Resist Resistance and Do The Work

This presentation will describe strategies and techniques to overcome design resistance and get work done. These include knowing when to stop designing, how to pair with developers, annotating cards, using a UI bootstrap and pattern companion, and the importance of a trusting culture.

Transcript

1. “Better done than perfect.” Mark Zukerberg “Real artists ship.” Steve Jobs Couple of quotes from guys that know and knew a thing or two about building great software
2. do the work
3. 9 minutes of theory 21 minutes of examples + Questions at the end is is a 30 minute presentation
4. Based on a book called ‘Do e Work’ by Steven Press eld
5. @awgreen #AgileUX12
6. 1. creativity 2. resistance 3. how to do the work I want to talk about:
7. is is Spinal Tap - Napkin Scene Ian Faith nevertheless made use of the foam minilith during the next show, prompting David to complain bitterly that "there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf." The debacle prompted the departure of Faith as Spinal Tap manager.
8. is is Spinal Tap - Napkin Scene Ian Faith nevertheless made use of the foam minilith during the next show, prompting David to complain bitterly that "there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf." The debacle prompted the departure of Faith as Spinal Tap manager.
9. F*** the napkin
10. creativity
11. creatio ex nihilo - Medieval Christianity ‘creatio’ came to designate ‘Gods hand’ - The idea of Creativity was literally not supposed to be of humans, but only of God ‘from nothing’.
12. - Even through the Renaissance, one of the great creative periods in human history, for a century and a half, the idea of human creativity was met with resistance. - The birth of things was only the domain of God
13. - It wasn’t until the 19th century that creativity, the act of creating from nothing, was commonly understood to be a quality of painters and poets only. - Names such as Monet, Matisse and Gauguin were the only ones Godly enough to be given the title.
14. - And finally, at the turn of the 20th century, creativity, as applied to the sciences, was discussed and understood. - Pollock, Dali and Hirst weren’t the only ones creating something from nothing.
15. - Creativity is no longer the exclusive domain of the Gods, but something Godly we are expected to do everyday.
16. Creativity is an amazing, amazing phenomenon
17. It is the inspirational force in any new thing
18. Creative people are so interesting - In the words of Steve Pressfield: - Creative people are so interesting because they’re ‘called’ to do something. - People can’t wait for them to bring their vision into manifestation
19. One of the most interesting Leonardo da Vinci One of the most interesting, creative person in human history was Leonardo da Vinci - I probably don’t need to talk to too many of his achievements to such a well-educated audience, but this guy was freakin’ inspirational.
20. IMagine Imagine if you will, that Leonardo da Vinci has come back somehow and has been employed as UX Lead for a major financial institution.
21. IMagine Leonardo da Vinci is a UX Lead on a major new mobile app for a large nancial institution. Imagine if you will, that Leonardo da Vinci has come back somehow and has been employed as UX Lead for a major financial institution.
22. - We all know how much Leo loves sketching - Leo is knee deep designing the next generation amazing mobile banking app for Bankcorp - He’s sketched out tonnes of ideas for mobile banking
23. - Leo presents his ideas to the major stakeholders - They are respectfully quiet the whole presentation, as you’d expect.
24. - They love the ideas. This is Leo da Vinci FFS! The ideas are insanely amazing!
25. - But they ask some more questions: -- How will these effect the business requirements? -- WHat should they go into testing? How about a card sort? -- Actually research seems like such a good idea, right? How do we know we’re DOING THE RIGHT THING? - Also, the Sales team should be involved, book a meeting with them. - Leo leaves the room with his Project Manager
26. Hmmmm... - One the way back, he notices a bunch of guys working on their machines furiously. Who are these guys? he asks the project manager? Oh, they’re developers. We’re not ready to talk with them yet. - Once we get these stakeholder meetings, card sorts and more research, we can talk to a technical architect
27. - Leo spends the rest of the day writing up notes from the meeting. - He’s got to organise 2 rounds of user testing on his concepts for next week. He needs to book a meeting with the marketing department to get an understanding of the ‘market segmentation’. - plays some solitare (BB)
28. - 2 weeks later and Leo has spent most of his time in his powerpoint, meetings and late night user testing - his only achievement is to fill his calendar
29. - He stares longingly at the sketches and thinks about where his energy went for the project. He doesn’t feel any closer to anything tangible. - He only feels resistance at every point. - Every time he fights it, he ends up with 3 more meetings, 5 other stakeholders to engage. - He only feels resistance.
