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Speaking about UX Design laws

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Jennifer Blatz UX Designer. UX Design laws and principles. As part of my "Don't Fight the Law, Let the Law the Law Win" presentation, I showed various images to illustrate the different concepts.
As part of my “Don’t Fight the Law, Let the Law the Law Win” presentation, I showed various images to illustrate the different concepts.

I had the honor of participating in North Dallas Agile Product Owners Meetup lightening talks this week. Though I am not a product owner, I like to participate with this group because, as a UX designer, I often parter with product owners on my projects. I like to gain a better understanding of approaching work and projects from my co-workers point of view. Also, I work in an agile environment, so this is a great way for me to learn more about those practices.

Jennifer Blatz UX Designer. UX Design laws and principles. Presentation for North Texas Product Owner Meetup. "Don't Fight the Law, Let the Law the Law Win."
Jen Blatz had the honor to present to North Texas Product Owner Meetup. “Don’t Fight the Law, Let the Law the Law Win.”

 

OK so now on to my talk. I only had a few minutes, so I had to pack a lot of information in a short time. Hence the lightening talk format. Also, I had to make this topic relevant to to my audience: Product Owners. They are generally not designers or an interface or product, though in some cases they could be responsible for coming up with a design concept. At the very least, they will often be working with other members of the team who will be creating the design. Also, the Product Owner might be reviewing the design. So I thought having some basic design principles in their pocket might be helpful for them.

I had over 20 design principles I wanted to talk about. But I had to cut it down to just 6 to comply with the short, lightening talk, format. Short but sweet.

Please feel free to look at my entire presentation: Don’t Fight the Law, Let the Law Win Please feel free to give me any feedback you might have. Also, if you would like me to speak at your Meetup or organization, please reach out. I would be happy to talk about UX design with your group.

 

Education, UX

Speaking about UX and Agile for Scrum class

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Jennifer Blatz UX User Experience designer talks about UX Process and agile
Jen Blatz spoke about the basics of UX at a scrum master certification course.

One professional goal I am working on for 2018 is to speak publicly more about my craft. I do feel comfortable talking in front of a group. It just takes a bit of discipline on my part to have a presentation ready to go. ha ha

My good friend and professional networking guru, Greg Gomel, reached out to me to ask me to speak to the current Agile for Patriots Scrum master certification class. I was honored that he thought I was capable and a good candidate to speak to his class. I was nervous because I didn’t have a lot of time to throw a presentation together. Yikes! But I knew with a kick in the butt like this, I could get a good presentation together in no time.

I was up for the challenge. I had a presentation I created a while ago for a previous employer explain the basics of UX. So I could use that former presentation as a base. But I wanted to cater this talk to show the scrum masters-to-be how UX ties in to agile.

I know there is a lot of confusion about how and where UX falls in the the agile lifecycle, and in to the developers’ sprints. I wanted to demystify that a bit and prepare them for the future of when they will be leading teams that will (hopefully) include a UX designer. I wanted them to not only learn about UX, but know how User Experience Research and Design works in to the development team.

After I gave my presentation, the asked me to stay and review and critique the website they were building for the class. So I gave them practical advice on some of the design decisions they had made as well as how to improve some things. The students were very receptive to my professional feedback and suggestions. It was a healthy dialog. I helped them to learn about better User Experience and Design. And they helped me to learn about the constraints they were dealing with and the business goals they needed to accomplish for their client.

Jennifer Blatz UX Designer explains scrum
Include your UX Designer in all scrum ceremonies.

One point I wanted to emphasize to the scrum masters in training is to always to include the UX Designer in all scrum ceremonies. As a UX Designer, I have been excluded in scrum ceremonies because it was considered too “developer” focused. The value of UX designers being included is so vast:

  • UX Designers should be in the scrum meetings so that we are “in the know.”
  • We need hear what is coming down the pike so we can plan our projects and research accordingly.
  • We can hear when design decisions are being made without consideration from users or the UX designer. (This should NEVER be happening, but it does. Uhg.)
  • We can provide insight in to how we can do testing on the projects as they are in flight.
  • Finally, we are part of the team. Make sure we are not excluded, and therefore left out of important discussions and decisions.

