The document provides an overview of user experience (UX) and how to incorporate it into a startup's strategy. It defines UX, discusses how it involves every customer touchpoint, and recommends three key steps to "bake in" UX: 1) understand users through research, 2) set pragmatic UX goals, and 3) create a user-centered company culture with cross-departmental collaboration. It also provides examples and discusses hiring UX professionals or workshops.

1. eBIG Presentation : Bake User Experience Strategy Into Your Startup March 2009 Meadow Consulting  Meghan Ede

2. Agenda Speaker What is User Experience? How to “Bake it in”? UX Professionals Meadow Consulting Services Contact Information

3. Meghan Ede Nearly 20 years hands-on experience: User Experience Strategy & Research Enterprise, IT, finance, productivity, consumer Products, websites, web applications, documentation, education programs Before Consulting, Meghan was: Staff, Manager, Director, VP in UCD at… PayPal/eBay, Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo, Intuit, Sun Microsystems, Symantec/Norton… Master’s in Psychology (Human Factors) Skated to University

4. User Interface (UI) If your product has… A user accessible portion, then it has a UI “ Look and Feel” UI User Interface Feature Set What you see in product Web Page Task Flow Controls

5. User Experience… Every contact your customer makes with your product or service or staff…. Is part of their experience ! Affects their… Perception of your product Understanding of what your product does Satisfaction with your product Likelihood to buy or buy again

6. User Experience is more than UI User Experience UI User Interface Feature Set What you see in product Web Page Task Flow Controls Marketing Newsletters Box design Ads Installer Wizard Command Line Download Training Webinars Manuals Classes Tutorials Documents User Guide Quick Start Online help Updates Recalls Patches (CDs) Auto-updater Email notices Sales Demo Trade Show Contracts Invoices Partners Resellers 3 rd party apps OEM Forums Blogs Facebook Reviews

7. User Experience also… Happens over time… Possible Customer Interactions with a Product over Time Update Upgrade Trouble- shoot Use Download / Install Purchase / Obtain Decide Inform

8. Control May include things you don’t control Possible Customer Interactions with a Product over Time Ads Reviews Facebook Inform Update Upgrade Trouble- shoot Use Download / Install Purchase / Obtain Decide

9. Departments May include things you control… in different depts. Marketing Sales Engineering Documentation Possible Customer Interactions with a Product over Time CD Mail Website Product Key Internet speed Network Help Info Instructions Contracts Salesperson Website Product Key Email Instructions CD Cover Box Pull-out Website info Cost Feature List Download / Install Purchase / Obtain Decide Update Upgrade Trouble- shoot Use Inform

10. Main Product Definitely includes the UI - “face” of your product Possible Customer Interactions with a Product over Time Use UI Features Look “ Feel” Easy / Hard Learning Curve Task Flow Screens Stability Performance Inform Download / Install Purchase / Obtain Decide Update Upgrade Trouble- shoot

11. After Purchase And frequently includes a long relationship “after purchase” Possible Customer Interactions with a Product over Time Email Notifications Friend Bill / Invoice Chat Mail Phone Quality Service Contract Box Info FAQ Reviews Online Help Update Upgrade Trouble-shoot Download / Install Inform Use Purchase / Obtain Decide

12. How to “Bake In” UX Strategy

13. What are the Ingredients? Understand your USERS Set pragmatic UX goals Create a “user-centered” culture Note : A good UI or UX cannot be grafted on “after”, it needs to be “baked in” from the start

14. 1. Understand your USERS Who?  User Profiles / Personas Doing What?  User Tasks Why?  User Goals Where?  Environment When?  End-to-end experience

15. Case Study: Home Computer Product WHO - Customer ≠ User 1 . Household Manager: Purchase Decision 2. Informal Techie: Installation On-call trouble-shooting Often lives outside home 3. Child (4-17 yrs) Responds to messages May be guest in home 4. Parent / Guardian Sets usage rules 25-50 year old Men Technically savvy Own 3+ computers > $60K annual User Profiles Market Segment

16. Case Study: Home Computer Product User TASKS Home Manager: Features, value, payment method Reads advertising, purchase steps, box, product returns Informal Techie: Purchase advice, explain features, maintain product Installation steps, product code, passwords, tools, instructions, on-call Child: Uses product, sees most messages (often ignores), may use the product in ways parent/guardian… Parent/Guardian: Controls settings/access (with help from techie)

17. Case Study: Home Computer Product User GOALS: Communicate with my friends Track my home finances Play games … Quickly and without FEAR or CONFUSION NOT Learn how to work yet another product

18. Case Study: Home Computer Product Environment Before research: 1:1 relationship - person:computer

19. Case Study: Home Computer Product Environment After research: “ Home” Dad’s house Mom’s Boyfriend Dad’s Office Mom’s Office School Relative’s Home Many to many

20. More Ways to Learn about Users User Insights / Research Home / site visits, “follow me home” Card sorting Usability studies, prototype studies Focus groups, Surveys Listen & Observe (use customer feedback) Use the product, realistically Out of box studies, cognitive walkthroughs Use the product, daily and end-to-end Realistic tasks Hire a UX professional to learn more!

