My UX back story… in 13 Lessons

A presentation about my career progression from Art to UX.

Transcript

1. Hello, I’m Tim Broadwater • Certified UX Unicorn • Artist • Foodie • Gamer • Horror Aficionado • Poodle Owner • Tattoo Enthusiast • Volunteer UXer
2. My back story… in 13 Lessons • From Lumberport, West Virginia • Youngest of three (older brother and sister) • Graduated college in 2001 / Art and Graphic Design • First job out of college / Graphic Designer (at the place I interned)
3. Career Lesson #1: There are business deadlines and goals... it’s not always about making things look pretty.
4. After that... • Spent a couple years teaching Animation, Desktop Publishing, Graphic Design, and Video Production / IADT • Started graduate school / M.A. in Art • Accepted a position as a Multimedia Designer / CET
5. CET & Graduate School Helping make educational software (about volcanoes, Lego Robotics Program, flight simulation, etc.) while pursuing my M.A. in Art taught me to: • Collaborate with developers and subject matter experts • Refine and focus my work • Perform research to inform and strengthen my work
6. Career Lesson #2: Multiple mediums like text, imagery, video, and gamification can work together to craft a positive (or negative) experience.
7. Grant-based work... Eventually the work wasn’t reliable and I looked for more stable employment • Accepted a position as Web Designer / WVU SOJ
8. The web as a medium While working at WVU I could transfer to different departments, schools, and units and focus/learn: • Accessibility • Analytics • Content Strategy • Interactivity • Pattern Libraries • Style Guides
9. Career Lesson #3: Benchmarking alone isn't the best way to design experiences or product roadmaps.
10. Eventually, after 3 years... I worked on a WVU HSC dev team which made a LMS and CMS. This is where I became familiar with: • Product Development • Product Life Cycles • Dev Practices • Project Management • Sprint Cycles • User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
11. Career Lesson #4, 5, 6: • Product design without users is product design in a bubble. • Development = Implementation (many devs don’t consider the user) • Prototyping in code is the best way to show interaction design to a developer.
12. UX isn't on the road map! • I constantly yearned for something, I didn't know that it was UX at the time • I begged product and web development to talk to our users, test our software against users, and to ask users what they thought (so we could improve) • I included UX into my practices – development, design, and research – and I would walk others through the same process
13. First step into UX, officially... After about three years on a UX-less software team, I accepted a hybrid position at WVU Libraries as a Front-End Developer/UX Designer. I immediately started: • Building out a usability testing platform and process • Writing and conducting usability tests • Combining both qualitative and quantitative user data
14. Before long I was... • Conducting moderated usability test with TechSmith Morae • Using Qualtrics to gather user feedback • Analyzing data from University Relations. • Making recommendations based on user data and insights
15. Career Lesson #7: UX is not UI (and that still needs to be explained).
16. Career Lesson #8: UX can facilitate workflow improvements through data visualization.
17. Within several years... • Improved web applications and websites through quantifiable metrics • Started going back to school for Graphic Design and UX / SCAD • Pursued UX certification from the NNg Eventually I got a promotion to UX Architect – informing web decisions and web development based on usability test results – advancing WVU Libraries’ digital repositories and special collections. I was the only person at WVU with UX in their job title.
18. Usability Stir Fry A recipe called in the ‘Website and Web Services Assessment’ chapter of the Library Assessment Cookbook.
19. Propagayda My M.F.A. focused on the parallels between usability testing and play testing for games. By examining the intersection of Design, UX, and Gamification I developed a educational game that taught the differences between sex, gender, and attraction.
20. Career Lesson #9, 10: • If we aren’t testing then we’re just guessing. #MetricsMatter • You may not get the results you want from user data, user research, or usability testing.
21. Library to eCommerce After focusing on UX in a library environment – digital repositories, collections, and services – I found myself wanting to do different work in the field of UX. I accepted a position at Dick's Sporting Goods as a Senior UX Designer.
22. All hail the UX Team! At Dick's Sporting Goods I was able to do the following: • Function in a UX Team instead of being the sole UXer • Collaborate with BAs, PMs, PdMs, UI, CX, and Dev • Work on larger projects with a greater audience of users • Focus on aligning business goals with user goals • Utilize new KPIs (from Clicks to Conversion)
23. To help PM and PdMs... By being able to refine my focus on just UX design and research, I was able to: • Calibrate my LOE to different projects, timelines, and deliverables • Deliver the user insights that made the most impact • Execute multiple UX design and UX research projects • Plug into different teams while filling different roles
24. Career Lesson #11: UX is a conversation... a conversation to get different people working together… to consider the user.
25. +17% Holiday Taxo As DSG prepared for the 2016 holiday season, Senior eCommerce Merchandising Strategy requested user research on naming conventions, content, and L0 / L1 / L2 structure for the “featured” mega-menu item.
26. Shoe Searching Preferences UserTesting.com was used to develop and administer remote usability tests for Senior eCommerce Merchandising Strategy analysis. Tests focused on men’s footwear taxonomy.
27. MyAccount Tests 100 Remote Users 50 Non DSG Users 50 DSG Users 50 Qualtrics All Tasks Ranking 50 Qualtrics All Tasks Ranking 25 Qualtrics New Features Ranking 25 Optimal Open Card Sort All Tasks 25 Optimal Tree Test Current Nav 25 Qualtrics New Features Ranking 50 Qualtrics Sentiments Test 50 Qualtrics Current Experience Test
28. Conducting Team Training • Accessibility • Label Auditing • UX Audits • Moderated Usability Tests
29. Simultaneously... I started talking on UX podcasts, doing webinars, writing articles for LibUX, talking at UXcamps, and advising other UXers through Slack and social media. Some examples are the following: • UX Quackery • User Interviews to JIRA tickets • Usability of the Switch I also started use my skills for a couple nonprofits on the side, helping them redesign or fix their taxonomy, while completing my UXMC through the NNg.
30. Institutionally... DSG was moving towards eCommerce independence with a lot of silos and gray areas in regards to roles, responsibilities, and ownership. This lead to confusion about UX’s role in the company, and the following perceptions and struggles: • UX performs SIT / UAT • UX does bug-finding • UX and UI do the same thing • UX is an unlimited resource
31. Career Lesson #12: A UX Team has to have services, policies, and workflows that are communicated to other business partners.
32. DSG to Leidos I started working as a UX Software Design Engineer for a software development company that has a same-sized UX Team, but working more tandem with developers (not offshore developers).
33. 2X UX Team Leads Now I work incorporating Lean UX within SAFe sprint cycles, giving the developers what they need through design thinking facilitation, usability testing, interactive wireframes, mockups, or even style guides. Projects on which I currently work are: • AFATDS • Quantum • DMHS DVA • Skyline
34. Career Lesson #13: Get users in the process – research, design, development, redesign, feature mapping, etc. – as early as possible.
35. Going forward... I'm still finding it's an uphill battle to justify ux in the institution, even though there is perceived value, they're still has to be some justification. I'm looking for employment where instead of fighting the uphill battle to teach the value of UX… the value is understood. I want to focus on: • Delivering quality UX • Being part of a great team • Consultation to help others learn how to do UX • Finding user data to answer problems and questions
36. The End… Questions? Thanks! Visit www.timbroadwater.com for design work, white papers, and prototypes.