4. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
You never change things by
fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a
new model that makes the
existing model obsolete.”
“
R. Buckminster Fuller
#iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
5. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
User experience encompasses
all aspects of a user’s interaction
with a company, its services,
and its products.”
“
Don Norman
UX Architect, Apple
What is UX?
6. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
How to UX
Bring together user needs
and business goals through
research, design and
testing.”
“
Neil Scott
Glasgow-based UX Designer
UX Week motto
8. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
2017
Unrecognised
UX is not understood or not considered important
Interested
UX is considered valuable but gets little attention or resources
Considered
UX is sometimes prioritized and gets ad-hoc funding
Committed
UX is critical & formalised; executives actively involved
Engaged
UX is one of the pillars of strategy
Embedded
UX is a core part of company culture
1
0
3
2
5
4
The stages of UX maturity
10. April 2018
Redesigned MyGlasgow Staff homepage
November 2017
UofG UX project funded
Considered
UX gets ad-hoc funding…
Making progress on UX maturity
11. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
Case study 1 of 3
MyGlasgow Staff homepage
UX methods
• Top Tasks survey
• Card sorting
• Top Task Testing
12. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
MyGlasgow Staff homepage: Top Tasks survey
300+ staff voted for
their top 5 most
important tasks
Web tasks Logged-in tasks
Top tasks
top 25% of the vote
1. MyGlasgow Portal login
2. Staff details
3. Policies & procedures
1. Annual leave
2. Payslips
Medium tasks
next 25%
4. Contact details for a unit
5. Dates
6. Job vacancies
7. MyGlasgow News
8. Maps
9. Salary scales
10. Room finder
11. User guides
3. Report a fault or
request a job
4. WebMail
5. Room bookings
Small tasks
next 25%
14 tasks 5 tasks
Tiny tasks
bottom 25%
47 tasks 13 tasks
14. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
MyGlasgow Staff homepage: impact
Pageviews up 7%
Entrances up 22%
Average time on page down 4 seconds
Google Analytics data
1 Apr 2018 - 31 March 2019
compared to same period in previous year
1.1 FTEs
100,793
minutes £54,792
15. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
MyGlasgow Staff homepage: what next?
Keep testing and iterating
Keep shouting about it...
...can we save a million minutes?
16. April 2018
Redesigned MyGlasgow Staff homepage
November 2017
UofG UX project funded
Considered
UX gets ad-hoc funding…
Making progress on UX maturity
May 2018
Redesigned student printing pages
17. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
UX methods
• Stakeholder interviews
• Web analytics
• Guerrilla testing
Case study 2 of 3
Student printing pages
18. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
Student printing: before
Stakeholder interviews
• Top-3 problem area
• Unclear content
Web analytics
• IA problems
• Layout problems
20. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
Student printing: what next?
Nov 2018: more in-depth testing
• Problems with macOS set-up
• Funds to develop new client, with
UX considered from the start
Content revisions from Helpdesk
Keep testing and iterating…
7th of 12 screens 😱
21. April 2018
Redesigned MyGlasgow Staff homepage
Interested
UX is considered valuable…
July 2018
Assistant VP (Digital Education) calls our work “a
sea-change in the way ITS approaches Moodle”
November 2017
UofG UX project funded
Considered
UX gets ad-hoc funding…
Making progress on UX maturity
May 2018
Redesigned student printing pages
22. September 2018
Director of IT Services says they’ll
“embed UX practices at every level”
Committed
Executives actively involved…
October 2018
Start of regular UX consultations on new
Service Management Platform (ESMP)
Interested
UX is considered valuable…
September 2018
Launched UX Framework
November 2018
First permanent UX role created
Committed
UX is formalized…
23. Interested
UX is considered valuable…
December 2018
Cross-College TELT staff get together for first
time in 5 years…for a UX workshop
December 2018
IT fund the research into Moodle navigation
Considered
UX gets ad-hoc funding…
December 2018
VLE Dev Board gives us remit to “improve
the UX of navigating Moodle”
Committed
UX is formalized…
24. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
UX methods
• Touchstone Tours
• Review of related research
• Ideation workshops
Case study 3 of 3
Moodle
25. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
Moodle: 2018 upgrade
• Touchstone Tours with 8 students
• Review of related research
• Workshop with key staff
21 UX recommendations
• 7 were implemented…
27. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
• First TELT meet-up in 5 years!
• Defined 4 key UX priorities
• VLE Dev Board gave us remit to improve navigation
Moodle: December 2018
28. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
• Dedicated budget!
• Touchstone Tours with 7 students & 4 staff
• 13 staff observed sessions
20 nav recommendations
• 16 technical … 11 being implemented!
• 4 best practice … 2 in progress
Moodle: 2019 upgrade
29. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
Moodle: what next?
