All posts tagged
strategy

Seven steps to creating a solid UX strategy

Added on 6 November 2017 Peter Bogaards

Seven, that’s all.

“Everyone knows that the first step in any business venture is research on the path to creating a strategy. This strategy determines how you’ll function and guide the decision-making process. A website project – whether it is for a business or not – should follow the same concept. Without a solid user experience strategy, the design is likely to lack the features, elements and overall usability that make the website popular among visitors. While the idea of creating a UX strategy might not sound like a lot of fun, it’s a valuable exercise. And when done well, and with purpose, can definitely be enjoyable!”

Carrie Cousins a.k.a. /carriecousins1 | @carriecousins ~ designshack ★

Strategic UX: The value of making the problem bigger

Added on 4 January 2017 Peter Bogaards

Now UX has to deliver on tactics and strategy.

“As usability and user research have matured, the emphasis has shifted from championing the concept of user-centeredness to making it happen on a daily basis. For many UX researchers, this can mean functioning tactically, like QA technicians. Even researchers who do foundational user research, which we tend to consider strategic, can face routinization, functioning as gatherers and packagers of descriptive information about users and leaving it to others to identify any decision-making implications. This is not a style of practice that earns the seat at the strategic decision-making table that so many practitioners seek.”

David Siegel ~ ACM Interactions ★

The 11 minute guide to a bulletproof UX strategy

Added on 5 April 2016 Peter Bogaards

In a blink of an eye you have a UX STRATegy.

“The heart of great UX strategy lies in thorough research. Unfortunately, UX research is usually a mess. If you’re an outsider, you’re still getting to know everyone involved in the project at the same time you’re navigating which research activities to take on. If you’re an insider, it can be the same story.”

Robert Hoekman Jr a.k.a. /rhoekmanjr | @rhjr ~ TNW ★

UX strategy: Fad or new world order?

Added on 18 September 2015 Peter Bogaards

Whenever something gets real, people start to ask for ‘strategy’. Without any vision. Where are the UX (design) visionaries?

“A big part of this change is a growing awareness of design outside of our field, partially due to the design profession’s efforts to educate others. Only 10 years ago a business magazine called to interview me about these strange positions we were hiring for that required having a deep sense of empathy and an ability to collaborate with others to design innovative solutions. That same magazine now has a regular design feature. It’s my belief that coverage in popular media, including books, articles, and blog posts highlighting what designers really do and how that adds value, has significantly helped the profession grow.”

Jon Innes a.k.a. /innesjon | @innes_jon ~ UX Magazine ★

Who needs UX strategy?

Added on 11 August 2015 Peter Bogaards

Something about eating and breakfast of UX in businesses.

“UX strategy has come into prominence in the past few years as a specialty area within the field of User Experience, as shown by the rapid increase in UX Strategist job titles and events such as the conference UX STRAT. For many of us who have been in the field for a long time, UX strategy is a counterbalance to efficiency-driven, product-centric methodologies like Agile, Lean Startup, and Lean UX. For others, it is a natural progression from basic UX design activities like wireframing to more rigorous, analytical activities such as formulating data-driven personas.”

(Paul Bryan a.k.a. @paulbryan ~ UXmatters) ★

How to grow your business by monitoring your UX strategy

Added on 4 March 2015 Peter Bogaards

Business and UX, from a strategic perspective (again).

“User experience in a company can be made superior by paying attention to various factors. Bringing good services and products to customers will directly have an impact on the business performance and results. There are various methodologies that one can use for monitoring the experience and bring about necessary changes to enhance it. Applications, software tracking systems and other useful tools and techniques can help in finding the right changes. To make sure your company offers the best to customers it is important to benchmark the user experience with these tools. Ultimately it involves delighting users so that they remain content and happy with the experience.”

(Rohan Salve ~ Techved Consulting) ★

Strategic UX: The art of reducing friction

Added on 13 February 2015 Peter Bogaards

Frictions are the usability issues of UX.

“In user experience, friction is defined as interactions that inhibit people from intuitively and painlessly achieving their goals within a digital interface. Friction is a major problem because it leads to bouncing, reduces conversions, and frustrates would-be customers to the point of abandoning their tasks. Today, the most successful digital experiences have emerged out of focusing on reducing friction in the user journey (…)”

(Victoria Young a.k.a. @victoriahyoung ~ Betterment) ★

Defining user experience strategy

Added on 5 September 2014 Peter Bogaards

Different ways to define UX strategy with canvas or blueprint. A new #DTDT is born. We had a ‘There is no such thing as…’ before.

“UX strategy isn’t the blueprint, canvas, or definition you use. UX strategy is about the conversations you have and the alignment you achieve. As you start hacking your own approach to UX strategy, it’s good to remember two key elements: change and context.”

