Here’s what we learned from this year’s UX Philippines Roadshow
Last October 26 was the final leg for the UXPH Roadshow 2019. The Kalibrr Design Team was lucky enough to be able to attend the full show as well as support our own teammate, Mark Lester Lacsamana who gave a talk on Empathising through the Margins.
Closing the Manila leg with Mark were Angela Obias-Tuban of Metrobank, Boggs Labayen of Home Credit, Dae Lee of Fourth Wall, and Li-Wei “Ricky” of Mozilla Taiwan. Here are some of my takeaways from their talks.
1. The “why” should inform the “what” & the “how” we measure.
Measuring the impact of our work as designers is not straightforward, making it very challenging to prove to others its importance. A practice that helps Angela Obias-Tuban, the Strategy Lead at Metrobank is considering the business goal in each step of the design process. By always looking at the business goal or the “why”, we can come up with a customized & contextualized way to measure the impact of our work.
One trick she learned from the Digital Marketing Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik is to start by asking the question, “Why do we exist?” This question aims to identify the business objectives of our output, which would later on lead to identifying its business goals, key performance indicators and targets amongst others. Much like in gymnastics, measuring a good experience is about momentum building (to a somersault).
We must continuously probe ourselves to think about things such as “What does a good customer journey look like at this stage?”, “What does it mean for us to do well in this stage?” Angela shared that what helps her is to write the identified business & user goals at the corner of her output before she starts working, so she can always look to them as a form of guidance.
We all have the power to contribute to something bigger. As designers, we must think about the impact of our decisions. In the end, it is up to use to shape our jobs into the powerful thing that they are.
2. Part of our role as designers is to evangelise the true meaning of design, even in our own organization.
“Can you make me a poster?” “Can you make this look better?” Up until today, (UX) designers are still perceived as people responsible for making things visually or aesthetically appealing. Furthermore, “User Experience”, is still very much used loosely. Struggling to explain to family members what your job is? — Been there, done that! Because of this, there is a dire need to constantly help other people veer away from misconceptions & evangelise the true meaning of design.
Boggs Labayen, the UX Lead at Home Credit, shared how his team is making an effort to evangelise the meaning of design daily — in everything they do, they are an advocate a customer-centric culture.
What this means for them is that, in their own company, his team makes sure to communicate that the success of their design is not their job alone. Each department in the organisation has a part in making their customers feel valued. They grab each opportunity to advocate for the design process, encourage compelling storytelling, and understanding their users.
3. Understand your user’s culture & behavior. Change the environment if you want to change behavior (& influence the use of a design).
“Because of bad UX, we pretty much seem do more & more each day, but achieve less & less.”
Despite our continuous efforts in trying to influence a person through design, we find that in most cases, failure is not unusual. Dae Lee of Fourth Wall Global shared that this failure happens when design is not contextualised, & when behavior is not understood & considered.
One way he suggests to better influence a person, is to understand the culture — the environment he or she lives in & aim to change the environment instead trying to change the person altogether & instantly.
Behavior as he defined is a set of actions that has worked for survival. It is what triggers someone to use a design. It is very difficult to influence directly. Understand instead, the point of reference at which the people are coming from & find ways to create a space for change.
“Don’t try to change people — understand people & create the environment where they choose to change.”
4. Check your Privilege. It impacts your ability to empathise.
The ability to empathise is one of the most sought out characteristics of a designer. Every designer acknowledges its importance. However, what most designers have come to turn a blind eye towards is the privilege they might have, impacting the practice of effective empathy.
Our teammate, Mark Lester Lacsamana, acknowledges the privilege that comes from his own background & circumstances & calls others to do the same. It is time we truly empathise by breaking the boundaries created by what we consider “different” from our own “norm” & start embracing these differences. Furthermore, it is important to understand that privilege is not just about money & marginalisation is not just about poverty.
We need to go beyond simply talking to our users, understanding their needs, doing affinity mapping — looking at what makes people similar. If we want to continue creating more impact, we have to look at what makes people different & see what is being left behind. Look at the marginalised & continue to ask why & how we can be more inclusive.
“We should stop designing for the user & start designing with them.”
5. Design with culture in mind by looking through the other person’s glass.
Designing for various cultures look very different. It is important to ask, “How can I design a product for the people HERE?” Ricky Yu of Mozilla suggests to evaluate your own way of thinking & break through it, be humble, curious & culturally sensitive. Finally, love sharing — share what you have seen, heard, learned & done to increase collaboration.
One principle he always shares with his teammates is — “Don’t use your own glass to look at the world.” Empathy entails breaking your own mental model. Observe how others interact with the environment. Understand the context the person lives in & how the individual lives in it.
For Ricky & his team at Mozilla, this means making the most out of the resources they can get, even doing preliminary research through YouTube Vlogs & visting bookstores. They go so far as to doing street observation, interception — going to where users are, & doing contextual interviews.
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