Product strategy vs. UX strategy – thoughts from UXPA Boston 2014

Note: this post was updated June 10, 2014. I read Jeff Gothelf's post "There is no such thing as UX strategy" after seeing tweets about it a while ago, and didn't think too much about it. Recently, however, I've been thinking about how (and if) UX strategy manifests in UI design decisions, so I decided to attend the UXPA Boston 2014 conference session "UX Strategy exists, but what is it?" with this in mind.

Gothelf's post, which claims "[T]here is no such thing as UX strategy. There is only product strategy," inspired the session, moderated by Diana DeMarco Brown. It was great to hear stories from panelists Sarah Bloomer, Eva Kaniasty, and Lori Landesman. During Q&A, one attendee said he agreed with Gothelf, but unfortunately, there was not much time left to explore the statement. With a night to sleep on it, I realized that statement was crucial to helping me define my own thoughts on the topic.

To me, UX strategy is the goals and plan established for helping and delighting end-users, as well as meeting the needs of stakeholders, and in the case of enterprise applications, purchasers. Stakeholders and purchasers are types of users. My bias as a designer is to go the extra mile for end users – the people who use what I design. In the case of a consumer app, the user and the purchaser are the same, so in these situations I agree that product and UX strategy are the same. In the case of enterprise applications, user and purchaser goals and needs are often vastly different. Like so many answers to UX design questions, the answer to the question of whether UX strategy is different from product strategy is, "it depends." It depends on who your users are, who the organization is, and what the goals for the product are.

Focusing on the purchaser has led to dreadful and compromised enterprise application experiences. I've worked on enterprise applications for ATG (now Oracle), Endeca, (also now Oracle), and Curaspan, to name a few. In those cases, UX was part of product strategy, both functionally and conceptually. That in itself was not a problem. However, while stakeholders and product managers believed in UX, when it came down to coding and shipping, their focus was on meeting the needs of buyers. This makes sense given how enterprise product management success is measured – in sales, obviously. Like an oldest child in a family, enterprise product strategy takes up a disproportionate amount of stakeholders' time and attention. UX is the younger sibling, wanted and adored, but left to its own devices due to the focus on the oldest child. With intermittent support, UX for enterprise applications often lacks the resources it needs to sustain it and help it thrive.

Follow up note - June 10, 2014: With more thought and reading, I want to add that I think enterprise product strategy can be the same as UX strategy, it is just that it often isn't. If/when enterprise product strategy focuses on providing value to purchasers by developing software that is designed to succeed by helping the people who use the applications do so effectively, efficiently, and with appropriate delight, product strategy is aligned with and subsumes UX strategy.

This brings up more questions: are stakeholder and purchaser needs for enterprise applications really so different from end users, and if so, why? Also, if business stakeholders and product purchasers are types of users (as I consider them to be), then is the discussion of UX vs. product strategy really about end user-focused strategy vs. stakeholder and purchaser-focused strategy specifically in the realm of enterprise applications?

Speaking the Language of Meta-Principles: Consistency, Hierarchy, and Personality

I recently returned from beautiful Portland, Oregon, where I spoke as part of the Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon (CHIFOO) annual lecture series. The 2014 series focuses on storytelling, which can take many forms in user experience, user interface, and visual design.

My talk, "Speaking the Language of Meta-Principles: Consistency, Hierarchy, and Personality," covered how to use the meta-principles described in Visual Usability to effectively "tell a story" by using good design to guide users through their desired pathways and tasks in an application. We think of these meta-principles as if they’re part of a language. Consistency and hierarchy are the grammar people learn while using an application: the basic elements that define how a language is spoken. The “words” we speak – that is, the visual design characteristics we choose to convey a message – create an application’s personality. These principles are so fundamental to creating successful interfaces that we call them “meta-principles.” While technology that affects interfaces changes, the underlying meta-principles hold true.

I'd like to thank Emily Mahood Bowman, Clodine Mallinckrodt, Fellene Gaylord, and everyone else at CHIFOO for bringing me to Portland and giving me such a warm welcome. I'll be happy to return anytime!