(Austin Govella a.k.a. @austingovella ~ AGUX)

UX strategy blueprint

Added on 13 August 2014 Peter Bogaards

First level of abstraction: a blueprint. Kind of a template.

“Once all of the elements have been agreed on, consolidate the strategy. A good, succinct strategy should only be about two pages long. Give it multiple forms to illustrate your intent to different audiences. Create a presentation, document and a graphic, as needed. Share the strategy as often as possible. It’s hard to over communicate: print it out, hang it up, start every meeting with your strategy slide, use it as dummy text in wireframes instead of lorum ipsum. Reiterate. Developing strategy is a craft, one that involves exploration and choice but also systematic thinking. The UX Strategy Blueprint helps you see all the moving parts in a single overview. In doing so, it simplifies strategy, making an abstract concept more tangible for all involved.”

(James Kalbach a.k.a. @jimkalbach ~ Experiencing Information)

There is no such thing as UX strategy

Added on 17 February 2014 Peter Bogaards
When people talk about it, there is such a thing by definition. Beauty, love, friendship, experts, you name it.

“2013 saw a lot of discussion around the topic of UX Strategy. In fact, there was at least one conference on the topic and a string of articles. However, all of this activity around a topic doesn’t actually mean it exists.”

(Jeff Gothelf a.k.a. @jboogie ~ Perception Is The Experience)

Designing digital strategies: Cartography

Added on 10 February 2014 Peter Bogaards
Designing mission, vision, and strategy. Making decisions with intent is the essence of design.

“As digital products and services come to comprise an increasingly important part of our everyday life, the division between the digital and the physical begins to blur. We can, for instance, see a washing machine on TV, read reviews of it online, purchase it on our phone, and have it installed by our local shop-all without leaving our computer. The sum total of these processes functions as a single, continuous experience. Designers can more prudently frame the experiences they create by incorporating ecosystem thinking into their process.”

(Sofia Hussain ~ UX Booth)

Applied UX strategy: Maturity models

Added on 10 December 2013 Peter Bogaards
We have many maturity models, for usability (Nielsen), CX (Forrester) and now for UX.

“In a perfect world, companies would take a systematic approach to product design from their very first days. But, in reality, early product design efforts can be sporadic for various reasons – for instance, because a product must launch as soon as possible, there’s not enough money at the start, the user base must grow at the fastest rate possible, or the product idea changes constantly in trying to discover an effective business model. Why is this?”

(Yury Vetrov ~ UXmatters)

The intersection of user experience, customer experience and corporate strategy: The holy grail for 21st century business?

Added on 20 November 2013 Peter Bogaards
In the end, it all depends on the execution. Like always.

“UX and CX advocates and practitioners would do well to have a few beers together and explore how they can work to the common purpose of increasing customer uptake, loyalty, and advocacy across the entire ecosystem of their business’ interaction with their target market. And, senior executives need to lead that collaboration, if not mandate it. Their competitive position in the marketplace and future profitability may be at stake.”

(Chris Allen ~ HFI Connect)

The four levels of UX design

Added on 30 October 2013 Peter Bogaards
Driving towards UX strategy and UX foundational elements, components and patterns.

“The strategic and tactical aspects of UX are foreign to most folks, hence the typical ‘lipstick on a pig’ approach they call UX design. Knowing a few key things about strategy and tactics makes the difference between designing a struggling site and a successful one. The examples and tips illustrate successful approaches to UX design that you can apply to your site.”

(Larry Marine ~ Search Engine Watch)

The adaptive digital strategy framework

Added on 30 September 2013 Peter Bogaards
Adapting is the best thing to do with any strategy.

“Today we still see a large number of organizations that keep struggling to align social media and new emerging communication technologies with the overall firm strategy. Organizations should adapt, look in the mirror and recognize that they need to change because the world has changed. They should embrace new strategic frameworks to avoid getting caught up in the digital hype that hit them every day with new solutions and focus on what can actually help them achieve their business and communication objectives.”

(Andrea Vascellari a.k.a. @vascellari)

User experience is more than design, it’s strategy

Added on 14 August 2013 Peter Bogaards
Systematic, deep thinking and research. Sounds academic.

“This is not an issue of corporations’ putting roles into silos. It’s a systemic problem of companies’ underestimating the importance of developing a deep understanding of their customers on an ongoing basis. More fundamentally, companies underestimate the great, untapped potential of UX professionals to leverage their deep understanding of customers at a strategic level within an organization. It’s time that we expand the role of User Experience beyond execution, beyond output, and yes, even beyond design.”

(Christopher Grant Ward ~ UXmatters)