Author : Lou Rosenfeld You may have spent the early years of your UX career fighting off a bad case of impostor syndrome. Well, bad news: as your career advances, there's a good chance that it'll return. That's because your day-to-day work diet will increasingly forgo the red meat of research and design for a dog's breakfast of odd tasks and miscellaneous activities that you'd never imagined existed. Lou Rosenfeld, who's been around a while and has done some things, feels this pain. He's not sure if what he does is UX. That's his problem. But there's a very good chance that, should you live long enough, Lord willing, it will be yours some day too. Join Lou for a look at what it means—or could mean—to "practice UX" at the far edges of your career and in strange settings that a little time at General Assembly or in grad school don't prepare you for.

1. What to do
when you
don’t know
what to do
Lou Rosenfeld / UX New Zealand / 29 October 2015

2. Your Career

3. Your Career

4. Sites
& Apps
Your Career

5. Sites
& Apps
?
Your Career

6. Sites
& Apps
Your Career

7. Sites
& Apps
Physical Products
Your Career

8. Sites
& Apps
Physical Products
Services
Your Career

9. Sites
& Apps
Physical Products
Services
Teams
Your Career

10. Sites
& Apps
Physical Products
Services
Teams
Organizations
Your Career

11. Sites
& Apps
Physical Products
Services
Teams
Organizations
Communities
Your Career

12. Sites
& Apps
Physical Products
Services
Teams
Organizations
Communities
Business
Models
Your Career

13. Sites
& Apps
Physical Products
Services
Teams
Organizations
Communities
Business
Models
Your Career
Events

14. Sites
& Apps
Physical Products
Services
Teams
Organizations
Communities
Business
Models
Your Career
Events
Content

15. Sites
& Apps
Physical Products
Services
Teams
Organizations
Communities
Business
Models
Your Career
Events
Content
Content?

19. “Most publishers
are frustrated
authors”
—Tim O’Reilly, 2005

20. How to improve a product
that you’ve
not created yet?

21. Show and Tell Sessions

22. Show and Tell Sessions

23. Show and Tell Sessions
4 sessions; 5-15 people/session
Questions:
• “Why did you bring these books?”
• “What are their good attributes?
And bad ones?”
• “Where and when do you use them?”
Combine competitive and
generative research

24. So where do we read?

25. So where do we read?

26. Small is good
6”/152mm x 9”/229mm x 150-250pp
Small and portable is good

27. Practical
is good
C ARD SORTING
Designing Usable Categories
by DONNA SPENCER foreword by Jesse James Garrett
g how
mation
sable
sort,
asy-to-
ns-and-
emerge
d smart
Design
mation
Whether
size to
CARDSORTINGbyDONNASPENCER

28. Books are judged by their covers

29. What's everyone's
favorite UX book?

30. Take-away:
Opinions are freely available
from anyone on everything
—and may even be useful

31. Take-away:
Opinions are freely available
from anyone on everything
—and may even be useful

32. How to test a new product
that’s really expensive
to produce?

33. Prototyping

34. Prototyping

35. Used LuLu for paper prototype
(PDF testing was a bit easier)
Prototyping

36. Usability Testing

37. Usability Testing
Task analysis + interviews to evaluate
• Support for orientation and fundability
• Author and publisher credibility
• Readability

38. Usability Testing
Task analysis + interviews to evaluate
• Support for orientation and fundability
• Author and publisher credibility
• Readability
More on prototyping/testing books:
http://rfld.me/1ONeA9e

