Dawn Ellis and Neil Allison presented on improving the user experience (UX) of university websites. They discussed how UX focuses on understanding user needs through personas and testing. A case study showed how generating personas for postgraduate programs, testing experiences, and making enhancements improved the application process. They concluded regular research, iterative improvements, and optimizing content management systems are important for sustainable UX practices with limited resources. UX is critical as it represents the university brand through student and applicant experiences.
Experiences in user centred design at the University of Edinburgh (IWMW2012 w...Neil Allison
The session I ran at IWMW2012 on 18 June 2012.
An overview of my approach to user centred design, experiences while working for the University Website Programme and a few lessons learned.
5 things you didn't know about your websiteNeil Allison
Presentation to the Web Publishers Community at the University of Edinburgh, June 2012.
We look at some trends observed across the University website and discuss what can be learned from them, making recommendations for content management practice, ongoing analytics and user research.
Introduction to Prototyping - Scottish UPA - June 2011Neil Allison
Presented to the Scottish Usability Professionals Association, Edinburgh, 22 June 2011.
Covering the basics, the benefits, some tools, some tips and a case study.
A bluffer's guide to IA and content strategyNeil Allison
This presentation was delivered to the Edinburgh Open Source Breakfast Meet Up group on 1 August 2014.
It's a quick run through what information architecture and content strategy are, drawing on quotes and resources from experts in the field.
My main point, however, is that user focus is what really matters. I show how the disciplines relate to other areas such as UX, usability and interaction design.
I also make the point that most customers (in this case, people wanting a website or app) don't care about such things. They care about revenue, cutting costs, satisfying customers and mitigating risk.
So I end with a couple of points I think are fundamental to get across to customers and suggest ways in which you can engage and collaborate.
Julie Grundy gives an overview of user experience Design, why it's important, guiding principles, UX research overview, and tactics used by UX professionals. November 2015.
Users are Losers! They’ll Like Whatever we Make! and Other Fallacies.Carol Smith
Presented at CodeMash 2013.
If this sounds familiar it is time to make big changes or look for a new job. Failing your users will only end badly. In this session we look at the assumptions that are all-too-often made about users, usability and the User Experience (UX). In response to each of these misguided statements Carol will provide a quick method you can conduct with little or no resources to debunk these myths.
Experiences in user centred design at the University of Edinburgh (IWMW2012 w...Neil Allison
The session I ran at IWMW2012 on 18 June 2012.
An overview of my approach to user centred design, experiences while working for the University Website Programme and a few lessons learned.
5 things you didn't know about your websiteNeil Allison
Presentation to the Web Publishers Community at the University of Edinburgh, June 2012.
We look at some trends observed across the University website and discuss what can be learned from them, making recommendations for content management practice, ongoing analytics and user research.
Introduction to Prototyping - Scottish UPA - June 2011Neil Allison
Presented to the Scottish Usability Professionals Association, Edinburgh, 22 June 2011.
Covering the basics, the benefits, some tools, some tips and a case study.
A bluffer's guide to IA and content strategyNeil Allison
This presentation was delivered to the Edinburgh Open Source Breakfast Meet Up group on 1 August 2014.
It's a quick run through what information architecture and content strategy are, drawing on quotes and resources from experts in the field.
My main point, however, is that user focus is what really matters. I show how the disciplines relate to other areas such as UX, usability and interaction design.
I also make the point that most customers (in this case, people wanting a website or app) don't care about such things. They care about revenue, cutting costs, satisfying customers and mitigating risk.
So I end with a couple of points I think are fundamental to get across to customers and suggest ways in which you can engage and collaborate.
Julie Grundy gives an overview of user experience Design, why it's important, guiding principles, UX research overview, and tactics used by UX professionals. November 2015.
Users are Losers! They’ll Like Whatever we Make! and Other Fallacies.Carol Smith
Presented at CodeMash 2013.
If this sounds familiar it is time to make big changes or look for a new job. Failing your users will only end badly. In this session we look at the assumptions that are all-too-often made about users, usability and the User Experience (UX). In response to each of these misguided statements Carol will provide a quick method you can conduct with little or no resources to debunk these myths.
