Establishing the foundations for UX success
The user experience is integral to every stage of development regardless of if a product, service, digital or physical. From kick off to deployment UX should be involved. Ensuring we are tackling the right problem and developing the right solution. We are driven by user needs and guided by the data, not guess work and internal opinion. Understanding of UX is often fragmented and patchy. The University of York was no exception when joining back in June. With the challenge of a remote start in the middle of a pandemic with the task of getting UX up and rolling in the digital services ESG team. Although the concept of UX was not new for the university it had plenty of examples of good and equally poor clusters of knowledge and application.
Although tempting to tackle everything simultaneously, doing so would have been the first step to failure. Instead three areas of action were prioritised when establishing UX in digital services.
Firstly…
It was decided to make the framework and process a priority within the Digital Services ESG team. After reviewing what was already established it was clear we had a blank canvas. However, this needed to work within the existing ways of working for the development and product teams.
The Framework
After reviewing carefully, the Double Dimond by the British Design Council was the obvious choice. A mature and well established commercialised model with the flexibility needed. Made up of two diamonds, the first ensures we are tackling the right problem. The second ensures we develop the right thing for the problem.
Discover: We immerse and question the real world, research and challenge to learn in order to make decisions based on evidence and validate assumptions.
Define: We look at the insights and emergent patterns. We identify gaps in our knowledge and discuss the problem and value we can create for people.
Develop: We explore the problem space freely to create and develop ideas, ensuring the best ideas are refined further into a vision for the future.
Deliver: Rarely is our first attempt the right solution. We test our ideas in the situations it was designed for, with the people it was designed to be used by. We improve and optimise through data led iteration to solve the problem with the best outcome.
In addition, once delivered we measure and optimise. Taking inspiration from the IBM Loop we deploy a continuous improve mentality. Everything is treated as a prototype. Nothing is ever regarded as finished as we relentlessly reinvent for incremental improvement. We observe in the real world, we reflect on our observations, make improvements and observe once again.
However, a framework is worthless if not applied correctly in favour of short term gains or reverting back to old working habits. With the process quickly resembling something I’m sure many can relate to…
Secondly…
The best method to show the value of UX is by doing not talking. Nothing is more powerful at getting team members on board than seeing the value of UX firsthand. Additionally they become valuable ambassadors for the process, an incredible ally to have in any business.
This was achieved by starting small and not spreading too thinly. The demand for UX research and design will always be high but as you dilute into multiple projects the impact you can make on each is reduced. This becomes counterproductive as the perception of UX is devalued. Although some projects will have missed out, those that didn’t are perfect case studies for the future.
Thirdly…
Having the right tools across the pillars of research, design and optimisation is essential for success. The initial plan was to use what was already established in other departments with existing UX resource. But after investigation it was clear tooling was limited, missing capabilities now standard across our industry. On hindsight this was a blessing. It allowed us to introduce the most appropriate tools for all four stages of the double diamond.
We favoured software subscriptions with flexibility, having dropped and added new tools in the last few months for our ongoing project needs. We still have some gaps, but overall we are in a great position for Quant and Qual research, design and prototyping. We will be sharing some of these tools and outcomes in future blog posts.
The Future
A global pandemic in an education environment can certainly shift attention and rightly so as we seek to support our students through this difficult time. But change is the one constant in life and all the more reason to progress as UX helps us to navigate and adapt to this post covid world.
We are at the very start of our mission and a big part of this will be to share UX best practice across the university. Building upon existing UX talent in all departments to create a community of best practice. We will start with the basics making clear what UX really is. Challenging common misconceptions we are all about pixels and UI, an afterthought once development is complete. Or making clear UX without research is not UX at all.
It became apparent very early when joining that we have some amazing talent at the university. It’s a privilege to work daily with some of the best problem solvers, coders and disrupters. Without them the work we produce would never become reality, they really do bring our ideas to life. I hope you will join in our mission as we collectively transform the student experience through the power of user experience and service design.
With thanks to David Thompson who worked closely alongside the wider ESG team to get this started 🎉🎉