39. The front of the book
FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
What do you mean by “content everywhere”?
The way I talk about it, “content everywhere” doesn’t mean splattering your
message in every corner of the Web. It’s about investing in content that’s
flexible enough to go wherever you need it: multiple websites, apps, chan-
nels, and other experiences. Why? Because devices of all shapes, sizes, and
capabilities are flooding the market, and users expect to get your content on
all of them, which you can read about in Chapter 1.
Right now, most organizations can barely keep up with their large, unwieldy
desktop websites, much less multiple different sets of content for all these
different experiences. Content everywhere is all about learning how to pre-
pare one set of content to go wherever it’s needed—now and in the future.
What do you mean by structured content,
and why is it so important?
Today, most digital content is unstructured: just words poured onto a page.
To signify where one part ends and another begins, writers use formatting,
like upping a font size to be a headline or putting an author’s name in italics.
This works fine if your content is only going to be used on a single page and
viewed on a desktop monitor, but that’s about it.
Structured content, on the other hand, is created in smaller modules, which
can be stored and used in lots more ways. For example, you could display
a headline and a copy teaser in one place, and have a user click to read the
rest—something you can’t do if the story is all one blob. You can give the
same content different presentation rules when it’s displayed on mobile,
such as resizing headlines or changing which content is prioritized or
emphasized—automatically. In this way, adding structure actually makes
content more flexible, because it allows you to do more with it. You can learn
about this in Chapter 5.
But don’t I need different, simpler content for mobile?
FAQ before
the TOC provides
context, navigation
and orientation

40. The front of the book
FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
What do you mean by “content everywhere”?
The way I talk about it, “content everywhere” doesn’t mean splattering your
message in every corner of the Web. It’s about investing in content that’s
flexible enough to go wherever you need it: multiple websites, apps, chan-
nels, and other experiences. Why? Because devices of all shapes, sizes, and
capabilities are flooding the market, and users expect to get your content on
all of them, which you can read about in Chapter 1.
Right now, most organizations can barely keep up with their large, unwieldy
desktop websites, much less multiple different sets of content for all these
different experiences. Content everywhere is all about learning how to pre-
pare one set of content to go wherever it’s needed—now and in the future.
What do you mean by structured content,
and why is it so important?
Today, most digital content is unstructured: just words poured onto a page.
To signify where one part ends and another begins, writers use formatting,
like upping a font size to be a headline or putting an author’s name in italics.
This works fine if your content is only going to be used on a single page and
viewed on a desktop monitor, but that’s about it.
Structured content, on the other hand, is created in smaller modules, which
can be stored and used in lots more ways. For example, you could display
a headline and a copy teaser in one place, and have a user click to read the
rest—something you can’t do if the story is all one blob. You can give the
same content different presentation rules when it’s displayed on mobile,
such as resizing headlines or changing which content is prioritized or
emphasized—automatically. In this way, adding structure actually makes
content more flexible, because it allows you to do more with it. You can learn
about this in Chapter 5.
But don’t I need different, simpler content for mobile?
FAQ before
the TOC provides
context, navigation
and orientation
Navigation

41. The back cover
www.rosenfeldmedia.com
MORE ON CONTENT EVERYWHERE
www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/content-everywhere/
Care about content? Better copy isn’t enough. As devices and channels
multiply—and as users expect to relate, share, and shift information
quickly—we need content that can go more places, more easily. Content
Everywhere will help you stop creating fixed, single-purpose content
and start making it more future-ready, flexible, reusable, manageable,
and meaningful wherever it needs to go.
“TheWebhasmovedbeyondthedesktop,andourcontentmustfollow.Throughabroadperspective,
clear language, and an army of practical suggestions, Sara Wachter-Boettcher guides us through the
challenges we face.”
ETHAN MARCOTTE
Author, Responsive Web Design
“If you’re looking for a lucid guide to the new challenges content publishers face, you won’t find a
better one than this.”
ERIN KISSANE
Author, The Elements of Content Strategy, and editor, Contents
“Website,app,socialmedia—andmore.Largescreen,tablet,smartphone—andmore.Areyouwriting
and rewriting for all these different channels and devices? Stop. Get this book.”
JANICE (GINNY) REDISH
Author, Letting Go of the Words–Writing Web Content that Works
“An essential pretext to achieving responsive Web design. Required reading.”
DAN KLYN
co-founder, The Understanding Group
Cover Illustration by Leanne Shapton | Interior Illustrations by Eva-Lotta Lamm

