There has been increasing interest in the work practices of user experience (UX) designers, particularly in relation to approaches that support adoption of human-centered principles in corporate environments. This paper addresses the ways in which UX designers conceive of methods that support their practice, and the methods they consider necessary as a baseline competency for beginning user experience designers. Interviews were conducted with practitioners in a range of companies, with differing levels of expertise and educational backgrounds represented. Interviewees were asked about their use of design methods in practice, and the methods they considered to be core of their practice; in addition, they were asked what set of methods would be vital for beginning designers joining their company. Based on these interviews, I evaluate practitioner conceptions of design methods, proposing an appropriation-oriented mindset that drives the use of tool knowledge, supporting designers’ practice in a variety of corporate contexts. Opportunities are considered for future research in the study of UX practice and training of students in human-computer interaction programs.

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

5. 1970 2010s

6. Jones, 1992, p. 48

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)

9. METHOD

10. METHOD
Stratified
Sample
Interview
Study
Thematic
Analysis

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

14. FINDINGS

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

29. DISCUSSION

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