Sharing best practice recommendations
First structured UAT - script includes UX
changes
Keep testing and iterating…
30. Interested
UX is considered valuable…
December 2018
Cross-College TELT staff get together for first
time in 5 years…for a UX workshop
December 2018
IT fund the research into Moodle navigation
Considered
UX gets ad-hoc funding…
December 2018
VLE Dev Board gives us remit to “improve
the UX of navigating Moodle”
Committed
UX is formalized…
February 2019
ESMP developer directly involved in usability
testing
Interested
UX is considered valuable…
31. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
April 2019
ESMP accessibility testing with disabled students
May 2019
Moodle best practice recommendations catch on
further afield
Interested
UX is considered valuable…
June 2019
Information Services send 6 delegates to UX
Scotland
Considered
UX gets ad-hoc funding…
May 2019
College of Sci&Eng recruit a Digital Content
Officer and start using Top Tasks method
Committed
UX is formalized…
32. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
Unrecognised
UX is not understood or not considered important
Interested
UX is considered valuable but gets little attention or resources
Considered
UX is sometimes prioritized and gets ad-hoc funding
Committed
UX is critical & formalised; executives actively involved
Engaged
UX is one of the pillars of strategy
Embedded
UX is a core part of company culture
1
0
3
2
5
4
2017
2019
The stages of UX maturity
33. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
Choose your target
How to communicate the value of UX - 25 experts, User Zoom
Start small & iterate
Why you only need to test with 5 users - Jakob Nielsen
Minimum Viable Ethnography - Erika Hall
Shout about it
UofG UX blog | UX Framework
Where to start?
34. #iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
Don’t judge each day by the
harvest you reap, but by the
seeds that you plant.”
“
Robert Louis Stevenson
#iwmw2019 #P7 @KatHusbands
To be clear, when I talk about revolution and guerrilla tactics…
NOT combative
No guns and explosions
BUT creative, generative, regenerative
Guerrilla gardeners
Or squatters who form a commune and turn a derelict building into a home
Because…
For me the new model is user-centred design, starting with UX
While I’m digital, UX is not just digital: IRL and internal = other contexts where our decisions can effect people’s day
Define and solve real problems for real people (John Ellison, Digital PM, OpenGov)
UofG = 36,500 people
28,000 students + 8,500 staff
Almost 6% pop. of Glasgow (2017 National Records of Scotland: 621,000)
Data-driven decisions
Not just quant data: also qual = observing & listening to people who use
Skills in 3 areas, balance changed over time
Until DCO & UCS in InfoSvcs (not Web Team) = internal websites and systems
Access databases, course handbooks, websites: gold of UCD was always there
Just didn’t know it had a name and recognised methods until 2016!
Books, blogs, online courses
Boss recognised growing passion = training
Across Uni
Grassroots / skunkworks
A few teams or individuals - unconnected - inconsistent approaches
Web Team
User interviews, remote testing
IT
Prob more understanding (Drew banging on about it for ages) but no time or resource given to it
Levels 3-5 need management actively making it happen
But with no CIO, no execs in the know, how to get their attention
Levels 1-3 = grassroots: guerrilla activity
* Raise awareness, build understanding, grow demand
3 case studies to illustrate 3 key actions
Choose your target carefully, like a guerrilla = makeshift, limited resources
Where will an intervention have the most impact?
Return on investment – both of your time and effort, and demonstrable to others
Start small, iterate = build momentum
Shout about it = spread the word
Celebrate even the smallest successes.
Tell your users’ stories to help people to put themselves in the shoes of the people whose lives they affect with their decisions, and inspire others to try these methods themselves
Project
Innovative collab
9 months ££ = Uni Svcs Innovation Fund + Library and IT top-up
Paid for incentives
And UX Research Intern! Wonderful! Inspiring! Exhausting!
Mixed methods approach
Chose target: I own it! IntComms secondment work to restructure internal content left Drew & me owning the top levels of MyGlasgow/staff
Appropriate? Who knows?! But we could so we did – mavericks!
Start small: single page! But v. important & far reaching
First port of call for majority of 8,500 staff
1.4 million hits a year
Lots of potential for impact
Generate long lists of tasks w. input from stakeholders & service providers
Invite lots of users to pick their 5 top tasks – we had 311 staff & c760 students
Collate and analyse -> top, medium and tiny tasks = ‘Top Tasks’ share top 25% of vote
Majority of people prioritise the same handful of tasks
Use that data to inform your design decisions
Survey results > card sorting exercise
NOT HEATMAP!
Top task position: before & after
Tiny tasks can still be important!
Top Task Testing to ensure top 10 really are easy to reach
Relaunched page April 2018
Google Analytics comparing year since relaunch with year before
Pageviews: staff numbers up by similar amount
Entrances…test these assumptions
Time on page…woah! First couple of visits ‘Oh look I don’t have to scroll to find that link anymore’ but then prob no-one notices
BUT multiply by 1.4m pageviews a year…
BIG success = v. visible, broad impact, lots to shout about
Keep testing… test our assumptions about what analytics mean
More TT Testing, esp if big changes to underlying pages
Keep shouting: spread the word
Robert used same methods to redesign Library homepage
College of Social Sciences using now too
Million minutes? Looking at building a thing around this - any team can contribute – totaliser - but that’s for another talk!