30. he only feels Resistance
31. Resistance
32. Resistance is the temptation to go into more detail Resistance is the force telling you to spend that research budget just because you have it Resistance is the force telling you to put the headphones on and work alone Resistance is a force which will squash your next great idea. Resistance is the only thing in the way of you shipping something Resistance is what can make creative people boring. It saps the inspirational force on a team.
33. resist resistance
34. Do the work
35. - doing the work is about creating new habits to fight resistance - doing the work is about standing up for creativity - doing the work is about getting as close to a tangible product as soon as possible
36. SECONDARY PINK For use on Cogen pink background only. Ie, when entire surroundin background is Cogent pink. Typical use is wh Cogent is the sol brand. - I was imagining what would happen if Leo came and worked with us
37. 9 ways to resist resistance 9 ways to resist resistance and do the work
38. Do just enough research 1 - Not requirements
39. to FIND Clear goals and principles. - This is UX 101 - If you don’t know what the goals of the product/service are, you need to find out. You need to talk to users. You need to do this up-front. - You need to do just enough to have some validated concepts/ideas, with clear goals. - This does not have to be expensive research in a lab. 2 - 3 iterations, chatting with users initially then coming back with concepts is enough.
40. the just enough research approach - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.
41. the just enough research approach Analytics, competitive, comparative Existing analysis - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.
42. the just enough research approach Analytics, competitive, comparative Existing analysis On site 8 users. Ask How, Ask Why - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.
43. the just enough research approach Analytics, competitive, comparative Existing analysis On site 8 users. Ask How, Ask Why Process ow Hypothesis building Model and sketch the shit outta it - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.
44. the just enough research approach Analytics, competitive, comparative Existing analysis On site 8 users. Ask How, Ask Why Process ow Hypothesis building Model and sketch the shit outta it Get speci c feedback Take concepts back to users - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.
45. the just enough research approach Analytics, competitive, comparative Existing analysis On site 8 users. Ask How, Ask Why Process ow Hypothesis building Model and sketch the shit outta it Get speci c feedback Take concepts back to users Process ow Hypothesis building Model and sketch the shit outta it - This is a UX conference, so I don’t need to talk about structuring research. But if you’re interested, this is probably what I would call enough of a research approach to get started. - Any more, and resistance is probably likely to set in - Remember, we’re trying to beat resistance, and get creative.
46. Existing analysis - of course, you have to look at current behaviour
47. ASK how, Ask why - go onsite - insterview real people - ask them how they do things, then follow up with why. why. why. why. - These are pictures of our visit to Tesselaars packing depot. We found some interesting workarounds for managing the picking and packing of flowers and seeds... we didnt just observe, we asked HOW and WHY
48. model and sketch the hell outta it “Did you mean?” <sketch> - get back to the office, talk and draw what - The format is usually a conversation that revolves around “Did you mean...?” and then sketching what you mean. - Start to think about hypothesis. Be assertive. “People are trying to...”
49. Take concepts back to users - Go back to the site, office or just invite users back to your place. - Show them concepts, ask what they think, would this be useful... - You can ask them to draw on the sketches, but many won’t. I often wished they would be it just doesn’t happen. - YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING REMARKABLE
50. Then Ask... What does this mean for the experience? - Get back to the office and have another sketch session, this time with the focus: -- WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE EXPERIENCE? -- Go through each hypothesis. Go through each participant. -- WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE EXPERIENCE?
51. - we create this type of list a lot - it helps us list out all of the insights, but straight away, think about how we could action it - each of the ‘What does it mean for the experience?’ is a perfect way to focus a more detailed sketch session
52. What was the insight? - we create this type of list a lot - it helps us list out all of the insights, but straight away, think about how we could action it - each of the ‘What does it mean for the experience?’ is a perfect way to focus a more detailed sketch session
53. What was the insight? What does it mean for the experience? - we create this type of list a lot - it helps us list out all of the insights, but straight away, think about how we could action it - each of the ‘What does it mean for the experience?’ is a perfect way to focus a more detailed sketch session
54. Visualise scope - it helps to also start to visualise the ‘scope’ of the product. - probably the most boring, but necessary part of the process. - Oh by the way, we’re doing strategy right now. AWESOME!
