The slide deck from NUX Leeds - January 22nd, where Richard Halford (IBM) posed the question 'Can design constraints be freeing and creative freedom constricting?' He walked us through some of his project work and UX design experiences. Please note this is edited from the presentation made on the night.

1. Richard Halford
NUX Leeds 22 January 2015
Northern User Experience
Leeds
“
”
Can design constraints be
freeing and creative freedom
constricting?
And how do you start with a
blank sheet of paper?

2. - About me
- The pleasure of constraints
FNB Cellphone Banking
- Learning from my failures
COPFS
- The joy and art of visioning
National Grid
- Summary, questions and discussion
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

3. Disclaimer
Northern
User Experience
Leeds
“These are my views,
experiences and opinions on my
work and do not reflect those of
my current or former employers
or clients in any way.”

4. 1976
Northern
User Experience
Leeds
2002
8 years
7 months
7 years
1998 - 9

5. Northern
User Experience
Leeds
The
pleasure of
constraints
Cellphone Banking

6. Vision and brief history
- Must work on 10 year old
legacy devices (as of
2005)
- Banking for the unbanked
- Go live in 100 days in
2005
- Offer core banking with
m-commerce and mobile
payments
- SMS and USSD
- Selling airtime, electricity
and even traffic fines
- Approximately R70 mill a
year (£4 mill) as at 2007
- June 2007 = 340,400
subscribers
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

7. Constraints
- SMS and USSD as
bearers
- SMS - 160 chars
- USSD max 2 min
session @ R0.1c per
second
- 10 year old handsets
- Transaction limits and
session time outs
- Fraud
- Off bearer authentication
of MOPIN
- English only
- Help
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

8. Northern
User Experience
Leeds
N70

9. Options Exit
Northern
User Experience
Leeds
N70

10. *120*321#
Options Exit
Northern
User Experience
Leeds
N70

11. *120*321#FNB :-) Welcome to FNB
Cellphone Banking.
Please select reply/
answer on your
cellphone and key in your
5 digit MOPIN.
Options Exit
Northern
User Experience
Leeds
N70

12. *120*321#FNB :-) Welcome to FNB
Cellphone Banking.
Please select reply/
answer on your
cellphone and key in your
5 digit MOPIN.
FNB
1. Prepaid
2. Banking
3. LOTTO
4. Send Money
5. Soccer6
6. International
7. Electricity
8. Traffic Fines
9. Options
Options Exit
Northern
User Experience
Leeds
N70

13. *120*321#FNB :-) Welcome to FNB
Cellphone Banking.
Please select reply/
answer on your
cellphone and key in your
5 digit MOPIN.
FNB
1. Prepaid
2. Banking
3. LOTTO
4. Send Money
5. Soccer6
6. International
7. Electricity
8. Traffic Fines
9. Options
FNB
1. Send Money
2. View History
3. Lower Limit
4. View Fees
9. Options
Options Exit
Northern
User Experience
Leeds
N70

14. *120*321#FNB :-) Welcome to FNB
Cellphone Banking.
Please select reply/
answer on your
cellphone and key in your
5 digit MOPIN.
FNB
1. Prepaid
2. Banking
3. LOTTO
4. Send Money
5. Soccer6
6. International
7. Electricity
8. Traffic Fines
9. Options
FNB
1. Send Money
2. View History
3. Lower Limit
4. View Fees
9. Options
FNB
Please select reply/
answer and key in the
cellphone number you
wish to send money to.
Options Exit
Northern
User Experience
Leeds
N70

15. *120*321#FNB :-) Welcome to FNB
Cellphone Banking.
Please select reply/
answer on your
cellphone and key in your
5 digit MOPIN.
FNB
1. Prepaid
2. Banking
3. LOTTO
4. Send Money
5. Soccer6
6. International
7. Electricity
8. Traffic Fines
9. Options
FNB
1. Send Money
2. View History
3. Lower Limit
4. View Fees
9. Options
FNB
Please select reply/
answer and key in the
cellphone number you
wish to send money to.
FNB
Please select reply/
answer and key in an
amount of R<Min
Amount> or more you
wish to send. Max
amount = R<Max
Amount>.
Options Exit
Northern
User Experience
Leeds
N70

16. Our approach
- 2,500+ SMS and
USSD system
messages
- 9 Level USSD menu
with with Prepaid and
Banking always at the
top and never changed
- everything else was
flexible
- Session resumption
- Studied our analytics
- fuzzy logic to interpret
spellings - reviewed
weekly
- test, test and test some
more
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

17. - Buy Prepaid Airtime for yourself or
someone else (Vodacom, MTN,
Cell C, Virgin Mobile, 8ta)
- Buy Vodacom data bundles, SMS
bundles and Big Bonus Vouchers
- Buy Prepaid Airtime for people
living in other countries
- Set-up Prepaid Scheduled Top-
Ups
- Buy Prepaid Electricity (Eskom
and selected municipalities)
- Check balances on one or all of
your accounts
- Get a mini statement
- Transfer money between your
own FNB accounts (e.g. from your
Smart Account to your Savings
Account)
- Make third party payments to pre-
defined beneficiaries
- Apply for FNB Loan
- Pay Traffic Fines
Northern
User Experience
Leeds
What else you can do with a cellphone

18. Northern
User Experience
Leeds
Image: © Chris Malcolm
Learning
from my
failures
COPFS

19. Vision and brief history
To build a custom case management system for the
prosecution service to replace the existing custom solution
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

20. Challenges
- scale, complexity,
technology, requirements
up front, on going
business change
- design is a silo = death -
design is a whole team
activity- learn the
technology and
understand the
architecture - get dirty
with data models
- Failed to design out
complexity - tried to
design it all
- Expectation setting
- Agile practice enabled
me/us to fail fast
- State and session
management
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

21. COPFS Demo
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

22. Northern
User Experience
Leeds
The joy and
art of
visioning
National Grid

23. Vision and brief history
- 6 weeks to visualise an
art of the possible gas
control room interface
for managing and
running the day to day
trading desk
operations of the UK
gas network
- Present this vision as
part of requirements
stream to National Grid
senior leadership team
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

24. Challenges
- 6 weeks to present a new vision for the gas trading
desk system
- Re-imagine a new way of working with information for
the traders
- No constraints
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

25. My approach
- Who
- Where
- When
- What
- Why
… and how…
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

26. Where

27. WhereWhen

28. WhereWhenWhat

29. WhereWhenWhatWhat

30. WhereWhenWhatWhat

31. WhereWhenWhatWhat

32. WhereWhenWhatWhat

33. WhereWhenWhatWhat

34. In summary
Question
Can design constraints be freeing and creative
freedom constricting? And how do you start with a
blank sheet of paper?
Answer:
Yes and yes. By giving yourself the freedom of
constraints.
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

35. Questions and discussion
Northern
User Experience
Leeds

36. Northern
User Experience
Leeds
If we have the time…