Truth and Dare - Out of the echochamber into the fire

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TRUTH AND DARE
OUT OF THE ECHO-CHAMBER - INTO THE FIRE
Jason Mesut - Head of User Experience, RMA

twitter: @jasonmesut...

A little story...

2005
6 years ago

First Euro IA
6 years ago

First Euro IA
6 years ago

“We are european, not
North American, we see
the world a little
differently”

I’d just joined Oyster
Partners

Spent ages
researching, and
designing the poster

Was going through a
house purchase at the
time - very stressful

Then... as I was
tweaking the ﬁle of
the ﬁnal print

$Girlfriend fractured her hip$

I rushed to the hospital
(after printing my poster).

The consultant told her:

- might need regular surgery
- may have birth complications
- could get arthritis quicker

I ﬂew to
Brussels
anyway

The most selﬁsh thing I
thought I had ever done

Gave me
my voice

Gave me
conﬁdence

2006
5 years ago

I wrote 5 winning
submissions that year

1
2

3

4 out of the
4

10 posters,
including one
I worked on

And one
session:
‘Wicked
Workshops’

Sorry!
There were quite a
few of us from LBi.

It was my fault.

“What does LBi stand for?”

Me in 5 minute madness

“Leave Berlin Immediately”

Response from attendee

Ego can be a
dangerous thing

I stepped away and let
others have the limelight

Senior Associate Leader Director
Practitioner Leading others Managing others

...

Worked with around 200 UX
10 - Present
...

I’ve done a lot of recruiting

Past 12 months

700+ 100+ 40
CVs and Interviews...

past 12 months
Whole day / multi-
day conferences Evening events

6
MEX, UX Peo...

I’m really
worried

I need to worry
you too with some
bitter truths

Different truths

- Personal
- Social
- Human
- Universal

But we’re going to
get through this

I’ve got some
things we can do
to make it better

Some dares

Truth No. 1
Personal truth

There is no
Universal truth in UX

Truth No. 2
Personal truth

I am here to:
- help because I care
- learn from practitioners
- recruit real talent

Dare no. 1

I dare you...
Don’t tweet soundbites
from my talk

Truth No. 3
Social + human truth

Sometimes the
quietest people have
the best things to say

No Q&A, just Os

Opinions at the end,
and nothing else - just
try not to make it
personal

Dare no. 2a

I dare you to...
Critique my talk, and
share your opinions at
the end

Positive Negative
What you liked What you didn’t like
What you agree with What you disa...

Dare no. 2b

I dare you to...
Critique other talks you
have heard today, and will
hear tomorrow - share with
people you me...

Celebrity UX rockstars are
setting us up for failure

2005 - 1st Euro IA

No gurus or
superstars to
look up to

2011
Today

Now we have loads of
Celebrity UX Rockstars

“The majority of UX work is
being done (and done well) by
people you and I have never
heard of.”

Louise Hewitt
Commenting...

Celebrity UX Rockstars

Usually...
Written a book
Speak at conferences
Tweet/blog a lot

Why do we listen to them?

Have you seen their work?
Do they give unique insight?
Do they help you do your job?

Why do we listen to them?

Great performers
Sometimes relevant topics
Aspirational topics
Convincing arguments
Because oth...

3 concerns:

Too many silver bullets
Land grabbing
Motives are not clear

I think they are setting us up
for failure

Preach more than practice
Not enough techniques
We are not them

Worst of all

People are just regurgitating
the same old crap

The human centipede
of UX dogma

“A dogma is something that
should not to be disputed or
doubted. Most often, this means
the basic beliefs and doctrines
of...

Here’s a few things
that are worrying me

I need some music to
help make my point

Mobile ﬁrst

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

Open web

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

Service Design

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

Gamiﬁcation

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

Content strategy

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

We should be like Apple

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

Responsive design

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

Gestures are the future of
interfaces

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

Touch screens
are the future

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

Break down silos

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

DON’T
BELIEVE
THE HYPE

Let’s go deeper on a
few of these

Mobile First is confused as
an always use strategy

Mobile First is confused as
an always use strategy

Quotes without investigation
Web message
Sometimes may be useful

Most Service Design
and Design Thinking is a
lot of talk and corporate
entertainment

“All fart and no shit”

“Design thinking? Do you mean
common sense? I don’t need
someone to teach me how to
brainstorm - every process is
designed...

