My talk at UX Camp Brighton 2019 around designing for the user needs rather than around platform constraints.

1. USER FIRST, MOBILE SECOND
LEO BARNES - SENIOR CONSULTANT @ AMIDO
Hello
My name is LEO and I’m here to chat to you for a bit about a MOBILE PROJECT
Hopefully you find some of my EXPERIENCES helpful

2. WHO THE HELL IS THIS!?
LEO BARNES
▸ Education: Film production
▸ Early years: Content creation
▸ Middle bit: Website definition and build
▸ Then: Product management
▸ Currently: Digital consulting
▸ Future: LEGO tester / millionaire
So WHO AM I?
I was educated in FILM MAKING
Spent my early years in CONTENT creation for INTERACTIVE TV and WEB
Then some TIME managing PRODUCTS for MEDIA BRANDS

3. If you have used DIGITAL PRODUCTS by these brands you’ve probably used something I HELPED build…
Interactive TV
Mobile video
Programme MICROSITES
Event TICKETING
STREAMING video (CLICK)
And this guy in the middle represents my YEAR OUT in NEW YORK learning MARTIAL ARTS

4. THE CLASSIC NINJA TO UX DESIGNER SCALE
TOTALLY NINJA UX DESIGNER
Classic scale
(CLICK)
I IMAGINE I’m about here
REALITY I’m about here (CLICK)
Want to STAY AWAY from ‘UX NINJA’ though
Otherwise I might as well put my CV on INSTAGRAM… (CLICK)

5. I DON’T want to be THAT GUY!

6. WHO THE HELL IS THIS!?
WHAT I DO
BUSINESS ANALYSIS
▸ Work with stakeholders & users
▸ Understand problems
▸ Gather requirements
▸ Create ‘things’ to develop
▸ Prioritise ‘things’
UX DESIGNER
▸ Work with stakeholders & users
▸ Understand problems
▸ Gather requirements
▸ Create ‘things’ to develop
▸ Prioritise ‘things’
AS A BUSINESS ANALYST…
Talk to people about what they WANT
Understand USER NEEDS
Define those NEEDS
Create DOCUMENTS to help development
Ensure things happen in a LOGICAL AGILE ORDER
As I wrote this, I realised the UX part of my job is very similar (CLICK)

7. Business
Analyst
User
Experience
Designer
OBLIGATORY UX CAMP VENN DIAGRAM
So we get THIS

8. AMIDO
Okay, where I WORK…

9. AMIDO
THE ELEVATOR PITCH
▸ Cloud-native solutions engineered with integrity, transforming businesses and
improving human experiences, one step at a time.
▸ Amido is an independent, vendor-agnostic technical consultancy specialising in
solving business problems with cloud native technology.
▸ We help our clients build resilience at scale, flexibility for the future and
differentiation of customer experience.
▸ And, we do this while minimising business-risk and build-cost.
▸ www.amido.com
This is what our WEBSITE says
(CLICK)
But it’s basically this

10. NICE, SMART PEOPLE
BUILDING
COMPLEX THINGS
Ultimately we are people.
Passionate individuals.
Nice people.
Users who also have NEEDS.

11. THE STORY
WHY are we here?

12. “MOBILE WILL ULTIMATELY BE THE WAY
YOU PROVISION MOST OF YOUR SERVICES.
THE WAY I LIKE TO PUT IT IS, THE ANSWER
SHOULD ALWAYS BE MOBILE FIRST. YOU
SHOULD ALWAYS PUT YOUR BEST TEAM ON
YOUR MOBILE APP.”
- ERIC SCHMIDT (2010), EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF ALPHABET INC
(READ)
I don’t agree with this blanket approach…
BUT is is often the approach (CLICK)

13. THE STORY
USER FIRST, MOBILE SECOND
▸ ‘Mobile first’ often default approach
▸ How does the user consume your content?
▸ What is the most appropriate platform?
▸ When is ‘Mobile first’ acceptable?
▸ Even when the evidence proves otherwise?
▸ Tips and stuff to think about 1
2
MOBILE FIRST - because “Everyone is on their mobile”
BUT have to think about above
Will cover SOME of this now
Most RECENT mobile project was…

14. FREQ
CLIENT - Global (HEART, CAPITAL, RADIO X, CLASSIC etc)
PROJECT ‘FREQ'
PRONOUNCED ‘Freak’
YOU’RE probably ASKING - Where did the name come from?
(CLICK)

15. “FREAK (OUT)” “FREQUENCY”
HELL NO YUP!
WAS it THIS? (CLICK)
Or THIS? (CLICK)

16. FREQ
THE PROBLEM
Presenters read ON AIR promos (eg; Coca-cola)
This is broadcast live to your RADIO (CLICK)
PROVE to advertisers
Listen AGAIN
NOTE down mentions
RECORD mentions
EMAIL it to advertisers
MAKE MONEY (CLICK)

17. EVERYONE loves money

18. FREQ
THE BRIEF
▸ Replace manual process
▸ Simple to use
▸ Use new technology
▸ Build it ‘Mobile First’
▸ Replace humans with robots
MANUAL process - LOOOOOOOOOOONG (3+ hours)
Make it SIMPLE
What can we ACHIEVE with NEW TECH
MOBILE FIRST

19. WHY MOBILE
FIRST?
WHY mobile first?
Done research? NO
BUSINESS reason for ACCESSING away from DESKTOP? NO

20. Because…
Show INNOVATION
Show FUTURE THINKING
Not a TECH reason
Not a USER reason
but a BUSINESS reason
…. and that’s OKAY TOO (sometimes)!
WHAT did we BUILD? (CLICK)

21. SEARCH (dates)
TERM
RESULTS - play / expand / download
DOWNLOAD
3 HOURS to about 15 mins
There’s a BONUS though…

22. In FACT we built it RESPONSIVE
So you could ARGUE not TECHNICALLY ‘MOBILE FIRST’ at all
DESKTOP UNDER THE RADAR… (CLICK)

23. SERIOUSLY, I’M NOT A NINJA
Like a NINJA!
(CLICK)
Some UNEXPECTED results…

24. THE LONG TAIL
The STORY of FREQ doesn’t end there…
ACTUALLY Extended past initial brief (CLICK)

25. PRODUCERS use FREQ to check PAST show content
PRESENTERS use it to follow up on past shows (what did I say!?)
FUTURE - Inserting ADS based on LIVE on-air discussions!

