+ In this section we will introduce you to user centered design (UCD). You’ve already been introduced to some UCD tools—stakeholder mapping and the motivation matrix—but in the next hour, we’ll connect those to other tools and a larger process.+ This presentation will explain what UCD is and why it is used in developing new enterprises. We’ll explain the basic process and practice some of the methods that may be useful as you develop your social enterprises.
+ UCD is an approach to problem solving that focuses on what people need and want. Have you ever wondered why you like your shoes, or why your cell phone can do everything that you want it to? It’s because these products, and every product or service you use, we’re designed with you in mind—so that they would satisfy your needs and that you’d desire them. Understanding users enables us to create new things that they want, or improve things so that they serve users better.+ UCD is primarily concerned with what people want, but as you apply these insights to your enterprise ideas they need to be tempered with what is feasible—or what you can accomplish, and viable—what can make money. When all of these things are considered successful and sustainable enterprises can be created.
+The UCD process has three main areas: Research, Transformation, and Implementation+ Research involves understanding the problem, the potential solutions and everyone involved.+ Transformation takes all of the research and makes something new out of it.+ Implementation is makes your new idea and trying it in the real world.+ The process starts out very concrete—you collect and interpret facts—then becomes more abstract as you imaging the possibilities. Finally, the process becomes more concrete as you make you new enterprise ready for the real world.
+ Most of the methods that we’ll cover in the next hour are focused on the concrete ends of the spectrum. These methods will help you discover and learn about the enterprises you want to start and develop a successful business plan.+ The methods are: Observation, Interviews, Creating User Profiles, Stakeholder Mapping, User Experience Mapping, and Prototyping.
+ The research that we will be discussing is qualitative. This means that you will not be collecting statistics but will be looking to get a deeper understanding of use, thoughts, and emotions associated with a product or service. + During this process your goal is develop empathy with your stakeholders (users). This will inform and inspire the creation of your enterprise.
+ Actions speak louder than words. Trite, but true—we all know that people often say they’ll do one thing and then do another. When you are looking for ideas to solve a problem, or to develop a new social enterprise, it helps to observe stakeholders that may be involved in your endeavor. While it is important to talk with people, observing action is a great way to get insight on how people really engage with their environments. Here are few pointers on observation:+ The beginners mind. This is the most important part of observation. There is plenty of time to think critically about developing your social enterprise. But right now, you need to understand how to best solve the problems at hand. Not being critical and having an open mind are essential to seeing new solutions and understanding issues. When you are interviewing and observing it is important to keep an unbiased mind. Some people think of this as seeing like a child—without prejudice or assumptions to why things are.+ Go where the stakeholder is. The best way to observe people is in their natural environment. If you want to understand more about why people buy certain shoes—watch people shop for shoes!+ What should I look for? You want to look for shifts in behavior, homemade or workaround solutions to problems, body language, wasted time, and anything that surprises you.+ Build empathy. Get to know people, don’t judge them. And always assume they know more than you do.+Do it yourself. Try the service, product, business yourself and observe how you feel about it.+ Self documentation. Give people cameras or have them keep a diary. You’ll need to provide prompts (take a picture of this…or how do you fell about…) but self-documentation can give you a great deal of insight to users.
1) What do you see in this image: Just describe don’t guess.2) Provide three explanations for what is happening in this image.3) How would you find out what is really happening? What are three questions you would ask?
The goal of conducting interviews is to find out what your potential stakeholders really think and feel about the enterprise you are considering. Interviewing real stakeholders will help you design better services and products for their needs. Here are a couple of pointers on conducting an interview: 1) Planning the Interview:+ Find the right person. Use your stakeholder analysis and figure out who would be the best person to interview to get the information you want. Who will tell the best stories, who will be most inspirational, who will uncover the most unmet needs? Look for people that are at extremes (heavy users, dedicated employees, etc.)+ Make an interview guide. Decide what you need to know. What questions do you need to ask in order to get this information? Write down these questions, but be prepared to diverge from this script. A good interview is like a conversation—it is structured but goes where it needs to.2) Doing the interview+ No more than three people at the interview. One to ask questions, one to record the conversation, and one to observe the non-verbal cues. You can do an interview with just one interviewer.+ Be attentive. The interviewee is the expert, make eye contact and pay attention. Don’t correct the person, you should be informed but act naïve.+ Ask open ended questions. Don’t ask yes or no questions. Dig deeper into answers by asking “why”.+ Get non-verbal. Ask the interviewee to draw or act out the situation or experience they are trying to describe.+ Get permission. Take photos, record audio and video. These will be useful to you throughout the process. But get permission from the interviewee first.+ Vary your collection. Don’t just write down what was said. Get direct quotes, record emotional responses, facial expressions, and environmental interactions.3) After the Interview+ Unpack information immediately. Within an hour of the interview you should discuss and write down what your biggest observations were.+ Scour for details. When you have time go back to your notes, photos, etc. and get the specific details to support your arguments and assumptions.
+ One way to capture your interview and observation experience is by making collective profiles of the stakeholders. In this process you are building a general description of your user, but using very specific ideas to describe this person.
