This document summarizes a presentation about how to effectively sell UX (user experience) design. The presentation argues that UX professionals often struggle to sell the value of UX because they talk about it using insider terminology instead of language that non-UX people understand. It suggests stopping talking about UX deliverables like wireframes and personas, and instead focusing on how UX can save time, money, increase revenue and improve customer satisfaction. The presentation also stresses the importance of understanding customers' needs from their perspective in order to position UX in a way that meets those needs. It argues UX professionals need to practice the same empathy and contextual thinking they bring to design when talking to potential customers about UX.
The Future of UX: Killing the Wireframe MachineLis Hubert
A talk presented at NYC IxDA, Future of Web Design NYC & Future of Web Design Prague which explains that UX is not equivalent to UI and why we need to stop saying it is.
Why your product team should use User Story Mapping to link user research to ...John Murray
How well do you think your product team takes what they learn from their users and puts it into the next iteration of the product? How well does your team come to a common understanding of what the next iteration of the product will look like and then build a product that reflects that common understanding?
These two problems — improving your product with user research and effective team collaboration — can both be solved with a design tool called User Story Mapping.
In this session, attendees will hear how to apply User Story Mapping to connect user research to user stories for Design Thinking and Agile Development and the experience our teams have with the method. Attendees will get a taste of going through running a simple user story mapping workshop so that they will feel comfortable taking the process back to their business.
This deck covers:
What is user experience design?
How lean concepts changed our approach to UXD
How to begin a successful UX project
How to implement user research to get actionable insight
Product design for Non Designers - Montreal Digital Nomad MeetupSebastian Tory-Pratt
The basic principles of product design are very simple. And you don't need to be able to code to start building your product. This deck introduces some basic principles to help you start moving from idea to tangible product.
Print-your-own UX activity recipe cards. The set includes:
- Opportunity Statement
- Persona 4x4
- Six-Up
- Project Brief
- Customer Conversations
- Wireframe Walkthrough
Instructions: Print two sided on 8x5"x11" card stock. Cut in four pieces. Produces two sets of six cards. Keep one, share one with a friend!
You can find template worksheets for the opportunity statement and persona 4x4 at bit.ly/uxl-worksheets
These materials are part of the "The Collaborative UX Designer's Toolkit" workshop presented at UX London, May 30 2014.
http://2014.uxlondon.com/speakers/lane/#workshop
Many of us learned design thinking in a contained environment, likely by attending a workshop or a sponsored session by a design organization like IBM Design or AIGA. As a matter of learning, that's great. But it can lead you to believe that design thinking only happens in a workshop. However, I'd like to propose a different approach, one that I call "grassroots design thinking", the basis of which suggests that the workshop is not the most atomic element of design thinking effectiveness. When you do design thinking at a more granular, grassroots level you, in fact, have a powerful tool to win over naysayers and critics.
The Future of UX: Killing the Wireframe MachineLis Hubert
A talk presented at NYC IxDA, Future of Web Design NYC & Future of Web Design Prague which explains that UX is not equivalent to UI and why we need to stop saying it is.
Why your product team should use User Story Mapping to link user research to ...John Murray
How well do you think your product team takes what they learn from their users and puts it into the next iteration of the product? How well does your team come to a common understanding of what the next iteration of the product will look like and then build a product that reflects that common understanding?
These two problems — improving your product with user research and effective team collaboration — can both be solved with a design tool called User Story Mapping.
In this session, attendees will hear how to apply User Story Mapping to connect user research to user stories for Design Thinking and Agile Development and the experience our teams have with the method. Attendees will get a taste of going through running a simple user story mapping workshop so that they will feel comfortable taking the process back to their business.
This deck covers:
What is user experience design?
How lean concepts changed our approach to UXD
How to begin a successful UX project
How to implement user research to get actionable insight
Product design for Non Designers - Montreal Digital Nomad MeetupSebastian Tory-Pratt
The basic principles of product design are very simple. And you don't need to be able to code to start building your product. This deck introduces some basic principles to help you start moving from idea to tangible product.
Print-your-own UX activity recipe cards. The set includes:
- Opportunity Statement
- Persona 4x4
- Six-Up
- Project Brief
- Customer Conversations
- Wireframe Walkthrough
Instructions: Print two sided on 8x5"x11" card stock. Cut in four pieces. Produces two sets of six cards. Keep one, share one with a friend!
You can find template worksheets for the opportunity statement and persona 4x4 at bit.ly/uxl-worksheets
These materials are part of the "The Collaborative UX Designer's Toolkit" workshop presented at UX London, May 30 2014.
http://2014.uxlondon.com/speakers/lane/#workshop
Many of us learned design thinking in a contained environment, likely by attending a workshop or a sponsored session by a design organization like IBM Design or AIGA. As a matter of learning, that's great. But it can lead you to believe that design thinking only happens in a workshop. However, I'd like to propose a different approach, one that I call "grassroots design thinking", the basis of which suggests that the workshop is not the most atomic element of design thinking effectiveness. When you do design thinking at a more granular, grassroots level you, in fact, have a powerful tool to win over naysayers and critics.