After MyG Staff case study: Robert used same TTT methods to redesign Library homepage!
Chose target:
Refreshing IT Services website
This was in top 3 of c40 sections for pageviews
Shocking large majority of 28,000 still have to hand in printed coursework
Stakeholder interview – where to focus?
What are IT Helpdesk staff most often asked about?
And which bits of IT website do they think could most use improving?
They refer to website while advising students!
Analytics
Problems around location and structure of content
And how others were linking to it = collab with Library and Student Services
EXPLAIN HEATMAP
Hottest spot way down on right
1 in 5 clicks = confusion or frustration
Prototyped new page, stuck on an iPad and sent our intern out guerrilla testing
Rewritten content: in collab with IT Helpdesk staff
12 out of 13 test participants completed tasks with little or no difficulty
Published in May 2018 - results were great!
Shouted about in talks for IT Forum and UX Show & Tell, wrote up for UX Framework.
Heatmap now more F-patterny! Still linkless clicks but at least on actual information! Investigate in future testing…
Section pageviews DOWN: awesome!!! (Managers often assume more = better, but no!)
#Pages down from 8 to 5 and structured more helpfully in own section = less pogo-ing, easier to navigate, comes up higher in search results
Next iteration: more in-depth usability testing
Flagged up problems with Mac print set-up
Tested with 6 students, completion times 2:30 to 8:00 – see 7th of 12 screens!
Compared to Windows 3-step process, 30 seconds
More than 6,000 people visited the macOS set-up page in the last year, so potentially lots of time and frustration to be saved
I shouted about it a bit
End User Computing team already knew but I like to think I helped them get funds released to redevelop…
Content revisions: as things change + as Helpdesk staff encounter recurring problems
After Student printing: Kelly used same web analytics methods to rework College of Arts website, including whole new homepage
Clickthroughs to the ‘Study with us’ pages for prospective students
Before: 1.65% of clicks on page
After: 13.97%!
Also did some work on VLE which I’ll cover later, but at this point…”sea change”
Framework launch also marked end of UofG UX Project and bye bye to Intern
First perm: JD includes ‘to develop policy & processes’
Offered target!!
Great example of a small start leading to BIG momentum.
VLE used by all 28k students and at least 4,500 staff
Business goal: VLE represents a huge portion of the student experience, in some cases (distance / blended learning = almost all of it) so reputational impact
Started small & late: in Spring last year our developers were well on the way to finalising the 2018 upgrade, when UX project team was asked to get involved
Broad remit: make recommendations to the Developers
UX research method: Touchstone Tours
21 recs … 7 implemented
July 2018: Assistant VP (Digital Education) called it “a sea-change in the way ITS approaches Moodle”
1 Speed & search: work underway to improve server hardware
2 & 3 Marking & gradebook: core Moodle + moratorium while WCGT team runs project on Assessment & Feedback
4. Navigation!
Budget thanks to Business Systems
13 observers, inc academics, LTs, Devs, IT managers & randoms
Practical help to me but also great way to spread understanding of range of experiences
Recommendations include 4 that expand on some of last year’s unimplemented ones
Sharing best practice recs with TELT staff, Moodle User Group and anyone who’ll listen – esp re Collapsed Topics course format
People asking for more & asking for our involvement in redesigning their local course template
Keep testing: Oct/Nov: test impact of latest changes, test with disabled students
ESMP: Ran pop-up session together, now he’s doing them himself!
ESMP accessibility – maverick!
No-one asked for it
Lots of important 1sts
Moodle recs catching on in other Unis – being asked to do talks for Jisc, SMUG, Heriot Watt
Reinforces to UofG the value of user-centred approach
SciEng DCO: also Arts recruiting a junior to Kelly
Still a ways to go until ‘Engaged’ or ‘Embedded’, but a lot more people are talking that way
Committed
IT & Info Svcs getting there – management saying the right things – staff starting to adopt methods or to ask for UX support – also UX Service on way!
Engaged
Culture change
Org-level KPIs
People’s approaches and priorities changed based on what they’re being measured on, so choose metrics carefully
Embedded…v long way to go!
This is all high-level: if you’re a manager, this is the stuff you need to think about
I’m not, but I think I’m pushing the right way and making the right kind of noises from the grassroots
And for those in the grassroots, let’s go back to where to start
Links if you download slideshow
What neglected patch of web estate could you chuck a seedbomb of UCD into?!
Choose one where you will be able to:
Show concrete results with tangible evidence
Improve something that’s related to a stakeholder’s current focus
Show what good UX design looks like: lead by example
Start small & iterate
Paul Boag “doing any usability testing is better than doing none at all, as long as you recognise that your results might not be perfect. If you start doing even a little bit you’ll quickly see the value and it will encourage you – and others - to do more.”
Shout: Yammer group, Show & Tells, talks…find & share interesting details that might spark conversations
Have patience! Keep at it!
On the wall at The Lighthouse gallery in Glasgow
Chimed with ‘grassroots’ & ‘guerrillas’