Speaking the Language of Meta-Principles: Consistency, Hierarchy, and Personality from Nimble Partners

Redesigning Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies B.S. in Graphic Design Degree

Founded to advance the careers of working students, Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies (CPS) grants doctoral, master's and undergraduate degrees. I've enjoyed teaching Interactive Information Design 2 and advising CPS graduate digital media students for the past few years.

I love systems and design, and am anxious to help higher ed better prepare students for the complex design work that we do today. I was excited to be asked to participate in a review of CPS' BS in Graphic Design degree last summer, followed by a redesign effort in the fall. The review was required for accreditation purposes, and the redesign was long overdue.

While the accreditation process was written in academic language, much of the work involved what I think of as design thinking. I (re)defined a clear mission for the program based on graphic design skills that are needed today, outlined desired outcomes for students and a system for measuring results, reviewed current courses in a structured way for strengths and weaknesses against goals, and analyzed student performance data over time to understand trends and gaps. Once the required accreditation materials were complete, it was great to take all I had learned and defined and work on redesigning the degree program overall.

The result of the effort is a roadmap for a revised BS in Graphic Design degree program. There are six new courses and six revised courses, which will begin to be phased in this fall. The new program maintains its practical focus and provides a stronger foundation in the traditional "roots" of graphic design, such as typography. When in place, courses and course projects will help prepare students by beginning in black and white and two-dimensional design principles, and carry through to using visual design principles to help people understand, enjoy and use visual information in static and interactive applications.

Increasing appeal for LoveToKnow

LoveToKnow provides advice on everything from beauty tips and pet health to travel recommendations and party-planning. We helped LoveToKnow provide more consistency and a better user experience by first analyzing their taxonomy as part of a larger search engine marketing project with Nine By Blue. LoveToKnow returned to us to redesign their site to improve its appeal and apply the new taxonomy to an updated, easier-to-use menu system.

As we translated wireframes into visual design, we ran remote usability tests to determine whether our approach resonated with the target audience. LoveToKnow's revenue model is ad-driven, and we paid close attention to this as we wireframed possible design approaches and feature refinements. Test results confirmed that the new designs helped people better understand the breadth of LoveToKnow's content, and that the new article page design better achieved the goal of site exploration.

Work included:

• Taxonomy analysis
• Visual redesign
• Heuristic review
• Usability testing

Remote usability tests used a split screen to display a survey and relevant page designs (top: current design; bottom: new design).

Original home page page design.

New home page design.

New article page and fat navigation.

Focusing on the future – website planning for the International Development Innovation Network

The International Development Innovation Network, led by MIT’s D-Lab, provides training and resources for innovators worldwide to create new processes and products that improve the lives of people in poverty. IDIN works from the ground up by serving local innovators; community members are most familiar with their own situation, and most motivated to improve it.

We helped the IDIN team organize and narrow down its goals for a new site by developing user scenarios with the team and mapping goals to specific audience needs. Through an interview with the program's sponsors at USAID, as well as a paper prototype review session with summit alumni, we gathered audience feedback on valuable features and expected usage, which provided further insights into how to structure the site and design key interactions.

Moving from audience and feature analysis into information architecture, we led a collaborative workshop with IDIN staff to map content and features into page types and a high-level site organization. This groundwork helped prepare IDIN for usability testing and a full site redesign.

Work included:

• stakeholder and user interviews
• user scenarios – based on real people and interactions
• prototype development
• site map
• content inventory and planning
• high-level wireframes

Whiteboard notes from content mapping session.

Left: home page wireframe (mobile view). Right: project page wireframe (desktop view).

Happy 2014!

Hello, all!

Talking with health communications students about visual design for healthcare site and app UX

This week I presented updated thinking about visual design in digital health communications to Emerson and Tufts health communications students in Lisa Gualtieri's Online Consumer Health course. It was a chance for me to test three frameworks for discussing what design can do for digital heath communications, and hear if they were helpful for students. We evaluated parts of these sites:

• NIHSeniorHealth
• Federal Health Insurance Marketplace
• MedlinePlus
• American Cancer Society
• American Lung Association

Our evaluation included discussing the meta-principles consistency, hierarchy, and personality – how and if they were evident on the pages we reviewed and to what effect. We used the terms expressive and classical to evaluate each site's general visual approach, as well as individual details such as logos. We also looked for evidence of desirable qualities for healthcare communications by asking the following questions:

Credible

Is it professional?