Conversation, Cadence & Culture: recipes to inspire collaborative teams. Print-your-own recipe cards from workshop at http://leanuxnyc.co/nyc/ April 12, 2013.
Print two sided on 8x5"x11" card stock. Cut in four pieces. Produces two sets of six cards. Keep one, share one with a friend!
Best Practice For UX Deliverables - Eventhandler, London, 05 March 2014Anna Dahlström
TAKE THIS WORKSHOP ONLINE & GET 20% OFF WITH CODE 'SLIDESHARE'
https://school.uxfika.co/p/best-practice-for-ux-deliverables/?product_id=325265&coupon_code=SLIDESHARE
---
Slides from my 'Best practice for UX deliverables' workshop that I ran for Eventhandler in London on the 05th of March 2014.
http://www.eventhandler.co.uk/events/uxnightclass-uxdeliverables3
---
Please note that for copyright reasons & client privacy the examples in this presentation are slightly different than from the workshop. The examples included are for reference only in terms of what I talked through in the 'Good examples' section.
-----
ABSTRACT
Whilst the work we do is not meant to be hanged on a wall for people to admire, nor is meant to be put in a drawer and forgotten about. Just as we make the products and services we design easy to use, the UX of UX is about communicating your thinking in a way that ensures that what you've defined is easy to understand for the reader. It's about adapting the work you do to the project in question and finding the right balance of making people want to look through your work whilst not spending unnecessary time on making it pretty.
Who is it for?
This workshop is suitable for anyone starting out in UX, or who's worked with it for a while but is looking to improve the way they present their work.
What you'll learn
In this hands on workshop we'll walk through real life examples of why the UX of UX deliverables matter. We'll cover how who the reader is effects the way we should present our work, both on paper and verbally, and how to ensure that the work you do adds value. Coming out of the workshop you'll have practical examples and hands on experience with:
// How to adapt and sell your UX deliverable to the reader (from clients, your team, in house and outsourced developers)
// Guiding principles for creating good UX deliverables (both low and high fidelity)
// Best practice for presentations, personas, user journeys, flows, sitemaps, wireframes and other documents
// Simple, low effort but big impact tools for improving the visual presentation of your UX deliverables
The Lean UX Meetup in Las Vegas is gaining momentum. This is the deck for the July meetup. It's got tips for writing a good hypothesis and a few templates to use in the process.
In the Vegas area? Love lean and/or UX? Join the meetup: http://www.meetup.com/Lean-UX-Las-Vegas/
No matter how utopian your agile working environment, if you're building a commercial product, at some stage you will be asked the inevitable question - When will it be done? This talk will provide you with tools and techniques to use when you hear your manager say "We just need to get better at estimating".
If you have ever wished for a crystal ball to help you predict the team's future, this talk is for you!
You don't need to be a designer to create a compelling presentation. This slideshare breaks down some simple best practices to help people to visually present their ideas more effectively.
Presented February 2, 2016 at an event hosted by the Dobson Center for Entrepreneurship at McGill University
An introductory workshop on UX design, taught to design thinking students at the Hasso-Plattner-Institut School of Design Thinking in Potsdam, Germany.
Companion website: http://paperandcode.weebly.com
Software used in the workshop: Sketch, Invision
Slides from my talk on the things I've learned by comparing the collaborative process as it is carried out in many modern organizations to the creative process of artists and makers.
UX at Canadian Tire: Baking empathy into projectsUserTesting
Steve McGuire, Associate Manager of Usability and Optimization at Canadian Tire, shares how his team uses empathy to drive amazing UX and how to spread this empathy to other team members in the user testing process.
You'll learn:
- How having empathy for customers helps Canadian Tire better understand their frustrations and delights
- How involving team members in the user testing process gets everyone working towards creating frictionless user experiences
- How empathy for other team members and stakeholders benefits the final product
Owning the Interaction in Dynamic Environmentsguestf4f7a4b38
Abstract
As the internet gets more interactive with the widespread adoption of broadband, we must continue to own user interactions across this changing landscape. This presentation will highlight the challenges from a UK design agency perspective and demonstrate my commerical, practical method for describing dynamic user interactions.
Building Character: Creating Consistent Experiences With Design PrinciplesAdam Connor
Inconsistency is one of the most common points of breakdown and frustration in the interactions and experiences we have. Whether we’re interacting with other people, applications, our bank, our doctor, our government, anyone, we form expectations and understandings of what someone or something will do based on our previous experiences and their past behaviors. When something happens that doesn’t fit with those expectations–that seems out of character–we’re caught off guard. What do we do next? What should we expect now?
Principles act as rules that guide how we think and act. Formed by our motivations, values and beliefs, we use them as “lenses” through which we examine information in order to make decisions on what to do. And because of their persistent influence on our behavior, they influence other’s views and expectations of us. Using these same kinds of constructs throughout the design process we can design interactions and consistent behaviors that set and live up to expectations for our audiences.