21. 2. Set pragmatic UX goals This part is difficult Goals should be: Easy to understand Easy to measure Clearly related to usage Best if they combine biz and UX needs Company-wide, at least some of them Modified and improved over time

22. Example GOALS – out of box Case Study: Computer company Reduce the “out of box” experience from 5 hours to 30 minutes Departments affected: Documentation Box design, packaging, delivery (manufacturing) Customer support Product industrial design CD jewel cases … Cross-department knowledge-sharing and cooperation Business impact: Improved brand response Reduce support calls/cost Expand market (to include less technical)

23. Example GOALS - Learning Case Study: Enterprise Network Product 5-day training, 1-2 month installation/configuration, up to 2 years learning and mastery Goal: reduce this customer learning time Departments affected: UI Marketing Sales Training Customer Support / Call Center Customer Forums Etc. Business Impact: Reduced costs: support, training, documentation Increased sales (upgrades, components) Expand market (less technical companies)

24. 3. User-Centered Company Make User Experience A company-wide focus; all depts. A company touch-point Encourage and empower staff to: Make positive user-centered changes Share with each other about users and UX Meet and learn from users regularly Practice: Iterative Design With regular user input

25. Companies are organized to… Efficiently complete DIFFERENT tasks Work is organized by FUNCTION User experience is FRAGMENTED Engineering Design Marketing Sales Customer Support Accounts Finance Quality Assurance

26. Company-wide Focus Each department, group gathers important user information: … which is often not shared Information sharing examples… Customer support meets regularly with technical writers – to improve support feedback and prioritize help topics IT department meets with UI design to discuss problems with the Enterprise product used in-house Sales support provides feedback to manufacturing about…

27. Case Study: Intuit “Follow me home” User input championed by CEO All staff encouraged to observe users Usability Studies – open to all Home visits – part of annual goals Personas – posted & discussed regularly Iterative Design with UX goals - standard

28. Standard Development Process Requirements PRD Development QA Design Early Launch (Alpha, Beta, FCS, GA) Full Launch Urgent Fixes “dot” release Focus Groups with customers Surveys Support Calls Meet important customers Emphasis on CUSTOMERS Seek FEATURE information Controlled and limited interactions with staff

29. User-Centered Development Process Requirements PRD Development QA Design Early Launch (Alpha, Beta, FCS, GA) Full Launch Urgent Fixes “dot” release Understand User Needs : Site visits Card-sorting Interviews Task Flow Support Calls Meet important customers Understand User Tasks : Prototype/ Wireframe Cognitive Walkthrough Usability Studies Evaluate : Active proto. Usability Studies Terminology International Refine : Screen text, help Beta Feedback Remote studies Site visit Fix & Prepare: Remote studies Cognitive Walkthrough Usability Studies User Panels Shadow Support Focus Groups with customers Surveys Customers and USERS Five W’s (what, how, why, when, where) Iterative feedback cycles, company-wide sharing

30. I’m a small company In-house Classes, training, seminars Clear company-wide user experience goals Appoint someone to be user advocate Out-source Hire the skills on contract, part-time, full-time Mix of in-house and on-contract skills

31. User Experience Advocate Appoint someone or a group Looking at the FULL user experience Seeing products/services: The WAY your customer does Who helps the WHOLE company: Have this perspective Consider locating this role at the executive level Consider hiring: UX background / training

32. UX Professions Functional UX Areas A UX professional typically is master of ONE of these functional areas (though their title may be different). Some have skills in multiple areas, but tend to focus more in one than others. User Research, Usability gathering and interpreting info about the 5 Ws for users Interaction Design the “feel” and structure, task flow, wireframes, storyboards Information Architecture organizing large info sets, such as websites, menu structures, content Technical Writing tips, help, on-screen text, labels, manuals, documentation Visual Design the “look”, layout, font, color scheme, icons, graphics, sometimes brand Accessibility making the product accessible to variety of abilities (different levels of sight, hearing, mobility, language understanding, etc.) More…

33. Meadow Consulting Workshops (typically one day): ‘ Quick and dirty’ user profiles Creating great user tasks and task flows Creating good UX goals How to do Paper prototyping How to do Usability Testing (and recruiting) How to do Site/Home visits More… Customized User Research (typically 2-6 weeks): Home / Site visits Remote studies (observe via WebEx) Usability studies Focus groups, Interviews Cognitive Walkthrough Card Sorting More… Strategy Consulting (typically hourly) Provide advice, feedback or instruction on … how to improve your products / services how to create a UX culture (including who to hire)

34. Contact Information For questions or additional information, please contact: Meghan Ede Meadow Consulting 415-706-3989 – cell 408-786-5314 - office [email_address] http://meadow.consulting.googlepages.com/home Build features customers will actually use; fix only what is truly broken ~ Customer information and insights to help you get there ~