Putting Personas to Work at UX PittsburghCarol Smith
Putting Personas to Work: Getting Personas Adopted Throughout Your Organization.
Presented by Carol Smith at the User Experience Designers Pittsburgh MeetUp on February 6, 2014.
Personas need to be recognized and relied on by the entire team and creating a successful persona program can be a huge challenge. This session covers strategies for making sure that the personas you create become essential to your team.
What's with UX in Higher Education? (IWMW conference 2014)Neil Allison
Slides from plenary session at the UK web managers conference, IWMW14. Presented at University of Northumbria, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, 17 July 2014. Audience comments on Twitter tagged #iwmw14 #p6
Advertised in the conference programme (http://iwmw.org/iwmw2014/programme/) as "Marketing is Dead, Long Live UX!" I evolved the focus somewhat during writing. Hence the new title.
TRANSCRIPT
****************
A transcript is available on my blog:
http://usability-ed.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/whats-with-ux-in-higher-ed-iwmw2014.html
Prospective Student Web Content Team - University of Edinburgh intro sessionNeil Allison
Introductory presentation and workshop organised by the University of Edinburgh's new Prospective Student Web Content Team. Sessions run for University staff involved in web marketing, recruitment and admissions during December 2019.
Informed & Agile: Test Driven Design w/ Jon InnesUserZoom
Do you find yourself sprinting without a clear direction? Pushing feature after feature out, only to wonder if your app or website is really getting better? Join Jon Innes of UX Innovation in a webinar on-demand, where he will discuss how to improve your sprints by incorporating UX/usability metrics that the whole team can use to measure progress on your agile journey as a product team.
Putting Personas to Work at IIBA ClevelandCarol Smith
Putting Personas to Work: Getting Personas Adopted Throughout Your Organization.
Presented by Carol Smith at the Cleveland IIBA Chapter meeting on March 12, 2013.
Personas need to be recognized and relied on by the entire team and creating a successful persona program can be a huge challenge. This session covers strategies for making sure that the personas you create become essential to your team.
Selling UX in Your Organization at Cleveland World Usability Day (WUD)Carol Smith
We know the benefits of User Experience (UX) work include saving time and effort, and potentially increasing profits. How do you persuade the business to integrate (more) UX activities into the process? How do you approach difficult questions about budget, timeline and other major issues?
This presentation gives you the facts to back up your convictions. Carol provides clear and compelling responses to tough questions about UX and usability methods. You’ll leave with facts about the Return on Investment (ROI) of UX, how to respond to UX skeptics, and how to turn your entire team into UX advocates.
Presentation by BBC Head of Audience Experience & Usability, Jonathan Hassell and Chris Rourke, MD of User Vision on the benefits of usability and accessibility research for the web and other digital platforms. Presented at Internet World, London, April 2009.
Faster Usability Testing in an Agile World - Agile UX Virtual Summit 2017 by ...Carol Smith
Carol Smith presented "Faster Usability Testing in an Agile World" via webinar during the Agile UX Virtual Summit 2017 by UXPin.
This presentation covers:
- Brief intro to how the IBM Watson Design team runs continuous usability tests and integrates the UX team
- How design work fits into the Agile process via dual track development
- When to run moderated, un-moderated, remote, and in-person studies
- How to effectively communicate UX findings and recommendations
UX 101: Making Great Human Experiences at Pittsburgh PodCamp 9Carol Smith
Carol Smith provides the tools you need to get started doing User Experience (UX) work right away. She introduces three quick and inexpensive UX research methods that will provide you with rich information about users and designs: interviews; card sorting; and usability testing. You'll learn how this work will influence your design and ways to effectively share and communicate what has been learned to increase stakeholders understandings of customers.
The presentation 'Corporate mLearning - The Future of Mobile Learning' encapsulates technologies that will impact/affect the Future of Mobile Learning & learning in general in the Workplace.
Putting personas to work - University of Edinburgh Website ProgrammeNeil Allison
I use personas to support the development of the University of Edinburgh's corporate Content Management System and associated services.
A significant challenge is to try to ensure that all members of the team understand and empathise with the personas that represent our CMS user group.