Tell Me What You Do: How Storytelling Makes You a Better DesignerMary Wharmby
As design asks for a larger seat at the table and works to foster a culture of customer-centered design-thinking, we must better communicate our process and value to others who don't understand this mysterious power of UX. Storytelling is a great way to do that.
Despite the fact that we talk a lot about story in UX, we have trouble putting it into practice, especially our own stories.
This talk recasts our design process as story, making it more impactful and relatable to others. We discuss the uses of story in UX, provide a visual map of the UX story framework (UXStoryWheel), and demonstrate a few simple story patterns.
Often times we hear it spoken about how UX can change business within a company, or an explanation of what UX is, or how the culture can become transformed by understanding the language of business and how to marry it with UX. The foundation of understanding this is important, but what does the journey look like in getting there?
In this talk different processes will be shown in how to accomplish all of the above. Most importantly, a process of being adaptive and empathetic. Whether it’s in a corporate environment, a small business, or a start-up company, anyone can benefit from these different kinds of design processes, strategies, thoughts, and realistic points of view.
Conversation, Cadence & Culture: recipes to inspire collaborative teams. Print-your-own recipe cards from workshop at http://leanuxnyc.co/nyc/ April 12, 2013.
Print two sided on 8x5"x11" card stock. Cut in four pieces. Produces two sets of six cards. Keep one, share one with a friend!
Best Practice For UX Deliverables - Eventhandler, London, 05 March 2014Anna Dahlström
TAKE THIS WORKSHOP ONLINE & GET 20% OFF WITH CODE 'SLIDESHARE'
https://school.uxfika.co/p/best-practice-for-ux-deliverables/?product_id=325265&coupon_code=SLIDESHARE
---
Slides from my 'Best practice for UX deliverables' workshop that I ran for Eventhandler in London on the 05th of March 2014.
http://www.eventhandler.co.uk/events/uxnightclass-uxdeliverables3
---
Please note that for copyright reasons & client privacy the examples in this presentation are slightly different than from the workshop. The examples included are for reference only in terms of what I talked through in the 'Good examples' section.
-----
ABSTRACT
Whilst the work we do is not meant to be hanged on a wall for people to admire, nor is meant to be put in a drawer and forgotten about. Just as we make the products and services we design easy to use, the UX of UX is about communicating your thinking in a way that ensures that what you've defined is easy to understand for the reader. It's about adapting the work you do to the project in question and finding the right balance of making people want to look through your work whilst not spending unnecessary time on making it pretty.
Who is it for?
This workshop is suitable for anyone starting out in UX, or who's worked with it for a while but is looking to improve the way they present their work.
What you'll learn
In this hands on workshop we'll walk through real life examples of why the UX of UX deliverables matter. We'll cover how who the reader is effects the way we should present our work, both on paper and verbally, and how to ensure that the work you do adds value. Coming out of the workshop you'll have practical examples and hands on experience with:
// How to adapt and sell your UX deliverable to the reader (from clients, your team, in house and outsourced developers)
// Guiding principles for creating good UX deliverables (both low and high fidelity)
// Best practice for presentations, personas, user journeys, flows, sitemaps, wireframes and other documents
// Simple, low effort but big impact tools for improving the visual presentation of your UX deliverables
The Lean UX Meetup in Las Vegas is gaining momentum. This is the deck for the July meetup. It's got tips for writing a good hypothesis and a few templates to use in the process.
In the Vegas area? Love lean and/or UX? Join the meetup: http://www.meetup.com/Lean-UX-Las-Vegas/
No matter how utopian your agile working environment, if you're building a commercial product, at some stage you will be asked the inevitable question - When will it be done? This talk will provide you with tools and techniques to use when you hear your manager say "We just need to get better at estimating".
If you have ever wished for a crystal ball to help you predict the team's future, this talk is for you!
You don't need to be a designer to create a compelling presentation. This slideshare breaks down some simple best practices to help people to visually present their ideas more effectively.
Presented February 2, 2016 at an event hosted by the Dobson Center for Entrepreneurship at McGill University
An introductory workshop on UX design, taught to design thinking students at the Hasso-Plattner-Institut School of Design Thinking in Potsdam, Germany.
Companion website: http://paperandcode.weebly.com
Software used in the workshop: Sketch, Invision
Slides from my talk on the things I've learned by comparing the collaborative process as it is carried out in many modern organizations to the creative process of artists and makers.
UX at Canadian Tire: Baking empathy into projectsUserTesting
Steve McGuire, Associate Manager of Usability and Optimization at Canadian Tire, shares how his team uses empathy to drive amazing UX and how to spread this empathy to other team members in the user testing process.
You'll learn:
- How having empathy for customers helps Canadian Tire better understand their frustrations and delights
- How involving team members in the user testing process gets everyone working towards creating frictionless user experiences
- How empathy for other team members and stakeholders benefits the final product
Owning the Interaction in Dynamic Environmentsguestf4f7a4b38
Abstract
As the internet gets more interactive with the widespread adoption of broadband, we must continue to own user interactions across this changing landscape. This presentation will highlight the challenges from a UK design agency perspective and demonstrate my commerical, practical method for describing dynamic user interactions.
