
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
Brainstorming
Mental models
Affinity diagramming
User journey/

experience map
Heuristic evaluation
Broad knowledge
Card sorting
Competitive analysis
ANALYSIS
Contextual inquiry
Problem framing
Usability testing
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
Broad knowledge
Card sorting
Competitive analysis
ANALYSIS
Contextual inquiry
Problem framing
Usability testing
I’m a big fan of being a generalist, especially when considering how
much experience this is. I think a general understanding of all of those
areas [development, prototyping, and testing] is tremendously
important. […] I’m trying to become even more of a generalist as the
years go by. —Hugh
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
USER RESEARCH
Persona/scenario
Interview/focus group
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
USER RESEARCH
Persona/scenario
Interview/focus group
You gotta know how to interview people; you gotta know how to make sense of
the data you are collecting from people and seeing the common themes and
differences across the people you are interviewing, whether they be users or
stakeholders. That’s just core. That’s just basic. […] When you move on from
research, what do you do? Tell me about how you come up with your personas.
So not only the end result of the personas […] but tell me about the process of
how you got there? —Bruno
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
Storyboard
Whiteboarding
Prototyping
Wireframing
Creative tools
REPRESENTATION
Sketching
METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED
Storyboard
Whiteboarding
Prototyping
Wireframing
Creative tools
REPRESENTATION
SketchingTreat everything as a prototype—even a sketch is a low-fidelity
prototype. And I think that shifts your way of thinking. […] the
more we take focus away from those deliverables as the end all,
be all, and more as a progression to that final project, it will help
us frame our work in a more constructive manner. —Hugh
DISCUSSION
“It’s more of a mindset than a method. I think the core thing is empathy
and listening to people and trying to take into consideration all of the
different inputs. So, I think a lot of it is that mindset of trying to do the
right thing for the user and the business. So you adapt your method
based on that. So a usability test might not be necessary all the time—just
because you have it in your toolkit doesn’t mean you need to use it. It’s
just knowing when to use what method. And I think the methods
themselves are quite rudimentary; like usability testing, you have a few
tasks, you walk them through. The methods themselves, you probably can
describe in a page. But when it comes to actually getting the right value
out of them, it’s having that right mindset—what are the right questions we
need to ask? How can we answer them? And then using that as the basis
for what methods you need.” —Prakash
This mindset of use—and accompanying
set of instrumental knowledge—indicates
a heightened role of adaptation and
appropriation of methods, moving
beyond holistic use of “off-the-shelf”
methods, and treating the use of methods
as an ad hoc bricolage rather than
performance of a codified set of steps.
PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO ADAPTATION AND USE
Design
Activity
“more skill than method” 

—Ganesh
methods as “cores”
FUTURE WORK
Praxis in HCI
Education of HCI
Practitioners
- scaffolding instrumental
judgment
- enabling role of “softer”
competencies
- in situ documentation of
method use
- additional theory of
design practice
THANK YOU
colingray.me
Portions of this work are supported by National Science
Foundation (NSF) Grant Award No. #1115532.
