A presentation created to help account managers understand the fundamentals of User Experience [UX], and how to apply a user-centric approach for Growth Digital Agencies (GDA). It advocates building a UX centered around three inner disciplines; User Research, Information Architecture, and User Testing. Additionally, it tells how and why UX should begin at the project strategic/kick-off stage, how UX should be evangelised as central to a project's methodology, all while debunking the 'UX as a design deliverable' myth.

1. UX
Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
a n d y @ a n d r e w s h a n l e y. c o . u k
Integrating
In to a Growth Digital Agency

2. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
What's coming up...

3. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
The Growth Digital Agency (GDA) Challenges
Introduction to UX
Why UX matters / ROI
Current and future issues
The Working UX team
UX Vs IA
Where UX fits in to the development cycle
What service we provide, and when (Engagement model)
What's coming up

4. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
The Growth Digital Agency (GDA)
- Challenges

5. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
A Growth Digital Agency is an agency that's growing fast! With this comes
it's own challenges. Some common themes:
Cost: "UX is expensive - we can't afford it"
Importance: "UX will eats in to project time"
Agency size: "Do we need to a UX department?"
Understanding: "Clients don't get UX.. WE don't get UX"
Is it really being practised? : "We already do wireframes!"
Challenges

6. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
So why do UX in the first place?

7. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
h t t p : / / w w w. n n g r o u p . c o m / a b o u t /
h t t p : / / w w w. u x - l x . c o m / d o n n . h t m l
h t t p : / / w w w. i x d s t u d i o . c o m / b l o g / 8 - t h i n g s - e v e r y - u i - d e s i g n e r - s h o u l d - k n o w /
h t t p : / / u x d e s i g n . s m a s h i n g m a g a z i n e . c o m / 2 010 / 10 / 0 5 / w h a t - i s - u s e r - e x p e r i e n c e - d e s i g n - o v e r v i e w - t o o l s - a n d - r e s o u r c e s /
Coined by Dr. Donald Norman*, 'user experience' (UX) is "design centered
on the user’s wants and needs – an experience that gets beyond business
goals and digs into users’ goals" (circa 1993)
UX is the notion that not only design but strategic decisions should be
based on the needs and wants of users.
*Norman is a cognitive science researcher, co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group and
former vice-president of Apple.
A definition

8. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
In a commercial context
R A Z O R B R A N D I NG ™ : B R A N D I NG T O U C H P O I N T S : h t t p : / / w w w. t h e r u s s o g r o u p . c o m / b r a n d i n g - t o u c h p o i n t s /
UX design is driven by consideration of the moments of
engagement, or touchpoints, between people and brands, and
the ideas, emotions, and memories that these moments create.

9. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
The product The experience
A better definition
CLIENT
needs
USER
needs
USER
needs
CLIENT
needs
Moment of engagement
strategy

10. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
Why UX matters

11. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
The ROI of UX
Reduced COST
Increased PRODUCTIVITY
Increased SALES
Increased BRAND LOYALTY
Increased BRAND ADVOCACY
User centred product + increased client buy-in
+ user testing at earlier stages =
Fewer latter-stage iterations and code-rewrites
Users can fulfi l their tasks faster,
less effort required
Pain points reduced, reduced barrier to sales
( h t t p : / / w w w. u i e . c o m / a r t i c l e s / t h r e e _ h u n d _ m i l l i o n _ b u t t o n / )
Pleasant emotions and
memories associated with
product and brand...
..tell all your
friends about it!
U X B a s i c s & T h e R O I O f U X : h t t p : / / w w w. s l i d e s h a r e . n e t / a l g o r hy t h m / u x - b a s i c s - t h e - r o i - o f - u x

12. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
The ROI of UX
Reduced COST
Increased PRODUCTIVITY
Increased SALES
Increased BRAND LOYALTY
Increased BRAND ADVOCACY
User centred product + increased client buy-in
+ user testing at earlier stages =
Fewer latter-stage iterations and code-rewrites
Users can fulfi l their tasks faster,
less effort required
Pain points reduced, reduced barrier to sales
( h t t p : / / w w w. u i e . c o m / a r t i c l e s / t h r e e _ h u n d _ m i l l i o n _ b u t t o n / )
Pleasant emotions and
memories associated with
product and brand...
..tell all your
friends about it!
U X B a s i c s & T h e R O I O f U X : h t t p : / / w w w. s l i d e s h a r e . n e t / a l g o r hy t h m / u x - b a s i c s - t h e - r o i - o f - u x
Or, rather than increased brand
advocacy, could the measure be a
reduction in brand opposition ?

13. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
So, we need to sell
this approach ( ) back in to the client
There is
much value
to be had..
..in designing
around user
needs
USER
needs
CLIENT
needs

14. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
UX Scope: where UX gets involved

15. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
UXers sit further toward the ‘person’ end of the
scale, focusing on understanding end users,
stakeholders, and what is going to work well for
them as a wholistic experience.
The GDA's UX team should work closer with the
Insights, analytics and research departments
The GDA's UX teams' aim is to add strategic value
to project teams.
The Elements of User Experience (2002)
Jesse James Garrett
http://www.jjg.net/elements/
The User Experience strategy

16. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
GDA UX team touchpoints: bridging disciplines
User research
Content
strategy
Information
architecture
Interaction
design
Usability
Visual design
T h e U X Um b r e l l a [ a d a p t e d ] , D a n W i l l i s ( @ u xc r a n k ) 2 011
strategy
dev.
Bridging UX with those associated disciplines, on
either side, in other areas of the companyUX

17. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
GDA UX team touchpoints: information architecture
User research
Content
strategy
Visual design
T h e U X Um b r e l l a [ a d a p t e d ] , D a n W i l l i s ( @ u xc r a n k ) 2 011
strategy
dev.
Information
architecture
Interaction
design
Usability
Information architecture
Bridging UX with those associated disciplines, on
either side, in other areas of the companyUX

18. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
GDA UX team touchpoints: test iteratively
User research
Content
strategy
Visual design
strategy
dev.
Information
architecture
Interaction
design
Usability
Bridging UX with those associated disciplines, on
either side, in other areas of the companyUX
Information architecture
Test
hypothesis
Test
hypothesis
Test
hypothesis
Test
hypothesis

19. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
GDA team and structure

20. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
UX
Focuses in gathering insights
about the users from social network s,
surveys, interviews and work shops.
Creates personas to symbolically
represent end-user g roupings
GDA UX Team
User Researcher Information Architect User Tester
Creates hypotheses, researches holistic and
competitor environemnts, work s with
personas and user research take-aways to
create navigation and hierarchical
str uctures (fl ow diag rams, site maps,
content maps, wireframes, stor y boards, etc)
Tests hypotheses. Creates
walk-throughs using Axure, or
Invision App.

21. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
GDA UX competency levels
Information
Architect (IA) UX Senior UX
Junior Mid-weight Senior
IA concerns structure
Emphasis on deliverables
Very hands on
BAU: Business as usual work
Aspire to grow in to UX role
User Experience concerns emotion
Emphasis on facilitating engagement
Bridging research and design teams
Training IA and mid-weights
Brief / RFP interpretation
Title
Competency
Emphasis

22. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
Issues identified

23. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
What we've heard you say (account managers)...
"Let's just do some wireframes"
The poor mans designer
"This needs to be UX'd"
The buzz word
"We've done this design, it's not quite
working, can you look at it?"
[on a new project]
The afterthought (usability audit)
= We know UX needs to be
applied, but we don't quite get
the where, when and how...

24. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
Why? Because UX is not UI - It's much more...
Strategy
User needs
Client / product objectives
Scope
Functional specs
Content requirements
Structure
Interaction design
Information architecture
Skeleton
Interface design
Navigation design
Information design
Surface
Visual design
I c e b e r g o f I A , P e t e r M o r v i l l e 2 0 0 0

25. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
Why? Because UX is not UI - It's much more...

26. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
How we can make this even better

27. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
Design
UX is not (only) about design or
wireframes, nor is it solely about
creating and handing off design
deliverables.
We must continue to
avoid the user
experience from
becoming the final
part of the equation

28. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
Deployment
Business
as usual
(BAU)
Strategy and
planning
Development Design
UX touches pretty
much all stages of
the project lifecycle
Requirements
analysis and
user research

29. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
..It's more like this
Deployment
Business
as usual
(BAU)
Strategy and
planning
Development
Design and
user testing
Requirements
analysis and
user research
Climate / holistic / best of breed research
Collect and interpret social data, analytics and search data
Interpreting client/stakeholder brief
Determine user stories,
Workshops, surveys and interviews
Wireframing and stor yboarding
Prototyping
Creating and working off personas
Presentations
Quality assurance (QA)
Quality assurance (QA)
A/B and click testing
Put in to perspective
Content audit
Process fl ows / user journeys
Card sor t -> Site map / content map

30. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
To be reviewed as UX team grows. If in doubt
Talk with the Head of UX
Any budget, any size
Smaller project with
lesser budgets
Engagement model:
On what scale should UX resource be used?
Websites, intranets,
microsites
Channels
[E.g. Youtube/other]
N/A - unless complex
Infographics and single
Facebook pages
With a small team and a large amount of work coming in, how can we ensure only
those projects requiring UX, get UX. Rule of thumb: UX to be used when the
following criteria is met (this will differ per GDA):

31. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
Deployment
Business
as usual
(BAU)
Strategy and
planning
Development
Requirements
analysis
Design
Strategy and
planning
Engagement model:
At what point should UX be kicked off?
Head of UX is to work closely with
producers and accounts to assist with:
- Defi ning UX scope of work i.e. what UX
process to use*
- Timings
- UX/IA resource allocation
*The scope of UX required differs project to project.
Some projects may require wireframes only.
Some may require full research, surveys, interviews,
stories, site maps, journeys, prototypes, wireframes.
Here

32. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
Integrating UX in to a largely tech-focused agile way of working (diffi cult, but
can be done)
Getting UX and dev organised; establishing the relationship between
Product Owners and UX; getting UX work into the backlog; etc
Potential inner-departmental fi ghting for allocation of resource
UX wants MORE, Design wants MORE, Tech wants MORE…
New starter knowledge - particularly on account/producer team:
Communicating the fundamentals
UX is a new area and the team is growing and evolving - how do we
communicate changes?
More of these presentations every 3 / 6 months
Challenges

33. Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
UX should be something a GDA sells to clients - it's not 'added' value; it adds real strategic
signifi cance. There is actual ROI - something to explore further
UX is not (only) about UI or wireframes. It's about understanding a users emotional connections at
various touch points with the brand or product
The core UX team of a GDA consists of a User Researcher, Information Architect, and a User Tester.
Skills will sometimes overlap. Communication must always overlap.
Collaboration is key.
The role of an Information Architect is about the hands-on organisation of data and content i.e. the
creation of site maps, wireframes and prototypes
The role of Head of UX is about defi ning the UX process per-project, working on briefs and RFP's,
and bridging UX disciplines with associated disciplines in other areas of the company > strategy,
research, analytics, design
UX is to be kicked off at the strategic/onboarding stage
The UX process differs depending on client, budget, resource, timescales, scope
Takeaways

34. Thank you
Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
a n d y @ a n d r e w s h a n l e y. c o . u k