Bynd on Getting UX Right for Digital Marketing

© Copyright 2013 Beyond. All rights reserved. Private and Confidential
integrating ux in to a
growth digital agency
by Andrew Shanley

WHAT’S COMING UP...

What’s
coming up
➡ The Growth Digital Agency (GDA) Challenges
➡ Introduction to UX
➡ Why UX matters/ROI
➡ Current and future issues
➡ The Working UX team
➡ UX Vs IA
➡ Where UX fits in to the development cycle
➡ What service we provide, and when (Engagement model)

THE GROWTH DIGITAL
AGENCY (GDA) -
CHALLENGES

Challenges ➡ Cost: "UX is expensive - we can't afford it"
➡ Importance: "UX will eats in to project time"
➡ Agency size: "Do we need to a UX department?"
➡ Understanding: "Clients don't get UX.. WE don't get UX"
➡ Is it really being practiced? : "We already do wireframes!"
A Growth Digital Agency is an
agency that's growing fast!
With this comes it's own
challenges.
Some common
themes

© Copyright 2012 Beyond. All rights reserved. Private and Conﬁdential© Copyright 2013 Beyond. All rights reserved. Private and Conﬁdential
SO WHY DO UX IN THE
FIRST PLACE

Coined by Dr. Donald Norman*, 'user experience' (UX) is "design centered on the user’s
wants and needs – an experience that gets beyond business goals and digs into users’
goals" (circa 1993)
UX is the notion that not only design but strategic decisions should be based on the needs
and wants of users.
a definition
*Norman is a cognitive science researcher, co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group and
former vice-president of Apple.
http://www.nngroup.com/about/
http://www.ux-lx.com/donn.html
http://www.ixdstudio.com/blog/8-things-every-ui-designer-should-know/
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/05/what-is-user-experience-design-overview-tools-and-resources/

UX design is driven by consideration of the moments of engagement, or touchpoints,
between people and brands, and the ideas, emotions, and memories that these moments
create.
in a commercial context
RAZOR BRANDING™: BRANDING TOUCHPOINTS: http://www.therussogroup.com/branding-touchpoints/

A better definition
CLIENT
needs
user
needs
The product moment of engagement the experience
user
needs
CLIENT
needs
strategy

© Copyright 2012 Beyond. All rights reserved. Private and Conﬁdential© Copyright 2013 Beyond. All rights reserved. Private and Confidential
WHY UX MATTERS

User centered product + increased client buy-in
+ user testing at earlier stages =
Fewer latter-stage iterations and code-rewrites
the roi of ux
Reduced COST
Increased profuctivity
Increased sales
Increased brand loyalty
Increased brand advocacy
Users can fulfill their tasks faster,
less effort required
Pan points reduced, reduced barrier to sales
(http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button/)
Pleasant emotions and
memories associated with
product and brand...
..tell all your
friends about it!
UX Basics & The ROI Of UX: http://www.slideshare.net/algorhythm/ux-basics-the-roi-of-ux

User centred product + increased client buy-in
+ user testing at earlier stages =
Fewer latter-stage iterations and code-rewrites
the roi of ux
Reduced COST
Increased profuctivity
Increased sales
Increased brand loyalty
Increased brand advocacy
Users can fulfill their tasks faster,
less effort required
Pan points reduced, reduced barrier to sales
(http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button/)
Pleasant emotions and
memories associated with
product and brand...
..tell all your
friends about it!
UX Basics & The ROI Of UX: http://www.slideshare.net/algorhythm/ux-basics-the-roi-of-ux
Or, rather than increased brand
advocacy, could the measure be a
reduction in brand opposition ?

user
needs
CLIENT
needsSo, we need to sell this approach ( )
back in to the client
There is
much
value to
be had.. ..in designing
around user
needs

UX SCOPE: WHERE UX
GETS INVOLVED

the user experience strategy
UXers sit further toward the ‘person’ end of the
scale, focusing on understanding end users,
stakeholders, and what is going to work well for
them as a wholistic experience.
The GDA's UX team should work closer with the
Insights, analytics and research departments
The GDA's UX teams' aim is to add strategic value
to project teams.
The Elements of User Experience (2002)
Jesse James Garrett http://www.jjg.net/elements/

gda ux team touchpoints: bridging disciplines
ux
Bridging UX with those associated disciplines, on
either side, in other areas of the company
strategy
dev.
User research
Content
strategy
Information
architecture
Interaction
design
Usability
Visual design

ux
strategy
dev.
User research
Content
strategy
Information
architecture
Interaction
design
Usability
Visual design
informationarchitecture

ux
strategy
dev.
User research
Content
strategy
Information
architecture
Interaction
design
Usability
Visual design
informationarchitecture
Test
hypothesis
Test
hypothesis
Test
hypothesis

GDA TEAM AND
STRUCTURE

gda ux team
ux
user researcher information architect user tester
Focuses in gathering insights about
the users from social networks,
surveys, interviews and workshops.
Creates personas to symbolically
represent end-user groupings
Creates hypotheses, researches holistic and
competitor environments, works with personas and
user research take-aways to create navigation and
hierarchical structures (flow diagrams, site maps,
content maps, wireframes, story boards, etc)
Tests hypotheses. Creates
walk-throughs using Axure,
or Invision App.