Many thanks to members of the research team,
including: Erik Stolterman, Marty Siegel, Dave Roedl,
Nathan Bilancio, and Jeff Wain
1 of 34

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“It’s More of a Mindset Than a Method”: UX Practitioners’ Conception of Design Methods

  • 1. “IT’S MORE OF A MINDSET THAN A METHOD” UX Practitioners’ Conception 
 of Design Methods COLIN M. GRAY | Purdue University
  • 2. Work Practices of 
 UX Designers Design 
 Methods (e.g., Goodman, Stolterman, & Wakkary, 2011; Stolterman, 2008) (e.g., Jones, 1970; Hanington & Martin, 2012) Lack of focus 
 on praxis (e.g., Goodman, 2013; Gray, Stolterman, & Siegel, 2014; Roedl & Stolterman, 2013)
  • 3. Work Practices of 
 UX Designers practitioners’ 
 everyday use of methods situated judgments 
 to select and use methods PRAXIS Design 
 Methods
  • 4. AGENDA • Situating design methods within HCI research and UX practice • Details of the interview study • Methods that are used and desired in UX practice • Appropriation and recontextualization of methods in practice
  • 7. METHOD AND PERSPECTIVE Design Activity ACADEMIA less rigorous than prescribed method PRACTICE reduced complexity for ease of communication (see Gray, Stolterman, & Siegel, 2014)
  • 8. “ingredients” and “meals,” not “recipes” 
 (Woolrych et al., 2011) “designerly tools” 
 (Stolterman et al., 2008; Stolterman & Pierce, 2012) competence
 (Gray, 2014) Design Activity ACADEMIA less rigorous than prescribed method PRACTICE reduced complexity for ease of communication (see Gray, Stolterman, & Siegel, 2014)
  • 11. PARTICIPANTS Name Experience 
 (Years) Educational Background Job Title Practice Context Avery 21 Computer Science Independent Consultant CONSULTANCYTerence 11 Linguistics/Cognitive Science Independent Contractor/ Consultant Marla 11 Leadership Studies Director of User Experience and Research CLIENT-FACING AGENCY Hugh 6 Visual Design Director of User Experience Bruno 10 Computer Information Systems Director of UX Jean 4 HCI Design Strategist LARGE COMPANY Diane 15 Visual Communication Design Senior UX Architect Philip 2 HCI UX Manager Ganesh 3 HCI Senior Experience Designer Prakash 3 HCI Senior User Experience Designer Scott 3 HCI Senior Interaction Designer SMALL COMPANYEric 3 HCI Senior IxD Design Lead Dhaval 6 HCI Senior Interaction Designer n=13 Most identified as UX or user experience practitioners Stratified by practice context
  • 12. DEFINITION OF DESIGN METHODS We define a design method as any intellectual or practical support that a practitioner might use to support the design process in a positive way, encompassing everything from everyday methods, techniques, and tools for idea generation and collaboration, such as the pen and paper, whiteboard, brainstorming, dialoguing, to methods and applications for sketching and refining ideas. We also include formal, axiomatic, and algorithmic methods that are designed for design purposes, as well as intellectual tools, such as methods, approaches, frameworks, and techniques that support the design process as a thinking reflective process, as well as abstract theories. An intentionally inclusive framing of design methods}
  • 13. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS • educational background • years of experience • composition of work team • use of methods in everyday practice, company practices, adaptation or codification of methods • methods for starting UX designers
  • 15. FINDINGS METHODS 
 existing practitioners 
 reported using METHODS 
 new practitioners 
 should know how to use
  • 16. METHODS 
 existing practitioners 
 reported using METHODS 
 new practitioners 
 should know how to use Participant Agile Strategic+design Feedback Collaboration Company+wiki/blog Business+terms Persuasion Brainstorming Contextual+inquiry Mental+models Affinity+diagramming Problem+framing User+journey/experience+map Heuristic+evaluation Usability+testing Persona/scenario Interview/focus+group Storyboard Sketching Whiteboarding Avery ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Terence ! ! ! Marla ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Hugh ! ! Bruno ! ! ! ! ! ! Jean ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Diane ! ! ! ! ! ! Philip ! ! ! ! ! Ganesh ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Prakash ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Scott ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Eric ! ! ! ! ! Dhaval ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! RepresentationAnalysis LARGE3 COMPANY SMALL3COMPANY Approach Communication User3 Research CONSULTANCY AGENCY Participant Confidence Mindset/judgment Empathy/listening Strategic9thinking Feedback Collaboration Business9terms Articulate Broad9knowledge Contextual9inquiry Card9sorting Competitive9analysis Problem9framing Usability9testing Persona/scenario Interview/focus9group Prototyping Sketching Wireframing Creative9Tools Avery ! ! Terence ! Marla ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Hugh ! ! ! Bruno ! ! ! ! Jean ! ! ! ! ! ! Diane ! ! ! Philip ! ! ! ! Ganesh ! ! ! ! ! ! Prakash ! ! ! Scott ! ! ! ! Eric ! ! ! Dhaval ! ! ! ! Approach Communication AGENCY Analysis User8 Research SMALL8COMPANY CONSULTANCY LARGE8 COMPANY Representation
  • 17. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED APPROACH COMMUNICATION ANALYSIS USER RESEARCH REPRESENTATION
  • 18. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED Agile Strategic design Confidence Mindset/judgment Empathy/listening Strategic thinking APPROACH
