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
   

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2. Erietta Sapounakis
   Head of UX, THE ICONIC
   @erietta eriontheinterweb.com linkedin.com/in/erietta/
   Hello!
   

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3. – Two parables
   – Getting in our own way
   – Having no way to go
   – Turning research into a living resource
   

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4. Endless spiral staircase image by Tine Ivanič on Unsplash
   

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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
   

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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
   

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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
   

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8. Getting in our own way
   

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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.
   

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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
    

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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?”
    

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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
    

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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
    

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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
    

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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
    

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16. Photo of red flag by Carson Masterson on Unsplash
    

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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
    /\
    

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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
    

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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
    

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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
    

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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?
    

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22. Rock Climber between two large boulders, photo by Tommy Lisbin on Unsplash
    

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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
    

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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
    

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25. Turning research into a living resource
    Photo of Bushart Gardens in Victoria, BC, Canad by Jan Canty on Unsplash
    

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26. User voice
    NPS verbatim
    Customer interviews
    THE ICONIC’s mental model diagram
    Turning research into a living resource
    

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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
    

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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
    

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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
    

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30. Any
    questions?
    Turning research into a living resource
    @erietta eriontheinterweb.com linkedin.com/in/erietta/
    

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