A short presentation outlining the approach we take at cxpartners to the user centred design process.

1. Strategy Research Design Delivery
User centred design
happy wud!
i’d like to talk to
you about our
approach to user
centred design at
cxpartners...
James Chudley (@chudders)

2. 2
A bit about us
...we love to spend our
time understanding
the problems people
have using things and
then redesigning them
to make them easier to
use.
There are 16 of us
working from our
new offices in the
heart of bristol...

3. So what do we do?
3
research strategy design
we focus on three
areas to improve
the user
experience...
@chudders

4. Some of our clients
4
we have applied our
user centred
design approach to
project work for a
huge variety of
great clients...
@chudders

5. 5
often when things
are designed
without involving
people, seemingly
obvious issues are
completely
overlooked...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/padday/283428557/

6. 6
...the ucd approach
is great to help to:
- help to remove
project log jams
- kill feature bloat
- identify new
features &
functionality
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sreejithk2000/2385193167/
in our work we
spend hundreds of
hours every year
with people.
it is fascinating to
learn how people
expect things to
work and why
people find things
difficult to use...

7. 7
there really is no
magic process. User
centred design is a
well documented
approach and you
dont need any
fancy kit to do it...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/unloveable/2400329677/
...you can introduce
user centred design
techniques without
delaying projects
and your designs
will be better as a
result.

8. Our UCD process
8
User
research
DesignDiscovery Vision Future
these are the main
pillars of the ucd
process.
we spend differing
amounts of time in
each depending on
the nature of the
project...
@chudders

9. Our UCD process
9
User
research
DesignDiscovery Vision Future
WHAT
Understand the business and
the project objectives
Identify business
requirements
Brand and product
understanding
Discuss users
HOW
Business:
- Stakeholder workshops
- Interviews
- Immersion (store visits)
Background research
Stakeholder interviews
Analytics
OUTPUT
Business requirements
(prioritised)
Research findings
Analytics reports
the discovery phase
involves getting as
immersed as you can
in your clients
business and their
objectives.
It is a fascinating
part of the job and
is critical to the
success of your
project...
@chudders

10. User research
10
User
research
DesignDiscovery Vision Future
WHAT
Gain insights into the
customer
Benchmark against
competitors
Gather user requirements
HOW
User testing
Eye-tracking
Ethnographic work
Remote user testing
Call centre listening
Surveys
OUTPUT
Task models
Personas
Features prioritisation matrix
Research reports
the moral of this
phase is to get users
involved in any way
that you can!!
budgets typically
determine your
approach but you can
get creative in order
to involve people as
often as possible...
@chudders

11. Vision
11
User
research
DesignDiscovery Vision Future
WHAT
Cross reference user needs
with business requirements
Discuss areas for innovation
and competitive advantage
HOW
Proposition workshop
Participatory design
workshop
Sketching
OUTPUT
Suggestions to the product
roadmap
Prioritised feature matrix
this is where you
start pulling the
business and user
objectives
together.
often you will find
conflicts. These
become the design
challenges of the
next phase...
@chudders

12. Design
12
User
research
DesignDiscovery Vision Future
WHAT
Design a solution to
meet the requirements
Test that design to see if it
works
HOW
Sketching
Wireframe workshops
Design workshops
User validation
OUTPUT
Sketches
Sitemaps
Wireframes
Concept designs
Design production (PSDs)
Front end build
this is where you
bring your insights
and ideas to life.
sketch early to get
the good and bad
ideas out. share
them and iterate.
use which ever tools
suit you best...
@chudders

13. Future
13
User
research
DesignDiscovery Vision Future
WHAT
Track performance
Make recommendations for
A/B testing
Country specific
recommendations
Add new features
HOW
Retainer
Analytics reviews
Performance reviews
Wireframing & testing
OUTPUT
Inputs into product roadmap
International differences
the ucd process
really never ends. it’s
a continual cycle of
design > test >
iterate ...
follow up with clients
after launch to learn
about the successes
and failures of your
designs. it’s a great
way to learn...
@chudders

14. 14
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40066970@N08/4041706707/sizes/l/in/photostream/
UCD can be
interpreted too
literally as being
just about users.
you must still meet
the commercial
objectives of the
business...
...recently the concept
of ‘dark patterns’ have
become a hot topic.
they describe design is
used to influence
peoples behaviour to
make them do things
that may benefit the
business more than the
user.
as a ux designers you
sit right in the middle of
the users and the
business...

15. 15
it’s always a
juggling act
between the needs
of the user and the
business.
but that’s the fun
bit that can make
the job so
challenging...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthileo/4630924250/
...the ucd process
gives you a solid
approach that can
be applied in
principle to the
design of anything.
think how you can
apply the ucd
philosophy to your
next project..

16. 16
18th March, 2011
i am organising a ux
conference with
some ux chums in
bristol.
it will be the first
of its kind in the
south west of
england..
...it’ll be a day of
workshops and
presentations run by
ux professionals.
it’s a not for profit
initiative that aims to
bring like minded
people together.
follow me on twitter
for further details
(@chudders).
Watershed

17. Thanks and keep in touch
17
James Chudley
cxpartners
james.chudley@cxpartners.co.uk
chudders
+44 (0)117 946 3930