• Is it organized? Are there visible systems for use, styling, and behavior of navigation, type, color, and controls?
• Is the up-front value proposition clear? Can I quickly see what the site or app is about and what can I do?
• Are the visual characteristics appropriate? Do stylistic decisions fit the topic? Do they fit the organization of origin?

Do I trust it?

• Who is this organization? Are the professional identity and any credentials presented appropriately?
• What is the organization's goal? Is the emphasis on information or advertising?
• Does it feel specific or generic? Do the photos feel real or generic? Are colors and styles appropriate for the content and organization of origin?

Helpful

Does it help me understand the site or application purpose?

• Can I read/use it? Is the type appropriate? Do colors contrast sufficiently with the background?
• Can I skim and get the gist to help me decide if I want to read?
• Does it show and tell? Are there images or video that help explain the content?

Does it make sense?

• Can I see where I am?
• Can I see where to click? Are the actions and links clear?
• Can I tell what will happen if I click? Do control designs indicate what will happen? Can I see feedback from what I did?

Visual design for UX overview for Tufts University School of Medicine Online Consumer Health course from Nimble Partners

October 5 workshop with UXPA Boston – Visual Design Principles and Practices for Creating Great Web and Mobile Apps

Everyone wants to design a great user experience, but how do you define a great visual UI for your app? Join us and the Boston UXPA for a fun and informative day Saturday, October 5, 2013 at Bentley University, and learn how to use visual design principles to improve the UX of your apps. We'll cover:

• how to evaluate visual UI design for use and appeal
• how to develop a sound rationale for your app's visual interface design
• how to avoid common design mistakes, make informed decisions, and elevate the ordinary

If you work on UX, coding, or product or project management for digital applications, or you're a designer who wants to create more effective interfaces, this workshop is for you. Register at https://bostonuxpaworkshopoct52013.eventbrite.com.

Visual design principles & practices for web and mobile apps from Nimble Partners

Tutorial at UXPA 2013 – Visual Usability: principles & practices for designing great web and mobile application interfaces

Last week, we presented a one-day tutorial based on the topics in our book Visual Usability: Principles and Practices for Designing Digital Applications at the User Experience Professionals Association conference in Washington, DC. We had a great time taking those ideas live with a dedicated group of participants who ripped paper, analyzed requirements, brainstormed design personas, and redesigned a sample application in a full, fun day.

The tutorial was a mix of lectures and activities designed to help participants:

• understand the effect of "meta-principles" consistency, hierarchy, and personality on use and appeal of digital applications
• define a target for UI design work that serves their users and their organization
• learn how characteristics of visual design "tools" layout, type, color, images, and controls can help or hinder people in their interpretation and use of apps

We're working on more dates for this tutorial. Contact us if you'd like to know where we might be when!

Visual Usability: principles & practices for designing great web and mobile app UIs from Nimble Partners

Join us for a visual usability tutorial at the UXPA national conference in July!

Looking for guidance addressing functionality and aesthetics in complex applications? Join us on Tuesday, July 9, for an all-day tutorial, "Visual Usability: Visual Design Principles and Practices for Creating Great Web and Mobile Application Interfaces," at the UXPA national conference in Washington, DC.

Through lectures, guidelines, examples, and hands-on exercises, we'll show you our approach for making visual design decisions that reinforce usability best practices and provide interfaces people value. You’ll learn the characteristics of “visually usable” apps so you’ll know what to shoot for. You'll also get an introduction to the visual design “tools” for digital apps – layout, type, color, imagery, and controls and affordances – and learn how to use them to help people understand and enjoy what they see.

Visit our tutorial page to find out more, and hope to see you in July!

Happy 2013! UX & UI fortune teller

Hello all!

Directions for your fortune teller:
1. Click the image to download and print at 100% on letter paper.
2. With image facing down, fold corners to the center.
3. Flip over and fold corners to the center again.
4. Fold in half once each way.
5. Put fingers in "pockets."

Enjoy!