This session (first presented February 2014 at a Web Publishing Community session) outlines activities I use to help foster shared understanding within the team and wider group of stakeholders.
UXPA2019 Enhancing the User Experience for People with Disabilities: Top 10 ...UXPA International
An estimated 1.3 billion people globally report limitations in their daily activities due to a disability. When it comes to the physical world, businesses have made progress in accommodating customers with disabilities. But in the digital world, websites lack basic accessibility features such as text alternatives describing images, proper heading level structures so individuals who are blind and use screen readers can understand the content on a webpage, or captioning for multimedia content for individuals who are deaf or are hard of hearing – let alone assistive technology for customers who have trouble using mobile devices due to dexterity limitations that arise from a variety of conditions.
In this session, attendees will:
* Understand people with disabilities (PWDs) and how they use the web
* Learn about common barriers, issues and solutions
* Discover the different testing methodologies and their interdependencies
* Uncover ROI
The JoomlaChicago Loop sponsored "Joomla & Responsive Design", a presentation focused on the key ingredients and dynamics of making a Joomla website flow and react to the different viewing devices and browser viewport sizes.
Dennis Kmetz (Director of Interactive Media, Taylor Bruce Design Partnership) presented Joomla & Responsive Design on Thursday, March 1, 2012.
This presentation covers how to combine traditional qualitative methods and user research approaches to satisfy your clients and add value to findings.
Putting Personas to Work at UX PittsburghCarol Smith
Putting Personas to Work: Getting Personas Adopted Throughout Your Organization.
Presented by Carol Smith at the User Experience Designers Pittsburgh MeetUp on February 6, 2014.
Personas need to be recognized and relied on by the entire team and creating a successful persona program can be a huge challenge. This session covers strategies for making sure that the personas you create become essential to your team.
What's with UX in Higher Education? (IWMW conference 2014)Neil Allison
Slides from plenary session at the UK web managers conference, IWMW14. Presented at University of Northumbria, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, 17 July 2014. Audience comments on Twitter tagged #iwmw14 #p6
Advertised in the conference programme (http://iwmw.org/iwmw2014/programme/) as "Marketing is Dead, Long Live UX!" I evolved the focus somewhat during writing. Hence the new title.
TRANSCRIPT
****************
A transcript is available on my blog:
http://usability-ed.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/whats-with-ux-in-higher-ed-iwmw2014.html
Prospective Student Web Content Team - University of Edinburgh intro sessionNeil Allison
Introductory presentation and workshop organised by the University of Edinburgh's new Prospective Student Web Content Team. Sessions run for University staff involved in web marketing, recruitment and admissions during December 2019.
Informed & Agile: Test Driven Design w/ Jon InnesUserZoom
Do you find yourself sprinting without a clear direction? Pushing feature after feature out, only to wonder if your app or website is really getting better? Join Jon Innes of UX Innovation in a webinar on-demand, where he will discuss how to improve your sprints by incorporating UX/usability metrics that the whole team can use to measure progress on your agile journey as a product team.
Putting Personas to Work at IIBA ClevelandCarol Smith
Putting Personas to Work: Getting Personas Adopted Throughout Your Organization.
Presented by Carol Smith at the Cleveland IIBA Chapter meeting on March 12, 2013.
Personas need to be recognized and relied on by the entire team and creating a successful persona program can be a huge challenge. This session covers strategies for making sure that the personas you create become essential to your team.
Selling UX in Your Organization at Cleveland World Usability Day (WUD)Carol Smith
We know the benefits of User Experience (UX) work include saving time and effort, and potentially increasing profits. How do you persuade the business to integrate (more) UX activities into the process? How do you approach difficult questions about budget, timeline and other major issues?
This presentation gives you the facts to back up your convictions. Carol provides clear and compelling responses to tough questions about UX and usability methods. You’ll leave with facts about the Return on Investment (ROI) of UX, how to respond to UX skeptics, and how to turn your entire team into UX advocates.
Presentation by BBC Head of Audience Experience & Usability, Jonathan Hassell and Chris Rourke, MD of User Vision on the benefits of usability and accessibility research for the web and other digital platforms. Presented at Internet World, London, April 2009.
