Erietta Sapounakis - Turning design research deliverables into living documents

Design research done well is invaluable but all too often the effort doesn’t live beyond the initiative. This represents incredible wastage particularly as lean UX practices in agile contexts call for less and less research, and can make it difficult to make the case for upfront discovery at all. This presentation introduces task models as a tool to help design research live beyond any single project to become part of the product development lifecycle and its knowledge embedded in product teams.

Transcript

1. Turning design research deliverables into living documents UX Australia Design Research 2022
2. Erietta Sapounakis Head of UX, THE ICONIC @erietta eriontheinterweb.com linkedin.com/in/erietta/ Hello!
3. – Two parables – Getting in our own way – Having no way to go – Turning research into a living resource
4. Endless spiral staircase image by Tine Ivanič on Unsplash
5. Audit process to collate and recover findings to bridge research to design Illustrative example of mental model diagram. Image credit: https://twitter.com/iatv/status/710593770450980864 49 documents synthesised into 1 model of the experience 17 documents consolidated into 1 single persona set 27 personas reduced to a workable set of 7 5 requirements docs workshopped into 1 roadmap IA Interaction model Software architecture reference User stories Content audit Content strategy
6. * Adaptation of the Double Diamond design model from the British Design Council, https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/design-process-what-double-diamond Discover Design & Test Deliver Improve The link between research and design can feel flimsy if there is no focus
7. Research reports Personas Principles Scenarios Customer journeys Presentations Design research and its artefacts cannot become an end in themselves Discover Design & Test Deliver Improve * Adaptation of the Double Diamond design model from the British Design Council, https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/design-process-what-double-diamond
8. Getting in our own way
9. Have you ever talked process over outcomes? “Was all that worth it?” Lead with succinct summaries of key problems Detail the approach as an appendix Consider your audience Tailor communication to researchers, designers, product managers, and business stakeholders. Trust that curious stakeholders will ask more questions.
10. Always frame the “So what?” Focus on outcomes and implications Don’t overplay findings as insight Is it insight? Is it relevant? Is it new and surprising knowledge; or just new to you? Workshop implications with team mates and stakeholders as you go Are your insights obvious? “We knew this already” Reference: https://www.fearlessculture.design/blog-posts/what-so-what-now-what
11. Have you been stuck in a discovery loop? Break down the brief - What needs changing? Why? - Frame questions for each objective. Distinguish product, from service, from strategic objectives - Follow Lean UX for straightforward briefs Consider the integrity of each artefact - do the artefacts work as tools? - do the artefacts repeat themselves in ways that aren’t helpful? - just enough, and relevant detail Model the whole experience - Helps to avoid repeating research, while showing knowledge gaps - Facilitates lean approaches “When does design happen?”
12. Link discovery to design by modelling the experience Overview • A model of customer research • Experiences with your service or product, and outside of it • Provides context to why people make certain choices • Easier to update than a journey • Can be used to generate journeys, personas, story maps, and user stories Top half • A visual depiction of behaviour in relation to the problem space or experience • Describes people’s goals, and purpose and what they do in relation to this Bottom half • How an organisation supports the experience by way of content, features, processes, capability, and shows the gaps • Can distinguish between existing and proposed solutions Mental (task) model diagram Mental (task) model diagram showing top half of customer experience and bottom half of corresponding business capability
13. Implicit What people think, are feeling, motivations, concerns, where they pause, where they may be nervous, or anxious, or confident Explicit Behaviours, what people do, the steps people take, the tasks they perform, or recognise What’s in the model? References Mental model methodology were developed by Indi Young • rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/ • medium.com/inclusive-software/a-powerful-lens-peoples-purpose-d72ed6cdfef2 • https://uxaustralia.com.au/conferences/dr2021/presentation/opening-keynote2/ Book cover of Mental Models by Indi Young, Rosenfeld publishers
