A Cautionary Tale
If you type in “user experience” or “user experience design” in Google News you’ll see that the phrase is rising a bit in popularity among mainstream publications. Companies that were known for user hostile interfaces, like SAP, are touting the importance of creating a great experience. But with popularity comes delusion.
User Experience is not about deliverables. It’s about the research and methods that produce those deliverables. Applications like Balsamiq make deliverables like wireframes as easy as sketching a box. Wait, their whole app replicates sketching so you don’t actually have to draw at all. You can just drag boxes instead!
Building a great user experience requires time in the field, many hours of observing users, and lots of reading. It’s not about how great your deliverables look or how fancy you can make mental models. So beware if you are stepping into UX. It’s a craft that takes time and effort. Remember, it’s not about the tools that create the deliverables that clients see, it’s about the one tool you can’t buy- your brain.
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COMMENTS (6)
CHRIS AVORE
A great point Daimon. But as has been mentioned in many a beer commercial, with great power comes great responsibility. Those ideas need to be communicated to the people signing the checks, and that communication is where the quality of the deliverable is of utmost importance. You’ve probably seen my relentless tweets about UX Show and Tell, a simple workshop where UX designers can either show deliverables that worked for them or look to the group for feedback and advice on how to best draw a concept model or provide a heuristic analysis. I’ve seen first hand that a lot of people–both those presenting and those who aren’t–really want to, and have to, refine how they communicate the fruits of their research, interviews, processes, etc. You’re right that a beautifully illustrated concept model means nothing if the process or task that’s illustrated is misguided or doomed. But equally susceptible to failure is a spot-on understanding of a concept that cannot be effectively communicated to management, the client, or the developers who will be tasked with moving the project forward.
DAIMON
Chris as always I appreciate your insight. This post was really for UX neophytes catching the wrong idea about activities like UX Show and Tell and apps that seemingly make wireframing a very easy task. But to your point about creating the right deliverables for the right audience I wholeheartedly agree. I’ve seen great ideas smacked down in a boardroom because the deliverable was either too complicated or chock full of IA-speak that it went over everyone’s head. Keep up the great work with the Show and Tells!
CHRIS
We’re definitely in agreement with each other. Trust me, I’ve also seen a number of people almost resorting to more charts or brighter illustrations or more complex flows to conceal they don’t grasp the underlying business and/or user needs, which if I’m not mistaken, is exactly your point in the original post. While the typical expression is there’s a lot of sizzle with no steak, a steak with no sizzle is simply raw meat. Hope to see you around at an upcoming Show and Tell–would be great to have you in the conversation.
DAIMON
I welcome your invitation Chris. When is the next one in VA/DC area? I can bring these set of docs I titled “Bridge” documents. They were the documents used to bridge the gap between practitioner and client. It worked really well for a group of executives from a big real estate corporation.
CHRIS AVORE
That sounds great–would love to have you share your bridge documents. The next workshop will be Tuesday January 12th. We’re waiting on official approval to name the location, but it’s in downtown DC and metro accessible. If that date works for you we’d love to reserve space for you. (And I hate the appearance that I’m using your blog to promote an event, but that’s not my intention!) Sign up at http://uxshowandtell.ning.com so you can get the official announcement.
DAIMON
Barring any unforeseen family commitments I’ll be there. And as far as promotion of great UX events that further the craft… you can post here about that all day long!