Faster Usability Testing in an Agile World - Agile UX Virtual Summit 2017 by ...Carol Smith
Carol Smith presented "Faster Usability Testing in an Agile World" via webinar during the Agile UX Virtual Summit 2017 by UXPin.
This presentation covers:
- Brief intro to how the IBM Watson Design team runs continuous usability tests and integrates the UX team
- How design work fits into the Agile process via dual track development
- When to run moderated, un-moderated, remote, and in-person studies
- How to effectively communicate UX findings and recommendations
UX 101: Making Great Human Experiences at Pittsburgh PodCamp 9Carol Smith
Carol Smith provides the tools you need to get started doing User Experience (UX) work right away. She introduces three quick and inexpensive UX research methods that will provide you with rich information about users and designs: interviews; card sorting; and usability testing. You'll learn how this work will influence your design and ways to effectively share and communicate what has been learned to increase stakeholders understandings of customers.
The presentation 'Corporate mLearning - The Future of Mobile Learning' encapsulates technologies that will impact/affect the Future of Mobile Learning & learning in general in the Workplace.
Putting personas to work - University of Edinburgh Website ProgrammeNeil Allison
I use personas to support the development of the University of Edinburgh's corporate Content Management System and associated services.
A significant challenge is to try to ensure that all members of the team understand and empathise with the personas that represent our CMS user group.
This session (first presented February 2014 at a Web Publishing Community session) outlines activities I use to help foster shared understanding within the team and wider group of stakeholders.
UXPA2019 Enhancing the User Experience for People with Disabilities: Top 10 ...UXPA International
An estimated 1.3 billion people globally report limitations in their daily activities due to a disability. When it comes to the physical world, businesses have made progress in accommodating customers with disabilities. But in the digital world, websites lack basic accessibility features such as text alternatives describing images, proper heading level structures so individuals who are blind and use screen readers can understand the content on a webpage, or captioning for multimedia content for individuals who are deaf or are hard of hearing – let alone assistive technology for customers who have trouble using mobile devices due to dexterity limitations that arise from a variety of conditions.
In this session, attendees will:
* Understand people with disabilities (PWDs) and how they use the web
* Learn about common barriers, issues and solutions
* Discover the different testing methodologies and their interdependencies
* Uncover ROI
The JoomlaChicago Loop sponsored "Joomla & Responsive Design", a presentation focused on the key ingredients and dynamics of making a Joomla website flow and react to the different viewing devices and browser viewport sizes.
Dennis Kmetz (Director of Interactive Media, Taylor Bruce Design Partnership) presented Joomla & Responsive Design on Thursday, March 1, 2012.
This presentation covers how to combine traditional qualitative methods and user research approaches to satisfy your clients and add value to findings.
Presented at the University of British Columbia, Computer Science Alumni Lecture Series - Nov. 27, 2014
The presentation introduces techniques to position User Experience (UX) Practice as a standard within an organization. It outlines not only standard UX techniques but also ways to demonstrate UX's value and ability to contribute to an organization's bottom line.
What is User Experience Design?
The Business Case for User Experience Design
What are the UX processes?
How can we measure its effectiveness?
Who needs to be involved?
Digital Summit Denver 2015: Enterprise User Experience | Margaret Bossen, RBARBA
RBA's Senior User Experience Designer, Margaret Bossen, presented "Enterprise User Experience: Making Sense of UX in Large Organizations" at Digital Summit Denver 2015. This presentation covers UX Basics, Enterprise UX, The Enterprise User, and Design Challenges.
NELAUX Presents: UX Strategies for StartupsJon Fox
A presentation for Silicon Beach Fest Pasadena at Idealab deconstructing what UX is, how to apply it and why Startups will benefit from investing in UX strategy. Includes a case study on Dollar Shave Club.
Presented by Jon Fox, Petra Cesario Wennberg, Kristen Ding and Erik Wingren
Follow @NELAUX on Twitter
Customer expectations are higher than ever and with disruptive new services coming into the market at a rapid rate, UX is a critical element of success.
