Empowering user-centred design practices within multi-disciplinary teams
Are you passionate about delivering user-centered design? Do you find you’re in a working environment where your users are being ignored just to meet low-hanging revenue targets prolonging the problem(s)? Well, that is only two of the many issues designers face daily. But don’t give up! It’s not all doom and gloom.
As a UX/UI Designer I know that design output shouldn’t only be business-focused without considering the needs of the users;
“People ignore design that ignores people.” Frank Chimero
It is fair to say we’ll find that some team members don’t completely understand the importance of user experience research, after all, it isn’t a part of their job description but that shouldn’t stop you from educating your colleagues. Keep in mind that the business requirements are mostly at the centre of the wider team’s goals as it works its way down from shareholders, to executives and then eventually to product managers and business analysts throughout the planning. If the importance of UX isn’t completely understood, it could have catastrophic consequences for the life of the product, as the users' needs continue to be ignored. Remember you can’t solely blame other colleagues for these issues, as you should advocate user-centered design. So how can we address this you ask? Simply become a champion of user-centered design.
Before you continue reading, it is important to remember we always need to consider the business (profitable & distribution), engineering (possible and feasible), and design (useful & desirable) needs holistically and realistically. Ideally, if we always remember the three spheres we should be able to determine whether it’s feasible to develop a product that would be beneficial to the user and possibly to develop. All three work closely together to make everything possible. We must not forget that!
Here are some different scenarios that you might be able to relate to; By being able to identify these situations you can communicate your expertise to help champion user-centered design instead of being solely business and/or delivery-focused:
Be vocal about thorough user research to determine the problem
Creating a great user-centred product starts from the beginning. Suppose you notice that there’s a pre-determined solution for an initiative mentioned during quarterly planning or sprint planning. In that case, you should point that out to your product manager and business analyst as soon as you see they may only be delivery-focused.
Remember you’re the individual with user experience expertise, you must remain vocal without relying on anyone else to speak on your behalf. Being able to help your product manager and business analyst identify solution-focused initiatives without conducting research would help reduce the amount of similar future scenarios.
The least promising solution is to jump straight into the visual design and development of a product without conducting any research. Share the responsibility of a designer to understand their users with other team members, explain how performing task analysis, user interviews and ethnography (and more) to help create an understanding of the problem and essentially provide a better ROI instead of a short-term quick win.
It’s always good to remind everyone of the user research process:
It’s easy to understand that there are some situations where a lack of resources, allocated time and surprising tasks may interrupt your workflow, though that isn’t an excuse to rush into delivery mode.
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There’s a large variety of lean user research methods throughout the process that are broken down into generative and evaluative research. Generative research is essential to understanding the problem, followed by evaluative research. Generative research should be done when we need to understand the problem you’re trying to define for our users. Evaluative research should be done to evaluate an existing solution, and it should be done often throughout product development.
- Discovery & research (generative research)
- Synthesizing research & design Strategy (evaluative research)
- Placement & layout design (evaluative research)
- Execution (evaluative research)
- Usability testing (evaluative research)
It’s always a good idea to share the process of user research with your fellow team members to understand that it isn’t best practice to skip to delivery mode without the consideration of its users through in-depth research.
Prove that user experience has a better ROI instead of business-focused quick, short-term wins
Hearing the words ‘quick win’ sounds great, doesn’t it? It will be quick to design and easy to implement but wait… has design thinking been considered to be the ‘quick win?’ Realistically we find a quick win is defined by what can make the business revenue in the quickest, cheapest, easiest manner without considering the user.
Essentially short-term benefit is a characteristic of quick wins but what about the long-term ongoing effects of what was implemented? Remember this article is about championing user-centered design, not palming responsibility but if you have educated your colleagues on the importance of user-centered design, they should know to flag the negative implications, contributing to user-centered advocacy.
A starting point would be to present research results during the showcase to help develop a wider understanding of research value within your team, in particular to your Business Analyst (BA) and Scrum Master who may be stuck in a delivery mode without realising. Getting your BA and Scrum Master to understand the value and importance of user research should have an ongoing positive impact and influence on the rest of the Scrum team.
Be willing to educate your peers
As we know a team could be made up of many cross-functional members with different backgrounds… so wouldn’t it be great if everyone advocates for the user?
Try to keep everyone involved throughout the whole initiative process by communicating research updates during the sprint showcase to illustrate its contribution and importance to the development of a great product.
Communication is the simple key to success
Communication is the key to delivering success with your team, which would work its way up the ladder to positively affect business. By becoming a champion of user-centred design, you have educated your colleagues to empathize with the user as they too want to deliver meaningful products.
Take advantage of retro as it is the perfect moment to share your thoughts with the rest of your team. Constantly remind yourself as the Product Designer you have to responsibility to be vocal on behalf of the users to develop a great product. Continue to hold the User Empathy flag high and remember you have the expertise and rights to do so.
If you’re after a designer who understands the importance of user-centred design, reach out and say hello! I’d love to hear about your project and to find out how I could help.
Thanks for reading :)