Building Character: Creating Consistent Experiences With Design PrinciplesAdam Connor
Inconsistency is one of the most common points of breakdown and frustration in the interactions and experiences we have. Whether we’re interacting with other people, applications, our bank, our doctor, our government, anyone, we form expectations and understandings of what someone or something will do based on our previous experiences and their past behaviors. When something happens that doesn’t fit with those expectations–that seems out of character–we’re caught off guard. What do we do next? What should we expect now?
Principles act as rules that guide how we think and act. Formed by our motivations, values and beliefs, we use them as “lenses” through which we examine information in order to make decisions on what to do. And because of their persistent influence on our behavior, they influence other’s views and expectations of us. Using these same kinds of constructs throughout the design process we can design interactions and consistent behaviors that set and live up to expectations for our audiences.
Tell Me What You Do: How Storytelling Makes You a Better DesignerMary Wharmby
As design asks for a larger seat at the table and works to foster a culture of customer-centered design-thinking, we must better communicate our process and value to others who don't understand this mysterious power of UX. Storytelling is a great way to do that.
Despite the fact that we talk a lot about story in UX, we have trouble putting it into practice, especially our own stories.
This talk recasts our design process as story, making it more impactful and relatable to others. We discuss the uses of story in UX, provide a visual map of the UX story framework (UXStoryWheel), and demonstrate a few simple story patterns.
Often times we hear it spoken about how UX can change business within a company, or an explanation of what UX is, or how the culture can become transformed by understanding the language of business and how to marry it with UX. The foundation of understanding this is important, but what does the journey look like in getting there?
In this talk different processes will be shown in how to accomplish all of the above. Most importantly, a process of being adaptive and empathetic. Whether it’s in a corporate environment, a small business, or a start-up company, anyone can benefit from these different kinds of design processes, strategies, thoughts, and realistic points of view.
Half talk, half group discussion that dives into and questions our responsibilities as creators of technologies. Do we like the world we are creating? Or, do we need to get unstuck from it.
Storymapping: A MacGyver Approach to Content StrategyDonna Lichaw
** Authored and presented with Lis Hubert **
Need an organized and prioritized content assessment? Sure you do! Unfortunately, it’s not always possible on a short timeline, with low funds… or is it? What if there was a way to create and facilitate an in-depth assessment of company content with organizations that are short on time and cash? Enter the storymapping approach.
Join Donna and Lis as they take you with them on their journey working with a New York City-based nonprofit to organize, prioritize, and manage program content in no time flat (and with little cash to boot). Instead of working with long research periods and deep-dive content approaches, they offer a creative method using storytelling to helping to map content needs to business and user goals.
In this session you will learn:
• How to do quality content strategy work even when constraints are many
• How to use content strategy to increase your understanding of content, even when you can’t afford fancy resources to help you
• How storymaps can be used across different touchpoints and content areas to improve the user experience.
UX Workshop introducing what UX is and why it is important. The audience may or may not be familiar with UX so the presentation focuses more on principles than a step-by-step how-to.
These days almost anyone can create a wireframe. So what does it take to go beyond boxes and arrows and produce work to be proud of?
In this recent talk given at UX Crunch, London I share insights into areas I encourage my team to explore to help them produce even more fantastic work.
A talk we had at Texity systems.
Topics were
“ Are you really a User Experience Designer ?
The shift from product design to process design”
Contents
- what is user experience ? A bit of historical perspective
- Who coined the term and what did he mean ? ( Don Norman coined this term)
- how does IA, interaction design, usability, user research, relate to user experience ?
- what is product user experience ?
- how is different from user experience design of a service ?
- if this is User Experience, then what exactly is customer experience ?
- Should there be a designation called User Experience designer?
- The CEO, the engineer, the sales manager , product manager ….. are they UX designers or they aren’t ?
- Product design vs Process design
- The notion of a User , and who is the Customer ….. can user and customer be same ?
- A better term : DUX ( designing for user experience )
An intro to what people (and myself) think UX is. Also who is "doing" UX and how you can do it better. Originally presented at Product Camp Nashville - Sep 2018
LUXr Downtown Las Vegas Small Business 1-day workshop, July 11, 2013 [Las Vegas]LUXr
Lean Startup has caught fire, but what does it mean for UX? User Experience is one of the most challenging and least understood aspects of creating a product...and yet it will make or break your product. This deck is from the LUXr 1-day workshop for Small Business, held as part of the Downtown Project in Las Vegas.
Luxr coaches Kate Rutter & Kim Knoll facilitated a day-long Lean Startup immersive experience that helps people both make the right product, and make the product right.
Presentation on distinction between UI and UX, why developers should be aware of UX designing and participate, what are the simple tips to incorporate and what are the upcoming trends on UX design. Presented at the Developer Meet Nepal on May 12th at islington college, Kathmandu, Nepal.
I gave this talk at UXCambridge and Mirror conference in Braga, Portugal in 2016. I believe that it's people's soft skills that really make the difference on projects. I had a think about some of the best people I've worked with over the years and identified the soft skills that they all had in common. This talk looks into each of these skills in turn and explains the difference between hard and soft skills.