Collaborative usability test reviews UX Scotland 2019Neil Allison
How to execute a collaborative review of usability testing to facilitate design and development prioritisation consensus. Case studies of how the approach has worked at the University of Edinburgh. Presented at UX Scotland conference 2019
User Experience Service showcase lightning talks - December 2018Neil Allison
The University of Edinburgh User Experience Service ran a showcase of recent projects on 5 December 2018. The session began with these lightning talks.
Challenging assumptions with Lean UX - Edinburgh UX meetupNeil Allison
Introduction to Lean UX principles, plus experiences of putting them into practice at the University of Edinburgh. Presented to the UX Meetup group in Edinburgh on 25 June 2018
User Experience Service - Digital Transformation Board update - University of...Neil Allison
Briefing on the past 12 months' work and achievements of the User Experience Service, and looking ahead to the next year. Delivered to the University of Edinburgh Digital Transformation Board, 9 May 2018
User Experience Showcase lightning talks - University of EdinburghNeil Allison
Lightning talk slide decks from a University of Edinburgh User Experience event held 13 October 2017. Topics: User needs, Web strategy, Digital Standards, Edinburgh Global Experience Language, Current student UX case study.
Case study of developing an awareness of user experience within an organisation through education and engagement. Presented at the UX Scotland conference, June 2017 by Neil Allison
User Experience Programme showcase lightening talksNeil Allison
Six lightening talks delivered at a UX Showcase session for staff at the University of Edinburgh:
- UX Programme overview
- Human Centred Design process proposal for digital production
- Experience principles and standards development
- EdGEL development case study
- UX Training for University staff
- Web strategy development process
User Experience Services update - Digital Transformation Initiative Board - U...Neil Allison
University of Edinburgh User Experience Manager, Neil Allison, updates the Digital Transformation Initiative Board on the status of pilots projects, and covers key concepts around user experience and strategic management. Presented 2 May 2017.
Requirements are hypotheses: My experiences with Lean UXNeil Allison
Presented at the IWMW16 conference for UK Higher Education digital professionals, 21 June 2016 at Liverpool John Moores University (Twitter: #IWMW16 #P1)
(Use of Jeff Gothelf's materials and ideas gratefully acknowledged @jboogie)
Video footage: https://youtu.be/L_Cio53LoG0?t=32m22s
Introductory slides to a collaborative usability observation & issue prioritisation session. A training and service promotion workshop for the University of Edinburgh Website Programme.
Overview of a rapid, collaborative usability testing process used during an agile development project to deliver a new Content Management System for the University of Edinburgh.
Delivered at the UCISA conference, Manchester, 17 March 2016.
How to get a grip of your website (and then keep hold)Neil Allison
Presentation given at a meeting of the Web Publishing Community at The University of Edinburgh, 2 December 2015.
Covers key elements of website strategy, user research and website development in 4 steps.
A transcript is available at:
http://website-programme-blog.is.ed.ac.uk/how-to-get-a-grip-of-your-website-and-then-keep-hold/
Prototyping - the what, why and how at the University of EdinburghNeil Allison
Edited highlights of my prototyping training session. These slides are essentially the intro to a 3 hour practical, collaborative learning experience using pencil/paper and Balsamiq. The slides cover:
- What is prototyping?
- Prototypes and the design process
- Example projects
- How to prototype
- Case study: Website search results page
- Balsamiq demo
Drupalcamp Scotland - Usability testing in an agile development processNeil Allison
A run through how I execute collaborative usability testing in an agile development process. Covering the operational detail, and tips to get stakeholders on board.
Delivered at Drupalcamp Scotland, 7 November 2015
Sustainability Edinburgh Personas introduction & workshop
Marketing is dead, long live user experience
1. Marketing is dead
Long live UX!