Read my entire presentation: What is UX Agile Patriots 2-2018

Education, UX Deliverables and Assets

Educating about UX: Necessary Evil as the UX Team of One

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Defining good UX Jennifer Blatz UX design presentation
Not all companies are created equal. Neither is their UX maturity. Some companies really appreciate the value of User Experience Research and Design. Other companies hear the term “UX” hear that everybody is getting it. So they feel like they need it too. It’s the later companies that have the low UX maturity.

I, unfortunately, was recently working with a company with low UX maturity. I had supervisors who were looking at me saying,

  • “What do you do again? Why are you here?”
  • “I don’t really understand what UX is.”
  • “What does UX stand for? Oh User Experience….So what does that mean?”
  • “So you are a Front-End Developer?”
  • “I think the most important deliverable you can provide is working code.”

Ahhhh, you can imagine how these questions and comments really hit me hard. Granted, I am in a business where I am surrounded by engineers. So I expect some of this mindset. But I don’t expect this sort of mindset from my superiors. Even the one who said, “Oh yeah, I have ‘Done UX’ in the past. Hmmmmmm.

In these scenarios, it is our responsibility as UX professionals to educate out supervisors and peers about what UX is, how is is so valuable for business, but most importantly, how UX folks can save time and money for developers.

Leah Buley wrote a fantastic book called “The UX Team of One.” I have used her book as my bible, trying to introduce the value of User Experience Design and research in to my organization. One way I did this, was jumpstart their education with a presentation. I gathers some of my key stakeholders and supervisors in a room, and gave them a quick and brief overview of What is UX?  in a presentation.

Some of the high-level points of my “What is UX?” presentation include:

  • What UX research provides
  • The definition of UX
  • That UX is not just resigning things or making it pretty
  • The “Double Diamond” and how that process feeds developer’s process
  • How UX research can reduce developer’s rework time
  • The financial value of UX research and design
  • Illustration the UX process, and the steps involved
  • Emphasizing that we are not the user, and we need a user advocate amongst the group of engineers

Finally, I wrapped up my presentation with that famous Steve Job’s quote:

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like.
Design is how it works.

I would love it you would look at my entire What is UX? presentation and provide your feedback. Did I leave anything out? Did I focus too much on one aspect? Please share your thoughts so that I can make it better. I never know if I will have to give a presentation like this the next time.

UX, UX Deliverables and Assets

Persona feedback session: deck and summary

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The personas I worked on for a major financial institution took months of research to create. I wanted to involve the company’s interested stakeholders so that they were involved in the creation process as well. At the very least, I wanted their feedback on what they needed in personas so that I could meet their needs.

When I shared the personas with my colleagues for the first time, I did not want it to be a “Big Reveal.” I wanted to reflect that I had taken the stakeholders’ feedback and suggestions on board. I had researched and built a first draft of the personas. And I wanted my persona presentation to reflect that these were not just “my” personas, but in fact, they belonged to the whole organization.

Some of the Persona Feedback session included:

  • Sharing the stakeholder feedback I had gathered
  • Explaining what a persona is
  • Showing the difference between UX persona and marketing segments
  • Illustrating the persona development journey
  • Showing the first draft of the personas
  • Presenting the components and portions of the personas and describing the purpose of each part

After I explained the process of creating the personas, defining them and sharing them, then I asked the groups to critique them. I wanted feedback on four aspects about the personas:

  • What they liked
  • What they did not like
  • What they needed more information about
  • What they needed less information about

After gathering their feedback, my intension is to roll that feedback in to my next round of qualitative research. I want to make sure I am meeting the users’ needs. In this case that is the stakeholders, including designers, design lads and product managers.

View the entire Persona feedback presentation workshop. I would love your feedback on what I talk about in my slides. Do you agree or disagree?