Breaking down
silos is naive

Breaking down silos is naive

Organisations are complex
People better in small groups
Change takes too long

Open source and Open web
is not the only way

Open source and Open web is
not the only way

Dev friends inﬂuencing us
Proprietary wins most of time
Business doesn’t car...

There is more to Agile UX
than Sprint 0s and Sprints
ahead

There is more to Agile UX
than Sprint 0s and Sprints
ahead

This is only one aspect
Doesn’t always work
Need to work in de...

Responsive design is an old
argument in new clothes

Responsive design is an old
argument in new clothes

Fixed vs. ﬂuid/liquid
Separate accessible sites
Technology changes ra...

Silver bullets are
dangerous

We need multiple
weapons, and to know
when and how to use them

Truth No. 4
Social

There are no silver
bullets in UX. Repeating
them can weakens us.

Dare no. 3

I dare you to...
Call bullshit on Celebrity
UX Rockstars who are
preaching their dogma or
shallow messaging

UX is eating itself

The UX Bubble is growing
and growing

UX developer
UX designer

UX architect
UX consultant

More and more people are
...

UX designer is the
new ‘web designer’

But most are confused
about what UX actually is

User interface?

Wireframes? Visual design?
?!*&%!?

Usability?

Th...

I ask a tricky question in
interviews

Are you more UX or UI?

I also get people to map
themselves

What shape are you?

ExS IxD
Experience Interaction
Strategy Design

UR IA
Us...

Industrial design
Design Device
strategy interface
...

ExS IxD
Experience Interaction
Strategy Design

UR IA
User Informa...

ExS IxD
Experience Interaction
Strategy Design

UR IA
User Informatio...

ExS IxD
Experience Interaction
Strategy Design

UR IA
User Informatio...

ExS IxD
Experience Interaction
Strategy Design

UR IA
User Informa...

Truth No. 5
Social

Most UX people don’t
articulate what they do
and how they are
different from others

Dare no. 4

I dare you to...
Map your shape using
the framework, and
show where YOU want
to grow and develop

Industrial design
Design Device
strategy interface
...

Industrial design
Design Device
strategy interface
...

We need to focus,
because the term
UX dilutes us

Or other disciplines and
industries will claim it too

Is that a bad thing
or a good thing?

We need to reclaim
disciplines in
User Experience

Interaction Design &
Information Architecture
are different.

We can do both or only
one.

We need to get closer to
other disciplines and
understand them better

Stop trying to reinvent
what they do without
understanding it

The Internet of Ubiquitous
Computing Information
Appliance Things is coming

We need to work together -
especially with Industrial
Designers

Dare no. 5a

I dare you to...
Go to non-UX events
Engage with other disciplines
Work together

Digital
Design
Harder
Marketing Better for you

Business
Sector-speciﬁc
Science
Product

Dare no. 5b

I dare you to...
Read non-UX media -
blogs, books,
magazines

Not just these,

but these...

...and these

Dare no. 5c

I dare you to...
Speak at a non-UX
event

We’re also under
threat from within

Salaries and day rates
getting ridiculous

Plenty of money
& demand
http://tinyurl.com/6g42end

People with 1-2 years
experience and poor
quality work can
command rates as high as
senior folk got 4 years ago

Charlatans

http://www.clashmusic.com/news/charlatans-drummer-eyes-return

They can use Axure!

