What I've Learned about UX Design

Hi!
I’m Ali Rushdan Tariq
and I design digital experiences for human beings
www.artariq.com
@alirtariq
@ManulifeREDLab

What
I Know About
Design
(User Experience)

2005
BSc. Computer Science
Rapid-growth startup
2006
2009
Large investment bank
2013
MBA
2013
Co-founded ﬁrst startup
Manulife RED Lab -
Enterprise Innovation Lab
2014

1. They try to solve problems
11 Characteristics of Good UX Designers

Great experiences are better felt than talked about

But even great UX can come at a cost

2. They care more about experiences than visuals
3. They understand the larger context

So, what is User Experience (UX)?

Every aspect of the user's interaction with a product,
service, or company that make up the user's perceptions
of the whole. User experience design as a discipline is
concerned with all the elements that together make up that
interface, including layout, visual design, text, brand, sound, and
interaction. UX works to coordinate these elements to allow for
the best possible interaction by users.
- UXPA, Usability Body of Knowledge, Glossary

“If UX is the experience that a user has while
interacting with your product, then UX Design is, by
deﬁnition, the process by which we determine what
that experience will be.”

- Laura Klein

UX encompasses
everything you interact
with that makes you feel
about a product or
service
Today, the focus is
on people’s
interactions with
digital and tech

[Source: http://www.kickerstudio.com/2008/12/the-disciplines-of-user-experience/ - Dan Saffer]

Listen + Understand + Empathize

User Needs
Functional
(what do they want to achieve)
Experiential
(what do they want to feel)

So, all I have to do is focus on the user?

Good
Design
Business goals
and context
User goals
and context

Design closes the gap between
Pains
Desired
Outcomes

4. They empathize with all their stakeholders

[Source: Elements of User Experience Design - Jesse James Garrett, 2002]
The 5 Planes of UX
What are the business objectives?
What problem are we solving?
What does the market look like?
Who are our users?
What are our users’ goals?
What are the features/functions we care about?
What is the MVP?
Is it technically feasible?
What are the main sections of the solution?
How do we navigate to them?
How will information be organized?
What content do we need?
What are the main components of our solution?
Where will they be placed?
What will each page/screen generally look like?
What does the branding look like?
What colours and themes are we using?
What will it feel like when we use it?

What people see
What really happened
[Inspired by: Newbie UX http://www.slideshare.net/sachiew91/newbie-ux-something-i-
learned-about-ux]

Enterprise UX Team Startup UX Team

[Source: http://www.cafevoltaic.com/]

5. They try things deliberately and iteratively

[Source: https://dribbble.com/shots/1851126-Ux-Design-Process] - Chris Kobar

Discover
• Business stakeholder interviews
• Ethnographic research
• Contextual Inquiries
• Customer interviews
• Competitive Analysis
• Ecosystem map

P&G Home Ethnography
Key Insights:
• Liquid spills were being
cleaned by paper towels
• People were cleaning their
mops as much as they were
cleaning their ﬂoors

Deﬁne
• Personas
• Key Performance Indicators
• User stories
• Customer journey maps
• User ﬂows

Start commute
to work
Crave morning
lifter-upper
Go to
McDonald’s
Walk in
Choose
order via
kiosk
Pay
Take order
number
Pick up order
at counter
Exit
McCustomer Journey Map
Possible opportunity? Possible opportunity?

Design
• Mood boards
• Sketches
• Wireframes
• Information Architecture
• Mockups
• Low-ﬁdelity -> High-ﬁdelity
prototypes

[Source: http://boxesandarrows.com/integrating-prototyping-into-your-design-process/]

Tons of prototyping tools!
[Source: http://www.cooper.com/prototyping-tools]

Build & Deploy
• Minimum Viable Product
• Alpha/Beta releases
• Style guides
• Design patterns
• Informational guides

“Your MVP is the simplest version of your product
that test your riskiest assumption.”
- Justin Wilcox
[www.custdevlabs.com]

Measure
• Usage metrics
• Business analytics
• Bug reports
• User feedback
• Usability testing

[Source: Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics]

Google’s HEART Framework
[Source: https://library.gv.com/how-to-choose-the-right-ux-metrics-for-your-product-5f46359ab5be#.hddbeckvx]

Usability Testing
• Helps gather feedback from users as they are
involved with your product or service
• Should be used often to make iterative changes
• Is humbling

“Usability is about people and how they
understand and use things, not about
technology.”
- Steve Krug
Usability Testing

Uhhh… does a UX Designer have to
know ALL of that??

No!
but …
… the best UX Designers have an insatiable
appetite to learn!