14. Mental model diagram An aged care example Mental space, purpose, or goal What people do, tasks How they do it, steps Sample of mental (task) model diagram of aged care experience
15. Explicit tasks • Provide help with more physical domestic tasks • Stay across / remind parent of upcoming appointments • Research upcoming procedure e.g. heart surgery, shoulder treatment • Conduct general research to understand dementia • Ask family, friends for advice Implicit tasks • Worried about health of ageing parent • Frustrated about balancing work, home life and care for parents • Don’t know how to discuss health issues with loved one • Adjusting to changing dynamics in parent child relationship • Unaware of services from major or minor providers • Unaware of ACAT process and times Purpose Support ageing parents Mental model diagram An aged care example
16. Photo of red flag by Carson Masterson on Unsplash
17. August September October November 10 17 24 31 7 14 21 28 5 12 19 26 2 9 16 23 Program Management Get Connected Move, modify, cancel Get Help Make payment Product Construct Architecture Usage CX Research & validation 6 week output review Final design output review Service episodes Product Design Agile transformation to design a self-serve digital experience Illustrative example of 4 month program where agile sprints had been time-boxed. It was a waterfall program design. time boxed waterfall sprints /\
18. Mental model diagram underpinned the approach to the brief Existing research and journeys were synthesised into a model of the experience Existing research Primary research Person handling documents Photo of focus group, field research at all centre and with telco field technician
19. Implicit tasks • Understand what NBN is and how it effects me - do I need it? • Wonder if someone needs to be home for the technician • Annoyed that plan has to change • Understand how install affects my premise - where will connection point be? • Worried that new holes have to be drilled • Feel unrewarded for loyalty Explicit tasks • Compare with other providers for best value • Evaluate offers • Ask questions for clarity • Engage with a provider (in store, call, online) • Reconsider usage needs as new products are presented • Commit to buy from service provider Purpose Ensure I’m always connected Mental model diagram A telco example
20. Scenarios and user flows derived from the user stories or model Wireframes and prototypes of the experience Concept and usability testing Bottom half: organisational layer Workshops with product, tech, and operations to map capability, fill in gaps, generated ideas Top half: CX 2 4 5 6 User stories generated directly from the mental model 3 1 Cross-stream reconciliation workshop helped squads align and design a cohesive experience 7 Customer experience vision and story 8
21. Ines Rego, conference attendee comment: In the ‘rush’ and pressure of delivering research results, go go go, faster research cycles, are we compromising on the the real learning and dedicating enough space for reflection time - as individuals and as [a] team?
22. Rock Climber between two large boulders, photo by Tommy Lisbin on Unsplash
23. Can we squeeze research in here? Having no way to go Image of the scrum framework. Source: www.scrum.org/resources/scrum-framework-poster
24. Concept and usability testing Research to prioritise roadmaps User stories from observed tasks, and behaviours Research exploring strategic opportunities Design research needs to be available and continuous Image of the scrum framework. Source: www.scrum.org/resources/scrum-framework-poster
25. Turning research into a living resource Photo of Bushart Gardens in Victoria, BC, Canad by Jan Canty on Unsplash
26. User voice NPS verbatim Customer interviews THE ICONIC’s mental model diagram Turning research into a living resource
27. User voice NPS verbatim Customer interviews The model is a springboard for design and ideas THE ICONIC’s mental model diagram and project Miro boards
28. • Sensemaking > retrieval Deliberately not looking at research repository software right now • Workshops to immerse product owners and product managers in the data • Define experience principles and guidelines from the model • Exploring the gaps in roadmaps Next steps of embedding the model
29. • Facilitate lean and agile approaches • Avoid researching same ground, helps reuse of existing research, and reveals knowledge gaps • Zoom in to potential use cases, and user stories, inspire and rationalise ideas • Zoom out to the whole experience, contextualise problems, develop strategy and roadmaps Mental model diagrams bridge research to tangible, actionable design
30. Any questions? Turning research into a living resource @erietta eriontheinterweb.com linkedin.com/in/erietta/