42. The back cover
www.rosenfeldmedia.com
MORE ON CONTENT EVERYWHERE
www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/content-everywhere/
Care about content? Better copy isn’t enough. As devices and channels
multiply—and as users expect to relate, share, and shift information
quickly—we need content that can go more places, more easily. Content
Everywhere will help you stop creating fixed, single-purpose content
and start making it more future-ready, flexible, reusable, manageable,
and meaningful wherever it needs to go.
“TheWebhasmovedbeyondthedesktop,andourcontentmustfollow.Throughabroadperspective,
clear language, and an army of practical suggestions, Sara Wachter-Boettcher guides us through the
challenges we face.”
ETHAN MARCOTTE
Author, Responsive Web Design
“If you’re looking for a lucid guide to the new challenges content publishers face, you won’t find a
better one than this.”
ERIN KISSANE
Author, The Elements of Content Strategy, and editor, Contents
“Website,app,socialmedia—andmore.Largescreen,tablet,smartphone—andmore.Areyouwriting
and rewriting for all these different channels and devices? Stop. Get this book.”
JANICE (GINNY) REDISH
Author, Letting Go of the Words–Writing Web Content that Works
“An essential pretext to achieving responsive Web design. Required reading.”
DAN KLYN
co-founder, The Understanding Group
Cover Illustration by Leanne Shapton | Interior Illustrations by Eva-Lotta Lamm
Meh

43. The back cover
www.rosenfeldmedia.com
MORE ON CONTENT EVERYWHERE
www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/content-everywhere/
Care about content? Better copy isn’t enough. As devices and channels
multiply—and as users expect to relate, share, and shift information
quickly—we need content that can go more places, more easily. Content
Everywhere will help you stop creating fixed, single-purpose content
and start making it more future-ready, flexible, reusable, manageable,
and meaningful wherever it needs to go.
“TheWebhasmovedbeyondthedesktop,andourcontentmustfollow.Throughabroadperspective,
clear language, and an army of practical suggestions, Sara Wachter-Boettcher guides us through the
challenges we face.”
ETHAN MARCOTTE
Author, Responsive Web Design
“If you’re looking for a lucid guide to the new challenges content publishers face, you won’t find a
better one than this.”
ERIN KISSANE
Author, The Elements of Content Strategy, and editor, Contents
“Website,app,socialmedia—andmore.Largescreen,tablet,smartphone—andmore.Areyouwriting
and rewriting for all these different channels and devices? Stop. Get this book.”
JANICE (GINNY) REDISH
Author, Letting Go of the Words–Writing Web Content that Works
“An essential pretext to achieving responsive Web design. Required reading.”
DAN KLYN
co-founder, The Understanding Group
Cover Illustration by Leanne Shapton | Interior Illustrations by Eva-Lotta Lamm
Meh
Meh

44. The back cover
www.rosenfeldmedia.com
MORE ON CONTENT EVERYWHERE
www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/content-everywhere/
Care about content? Better copy isn’t enough. As devices and channels
multiply—and as users expect to relate, share, and shift information
quickly—we need content that can go more places, more easily. Content
Everywhere will help you stop creating fixed, single-purpose content
and start making it more future-ready, flexible, reusable, manageable,
and meaningful wherever it needs to go.
“TheWebhasmovedbeyondthedesktop,andourcontentmustfollow.Throughabroadperspective,
clear language, and an army of practical suggestions, Sara Wachter-Boettcher guides us through the
challenges we face.”
ETHAN MARCOTTE
Author, Responsive Web Design
“If you’re looking for a lucid guide to the new challenges content publishers face, you won’t find a
better one than this.”
ERIN KISSANE
Author, The Elements of Content Strategy, and editor, Contents
“Website,app,socialmedia—andmore.Largescreen,tablet,smartphone—andmore.Areyouwriting
and rewriting for all these different channels and devices? Stop. Get this book.”
JANICE (GINNY) REDISH
Author, Letting Go of the Words–Writing Web Content that Works
“An essential pretext to achieving responsive Web design. Required reading.”
DAN KLYN
co-founder, The Understanding Group
Cover Illustration by Leanne Shapton | Interior Illustrations by Eva-Lotta Lamm
Meh
Meh