55. Visualise scope - You end up with a pile of sketches, that give a feel for the entire application - Each section should have a user goal. - For example, “I want to find people that I can learn from”.
56. internal Design principles - The entire project should be tied back to design principles and a vision! - principles should be in plain language and - easily recalled. - we find swear words help
57. If you don’t have a goal you are wasting your time. - many people are worried about doing research upfront to ‘get it right’ - I’m worried about doing research upfront to make sure I’ve got goals and am not wasting the customer’s and my time
58. Just enough research shouldn’t take more than a few of weeks.
59. You should be ready and conFIDENT to start development - at the end you should be ready and confident to start development - yes, that might mean a bunch of cards
60. Every hour you spend researching, you lose in design - Every hour you spend researching, you lose in design - so make sure you only do enough research
61. You have a 1000 page research report with annotated wireframes in your hand Do just enough research e UX team needs to ‘go o ’ and do research before anything can be done.
62. Set your work up to be nimble 2
63. Cogent Treehouse kitchenette 'sketch' area 'client' table desks - how much of your available space (as a percentage) is whiteboard? - Oh, and they’re magnetic also. Sexy!
64. Cogent Treehouse kitchenette 'sketch' area 'client' table desks whiteboard whiteboard whiteboard whiteboard - how much of your available space (as a percentage) is whiteboard? - Oh, and they’re magnetic also. Sexy!
65. Cogent Treehouse kitchenette 'sketch' area 'client' table desks whiteboard whiteboard whiteboard whiteboard 66% - how much of your available space (as a percentage) is whiteboard? - Oh, and they’re magnetic also. Sexy!
66. This helps you to Get up and talk to people. - get up and talk to people, duh.
67. This design can inform
68. this interface
69. Getting our collab’ on.
70. So many whiteboards
71. Annotate cards on-the-FLY
72. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group
73. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group Information architecture reference
74. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group Information architecture reference Who?
75. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group Information architecture reference Who? is has been picked up and briefed in
76. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group Information architecture reference Who? is has been picked up and briefed in Developer name
77. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Iteration group Information architecture reference Who? is has been picked up and briefed in Developer name Recent chat
78. Annotate cards on-the-FLY
79. Annotate cards on-the-FLY More detail
80. Annotate cards on-the-FLY
81. Annotate cards on-the-FLY Lots more detail
82. Typical Product Wall What’s coming up? (sketches) What’s in play? What do we have to x later? Currently (49%) Future design (51%) Discuss Implement Deploy Review Showcase UX Debt Design in play
83. You’re o en stumbling around to record conversations on-the- y You’re sitting in a room full of designers You’re wearing your headphones all day Set your work up to be nimble
84. deliverables
85. deliverables 3 - Deliverables tend to not get Leo towards a tangible product - Deliverables are a form of resistance - There will always be people in the deliverables business. If you are paying them money, fire them and hire someone else that will spend effort (money) in getting you towards a tangiable product.
86. What do we replace mountains of deliverables with?
87. a Shared understanding A shared understanding - a cheesy phrase? yes. - a better idea than deliverables? yes.
88. Create a ‘have-a-look-at-this- culture’.
90. Travis (Developer)
91. Travis (Developer) Asking me to have a look at something he’s working on
92. sketch A discrete problem 5 minutes to sketch a bunch of solutions 2 minutes to critique each All ideas assigned back to designer to synthesise and pitch back 1 2 3 - Designer has an issue or area of the site to solve - Get 3-4 people (designers or biz folk usually) - Sketch for 5 minutes, like crazy - GO around the circle and pitch your ideas back - Hand everything back to designer to iterate, combine or throw out - This can happen at any time in the design process. Planning or in iteration - Creates a resistance free zone, and a shared understanding
93. pitch and critique Every idea is pitched to strategy, developers and other designers. Feedback is arranged around the goals of the page, which everyone agrees with.