26. PLATFORM FIRST
MOBILE is a PLATFORM
Aside from BUSINESS REASONS
Would you EVER pick that FIRST?
Imagine I work for an EVENTS company…

27. PLATFORM FIRST
FICTICIOUS BRIEF!
▸ Organise a party
▸ Somewhere amazing
▸ Once in a lifetime experience
▸ Fantastic food
▸ Exceptional scenery
▸ ‘Instagrammable’ (obvs)
I GET this BRIEF (read)
And imagine I think PLATFORM FIRST
I have the PERFECT location!!

28. VERTIGO SUFFERERS SUMMER PARTY 2018
Great LOCATION!
WHO is the CLIENT?
(CLICK)

29. Maybe NOT

30. “You shouldn’t start with the Spotify model. Spotify didn’t
start with the Spotify model.
You shouldn’t start with Scrum. Scrum didn’t start with Scrum.
You should start by identifying what you want to improve,
and introduce constraints that force the improvement.”
- Dan North (@tastapod)
This quote from DAN NORTH talks to this a BIT
(READ)
PLATFORM is a CONSTRAINT
APPLY that after you know the REQUIREMENTS

31. MOBILE DO, MOBILE
DON’T
In the RIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES
We SHOULD design for MOBILE
WHAT should we consider?

32. MANY things, but for MOBILE…
User LOCATION
App CORE FUNCTION
USER NEEDS
What be be ACHIEVED that is not better served on DESKTOP?
Why will LIFE be BETTER with the MOBILE app?

33. BE COLUMBO
HOW do you FIND OUT this stuff?

34. “JUST ONE
MORE THING”
Ask QUESTIONS
Find out USER NEEDS
DIVE DEEP
Make sure you ask WHY
REASONS behind a REQUIREMENT
ALWAYS ask “Just one more thing” (CLICK)
That can be the MOST IMPORTANT
What ELSE can you do….? (CLICK)

35. STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS
WORKSHOPS
QUANTITIVE RESEARCH
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
GUERILLA TESTING
USER TESTING
FIELD STUDIES
PERSONA BUILDING
JOURNEY MAPPING
PROTOYPING TASK ANALYSIS
CARD SORTING
BENCHMARK TESTING
WRITE USER STORIES
USER RESEARCH
Clearly LOADS we could talk about
Let’s FOCUS ON…

36. USER RESEARCH
WHY should you conduct user RESEARCH?

37. (WAIT)
If you don’t ASK, you might WASTE building something NOBODY NEEDS

38. USER RESEARCH
COFFEE SHOP TESTING
▸ Buy someone a coffee
▸ People (normally) like to help
▸ Ask their opinion
▸ Define goals
▸ Keep quiet (let them talk)
▸ Thank them
▸ Keep your coffee intake in check!
My FAVOURITE
TALK ‘one-on-one’ with REAL people
RELAXED
Helps PROVE some ASSUMPTIONS (and disprove others)
You are often TOO CLOSE to the SOLUTION
Are SURVEYS not better? (CLICK)

39. USER RESEARCH
SURVEYS: A STUDY WITH JAM
THEY ALSO CONDUCTED A SURVEY.
WOULD YOU PREFER TO CHOOSE
FROM 6 OR 30 TYPES OF JAM?
UNANIMOUSLY PEOPLE SAID 30!
ON ALTERNATE SATURDAYS
6 OR 30 JAMS WERE SOLD.
ON WHICH DAY DID THEY SELL MORE?
WHEN THERE WERE 6 TO CHOOSE FROM
SURVEYS ARE NOT ALWAYS
AN INDICATOR OF BEHAVIOUR
COURTESY OF JOE LEECH (@MRJOE)
Surveys CAN be good
BUT not conclusive… (CLICK)
(READ)
WHAT does this PROVE?
BE CAREFUL about how you research
You might THINK you’d get the SAME answer

40. WHAT WAS HE ON
ABOUT?
“I DUNNO, I WAS TOO DISTRACTED BY HIS TRAINERS!
So, a little SUMMARY

41. GREAT SCOTT!
SUMMARY
1. Work with nice, smart people (we’re hiring!)
2. Design for needs, not for platform
3. Why not desktop?
4. Be more Columbo
5. Conduct the right kind of research
6. Don’t call yourself a ninja
(OBLIGATORY BACK TO THE FUTURE PHOTO)
WORK with nice, smart people (we’re hiring!)
Design for NEEDS, NOT for PLATFORM
Why not DESKTOP?
Be more COLUMBO
Conduct the right kind of RESEARCH
Don’t call yourself a NINJA (unless you are one)

42. THANK YOU FRIENDS
I’m LEO BARNES and that’s MY TIME
THANK YOU

43. SOCIAL MEDIA
CONNECT WITH ME ONLINE
@PRODUCTOVEN
UX RESEARCH // UX DESIGN // PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT // TEAM WORKING // EMPATHY