2. Who Is This Guy Senior Product Manager, User Experience at AG Interactive Owner & Designer, Small Farm Design 12+ years designing online experiences Specializes in information architecture, interaction design, usability, user research and graphic design Past work includes Progressive Insurance, Sherwin-Williams, Moen, Smuckers & others
2½ yrs ago I was hired as the 1 st UX designer at AG Interactive. At the time AG had been around for about 10 years and had been really successful. But they knew they needed to enhance the usability and experience of their sites to remain competitive. Coming in as the 1 st UX designer was a great opportunity but did have its challenges. AG had been successful w/o me so why change They had 10 yrs of ecard experience I had 0 I was the “new guy” who wanted to drastically change things I needed to find a way to build my credibility , show the value of UX and get stakeholder buy in . I’ve boiled down what has worked for me into 5 key takeaways that you should be able to use in helping infuse UX into your organization
Sketch ideas in meetings – make sure everyone is on the same page
Iterate thru wireframes adjusting for various business needs Wireframe Walk-thru
Follow A Process and ITERATE
ITERATE ITERATE ITERATE
Wireframes guide the designers / dev/ eventually stakeholders Note: It does take a while for stakeholders to really ‘SEE’ the wireframe They are the blueprints before you build
From Wireframes to mocks Still following the iterative process
What problem does what we are working on help the user ? Business owners easily get caught up in how much about us can we cram into a page loosing of the real reason behind the page Why is the person here – and how does this page help them complete their task – say ‘happy birthday’, find a pair shoes to match the killer dress they just bought your site should help the user reach this goal They are here for what is in it for them – not us. How make a current process better for the user – for the business ? Do I need to redesign or just realign current thinking? IT Doesn’t have to be big to be IMPACTFUL. Small changes can make a big difference
Cheap Finding Users Ask Friends & Family Cube Testing Local Coffee Shop
Unmoderated testing allows you to get back to doing what you do but still brings data to the table
Unmoderated testing allows you to get back to doing what you do but still brings data to the table
A look at fallout shows significant browser fatigue and pogo-sticking when a visitor is looking for content.