Dawn Ellis
Neil Allison
CIM Higher Ed Market Interest Group
Conference 21 March 2013
Twitter: #hemig6 #ux
2. Welcome
Dawn Ellis Neil Allison
Director UX Manager
@DawnEllis @usabilityed
University Website Programme
The University of Edinburgh
www.ed.ac.uk/website-programme
3. Overview
• Context and background
– Our philosophy
• Intro to user experience (UX)
– Personas
• Case studies
• Conclusions and questions
4. Profile
Founded: Influential Alumni and Staff:
1583 Charles Darwin, Robert Louis
Global Ranking: Stevenson, James Clerk
Top 30 Maxwell, Alexander Graham
Bell, James Simpson, Adam
Smith, Walter Scott, David
Hume, Ian Wilmut, J K
Rowling, Stella
Rimmington, Peter
Higgs, Katherine
Grainger, Chris Hoy…
6. The University website
• 250,000 web pages
– 45,000 published with central CMS
– Around 600 supported CMS users
• 5 million unique external visitors in 2012
– To the 45,000 pages we monitor
• Diverse range of audiences
– Demand for content in cycles
7. Operational fit
• 2006: Established as a project
– To “Roll out the CMS”
• 2008: Embedded as a programme
– Managing the CMS
– Focus on web publishers’ skills
• 2012: Website & process enhancement
– User experience, analytics & website appraisal
– CMS review, focus on web publisher experience
8. University objectives
• Attract the best students
• Improve conversion rates
• Enhance the student experience
• Increase revenues for the University
9. Reality of University web publishing
• Devolved & probably always will be
• Significant skills gap
– IA planning, web writing & comms, usability
• Very little time available for web management
– Even less for local strategy & coordination
10. Reality of website user behaviour
• They scan, they don’t read
• They’re task driven
• They want quick answers
• They don’t care about what you care about
11. Our philosophy, where we’re heading
• It’s about process not project
• People and collaboration first
• Technology is a cog, not the steering wheel
13. What is UX?
• UX = User eXperience
– Or CX – Customer eXperience
– Should we be talking SX?
• It’s the sum of all experiences
a customer has with a business
• “A star to sail your ship by”
– Jesse James Garrett
• “A flag in the sand on the horizon”
– Jared Spool
14. Advertising and UX
“Advertising is about getting the customer
to love the company.
UX is about getting the company
to love the customer.”
Whitney Hess
15. Usability and UX – a scenario
“The customer, looking for a new digital camera, goes to the large
electronic retailer’s website. She quickly finds the camera she
wants, puts it in the cart, and without incident, pays for it using the
option to pick it up at the store that same day. Quick, easy — she is
pleased and excited to receive her camera.
Website usability
When she arrives at the store, she initially doesn’t know where to
go, as no visual clues present themselves. After a ten-minute wait at
the customer service desk, she’s told she’s in the wrong place and
needs to find another desk, this one labelled “Online Receiving”. Once
she finds that desk, the clerk, who obviously can’t wait for his shift to
end, sighs and says the camera she’s purchased is out of stock. She can
buy a different camera at this point, but to receive a credit for her
original online purchase, she needs to call an 0800 number. She ends
up leaving the store without a camera and a charge on her credit card
she needs to resolve.”
User experience
Jared Spool
18. Marketing has changed
In the golden age of mass communication
Image = Reality
In the new fragmented, aggregated age:
Reality = Reality
Foolproof.co.uk
19. Roles are reversed
"The customer is now the advertiser.
When they search they are placing an ad.
Traditional marketing is about getting
attention, while web marketing
is about giving it.“
Gerry McGovern
20. Google’s philosophy
From “10 things we know to be true”
bit.ly/google-10things
“1. Focus on the user
and all else will follow”
21.
22. Econsultancy.com
• But what does this mean in the Higher Education environment?
• Applications? Conversions? Repeat study? Brand perception?
