My (annotated) closing plenary from UX Camp Europe 2015. Most UX professionals these days are concerned with learning to use the tools of our trade. Yet, these tools have been around for decades – if not centuries – with new names given with each passing generation. But to truly get the most out of these tools (from personas to customer-journey maps), it sometimes helps to step back and reflect on what we are actually trying to achieve. I would like to share some of the things I have learned over the years. Hopefully, my experiences can help you bring the practice of UX to a higher level, help your clients and colleagues understand why UX is important, and help you actually prove the value of your work. Here are the questions I have been asking myself for almost four decades. Are YOU asking yourself these questions? If not, perhaps it is time to start. Why are products and companies doomed without a focus on UX? When is a company ready to embrace UX? Who are the people that make good UX designers? What are the ingredients of UX? How do we measure the results of our UX efforts?

1. Five UX questions
in search of answers
Eric Reiss
@elreiss
UX Camp Europe
20 June 2015
Berlin, Germany
Stuff I think about
Stuff I want to share

2. “A man falls
into a hole...”

3. “Why are companies doomed
without a focus on UX?”
(Wait – do we really want to start here?)

4. “What is UX?”

5. UX – a bible story

7. UX – German uniforms

10. UX – backbone of an entire industry

12. The user experience of
User Experience Camp Europe

14. Sorting out the paperwork

16. Czeching the pizza

18. ”DB interrupts their regularly
scheduled programming...”

20. By first name...

22. Come rain or shine...

24. High degree of functionality

27. Fantastic presentations.
And a sketchnote artist!

30. Lunch – proof of the pudding

31. Conceptual design

32. User testing

33. Proof of concept

34. Innovative sponsors
(and not a lot of screenshots)

38. And Holger’s ongoing sensation:
“UX – the musical”

40. (tough act to follow)
We all design UX.
But there are no UX designers.

41. UX
IxD SD IA CS

42. How do we describe UX?

44. Content management
Knowledge management
SEO
Scenarios
Content strategy
Sensemaking
Accessibility
Storytelling
Usability
Findability
Service designService designService designService design
Information architecture
UserUserUserUser----centered designcentered designcentered designcentered design
Design thinking
Experience design

45. Proliferation of titles? Sure.
Proliferation of ideas? Not so sure.

46. Webmaster Webmaster
Visual designer
Copywriter
Developer
Visual designer
Information architect
Copywriter
Front-end engineer
Full-stack developer
Visual designer
UI designer
Interaction designer
UX strategist
Content strategist
Information architect
Content providers
SEO consultant
Social media guru
Product manager
Project manager
Token baby boomer
1995 1998 2000 2015
Inspired by Lutz Schmitt

47. Down-and-dirty practicalities

48. Eric’s 1st Law of UX:
User experience is the sum of
a series of interactions between:
• people
• devices
• events

49. Eric’s 2nd Law of UX:
UX design represents the conscious
act of :
• coordinating interactions
we can control
• acknowledging interactions
we cannot control
• reducing negative interactions

50. “Why are companies doomed
without a focus on UX?”

51. A Tale of Two Pizzas

52. Nota bene
In a “me-too” world, UX is the key to
company/product/service differentiation
Higher product/service prices can be justified if
you provide better UX
Merely “making customers happy” cannot be
the goal. Increased conversions is the goal and
UX helps make that happen

53. What you can do now
Do something quick and easy that makes your
client/company look good
(show that positive change is not impossible)
Seek champions within the organization
Make everyone feel that their contribution is
valuable

54. Berlin | 20 June 2015 | 01:35

55. Berlin | 20 June 2015 | 08:12

56. “When is a company ready to embrace UX?”

57. Let’s talk about auto safety...

58. From academia to reality
Safety depends on reducing:
velocity of impact
crushing force
bending, folding, or torque of the body
deceleration rates during a collision
Safety depends on reducing:
stress on the body
direct contact with hard, sharp objects
Safety can be improved by:
adding seatbelts
airbags
crush zones to absorb impact

59. Nota bene
Most companies examine UX when all the tried-
and-true options have failed
Most companies ignore UX because the
definitions are too academic or confusing
No company will accept UX if they don’t
understand it.

60. Source: Renato Feijó

61. Source: Bogo Vatovic

62. What you can do now
Aggressively promote activites that are:
understandable
actionable
measurable
Get senior management involved
a company will never be truly ready to embrace UX
before its leadership is
DON’T let yourself become the “UX team of one”

63. “Who are the people that
make good UX designers”

64. You are!

65. Nota bene – three key skills
Curiosity
You’ve got to be interested
You can’t fake this
Empathy
This provides balance in UX
Both for users and stakeholders
Understanding
A perception is always true
One insight is worth a 1000 data points
“Understanding” does not mean “agreeing”

66. What you can do now
Get out of the building and talk to users
not just to discover a problem, but also to
see problems through someone else’s eyes
you have to understand the context of UX
Make sure you are always solving a real
problem, not merely inventing one
Don’t just ask what; ask why
Don’t argue, listen

67. “What are the ingredients of UX”

68. Let’s build an ark…

70. Content, code
Strategy, visual design
IA, navigation
Metrics, testing,
best practices
Building requires four things
Basic materials
Shaping tools
Fastening techniques
Measurement tools

72. Nota bene – three key ingredients
Utility
Stuff needs to work
Relevancy
Stuff needs to provide value within a specific context
Consistency
Stuff that looks the same should act the same
Stuff that looks different should act differently
Retroductive inference lowers the learning curve

73. What you can do now
Create a UX shortlist
Focus on what is really important
Eliminate the “nice to haves” – think feng shui
Keep users in the loop
Practice user-driven design
Don’t succumb to “deliverables creep”
Communicate, don’t try and impress

75. “How do we measure
the results of our UX efforts?”

76. “Flying on time…”

77. Nota bene – three metrics
Conversions
Has the business improved?
Efficiency
Are we saving time and money?
Are we reducing effort and stress for our users?
Satisfaction
Are the users truly better off than before?

78. What you can do now
Compare your work to current best practices
Don’t reinvent the wheel – until you need to
Make sure you measure things that are important
Don’t go for easy wins such as “likes” on Facebook
or time on page
Talk to help-desk and call-center personnel
Insist on having influence regarding the questions
asked in all future customer-satisfaction surveys

79. Alfred Wegener and continental drift

81. What you can do now
Don’t let “UX” become a buzzword
Don’t think you need certification
Don’t be afraid to disagree with current practices
Pick your battles with care...but...
Don’t be afraid to fight for what is right

82. Vielen Dank
meine Freunde!
(und jetzt)

83. Eric Reiss can (usually) be found at:
The FatDUX Group ApS
Strandøre 15
2100 Copenhagen
Denmark
Office: (+45) 39 29 67 77
Mobil: (+45) 20 12 88 44
Twitter: @elreiss
info@fatdux.com
www.fatdux.com