45. The back cover
www.rosenfeldmedia.com
MORE ON CONTENT EVERYWHERE
www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/content-everywhere/
Care about content? Better copy isn’t enough. As devices and channels
multiply—and as users expect to relate, share, and shift information
quickly—we need content that can go more places, more easily. Content
Everywhere will help you stop creating fixed, single-purpose content
and start making it more future-ready, flexible, reusable, manageable,
and meaningful wherever it needs to go.
“TheWebhasmovedbeyondthedesktop,andourcontentmustfollow.Throughabroadperspective,
clear language, and an army of practical suggestions, Sara Wachter-Boettcher guides us through the
challenges we face.”
ETHAN MARCOTTE
Author, Responsive Web Design
“If you’re looking for a lucid guide to the new challenges content publishers face, you won’t find a
better one than this.”
ERIN KISSANE
Author, The Elements of Content Strategy, and editor, Contents
“Website,app,socialmedia—andmore.Largescreen,tablet,smartphone—andmore.Areyouwriting
and rewriting for all these different channels and devices? Stop. Get this book.”
JANICE (GINNY) REDISH
Author, Letting Go of the Words–Writing Web Content that Works
“An essential pretext to achieving responsive Web design. Required reading.”
DAN KLYN
co-founder, The Understanding Group
Cover Illustration by Leanne Shapton | Interior Illustrations by Eva-Lotta Lamm
Meh
Meh

46. The back cover
www.rosenfeldmedia.com
MORE ON CONTENT EVERYWHERE
www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/content-everywhere/
Care about content? Better copy isn’t enough. As devices and channels
multiply—and as users expect to relate, share, and shift information
quickly—we need content that can go more places, more easily. Content
Everywhere will help you stop creating fixed, single-purpose content
and start making it more future-ready, flexible, reusable, manageable,
and meaningful wherever it needs to go.
“TheWebhasmovedbeyondthedesktop,andourcontentmustfollow.Throughabroadperspective,
clear language, and an army of practical suggestions, Sara Wachter-Boettcher guides us through the
challenges we face.”
ETHAN MARCOTTE
Author, Responsive Web Design
“If you’re looking for a lucid guide to the new challenges content publishers face, you won’t find a
better one than this.”
ERIN KISSANE
Author, The Elements of Content Strategy, and editor, Contents
“Website,app,socialmedia—andmore.Largescreen,tablet,smartphone—andmore.Areyouwriting
and rewriting for all these different channels and devices? Stop. Get this book.”
JANICE (GINNY) REDISH
Author, Letting Go of the Words–Writing Web Content that Works
“An essential pretext to achieving responsive Web design. Required reading.”
DAN KLYN
co-founder, The Understanding Group
Cover Illustration by Leanne Shapton | Interior Illustrations by Eva-Lotta Lamm
Meh
Meh

47. The back cover
www.rosenfeldmedia.com
MORE ON CONTENT EVERYWHERE
www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/content-everywhere/
Care about content? Better copy isn’t enough. As devices and channels
multiply—and as users expect to relate, share, and shift information
quickly—we need content that can go more places, more easily. Content
Everywhere will help you stop creating fixed, single-purpose content
and start making it more future-ready, flexible, reusable, manageable,
and meaningful wherever it needs to go.
“TheWebhasmovedbeyondthedesktop,andourcontentmustfollow.Throughabroadperspective,
clear language, and an army of practical suggestions, Sara Wachter-Boettcher guides us through the
challenges we face.”
ETHAN MARCOTTE
Author, Responsive Web Design
“If you’re looking for a lucid guide to the new challenges content publishers face, you won’t find a
better one than this.”
ERIN KISSANE
Author, The Elements of Content Strategy, and editor, Contents
“Website,app,socialmedia—andmore.Largescreen,tablet,smartphone—andmore.Areyouwriting
and rewriting for all these different channels and devices? Stop. Get this book.”
JANICE (GINNY) REDISH
Author, Letting Go of the Words–Writing Web Content that Works
“An essential pretext to achieving responsive Web design. Required reading.”
DAN KLYN
co-founder, The Understanding Group
Cover Illustration by Leanne Shapton | Interior Illustrations by Eva-Lotta Lamm
Meh
Meh
MEH!

