Courageous Design

11/10/2010
1
Everett McKay
Principal
UXDesignEdge
This is a rerecording of my
Keynote presentation at Design
Camp Boston/New England UX
on November 6, 2010
Access video and deck from courageousdesign.com
Copyright 2010 UX Design Edge
Who is this guy?
• I’m Principal of UX Design Edge
• I offer UX/UI design training (web,
live, onsite) and consulting
• I specialize in helping non-designers
and software professionals that don’t
have design resources

11/10/2010
2
“You need
to practice
courageous
design!”
Prof. Keith Edwards
User-centered design
Intuitive design
Empathic design
Multi-disciplinary design
Collaborative design
Participatory design
Activity-centered design
Defensive design
Inductive design
Trustworthy design
Accessible design
Humane design
Courage is often the difference
between great design and
good design
Great design requires taking
intelligent risks

11/10/2010
3
“Do the
opposite”
Let’s look at courageous design in
Making decisions
Asking questions
Simplicity
Personality
Using data
Team culture
Great design requires taking
intelligent risks

11/10/2010
4
Driving consensus is important, right?
The goal of UX design
To fully engage your entire
team to create products that
your customers will love
A typical job description
Smart, gets things done,…
drives consensus across a
multi-disciplinary team…
Consensus on key decisions is
a good thing, right?
“…a horse designed
by committee”
Sir Alec Issigonis

11/10/2010
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Why does this happen?
Group decisions  political decisions
Holistic vision  minor details
Design integrity  compromise
The art of compromise:
Obtaining something that
nobody wants but everybody
can accept
In consensus-driven environments:
Smart people who get things
done propose whatever gets
consensus fastest

11/10/2010
6
Getting from good UX to great UX
There’s nothing wrong with good
—it’s that getting to great
requires a different approach
While it’s always safe to get
consensus, there’s no courage
in consensus or compromise
Do you really have to ask?
You can’t always be certain,
but you can usually be right
Suppose you have a question, and there’s a
99% chance you know the answer
1% chance you don’t
Do you ask anyway?

11/10/2010
7
Apparently some designers
don’t like those odds
The classic excuse:
We don’t know for sure what
users want or do

11/10/2010
8
The foundation of all UX design:
You can’t design for random
people doing random things
—you must design for specific
targets
If you don’t know what users
are likely going to do or want,
you don’t know your users!
The McKay/Turing Test:
If a question would be stupid
for a person to ask, it’s stupid
for your program to ask
While it’s always safe to ask,
there’s no courage in asking
unnecessary questions
The ideal UX is both powerful and simple

11/10/2010
9
What is simplicity?
Simplicity is the reduction or
elimination of design elements
that target users are aware of
and consider unessential
Copyright2010 UX Design Edge
“Everything
should be made
as simple as
possible,
but not simpler.”
Albert Einstein
The classic excuse:
We don’t know for sure what
users want or do
Q: What does 0.0033% represent?
A: The probability a user really
wanted Caps Lock on while
typing a password
“I have only
made this letter
longer because I
have not the
time to make it
shorter.”
Blaise Pascal

11/10/2010
10
While it’s safe to offer
everything, there’s no courage
in complexity
All software has a personality
Whether intentional or not…
All software has a personality

11/10/2010
11
Showing your personality
makes you vulnerable
Talk about doing the opposite…
Too often software is rude,
unforgiving, and dull
Why be rude? Why be unforgiving?
Why be dull?
While it’s safe to avoid showing
personality, there’s no courage
in being rude, unforgiving, or dull

11/10/2010
12
Good decisions require good data
“You can't
manage what
you can't
measure.”
W. Edwards Deming
Data helps solve the HiPPO problem
Making decisions based on
data is safe
“Not everything
that can be
counted counts,
and not
everything that
counts can be
counted.”
Albert Einstein
“If I had asked
people what they
wanted, they
would have said
faster horses.”
Henry Ford

11/10/2010
13
A potential problem:
Data is backward looking
“…data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision,
paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any
daring design decisions.
Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between
two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue
to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate
over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and
was asked to prove my case.”
Douglas Bowman

11/10/2010
14
What you do with data is the key
While good design follows
data, great design leads with it
How to tell the difference
Do you say “The data proves that…”
or do you say “Our interpretation of
the data suggests that…”
While data offers safety, there’s
no courage in following data
You can’t escape your team’s culture
MMC Team: “We ship our org chart”

11/10/2010
15
Conway’s Law:
“Organizations are constrained
to produce designs which are
copies of the communication
structures of their
organizations.”
“We ship our
culture! We
must fix our
culture first.”
August de los Reyes
Every artifact an
organization
creates is an
embodiment of its
culture
Important question:
Can individual designers create
products that transcends their
team’s culture?
My answer:
No! Any organization that
doesn’t reward great design
will produce mediocrity
Attention managers:
If you have a great team
shipping mediocre products,
it’s because your culture
rewards mediocrity

11/10/2010
16
No manager’s career or compensation
was harmed during the making of this
mediocre user experience.
The Innovator's Cultural Dilemma
Over time, team cultures drift
towards safety and discourage
courageous design
“You can measure the greatness
of a user experience by the
courage required to design it”
If you remember only one thing…
Want to learn more?
Check my website: uxdesignedge.com
Subscribe to my blog
Register for Good UX to Great UX
Thank you!

Courageous Design

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