Scott is a UX design visionary who has led design teams in the US, UK and Germany for more than 20 years. He is currently VP Product Design at Babbel, a leading language learning app. He previously was VP of Design for SwiftKey, acquired by Microsoft in 2016. Scott explores how ecological thinking can inform user experience, walking us through Babbel's strategy for understanding its users. He presents panning analytics, surveys, customer service data, usability research, and other methodologies you can use to inform your design choices!

1. The Ecology of UX
Scott Weiss, VP Product Design
March 2018
Hola!

2. Language learning app
14 languages
1 million paying subscribers

3. Why do we exist?
EVERYONE LEARNING LANGUAGES

4. We’re for everyoneWe’re for everyone

5. Learning. Together.

6. This is fine.

7. Communicating. Across difference.

8. Seeing.
Differently.

9. Yellowstone.
YellowstoneNational Park, Wyoming, USA.

10. Learning. Together.Learning. Together.Learning. Together.
These guys went.
Things got ugly.

11. These guys got cocky.
Things got worse.

12. These guys got over eaten.
Things got... yeah.

13. Dam.

14. Gone.

15. Gone.

16. Gone.

17. Seemingly small changes.
Huge downstream effects.

18. What’s this got to do with UX?

19. Glad you asked.

20. That time we burned our
German brand ambassadors.

21. What happened when
we ditched PayPal.

22. Customers Prospects Proxies

23. Customer service
App Store Reviews User Research User Research
Customer service
Prospects Proxies
Surveys
Customers

24. Watching. Users.

25. Old New

26. Oops.

27. 20.0
17.5
15.0
12.5
10.0
7.5
5.0
2.5
0.0
unknown 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-59 80-84
Age
Demographics

28. Electric

29. Blur

30. Rainbow

31. Light

32. Old New

33. Old New

34. NewerNew

35. Millenials don’t read much spam. Boomers
Millenials
Delivered
Opens
Clicks
Emails
0 10.000 20.000 30.000 40.000
Emails sent
43.205
19.599
8.722 (20.30%)
3.053 (15.58%)
671 (7.65%)
90 (2.95%)

36. 0 200 400 600 800
Data Points (Questions)
0 100 200 300
Qs correct
Qs answered
Qs asked
Yo tengo 34 años, ¿y tú?
¿Cuántos años tienes?
¡Qué bien!Yo hable inglés y espanol, ¿y
tú?
¿Qué idiomas hablas?
¡Mucho gusto! Yo soy de México, ¿y tú?
¿De dónde eres?
Hola, me llamo Bea, ¿y tú?
¿Cómo te llamas?
Boomer
Subscribers
Millenial
Subscribers

37. Boomer
Leads
Yo tengo 34 años, ¿y tú?
¿Cuántos años tienes?
¡Qué bien!Yo hable inglés y es-
panol, ¿y tú?
¿Qué idiomas hablas?
¡Mucho gusto! Yo soy de México,
¿y tú?
¿De dónde eres?
Hola, me llamo Bea, ¿y tú?
¿Cómo te llamas?
Qs correct
Qs answered
Qs asked
0 100 200 300
Boomer
Subscribers
0 200 400 600 800

38. Meanwhile, back in Yellowstone...

39. 14.

40. Hero.

41. Scattered.

42. Triggers & Events:
Unanticipated Outcomes.

43. (Louder for the people in the back)
This is not just
crisis-prevention

44. We can write
new possibilities.

45. Dear Babbel

46. What did we do?
FAQ in Babbel Apps:
Immediate answers
Full Transparency
Right at the spot

47. What happened in CS?
-10.000 user requests/month +80.000 FAQ requests/month

48. Ecosystems are highly contingent and vulnerable.
Even slight interventions can ripple throughout.
Ecological thinking allows us to anticipate UX erosion.
And it enables us to mobilize elements of UX pro-actively.

49. User research must be layered.
From multiple angles.
Intersecting.
And deeply humble.

50. Thank you.
¿Preguntas?