94. Each Tuesday and ursday at 3pm, we pitch our work. pitch and critique BAM!
95. Goal: Members want to search for that article, person or concept. - for example
96. Goal: Members want to search for that article, person or concept. Problem: Not enough prominence on Search functionality - for example
97. Sketch session
99. - We pitch and critique our work together
100. - and also with the client
101. - “How is this going to load” - “Is there too much distracting animation?” - “Search bar stays awake in Search Results Page” - “What is the default state” - These sorts of questions mean you’re ready to go into code
102. Day (or so) later...
103. - daily deployments mean that you get feedback straight away
104. You’re writing massive spec documents. No one has seen your work in the last 3 days. deliverables You’re selling deliverables not tangible so ware
105. pairing not prototyping 4 - prototypes are the trickiest forms of resistance
106. Pairing not prototyping Pairing means you’re working on the real thing Designers aren’t the only ones who design O en prototypes are used to solve problems that are due to bad communication Front-end frameworks make the pairing process quicker Top 4 #1 #2 #3 #4 - The closer to the tangible product, the better. Prototyping can be a form of resistance - Sometimes people gasp at prototypes to solve a communication problem within a team. “We need to prototype this so that the developers, stakeholders can see it working” - FE frame works, like jQuery make on-the-fly e
107. Pairing not prototyping Pairing means you’re working on the real thing Designers aren’t the only ones who design O en prototypes are used to solve problems that are due to bad communication Front-end frameworks make the pairing process quicker Top 4 #1 #2 #3 #4 - The closer to the tangible product, the better. Prototyping can be a form of resistance - Sometimes people gasp at prototypes to solve a communication problem within a team. “We need to prototype this so that the developers, stakeholders can see it working” - FE frame works, like jQuery make on-the-fly e
108. Pairing not prototyping Pairing means you’re working on the real thing Designers aren’t the only ones who design O en prototypes are used to solve problems that are due to bad communication Front-end frameworks make the pairing process quicker Top 4 #1 #2 #3 #4 - The closer to the tangible product, the better. Prototyping can be a form of resistance - Sometimes people gasp at prototypes to solve a communication problem within a team. “We need to prototype this so that the developers, stakeholders can see it working” - FE frame works, like jQuery make on-the-fly e
109. Pairing not prototyping Pairing means you’re working on the real thing Designers aren’t the only ones who design O en prototypes are used to solve problems that are due to bad communication Front-end frameworks make the pairing process quicker Top 4 #1 #2 #3 #4 - The closer to the tangible product, the better. Prototyping can be a form of resistance - Sometimes people gasp at prototypes to solve a communication problem within a team. “We need to prototype this so that the developers, stakeholders can see it working” - FE frame works, like jQuery make on-the-fly e
111. You’re spending everyday on your own, at your machine. You’re sure that a prototyping tool will solve your problems. pairing not prototyping
112. dumb it down and keep moving 5
113. Back on Wing Commander 1 we were getting an exception from our EMM386 memory manager when we exited the game. We'd clear the screen and a single line would print out, something like "EMM386 Memory manager error. Blah blah blah." We had to ship ASAP. So I hex edited the error in the memory manager itself to read " ank you for playing Wing Commander. - Ken Demarest “
114. Back on Wing Commander 1 we were getting an exception from our EMM386 memory manager when we exited the game. We'd clear the screen and a single line would print out, something like "EMM386 Memory manager error. Blah blah blah." We had to ship ASAP. So I hex edited the error in the memory manager itself to read " ank you for playing Wing Commander. - Ken Demarest “
115. Back on Wing Commander 1 we were getting an exception from our EMM386 memory manager when we exited the game. We'd clear the screen and a single line would print out, something like "EMM386 Memory manager error. Blah blah blah." We had to ship ASAP. So I hex edited the error in the memory manager itself to read " ank you for playing Wing Commander. - Ken Demarest “
116. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...
117. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...
118. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...
119. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...
120. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...
121. Just enough design continuum Gesture Talk Sketch A Better Sketch Card Code Churn a problem through this! - plan to move this way - if anything gets in the way, it’s probably resistance - I’ve talked enough about these phases, but there’s one rule we have through them all...
122. use realistic content at all times - even when you’re sketching. Have some real content sources nearby
123. use realistic content at all times - moving into more fidelity, real content saves you real time - it removes resistance and gets you closer to a tangible product
124. Record UX debt and pay it o . UX debt Currently (49%) Future design (51%) Discuss Implement Deploy Review Showcase UX Debt Design in play - Ahh - when you by a house, you get into debt - debt isn’t a bad thing, esp if you can afford to pay it off - Thread example is line-heights and typography. - We came back and spent a few days fixing the heights, once the feature was out - Structural work (Information Architecture) shouldn’t be debted.