Talk from Renaissance IO 2014 on how to make sure you’re designing your apps for the right audience. Covers Baxley’s “Universal Model of the User Interface” and designer temperaments.
UX Jiu Jitsu is a talk about how UX can reshape itself in an organization with little UX exposure. Use these tips to increase your ability to deliver UX to your business.
Business sees a high level value in UX because it's where the money is, but something in our process is breaking down. Get some practical advice on UX process with UX Jiu Jitsu.
UX NZ - Teaching a cross-Tasman corporate web team to value UX.adkendall
I’m the UX guy in the National Australia Bank (NAB) digital team. On my first day someone asked me “from a UX perspective, should we go with the red or black button? By the way, we go live tonight.” To my new team, UX was a post-design addition that one guy – me – could do in isolation.
Fast-forward a few months to a team mate Jose, who is building a web form to our stakeholder’s requirements. After spending five hours with me finding things that, from a user’s point of view, were missing he had a mountain of changes and five weeks added to his project. It’s clear that UX can’t be a bolt-on, and that it’s more than one person’s responsibility.
Later, when Jose had another form to build, he said “I want you there from the beginning so we get it right”. I’m half a year in and now my team sees UX as a starting point, and something we work on together. We’re solving our users’ problems, rather than just satisfying technical requirements and slapping an interface on top.
We’ll show you how to change a team’s awareness of UX, drawing lessons from a big organisation spanning Australia and New Zealand. We’ve saved time and money, helped the company’s bottom line, and tapped into NAB’s world-class expertise in a range of disciplines.
We’ll also explain our plan to empower people to making their own UX decisions in the future.
This talk is for people who don’t know where to start. I’m talking to anyone whose team doesn’t know where a UX person fits. Learn how to prove your worth, get the team working with you, and change things for the better.
User Empathy: Prioritizing Users in your UX ProcessMary Fran Wiley
A discussion on what user empathy is and how you can make sure that your UX process prioritizes users. Includes tips for doing this in WordPress. From WordCamp Chicago 2017
Hello everyone! I am thrilled to present my latest portfolio on LinkedIn, marking the culmination of my architectural journey thus far. Over the span of five years, I've been fortunate to acquire a wealth of knowledge under the guidance of esteemed professors and industry mentors. From rigorous academic pursuits to practical engagements, each experience has contributed to my growth and refinement as an architecture student. This portfolio not only showcases my projects but also underscores my attention to detail and to innovative architecture as a profession.
Can AI do good? at 'offtheCanvas' India HCI preludeAlan Dix
Invited talk at 'offtheCanvas' IndiaHCI prelude, 29th June 2024.
https://www.alandix.com/academic/talks/offtheCanvas-IndiaHCI2024/
The world is being changed fundamentally by AI and we are constantly faced with newspaper headlines about its harmful effects. However, there is also the potential to both ameliorate theses harms and use the new abilities of AI to transform society for the good. Can you make the difference?
Expert Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Drafting ServicesResDraft
Whether you’re looking to create a guest house, a rental unit, or a private retreat, our experienced team will design a space that complements your existing home and maximizes your investment. We provide personalized, comprehensive expert accessory dwelling unit (ADU)drafting solutions tailored to your needs, ensuring a seamless process from concept to completion.
Transforming Brand Perception and Boosting Profitabilityaaryangarg12
In today's digital era, the dynamics of brand perception, consumer behavior, and profitability have been profoundly reshaped by the synergy of branding, social media, and website design. This research paper investigates the transformative power of these elements in influencing how individuals perceive brands and products and how this transformation can be harnessed to drive sales and profitability for businesses.
Through an exploration of brand psychology and consumer behavior, this study sheds light on the intricate ways in which effective branding strategies, strategic social media engagement, and user-centric website design contribute to altering consumers' perceptions. We delve into the principles that underlie successful brand transformations, examining how visual identity, messaging, and storytelling can captivate and resonate with target audiences.
Methodologically, this research employs a comprehensive approach, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses. Real-world case studies illustrate the impact of branding, social media campaigns, and website redesigns on consumer perception, sales figures, and profitability. We assess the various metrics, including brand awareness, customer engagement, conversion rates, and revenue growth, to measure the effectiveness of these strategies.
The results underscore the pivotal role of cohesive branding, social media influence, and website usability in shaping positive brand perceptions, influencing consumer decisions, and ultimately bolstering sales and profitability. This paper provides actionable insights and strategic recommendations for businesses seeking to leverage branding, social media, and website design as potent tools to enhance their market position and financial success.
Transforming Brand Perception and Boosting Profitability
Want to Sell UX? Stop Talking UX!
1. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Want to Sell UX?
Stop Talking UX!
UX Cambridge 2013
- Who do we have here today?
UXers?
Business people?
Devs?
Designers?
Of you UXers how many of you are:
Consultants?
In house?
Agency?
- UXers... how many of you, by a show of hands, have a hard time proving the value of UX whether on
your own as a consultant or in an agency or in house? Can I get one person to provide me of a recent
example?
- Non UXers - how many of you are weary of having UX on a project or team?
so let’s jump in...
2. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Who I am
Lis Hubert
@lishubert
www.elisabethhubert.com
First let me tell you a bit about who I am, and why I’m here.
My name is Lis, and I’m an IA and UX consultant based in NYC.
As a consultant I’m always thinking about ways to bring clients the services that I know they need, that
I know I can provide. I’m wanting to open them up to the possibilities of UX.
However, what I was finding was that
3. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Why I am here
My UX Sales
my sales numbers weren’t reflecting of my customer’s “need” for my product.
I all too often saw people not wanting to buy what I had to offer even though it would help their
company tenfold!
At first I just assumed I was bad at sales all together. I then reflected on my past as an in house UXer
and realized it wasn’t easy to sell my services there either. No one wanted what I knew they
needed. I realized then that this whole selling UX thing was a bigger problem than just my inability
to sell.
As we saw at the beginning, it seems like many of you are having the same issues whether you work
for yourselves or your work in house or at an agency. And to clarify, those issues are the inability to
convince people that what you have is truly what they need. That your skillset is of huge value to them,
and they should see that.
This is what has brought me here in front of you. So for the next 35 minutes we are going to discuss
1. The current state
2. The problem
3. The solution
4. the outcome of implementing the solution
4. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
This is Dave
Dave is an executive at ABC Financial Services Corp.
He is in charge of the lead “money making” product, annuities. Dave has recently come up with a new
product idea. He wants to create an annuities app. He KNOWS people will love it, and people def
need it. Annuities are the best way to save for retirement afterall. He puts together a project that will
execute on the app, and walks away happy.
The project manager gathers together the project team and tells them what they need to build. The
UXer on the team says “does anyone really need this, how will it bring the user value?”, and the
project manager tells the UXer that this is what Dave wants, and so it shall be.
The UXer goes to Dave and explains the uselessness of his new product, but it shot down. And the
company spends thousands of dollars to build the annuity app. It has tons of information about
annuities, talks about how you get triple compounded savings, and all the other features. Of course
none of this language makes sense to the user, it is basically Dave shouting out the features of
annuities and not tying them to any real value. Needless to say the app fails horribly, after several
redesigns to “fix the UX”, and Dave gets frustrated that no one sees the immense value his product
idea can bring to users. “They simply won’t be able to save as much without it!”, Dave cries.
Let me ask this audience... How many of you have worked with Dave? Same old story right?
Well I’d like to break down where Dave went wrong on this one, even though it’s obvious to us all.
5. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Where Dave went wrong
★ No Empathy
★ Talking at them, not with them
★ Placed his product out of context
• First off Dave doesn’t have any empathy for his users. He is doing this app completely for himself.
Even though he wants the best for his users, he doesn’t consider that maybe, just maybe his way is the
wrong way.
• Because Dave doesn’t have empathy for his users he isn’t talk to them, he is talking at them, and this
provides even less interest
.
• This is UX 101... an iphone app for annuities? You really thought that was going to work??
This is why we HATE working with Daves, they just don’t get what user experience is really about!
Ok, so enough about Dave for now, we’ll come back to him later... We are here to talk about the current
state of selling UX afterall.
6. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
How we sell UX
How many of you have done this. You get in front of a project manager, team or executive and you
listen to the problem the team is having. You say “well this could all be solved if we did some user
interviews, put together personas, maybe even did customer journeys?
How many times did that come back with blank faces, stories about scope, cost, timeline? Eventually
your ideas get crushed.
• This is the current state of selling UX. We come to them with solutions and we are encountered with
blank faces, stories about budget and scope and schedule.
Let me ask you this in the case I just provided....
7. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
How are we different
from Dave?
Think about it...
• We know that people need our product
• But we sell it to them in our language not theirs, using all of our jargon and terms
• Many times we even sell UX out of context, we try to sell it once the project is already put together
and the purse strings already tied.
• Then we get frustrated when people don’t buy what we’re selling!
• AND we blame them because they are the business or tech or creative people that just don’t
understand!
It’s insanity!
Oh and to make things even better we have leaders or our profession saying things like this recent
quote that a friend of mine tweeted...
8. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Here’s the tweet
How many of you saw this?
How many of you agree with this?
How many of you are proud of this?
I’m horrified by it! If nobody knows how to work with us, we haven’t won. In fact we’ve put ourselves on
the outside even more, instead of seeing outside of UX and integrating ourselves with other teams
we are regressing even further into an isolated abyss!
WORSE we’ve disobeyed our own rules of understanding users and having empathy, because the
people that work with us ARE OUR USERS.
Thus, We ARE like Dave because we have a great product... it’s called UX, but we sell it assuming
people should know what it is because they need it so badly. Then we get frustrated when they don’t
see how much they need us, but in reality we’ve never explained to them, in their language, why they
need us. In fact we’ve just pushed our knowledge at them, just like Dave did in his annuity app when
he assumed people would just flock to this amazing product.
This! is why UX doesn’t sell, because we aren’t selling it using the principles we preach, and this
current state of us selling UX this way causes us some major problems.
9. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
I’m a UX person
which means I
create personas
and customer
journeys!
Before jumping into the problems that talking UX causes let me explain a bit more clearly what I mean
by that term “talking UX”. We the UX community have our own language. We describe what we do
by our deliverables, and this does us a great dis-service (but that is for another talk).
As we talked about before we’ll listen to a business partner tell us their requirements or issues, and
we’ll respond by talking UX and saying something like “ok we’ll start by doing some user interviews,
then we’ll create personas, and scenarios… which will allow us to move into information architecture,
and then visual design and whammo problem solved”
And when we talk like this, this is what our business partners, tech partners and clients think about that.
10. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
<read statement>
The operative word here
11. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Cost
Cost.
Whether it’s money, project budget, Time, how does this affect someone else’s job. There is always a
cost. And we don’t always have empathy towards this fact especially when we talk like this....
12. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
“It sounds like you
just need user
interviews.”
When we talk UX... we ignore our teammates around us (hell no wonder they don’t “get how to work
with us”)
As I mentioned using this language to describe our value brings up several issues. First when we talk
UX
13. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
We sound worthless and expensive!
We spend a lot of time talking about what we can deliver without touching on how we deliver real value.
and this reflects on our industry as a whole, and discredits us a great deal.
Second
14. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
“You are the one that
does all those
wireframes right?”
How many times have you heard this? Well that’s because we talk about ourselves as deliverables and
not as value.
The second problem we see is that UX isn’t seen for as we can do, we are seen as what we can
deliver and what we deliver in and of itself isn’t the real value... it’s how we think, it’s our
process.
UX thus is not seen as a value add and that causes problem number 3...
15. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Our Market
It screws up our market. What do I mean by screwing up a market. Here is an example...
Recently I have been searching for a new apartment in NYC. I’m sure it’s similar to London, maybe
even here/ But the process is insane. When I would tell friends that I was looking for an apartment,
they would ask me when I was moving. I would tell them September first. Every single person would
wince when I would say this.
⁃ “What is it?” I’d ask
⁃ “That’s the worst time to look.”, They’d say
⁃ “Why?” I’d ask
⁃ “Because that is when all the NYU students come back for school, and because they aren’t
paying for their housing, and their parents are, it screws up the entire apartment market.”
⁃ You see it is simply much harder to find a somewhat affordable place during this time,
because brokers and landlords KNOW they can sell their apartment, they don’t see you as a
needed tenet, there are tons of tenants this time of year afterall.
If UX is seen as a deliverable, instead of a true value add, it isn’t seen as a need. It’s just seen as a
wireframe or a usability test, no one gets why they should spend all the time and money to go through
the actual process. They can just create the deliverable without meaning.
Therefore instead of getting buyers who want what we actually are trying to sell, i.e. a better user
experience for their customers and more money for their company in return, we get buyers who just
16. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
* Enokson via Compfight cc
We don’t show empathy for our teams, and therefore we don’t let them know how UX helps them
specifically WHICH IS TOTALLY AGAINST WHAT WE DO. We are in essence hypocrites!
Gogo story. People wanted to know how this effects their jobs, but we can’t even tell them how it helps
the company as a whole. We aren’t showing people that we can work with them, but understanding
them. So, quite frankly, they don’t want to work with us UNLESS we are producing something that
makes the project go faster.
How then do we solve these problems. - Well to do that let’s do like Hollywood, and look at an alternate
ending to our story about Dave.
17. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
This is Dave... again
Pretend that instead of blowing off the UX Designer who raised concerns for his annuity app, Dave
actually listened, because the UXer was talking about how much money he’d be wasting by not really
meeting user needs. This caused Dave to
He took a step back and realized that people didn’t understand the value of annuities, nor did they
understand the need to save for a rainy day. He learned about his users and he realized that what
they really needed was a program that explained to them what type of savings that should be
accumulating for the lifestyle they want to live, what type of savings they could actually afford, and
how annuities fit these needs for them.
After putting together this program, and instead of creating an app Dave’s team would talk to
customers who would either call in or visit the site. Their first question to users was always simple “do
you want to save more and still stay within your budget”. Users loved this and would adopt the
program shortly after. Needless to say the product and the company overall saw a great deal of
success.
So what did Dave do differently? <Ask the audience>
18. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
★ Understood what was valuable to users
★ Stopped using ‘Dave’ speak
★ Positioned product contextually
★ Practiced good UX principles!
Where Dave went right
• He took the time to understand what was valuable to his users
• He stopped talking in his language and started talking in the users language
• He positioned his product (annuities) in the right context at the right time by not using an app and
instead a program that intersected with the right users at the right time.
• Basically, he practiced good UX principles.
So how do we sell more UX? Well first we
19. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Teach them to want
what we know they
need
I got this quote from a book entitled “how to become a rainmaker” by Jeffrey J. Fox. He talks about the
way to become a great consultant is to teach your customer to want to desire what you know will help
them.
We know they need us to be successful, THEY know they need us to be successful.
* workshop “I know my projects work better when there is a UX person on them, but I don’t know why.”