6. They adapt their process to the problem at hand
7. They are constantly learning new skills and ideas

Part III
Then, Now, and Beyond

~1430: DaVinci’s Kitchen Nightmare
• Leonardo da Vinci hired
by Duke of Milan to help
throw a party
• Designed conveyor belt
and ﬁrst ﬁre sprinkler
[Source: How to Think Like Da Vinci - Michael Gelb]

Early 1900s: Industrial Revolution
“There is joy in work. There is
no happiness except in the
realization that we have
accomplished something.”
- Henry Ford
Shaped the vision of the
interaction between
labourers and their tools

1948:The Toyota Way
• Valued human input as
much as technology
• Paved the way for safer,
iterative, and less wasteful
interactions with tech

1966: Disney
“[Disney World is] a place
where the latest technology
can be used to improve the
lives of people.”
- Walt Disney
Used technological
innovations to bring
delight and joy to people

1995: Don Norman
• Joined Apple and coined
himself the ﬁrst ever “User
Experience Architect”
• Advocated for usability
and functionality over
aesthetics
“Good design is actually a lot
harder to notice than poor
design, in part because
good designs ﬁt our needs
so well that the design is
invisible.”

1998: Google!
• google.com named top
search engine by PC
Magazine
• The design was starkly
minimalist compared to its
many rivals
• A focus on functionality
and ease of use
catapulted Google past
competitors

2007: Enter the iPhone
• Steve Jobs unveils the ﬁrst
iPhone in a keynote
• Blended revolutionary
hardware with supportive
software in a sleek design
• Catapulted Apple to the
richest company today
• Commoditized the need
for user experience

8. They are fearless to try things others wouldn’t
have done for the sake of ﬁnding the better way

Great design needs to be experienced only once in order to
make its preceding alternatives look antiquated

Proliferation of well-designed consumer user experiences are
raising user expectations…

… and are putting pressure on Enterprise UX to catch up

Rapid acquisition of design talent
Oct 2014
Jan 2015
May 2015
Jan 2016

But what’s the ROI of good UX?

[Source: http://www.dmi.org/?page=designdrivesvalue]
“… the Design Value Index (DVI), a market
capitalization-weighted index comprised of design-
driven companies, shows 10-year returns of a
remarkable 219% over that of the Standard & Poor’s
500 index (“S&P 500”) from 2004-2014.”

USAA has created a seamless
experience for researching, financing,
and insuring vehicle purchases. As
a result, the company saw a 77%
year-over-year increase in visitors to
its car-buying site, a 15% increase
in completed auto loans, and a 23%
increase in vehicles sold.
Identifying customer need for better and
more respectful financial literacy training,
Mass Mutual, in partnership with IDEO created
an evening program for adulthood, covering
everything from investing in a 401K to having
that hard talk about a budget to how to pick
good, cheap wine. The Society of Grownups,
in 1 year, has grown into a $100m growth
strategy and plans to expand to more than 10
locations by 2017.
+
[Source: http://solutions.forrester.com/Global/FileLib/
Forr_Perspective_/Forrester-Perspective-CX-2.pdf]
[Source: https://www.ideo.com/work/helping-you-
find-your-inner-adult]

9. They always try to make themselves valuable to
others

Continued proliferation of technology …

… will require more meaningful and
persuasive design
[Source: https://sarasoueidan.com/blog/lessons-from-seductive-interaction-design-book/]

www.designoﬁnﬂuence.com
“Use behavioural psychology to design
web and mobile experiences that
positively persuade your users into
action.”

More designers will be needed at the table

[Source: http://www.slideshare.net/iqcontent1/ux-101-a-quick-dirty-introduction-to-user-experience-strategy-design]

“We are imperfect humans
designing for other imperfect
humans.”

- Erika Hall

But with all the changes around us …
… we still remain the same

10. They keep up with the latest trends but are not
distracted by them
11. They put the human need at the centre of
everything they do

1. They try to solve problems
2. They care more about experiences than aesthetics
3. They understand the larger context
4. They empathize with all their stakeholders
5. They try things deliberately and iteratively
6. They adapt their process to the problem at hand
7. They are constantly learning new skills and ideas
8. They are fearless to try things others wouldn’t have
done for the sake of ﬁnding the better way
9. They always try to make themselves valuable to
others
10. They keep up with the latest trends but are not
distracted by them
11. They put the human need at the centre of everything
they do

Additional Resources I Recommend for the Curious
Newsletters
• Kenny Chen’s UX Design Weekly (uxdesignweekly.com)
• Hey Designer (heydesigner.com)
• UX Booth (uxbooth.com)
Free UX Tutorials
• UX Fundamentals by Gymnasium (http://www.thegymnasium.com/courses/GYM/103/0/about)
• The Hipper Element UX Crash Course (http://thehipperelement.com/post/75476711614/ux-crash-course-31-fundamentals)
• 52 Weeks of UX (http://52weeksofux.com/)
• Coursera Interaction Design Specialization (https://www.coursera.org/specializations/interaction-design - free as audit)
• Search on Youtube. There are a number of great resources for free there.
Paid UX Tutorials
• Become a UX Designer - a course on udemy.com (https://www.udemy.com/learn-real-world-ux/)
• DesignLab (trydesignlab.com)
• Thinkful UX Design course (https://www.thinkful.com/courses/learn-ux-online/)
People to Follow
• Jared Spool
• Mike Monteiro
• Kim Goodwin
• Alan Cooper
• Leah Buley
• Laura Klein
• Tomer Sharon
• Jeff Gothelf
• Indi Young
• Julie Zhou

Thanks for listening!
www.artariq.com
@alirtariq
@ManulifeREDLab
Find me here:

What I've Learned about UX Design

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