  • 19. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED Agile Strategic design Confidence Mindset/judgment Empathy/listening Strategic thinking APPROACH Methods you are forced to do because of management or agile that aren’t design-positive happen, and are not necessarily a good thing—you should push back 
 against them. —Scott
  • 20. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED Agile Strategic design Confidence Mindset/judgment Empathy/listening Strategic thinking APPROACH The other set of skills is—that I really look for lately […] is the ability to empathize with your coworkers, with your users, with clients, with stakeholders. The ability to get people to talk and really listen to what people have to say. And that is I feel is one of the most important skills. —Bruno
  • 21. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED Company wiki/blog Persuasion Feedback Collaboration Business terms COMMUNICATION Articulate
  • 22. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED Company wiki/blog Persuasion Feedback Collaboration Business terms COMMUNICATION ArticulateThe business owner or business unit comes to us and asks for advice, from a very high position. Sometimes they cannot even clearly define exactly what their visions are. […] So when that is the case, the method will be very different. There will be a lot of whiteboarding, will be a lot of brainstorming, conversation—mostly trying to translate their vague unsolidified vision into something more concrete. —Diane
  • 23. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED Brainstorming Mental models Affinity diagramming User journey/
 experience map Heuristic evaluation Broad knowledge Card sorting Competitive analysis ANALYSIS Contextual inquiry Problem framing Usability testing
  • 24. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED Broad knowledge Card sorting Competitive analysis ANALYSIS Contextual inquiry Problem framing Usability testing I’m a big fan of being a generalist, especially when considering how much experience this is. I think a general understanding of all of those areas [development, prototyping, and testing] is tremendously important. […] I’m trying to become even more of a generalist as the years go by. —Hugh
  • 25. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED USER RESEARCH Persona/scenario Interview/focus group
  • 26. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED USER RESEARCH Persona/scenario Interview/focus group You gotta know how to interview people; you gotta know how to make sense of the data you are collecting from people and seeing the common themes and differences across the people you are interviewing, whether they be users or stakeholders. That’s just core. That’s just basic. […] When you move on from research, what do you do? Tell me about how you come up with your personas. So not only the end result of the personas […] but tell me about the process of how you got there? —Bruno
  • 27. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED Storyboard Whiteboarding Prototyping Wireframing Creative tools REPRESENTATION Sketching
  • 28. METHODS USED METHODS DESIRED Storyboard Whiteboarding Prototyping Wireframing Creative tools REPRESENTATION SketchingTreat everything as a prototype—even a sketch is a low-fidelity prototype. And I think that shifts your way of thinking. […] the more we take focus away from those deliverables as the end all, be all, and more as a progression to that final project, it will help us frame our work in a more constructive manner. —Hugh
  • 30. “It’s more of a mindset than a method. I think the core thing is empathy and listening to people and trying to take into consideration all of the different inputs. So, I think a lot of it is that mindset of trying to do the right thing for the user and the business. So you adapt your method based on that. So a usability test might not be necessary all the time—just because you have it in your toolkit doesn’t mean you need to use it. It’s just knowing when to use what method. And I think the methods themselves are quite rudimentary; like usability testing, you have a few tasks, you walk them through. The methods themselves, you probably can describe in a page. But when it comes to actually getting the right value out of them, it’s having that right mindset—what are the right questions we need to ask? How can we answer them? And then using that as the basis for what methods you need.” —Prakash
  • 31. This mindset of use—and accompanying set of instrumental knowledge—indicates a heightened role of adaptation and appropriation of methods, moving beyond holistic use of “off-the-shelf” methods, and treating the use of methods as an ad hoc bricolage rather than performance of a codified set of steps.
  • 32. PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO ADAPTATION AND USE Design Activity “more skill than method” 
 —Ganesh methods as “cores”
  • 33. FUTURE WORK Praxis in HCI Education of HCI Practitioners - scaffolding instrumental judgment - enabling role of “softer” competencies - in situ documentation of method use - additional theory of design practice
  • 34. THANK YOU colingray.me Portions of this work are supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant Award No. #1115532. Many thanks to members of the research team, including: Erik Stolterman, Marty Siegel, Dave Roedl, Nathan Bilancio, and Jeff Wain