To teach them to want what we know they need, we first have to understand
20. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013* They Don’t Know by Ed Mitchell via Flickr
Understand from their point of view, what it is they need. We need to really get what is valuable to them.
In her closing keynote at the 2010 IA Summit, Whitney Hess spoke to us about transcending our tribe.
About going outside of our tiny group here to stop feeling so disenfranchised and misunderstood, to
stop isolating ourselves and strive for the influence to bring about the change that drives us to do what
we do.
Transcending our tribe is an important way to build empathy and understanding for our business
partners.
You see we have to know what will appeal to them in order to know how to sell our value to them.
Our next step in getting them to want what we know they need, is telling them about what we provide in
a way that matches their needs... i.e. we
21. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Stop talking UX!
* Harbor Way by Davide Cassanello via Flickr
Stop talking UX!
We need to talk to them in ways that show the clear advantage to them of having us involved.
Use terms like
• Time saved from having to do rework
• Money saved
• More revenue
• Better customer satisfaction
So we stop talking UX and THEN we have to
22. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
* beruhrung by westpark via Flickr
Intersect with the right customers at the right time... and to be honest with you, I’m not sure who this is
for everyone. For me what I have found is that many of my customers are businesses that lack
process, that need direction, not just a resource to pump out deliverables. So I will go out and find
these people by networking, etc.
I think that UX as a whole has to take a step back and determine who the right customers are for us...
perhaps an idea for another talk.
Once we intersect with the right people we finally...
23. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013* Harbor Way by Davide Cassanello via Flickr* Via http://www.weziwezi.com/
Empower them.
By Informing the customer in their own language we have empowered our them to make an informed
decision about what we do and how UX is important outside of just a deliverable space. We no longer
expect them to rely on moral good or faith that what we are saying is correct, but give them the
information they need to feel confident that UX is the answer.
Once our customers can make an empowered decision based on us showing them that 1. we know
what the need, and 2. we can provide what they need, we have made them want what we know they
need. and THAT is how you sell UX!
Once the customer is empowered and decided THEN you can bring the UX jargon, because you’ve
already sold them. UX jargon is for explanation mode, not sales mode.
How do I know this will work? Because I have been watching a secret experiment play out over the last
decade which proves my point to a tee. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to let this secret out, but I trust you
guys not to tell anyone outside of this room. The secret experiment that proves my point?? I”m not sure
if you guys have heard of it...
24. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
How do you think these people sold all of this jargon and hoopla? Well not by saying we need to have a
backlog and a discover sessions and bla bla.
• They understood their user - business that were being overrun with tech costs and timelines and
wanted and needed to save time and money.
• Used language to make the user want what they knew they needed - they said “we are gonna build
software that is better, cheaper and takes less time to create”. They sold money, time, cost... they know
that’s what business people want to hear about and that’s what they put out there.
• They found the right user at the right time (big money companies with huge over operationalized
technology departments) THEN doing all this they Empowered the customer to make the decision to
“go agile”
• THEN said oh and we have all this other stuff we do to make this work... is that OK? and of course the
customer said yes!!
By doing these things:
1. Understanding what our business customer’s need and what helps make their jobs/lives easier... i.e.
knowing what is valuable to them.
2. Presenting options to them to meet that value without talking UX
3. Empowering them to make what we know is the right decision
we in effect
4. Teaching them to want what we know they need
25. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Tell story of new client approaching me
Tell story of how I would try to sell this in the past
Tell story of how I stopped talking UX this time
The outcome of me using this approach?
26. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
UX Sales Success!
I was able to sell UX as a strategic platform and not a deliverable based exercise.
My team’s deliverables? An MVP… you may be thinking what does that look like?
- The greatest part: we were the ones to define that… we weren’t tied to deliverables, we were tied to
deliver meaning and strategy
By talking to the value of what UX provides, as opposed to talking UX, I made UX a necessity to
starting this guy’s business.
27. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
Let’s Review
- We talked about a lot today. We talked about Dave and how he tried to sell annuities by pushing his
views onto his customers
- We likened this to us selling UX today as consultants, agencies and in-housers
- We defined the term talking UX
" - We saw that doing so has caused our field a great deal of angst
- We reviewed how we use UX thinking to stop talking UX and start selling our value,
- And we saw how this results in bringing UX to a level we all have been waiting for.
- But when you leave here today, if you remember one thing and one thing only, I want you to
remember this:
28. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
UX is not sellable
" - UX is not a deliverable, it’s not something that we Sell to our clients
" - UX itself is not what we sell, no you see
"
29. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
" - What we sell is customer value, and the way we bring customers value is through our process and
through deliverables, but the way that we sell that value is in the language of our customer.
" - So the next time you are in a meeting with Dave, don’t talk to him about what deliverables you
create, about how UX can make things easier for his users and he should morally want to do that.
" " - You tell Dave how your process brings him more value, how working with you and your field
gets him to his goals.
" " - Then, and only then UX will we...
30. UX Cambridge 2013 @lishubert September 5, 2013
* Untitled by Andres Musta via Flickr
stop building these damn annuities apps. and start doing real UX work.