125. You’re spending everyday on your own, at your machine. You’re sure that a prototyping tool will solve your problems. dumb it down, keep moving
126. boredom 6
127. We had to build another admin section... - lot’s of forms, filters, inputs, CRUDs. - Manage events, talks, upload videos, sync videos,
128. Boring work is resistance. But you have to do it.
129. - start with this level - Sketch the flows - figure out the CRUD
130. minimal design interaction. Roughly two week of development - minimal design effort, maybe 5 hours.
131. Get to this level of fidelity with barely any designer input... - sure, there’s a few little bits to improve... - but the flows work
132. ... use a bootstrap, like Twitter. .. it’s like your UX suos chef
133. ... use a bootstrap, like Twitter. .. it’s like your UX suos chef
134. You’re answering inane questions about regular interaction design problems You’re solving the same design problem over and over boredom
135. Stay between iterations 7
136. Stay between iterations 7 (not an iteration ahead)
137. Use the 51/49 rule 51% of your time is spent sketching and planning 49% of your time is spent in iteration 1% makes a difference
138. You’re spending all your time an iteration ahead. You overhear developers talking about problems with your design. Stay between iterations
139. energy is fINITE 8
140. Don’t treat energy as an in nite resource It’s exhausting working like this. Every UXr says they’re overwhelmed when they start out on their rst/ second/third agile project. Designers need 8 hours sleep every night. - Sleep - Lunch - go home on time
141. You’re fucking tired all the time. Energy
142. baby. bathwater. 9
143. We still have much to keep from traditional UX design processes - focus at the task. Dont get distracted. Agile UX is not an excuse to have 1000 tangent conversations. One tangent is OK... but if that tangent has another tangent, STOP. - work hard to get the details right. Be detailed. Be specific. We’re good at that. - Always, always, always advocate for the user. It’s what people pay us for.
144. We still have much to keep from traditional UX design processes discipline 1 - focus at the task. Dont get distracted. Agile UX is not an excuse to have 1000 tangent conversations. One tangent is OK... but if that tangent has another tangent, STOP. - work hard to get the details right. Be detailed. Be specific. We’re good at that. - Always, always, always advocate for the user. It’s what people pay us for.
145. We still have much to keep from traditional UX design processes discipline 1 rigour 2 - focus at the task. Dont get distracted. Agile UX is not an excuse to have 1000 tangent conversations. One tangent is OK... but if that tangent has another tangent, STOP. - work hard to get the details right. Be detailed. Be specific. We’re good at that. - Always, always, always advocate for the user. It’s what people pay us for.
146. We still have much to keep from traditional UX design processes discipline 1 rigour 2 a user bias 3 - focus at the task. Dont get distracted. Agile UX is not an excuse to have 1000 tangent conversations. One tangent is OK... but if that tangent has another tangent, STOP. - work hard to get the details right. Be detailed. Be specific. We’re good at that. - Always, always, always advocate for the user. It’s what people pay us for.
147. One can’t help but think that Polly’s stonehenge might have been more successful if she’d had a better shared understanding of what Spinal Tap was a er.
148. One can’t help but think that Polly’s stonehenge might have been more successful if she’d had a better shared understanding of what Spinal Tap was a er. A couple of sketch sessions (not in a pub on a napkin) and a client pin-up would have cleared things up. She was clearly too focussed on the deliverable.
149. And I think that Leo would have had a better time of it at the bank if he’d stuck to his guns and eliminated some resistance.
150. And I think that Leo would have had a better time of it at the bank if he’d stuck to his guns and eliminated some resistance. (I personally would love to see a banking app designed by Leonardo da Vinci.)
151. Wrapping up
152. Creativity is the inspirational force in any new thing Wrapping up
153. Creativity is the inspirational force in any new thing Resistance is in the way of making that great thing Wrapping up
154. Creativity is the inspirational force in any new thing Resistance is in the way of making that great thing Wrapping up Resist resistance. Do the work. Fuck the napkin.
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