+Consider that the people you observed and interviewed fell all over this target. What you are looking to recreate in your profile is the person that exists right at the center of this target, or people that exist that the different edges. People at the center of the target are the exact person that you are trying to design for. People on the edge of the target would be people that may not use your service, but could serve to inspire your design process.
+ Here is an example of a character profile—a lot of times people collect images from websites and magazine that they feel best represent this person. You can use this blank profile during this project.
The point of making a stakeholder map is to visualize relationships—many of us learn and understand better when we can see things—and the act of creating it should be useful to your thought process. They don’t need to be pretty, but you can always go back an clean it up if you want to share it with other people.
+ A secondary way to collect some of this information is to create a motivation matrix. This assumes that there is some connection between all stakeholders and gives you an opportunity to explore each relationship. This can help find some un-obvious connections between various stakeholders and can be used in conjunction with the stakeholder map.
+ A blank version will be included in your recap packets.
+ Transformation is where the sparks fly in this process. We’re not going to provide any formal methods in this area because of the nature of the UCREW development process. But, you’ve already completed some methods in this process during the last meeting. Brainstorming is one of the techniques used in Transformation to turn existing information into new ideas. Remember when you researched great businesses? Then you analyzed them to understand what made them great, then you took those principles and transformed them into an idea for your new business—that’s brainstorming!
+ Transformation is where the sparks fly in this process. We’re not going to provide any formal methods in this area because of the nature of the UCREW development process. But, you’ve already completed some methods in this process during the last meeting. Brainstorming is one of the techniques used in Transformation to turn existing information into new ideas. Remember when you researched great businesses? Then you analyzed them to understand what made them great, then you took those principles and transformed them into an idea for your new business—that’s brainstorming!
+ Brainstorming is the biggest method in transformation and you’ll be doing it with the information that you captured in research. Much of this will be intuitive—or unplanned—transformation often happens when you’ve saturated your mind with information, but then let it float onto other topics. How many good ideas have you had in the shower?+ That being said. We highly recommend that you take time to review the research as group and look for opportunities for improvement in existing models—these opportunity spaces are where new innovations usually come from! Then have an organized brainstorm:1. Don’t judge. Instead of criticizing someone’s idea—build on it! Brainstorming needs to be a safe place for everyone’s ideas.2. Encourage creativity. Ideas that seem “out there” can lead to great ideas that will really work. 3. Stay focused. Wild ideas are great, but don’t get too far off topic. 4. Respect each other. Don’t judge ideas and don’t drown other people out by dominating the conversation. Be ready to listen. 5. Keep digging. Your first idea probably isn’t your best. In brainstorming you want to have a lot of ideas. 6. Draw it! A picture is worth a thousand words.
+ So you’ve researched and brainstormed and now you’ve got that great idea? But will it work when it’s launched into the world? How do we find out? That’s what implementation is all about!+ UCD has a several tools that allow you to test new ideas and improve them so they can be more successful when they get into the real world.+ Today we’re going to talk about two: Mapping the Customer Journey and creating an Experience Prototype.
+The customer journey map can be used to map existing services that you may be researching and considering building upon. It is a great way to visualize where problems might arise and where opportunities for improvement can be located. It can also be applied in the implementation phase once you’ve developed an idea for a new product or service and want to get a better understanding of how it will actually work.
+ Let’s use our earlier example of Starbucks and map out a customer’s journey there.+ First, we need to divide our journey into timed segments. How long does it take to decide to get coffee, get it, and drink it? (So let’s divide our time line into 3 minutes segments.)+ Second, let’s put some major milestones in this journey. What are the major milestones? (Decide, travel, enter, wait, order, wait, pick-up, find seat, enjoy.)+ Now let’s explore what the customer is experiencing at each point in the journey:1. Where is the customer before they decide to get a coffee? How do they get to Starbucks?2. What happens in line, during the order, while they wait, when they pick up their coffee, while they drink their coffee, etc.?3. What are they thinking during each of these steps? What are they feeling during each of these steps?+ At what point in the journey is there the most uncertainty? Where is the most boredom? Where is the biggest opportunity to improve the experience?
+ The experience prototype tool expands on one of the ideas from the research phase of UCD: trying it yourself. Once you have a firm idea of the service or product that you are trying to create, it is a good practice to make a low cost version of it and try it with your friends.+ Creating an Experience Prototype takes planning and preparation. If you are developing a service, you need to map out all of the customer interactions: What do employees say? How long do services take? You also need to identify all of the touch points—these are physical spaces and products that help in the services delivery. Often these can be mocked up with cardboard cutouts, existing office furniture, and other free or inexpensive objects. And finally there are user experience points, where the customer may interface with a digital environment. These can be mocked up using paper cards, or Power point slides. + The quality of information that you can gain from an experience prototype is matched by the quality of thought that you put into creating it. It will allow you to see where you need more thought about the experience, and will give potential customers an opportunity to give you feed back before you invest in creating the real thing.
+ That’s the last activity we have in UCD, but that’s not where it ends. Over the next few months, as you develop your social enterprise concepts into real world businesses, you should use these principals and tools to guide your decisions and refine your ideas.Considering users at every step, keeping an open mind to the possibilities, and consistently testing and getting feedback will help you to achieve your goals!
