Luke Tellefson (Brother Luke) and Gerry Gaffney (Father Gerry) did a light-hearted 10-minute talk at UX Australia 2018 in Melbourne Australia. The associated audio is online at: https://soundcloud.com/uxaustralia/d2-r2-s3-10-min-talk-2 It's posted here by popular demand although, as they say, you had to be there.

1. UX Confessions
Brother Luke Tellefson @diskoteque
Father Gerry Gaffney @gerrygaffney

2. n=39
* May contain traces of nuts
*

3. The 7 Deadly UX Sins
(± 2)

4. Inadequate
Research
Not performing enough, or
any, user discovery or
validation.
“I once tested with 4 people
instead of 5.”
“We never tested our design.”
“Forgot to test my form on an
iPhone 5.”
Photo (cropped) by: Kit https://flic.kr/p/BSyeE
1

5. Treating participants or their
data unethically or without
respect
“Keeping a recording I said I would
delete.”
“I publicly leaked field research
photos (by accident).”
“Lost my cool at a participant.”
“Laughing at people's answers.”
Photo by: Chris Devers https://flic.kr/p/81JzLb
Contempt
1 2

6. Putting the designer’s ego
ahead of others
“When stakeholders tell me how to do
(research) I say, ‘sounds great ... let
me know how it goes’.”
“I make people think they're part of
the design process.”
Photo by: Thomas Hawk https://flic.kr/p/hYDxpD
Self-
righteousness
1 2 3

7. ‘Adjusting’ research findings
to tell a specific story
“I create my own research.”
“I murdered a couple of outliers
from my dataset to favour my
design.”
“Asked a fellow researcher to
interview me too.”
Photo by: Bill Lile https://flic.kr/p/kqMcHt
Falsification
1 2 43

8. Wittingly releasing products
with known accessibility or
usability issues
“Pushed aside red/green colour
issues because of aesthetics...
even though I am myself
colour-blind.”
“Round checkboxes.”
Shit
design
1 2 3 4 5

9. Compromising the quality of
a product due to a lack of
effort
“paresse”
“I assumed a requirement
would be cut, so I
procrastinated.”
“Letting marketing determine
the best user ‘experience’.”
Sloth
1 2 3 4 5 6

10. Using design skills to
unscrupulously achieve a
desired outcome.
“I placed heat map PNGs over
screenshots because the client wanted
eyetracking but didn't want to pay for it.”
“Looking for a dark pattern to get people
to opt in to share their data.”
“...generating expensive evidence was
easier than arguing the logic.”
Photo by: David Bleasdale https://flic.kr/p/Go6Zh2
Manipulation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

11. “Spent participant
incentives from
no-shows on beer for the
team.”
Beer
Photo by Father Gerry. Partly drunk for artistic effect.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8Supplementary:

12. The 7 Deadly UX Sins
Inadequate Research
Contempt
Self-righteousness
Falsification
Shit design
Sloth
Manipulation

13. Redemption is at hand

14. A reading from
the book of Jakob

15. Do you promise to uphold the
usability standards as defined by
ISO 9241?*
Response: We Do
*and ISO 13407:1999

16. Do you reject the Devil (in the
Detail)?
Response: We Do

17. Will you meticulously design
every micro-interaction?
Response: We Will

18. Do you promise to abide by the
principles of Gestalt?
Response: We Do

19. Do you renounce your UX sins?
Response: We Do

20. Penance:
● 3 rounds of usability testing
● 2 journey mapping workshops
● 1 heuristic evaluation
Your UX sins are forgiven.
Go in peace and offend no more.

21. Forgiveness is just a tweet away
https://bit.ly/UXConfessions
@uxconfession
(with no ‘s’ - how annoying)