They list personas and
wireframes in their cvs

They use the design
patterns that are easy in
Axure, rather than thinking
through what is best

Design patterns are
an echo-chamber
in themselves

Accordions, carousels
and multiple
dropdowns are the
clip-art, and Axure is
our PowerPoint

Rates are getting higher,
quality getting lower

Too many people are
going freelance

They choose projects
that they think sound
exciting or are good
for their portfolios

As a freelancer
they can’t bond
with a team

They can’t be
mentored, and
be developed
by others

But they can have long
holidays and a lot of
money in their pocket

Truth No. 6
Social

Our bubble will burst
unless we stamp out
the greedy pretenders

Dare no. 6

I dare you to...
Call bullshit on pretenders.
Not pay unfair rates.
Give the best work to
permanent staff.

UCD and UX is not
the only way

UX is like a set of
religions

UX is like a set of religions

- Evangelise beliefs + dogma
- Criticise non-believers
- Promote godly practice
- Conferen...

UCD is our hammer, and
every project is a thumb

Don Norman

“In 1965 when we were
starting Pizza Express,
customers wanted chips with
pizza. We had the vision and
we guided the custo...

“Best source of innovation
are ideas from staff and from
branch managers, not
customers”

Luke Johnson
From recent Design ...

UCD is a way of
mitigating risk and
increasing chance of
success

We try to invest so
much time in research,
that we don’t spend
enough time designing

And we don’t always
respect the leaps that
can be made from
creative thought

Or genius designers

Not enough Lots in selling
Too much
investment in it and glossing
investment
craf...

Heavy
Less devotion
investment in
to the solution
research and
...

Little to no Rapid Lots of
research & design & marketing and
strategy development adv...

Rapid, low Lots of design by making Slightly less
friction marketing
research ...

Maybe why we use so
much UI clipart

Truth No. 7
Social

There are more non-
UCD success stories
than UCD success
stories

Dare no. 7

I dare you to...
Spend more time
designing and less
time researching

We’re not built
for strategy

Back at the ﬁrst Euro IA,
there was a lot of talk
about strategy

Getting further upstream.
Getting a seat at the table.

More and more people
are talking about it,
but are we really
making progress?

I don’t think so

“Strategy. It’s not big and
it’s not clever.”

Jon Hughes
VP at Cognizant Technology Solutions. Inspiration for me when I...

“But, it’s fucking hard to
do well”

Jon Hughes
VP at Cognizant Technology Solutions. Inspiration for me when I worked at ...

Most organisations
don’t have good or
clear strategies.

“ 4 types of strategy:
- No strategy
- Unclear strategy
- Bad strategy
- Good strategy”

Someone in UX Lisbon
In Leisa Rei...

UX people are not
built for strategy

We can’t handle the
stench upstream

A lot of politics,
power-games

Visionaries and senior
people can be
ruthless assholes

Steve Jobs

Donald Trump

Alan Sugar

It takes a long time to
engage with stakeholders
and have a strategic
inﬂuence

Some of us can’t commit
to more than 3 months
for a project, let alone 3
years+ to conceive and
deliver on strategy

Truth No. 8
Social

Most UX people are not
built for strategy

Dare no. 8

I dare you to...
Commit to developing
strategies, or focus on
what you do best

We’re nearly there now

I have only skimmed the
surface of our echo-
chamber and why we
need to get out more

If you want fame, be
prepared to sacriﬁce your
personal life and put
yourself up for criticism

We must expose
ourselves to more
thinking outside of
our space

“A lot of people in our industry haven’t
had very diverse experiences. So they
don’t have enough dots to connect, and
they...

We need to focus
ourselves to save our
bubble from bursting

“It is not the strongest of the
species that survive, nor the
most intelligent, but the one
most adaptable to change”

Cla...

We need to have more
opinions and share them
with the world

“The great thing about
having an opinion is that
you can change it”

Simon Manchipp
Creative Director & co-founder at prog...

Dare no. 9

I dare you to...
Share your opinions
on UX and this talk
with the rest of the
conference

Dares

Don’t tweet soundbites
Critique conference talks
Call bullshit on celebrity UX rockstars
Map your UX shape and focu...

Thank you

RMA Consulting
Master Your Every Day
twitter: @jasonmesut
presentations: slideshare.net/jasonmesut

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