23. Why should UX matter to you?
• A strong marketing campaign
for a product with poor UX
can ultimately be damaging
• If the aim of marketing is to create a customer
then the aim of UX is to create
a happy customer
25. 3 steps to an effective UX vision
• Step 1: Focus on Research
– Must be grounded in reality
• Step 2: Focus on Experience
– Express for the user, not the product
• Step 3: Share the Vision
– Everyone needs to share and buy into it
Jared Spool
www.uie.com
26. Personas – essential in the UX toolkit
• A stand-in for real users
– Representing the needs of user groups
• Identifying the user motivations, expectations
and goals that drive online behaviour
• Based on knowledge of real users
• Helping us keep the user experience at the forefront
as website content, features & services develop
28. How personas can help
• Personas bring focus
• Personas build empathy
• Personas encourage consensus
• Personas bring efficiencies
The User Is Always Right
by Steve Mulder
29. Personas are not market segments
• Segmentation identifies and measures
the size of different groups at a high-level
• Personas provide understanding of the user
context
– Needs, motivations, behaviour &
associated design challenges (or opportunities)
• Market segmentation provides valuable input
into the persona generation process
30. How to share a UX vision
• Tell a story
• Draw a picture
• Create a video
31. Tell a story
• Easiest to do
• Easy to collaborate on
• Storytelling is an ancient
and universal activity
UX narrative: University of Edinburgh
UX cartoon: David Travis, Userfocus.co.uk
32. Mood-time graphs
• Because everything
doesn’t happen at once
uxmatters.com
• We can lose and gain
user goodwill along the
way
• Prioritise the biggest
pain points
cxpartners.com
33. Some user journeys are complex…
• …involving multiple
channels and iterative
decision making
• UX consultants Nomensa
recently reported on the
undergraduate applicant
experience
bit.ly/nomensa-ug-ux-report
Graphic: bit.ly/adaptive-path-journey
36. How can I measure UX?
• It depends on what you’re looking to find
• There is no silver bullet
– No single tool or approach can do everything
• Analytics + enquiry monitoring
+ market research + user research
= Greater than the sum of their parts
• Build the means to calculate ROI into your metrics
38. Regular reporting is key
From prioritisation…
Define user Agree Establish Prioritise Implement Evaluate
groups business user needs needs & changes changes
requirements requirements
To a report card:
Business User needs Agreed Rating
requirements priorities
Prospective 1. Check entry 1. Course 1. Entry req’ts B
postgraduate requirments structure 2. Fees & C+
(taught) 2. Check fees 2. Career opps funding
3. Get in touch 3. Funding opps 3. Structure F
4. Make strong 4. Fees 4. Contact C
application 5. Apply 5. Careers A
Based on the work of Lou Rosenfeld: bit.ly/rosenfeld-redesign
40. Our aims
• Identify trends in prospective student behaviour
• Monitor behaviour & introduce metrics
• Measurably enhance the UX
• Communicate the UX
• Collaborate with academics & administrators
stakeholders throughout
– Hand over for ongoing enhancement
41. What we did
1. Generated personas with stakeholders
– 3 programme areas
2. Agreed ideal UX for each persona
3. User testing role playing the personas
4. Website analytics & offline data review
– To check user testing findings
5. Website & process enhancements
42. The student personas
• All 3 colleges
• International & UK
• Distance learners
& on-campus
• Full & part time
43. Findings & trends
• All programmes broadly wanted the same things
from their personas
• Personas represented a range of focus based on
recruitment & enquiry management priorities:
– Strong candidates
– Non-standard applicants
– Weak candidates
• Same issues observed across all studies
– Participant frustrations with generic high-level content
and looping journeys
– Programme aspirations for UX some way from findings
44. UX pain points
• Multiple contact points
– Additional issues for research applicants
• Some essential central information
caused difficulties & dissatisfaction
• Profile & ranking content unconvincing
– “It’s easy to say you’re great…”
45. Next steps
• Full review of enhancements
– Anecdotal results so far excellent
– Unnecessary queries down
– Quality applicants up
• Further website & process tweaks based on
follow up research findings
• Hand over ongoing process to programmes
• Case study & promotion of methodology
46. Our challenges
• Organisational politics & silos
– Our users don’t care about these
• Devolved website management
– Easy to lose perspective
• Available time and expertise
– Ongoing support & promotion needed
48. Process is vital
• In website development projects, the content
and the journey is often an afterthought
• These critical elements are left to the
non-specialists who have no time
• We need to stop managing web projects
like print projects
49. So what do we do?
• Optimising the CMS UX encourages:
– Better content
– More active management
– Fresher content
• Saving CMS users time frees them up for other
activities :
– Audience engagement
– Social media mgt
– Conversion activity
• Think beyond the initial website delivery
50. Conclusions
• UX is your brand
– You’re being talked about, word-of-mouth has a long reach
• In a world of limited resource and non-specialism,
it’s about sustainable process & iterative improvement
• Marketing is social, so it’s in the hands
of front-of-house colleagues
• Break out of the boom-and-bust cycle
– A new design doesn’t (necessarily) solve anything
• Marketing still important, but now there are
more pieces in a bigger jigsaw
Founded 1583 / one of 4 ancient universities in Scotland / James VI and I / Mary Queen of Scots and Darnley.We are usually ranked fairly highly in world terms.Undergraduates continue to be important to us.And we have a community that right from the start have been building the reputation of the University and continue to do so.