48. 2008

49. 2015
2008

50. 2015
2008
interior design
bends,
doesn’t break

51. Take-away:
What can’t you
prototype and test?

52. Take-away:
What can’t you
prototype and test?

53. How to improve
a product’s design
over time?

54. What does it look like?
Mobile User Research

55. What does it look like?
Mobile User Research

56. More on the UX Bookmobile
http://rfld.me/1oLrrgB

57. Take-away:
Identify and close the gaps
between your customers,
products, and you

58. Take-away:
Identify and close the gaps
between your customers,
products, and you

59. Let’s talk about
UX conferences

64. “We’ve reached
peak UX conference.”
—me, 2013

65. “We’ve reached
peak UX conference.”
—me, 2013
“I’m thrilled to announce
Enterprise UX 2015!”
—me, 2014

66. How to design a
product around
a conversation?

67. user experience in the enterprise
1) Take an
existing
conversation

68. 2) Channel
and capture it
Facebook
Private List
Twitter
user experience in the enterprise
1) Take an
existing
conversation

69. 2) Channel
and capture it
Facebook
Private List
Twitter
user experience in the enterprise
1) Take an
existing
conversation
3) Analyze
for patterns

70. 2) Channel
and capture it
Facebook
Private List
Twitter
user experience in the enterprise
4) Sequence
patterns
1) Take an
existing
conversation
3) Analyze
for patterns

71. 2) Channel
and capture it
Facebook
Private List
Twitter
user experience in the enterprise
4) Sequence
patterns
1) Take an
existing
conversation
3) Analyze
for patterns

72. 2) Channel
and capture it
Facebook
Private List
Twitter
user experience in the enterprise
4) Sequence
patterns
1) Take an
existing
conversation
3) Analyze
for patterns
Tactical Strategic
1 2 3 4

73. Take-away:
Information
architecture
is useful

74. Take-away:
Information
architecture
is useful

75. How to design to
broaden a conversation?

76. Three speakers and one leader
per theme
Leader facilitates conversation
with theme’s speakers
months in advance of event
+ =

77. 4x
Three speakers and one leader
per theme
Leader facilitates conversation
with theme’s speakers
months in advance of event
+ =

78. Day 1
Day 2

79. opening keynote theme 1 theme 2
theme 3 theme 4 closing keynote
Day 1
Day 2

80. opening keynote theme 1 theme 2
theme 3 theme 4 closing keynote
Day 1
Day 2
√ √
√ √

81. opening keynote theme 1 theme 2
theme 3 theme 4 closing keynote
storytelling session
“Enterprise UX Storytelling” session
• Eight 5-minute sessions
• Tightly curated by Dan Willis
• Participation by application only
Day 1
Day 2
√ √
√ √

82. opening keynote theme 1 theme 2
theme 3 theme 4 closing keynote
storytelling session
“Enterprise UX Storytelling” session
• Eight 5-minute sessions
• Tightly curated by Dan Willis
• Participation by application only
Day 1
Day 2
√ √
√ √
√

83. Take-away:
Designing for engagement
means letting go of control

84. Take-away:
Designing for engagement
means letting go of control

85. How to design to
sustain a conversation?

86. Story arc from Lichaw’s Storymapping
(Rosenfeld Media, 2016)

87. The Day 1 Conundrum

88. The Day 1 Conundrum
Party!
energy

89. The Day 1 Conundrum
Party!
energy
…SO TIRED…

90. The Day 1 Conundrum
Party!
energy

91. The Day 1 Conundrum
Party!
energy

96. Take-away:
Time is a design material
(and so is delight)

97. Take-away:
Time is a design material
(and so is delight)

98. How to design a product
around a conversation
that may not exist?

99. Broadest possible framing

100. Broadest possible framing
2 personas

101. Broadest possible framing
2 personas
+
Strong lineup

102. Broadest possible framing
2 personas
+
Strong lineup
Survey to learn:
What do you want to learn
about this topic
from these people?

103. Take-away:
User research
equals promotion

104. One last take-away:
Non-traditional contexts
teach us about UX

105. One last take-away:
Non-traditional contexts
teach us about UX

106. What do you do
when you
don’t know
what to do?

107. What do you do
when you
don’t know
what to do?
Do UX.