gda ux competency levels
Information
Architect (IA) UX Senior UX
➡ User Experience concerns emotion
➡ Emphasis on facilitating engagement
➡ Bridging research and design teams
➡ Training IA and mid-weights
➡ Brief / RFP interpretation
➡ IA concerns structure
➡ Emphasis on deliverables
➡ Very hands on
➡ BAU: Business as usual work
➡ Aspire to grow in to UX role
title
Competency
emphasis
Junior Mid-Weight Senior

© Copyright 2012 Beyond. All rights reserved. Private and Conﬁdential© Copyright 2013 Beyond. All rights reserved. Private and Conﬁdential
ISSUES IDENTIFIED

what we’ve heard you say (account managers)
The poor mans designer
"Let's just do some wireframes"
= We know UX needs to be
applied, but we don't quite get
the where, when and how...
The afterthought (usability audit)
"We've done this design, it's not quite
working, can you look at it?"
[on a new project]
The buzz word
"This needs to be UX'd"

Why? Because UX is not UI - It's much more...
Surface
Visual design
Skeleton
Interface design
Navigation design
Information design
Structure
Interaction design
Information architecture
Scope
Functional specs
Content requirements
Strategy
User needs
Client / product objectives
Iceberg of IA, Peter Morville 2000

Why? Because UX is not UI - It's much more...
www.uxisnotui.com

We must continue to
avoid the user
experience from
becoming the final
part of the equation
UX is not (only) about design or
wireframes, nor is it solely about
creating and handing off design
deliverables.
Design

UX touches pretty much
all stages of the
project lifecycle
Deployment
Business as
usual (BAU)
Strategy and
planning
Development Design
Requirements
analysis and
user research

..It's more like this
Deployment
Business as
usual (BAU)
Strategy and
planning
Development
Design and
user testing
Requirements
analysis and
user research
Climate / holistic / best of breed research
Collect and interpret social data, analytics and search data
Interpreting client/stakeholder brief
Determine user stories,
Workshops, surveys and interviews
Wireframing and storyboarding
Prototyping
Creating and working off personas
Presentations
Quality assurance (QA)
Quality assurance (QA)
A/B and click testing
Put in to perspective
Content audit
Process flows / user journeys
Card sort -> Site map / content map

Engagement model:
On what scale should UX resource be used?
With a small team and a large amount of work coming in, how can we ensure only those
projects requiring UX, get UX. Rule of thumb: UX to be used when the following criteria
is met (this will differ per GDA):
Websites, intranets,
microsites
Any budget, any size
To be reviewed as UX team grows. If in doubt
Talk with the Head of UX
infographics and single
facebook pages
N/A - unless complex
Channels
[E.g. Youtube/other]
Smaller project with
lesser budgets

Engagement model:
At what point should UX be kicked off?
Head of UX is to work closely with
producers and accounts to assist with:
➡ Defining UX scope of work i.e. what UX
process to use*
➡ Timings
➡ UX/IA resource allocation
*The scope of UX required differs project to project.
Some projects may require wireframes only.
Some may require full research, surveys, interviews,
stories, site maps, journeys, prototypes, wireframes.
Deployment
Business as
usual (BAU)
Strategy and
planning
Development
Requirements
analysis
Design
Strategy and
planning
here

Integrating UX in to a largely tech-focused agile way of working
(difficult, but can be done)
Getting UX and dev organised; establishing the relationship between
Product Owners and UX; getting UX work into the backlog; etc
Potential inner-departmental fighting for allocation of resource
UX wants MORE, Design wants MORE, Tech wants MORE…
New starter knowledge - particularly on account/producer team:
Communicating the fundamentals
UX is a new area and the team is growing and evolving - how do we
communicate changes?
More of these presentations every 3 / 6 months
challenges

UX should be something a GDA sells to clients - it's not 'added' value; it adds real
strategic significance. There is actual ROI - something to explore further
UX is not (only) about UI or wireframes. It's about understanding a users emotional
connections at various touch points with the brand or product
The core UX team of a GDA consists of a User Researcher, Information Architect, and a
User Tester. Skills will sometimes overlap. Communication must always overlap.
Collaboration is key.
The role of an Information Architect is about the hands-on organisation of data and
content i.e. the creation of site maps, wireframes and prototypes
The role of Head of UX is about defining the UX process per-project, working on briefs
and RFP's, and bridging UX disciplines with associated disciplines in other areas of the
company > strategy, research, analytics, design
UX is to be kicked off at the strategic/onboarding stage
The UX process differs depending on client, budget, resource, timescales, scope
takeaways

thank you
Andrew Shanley
@ a n d y s h a n
a n d y @ a n d r e w s h a n l e y . c o . u k

Bynd on Getting UX Right for Digital Marketing

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Bynd on Getting UX Right for Digital Marketing