Over the period I’m talking about our student numbers have increased by 50%, our income by 100% and our assets are about £1.7 billion.And we’re a research intensive university with researchers generating some £250 - £300 million of research income.And the number of international students who want to study with us has tripled and is still growing.
“Our customers have developed bullshit detectors, finely tuned to sniff out marketing messages that are style without any substance. They have (almost) complete control over the messages they receive, and can filter out unwanted distractions with ease.” “Word of mouth has long been trusted by customers above advertising, but now the tools of the internet have amplified word of mouth to the point where it eclipses messaging in the paid media space.”
In the early days of Google, they established a business philosophy called “10 things we know to be true”.Obviously these have evolved over the years as their business has diversified and the environment in which they operate has changed.But what has not changed is their core principle. The number 1 on their list…
Google have built their reputation on their search, and on giving the user what they want.They make a tremendous amount of money, but not at the expense of the user experience.This has been done consistently since the first launched in the late 90s – the interface isn’t significantly different to what it was back then. They have simply refined based on the user’s primary goal.Compare this to Yahoo…
The experience a customer has clearly influences their future behaviour. This Google survey illustrates this quite starkly.But they won’t just decide whether to buy from you again, they’ll talk about you and their experience. And today, we all know that an individual’s voice can carry a long way.
The ITV monkey campaign was tremendously successful.Unfortunately, customer service and the product itself didn’t stand up.Demand and expectation couldn’t be met, and ultimately contributed to ITV digital’s downfall.
FocusYou can’t design a website for everyoneThe most successful websites target specific audiencesMore often than not serving a specific audience well is better than partially serving a larger audience.Personas help you define who you’re designing for.They encourage you to think about the types of users who are critical to your business so you don’t waste time on those that don’t matter so much.EmpathyThe people building University websites typically know their business and how things work.So our instinct is to make decisions based on ourselves.But as I mentioned, your users are not usually like you. They don’t care about what you care about.Personas help you live in your users shoes.If they’re really working, they start to feel like real people.They help you imagine what they want and what they don’t want.You know they’re working when their names start to crop up in conversations – “But Marcia would never read that!”ConsensusThe raw output of most user research encourages different people to come to different conclusions.One person grabs onto a particular set of data to back up a position, while another user other data to argue a point of view.Each team member could well have a different audience in mind…Which can lead to an inefficient process and a disjointed end product.Personas bring the team together to a shared vision of exactly who you’re designing for and what it is that they want.Early agreement on this avoids miscommunication, misunderstanding as you go on to make detailed decisions about content and features.This is the most important benefit – helping to establish appropriate expectations and goal setting throughout the UniversityEfficienciesPersonas help you decide what you’re creating at the outset.Ensuring people make key decisions earlier in the process ensures you don’t waste time and money later.If you’ve ever been in the position of looking at a homepage layout with colleagues and the conversation has strayed to who you’re designing for and what the links should be will know what I mean.If you think about the cost of making changes late in the process, it’s easy to see how investing time and thought building consensus through personas early in the process can pay dividends later.
Market segmentation might identify that 37% of women aged 25-35 want to book their next holiday online, and that competitive prices and access to quality accommodation will affect their purchasing decision. A persona, on the other hand, would show that Sally aged 27 wants to book her next holiday online, but is concerned that the accommodation she chooses won’t look the same as the brochure, that they won’t be close to restaurants and bars, and that her online booking might not be accepted when she arrives. Sally also wants to be assured that she can cancel her booking 60 days prior to her departure date without penalty.Market segmentation is a great input into persona development and can help identify the types of users to profile. However it rarely provides the richness required to write personas.(http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_personas/index.html)