When working for a large company, there’s always a feeling that you’re a small cog in a large machine. And in the case of customer-facing design work, it’s easy to forget that while the size of that machine may seem huge to us, it’s just a tiny pinprick in the consciousness of our customers. Our stores, our apps and services, the website — all competing with literally thousands of other brands, concerns and distractions every day.

And regardless of whether we are designing for customers or colleagues, everything we do is connected. Changes in one area can affect something in another — and sometimes in quite unpredictable ways.

Rocket surgery

Highly functional teams in critical situations — aircraft flight crews, operating theatre staff and the military, for example — all have one thing in common: people in the team communicate to others about their situations often, and in very small chunks. They don’t necessarily know if their status update is important to someone else, but if the information is short and regular it doesn’t matter if there’s a certain amount of noise.

But in the design world, it’s not possible to keep people similarly informed about the progress of features and functions, because that doesn’t lend itself to quick verbal updates unless everyone is already familiar with the details.

Meetings

A common complaint can be that meetings somehow get in the way of work. A variation on this is that you have nothing against meetings, just as long as you feel those meetings are relevant to your immediate tasks.

But good design teams in large companies have more meetings, not less.

Meetings are part of the work, because needing to know what others are up to, or think, or feel, is part of design in a team context. Needing to know stuff — however irrelevant it might feel at the time — is part of doing design in a complex organisation.

Variety

At Sainsbury’s, we encourage design shares as informal ways of showing each other work or talking about design problems — and plenty has been written about that elsewhere on the Internet.

But it’s not the only thing we do. To become more like airline pilots or rocket launch crews, we also use our chat systems throughout the day.

For example, a channel called “WAYWO” (What Are You Working On?). Every day, someone spins a wheel to choose somebody at random (there’s a plugin we use) and they decide the time to call it. Once called, screenshots, thoughts or just observations then come in from all over the team, and sometimes discussions arise about things that others see in those.

“Help, I need somebody” is another example — a channel dedicated to just asking questions. And then there’s simply the departmental chat channels in which sometimes we discuss design issues, but mostly other things,

Of course there’s plenty of ways we could improve, and particularly when it comes to sharing research results. But ultimately, it’s all about ways of working.

You may be a small cog in the machine, but that machine relies on you to function. And the key to a lot of that function is participation in a design community of communication.

Design communication, community & success was originally published in Sainsbury’s Customer Experience Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

UX. How can two letters carry so much appeal?

Anyone who has ever had to recruit for a junior UX role knows it can attract hundreds of applications. Not ideal for busy hiring managers, who have to sift through for the good ones. Even less ideal for those earnestly looking for their first user experience role.

UX is a hard industry to crack. Not only is it extraordinarily popular, it’s also experience-driven. Basically, you need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get the experience. It’s a catch-22.

So, what happens when you turn it on its head?

What if you saw that experience vs. job obstacle as an opportunity? Tackling it head-on and gaining valuable skills and knowledge that will help you in your job search, your career, and life in general? You’d be onto a winning formula, that’s what.

In my role as senior experience designer at Sainsbury’s, I’ve spent the last two years recruiting and developing a UX team. I’ve reviewed countless CVs, interviewed dozens of people, and built a team of people who have the right mix of skills to work collaboratively and effectively.

In this article, I’ll show you how to build the skills and knowledge you need to land your first UX job. The technical skills, the soft skills and an appreciation of why UX is so important.

Understand your why

But before we get to any of that, we need to take a step back and get to grips with the fundamentals. That is: Why do you want to be a UX designer in the first place?

Is it because you want to help people? Maybe you want to make a difference? Perhaps you like solving problems? Or, is it because UX feels like the go-to design role right now?

There’s no right or wrong answer. But some motivations will make you more determined in your job search — and more engaged in your future UX role.

Put it this way. You can get job stability and a good wage in other tech-related roles. To be a success in UX, you need a more intrinsic motivation. That means being willing to give it everything you’ve got. The skills needed to appreciate both humans and technology. And a solid grasp of why UX is so important to businesses today.

Develop your technical skills

First up, those technical skills. Absolutely crucial for landing any UX role.

The only problem is there’s no hard and fast rule to which ones you need for any given application. Every role, every team and every company are looking for a slightly different mix of technical skills. Suffice to say, it can all get pretty complicated. So, let’s keep things simple.

At its core, UX is a process that follows the 4Ds:

Discover: Immerse yourself in the problem through research. Understand, don’t assume. Identify the problems (and why they are problems)

Define: Connect your research data to design ideas. Beware of jumping straight to a solution and of getting fixated on ideas. The research should guide your decisions…

Develop: Time to come up with some solutions. Listen to others, don’t just focus on your own ideas. A good designer isn’t someone who always has the best ideas, it’s someone who finds and develops them, no matter where they come from.

Deliver: Weed out the solutions that don’t work and hone the ones that do. Prepare the design for launch.

If you use these four steps as your basis for acquiring technical skills, you’ll cover all bases. Which is all very well, but where do you start?

1 Learn the theory

Before you do anything else, you need a foundation on which to build your skills. And you can find that in UX theory. Better still, it doesn’t have to cost a thing: Here’s how:

1. Study the 4Ds and why they’re the backbone of UX: Once you understand the process, you can start applying it. With application comes experience and with experience comes skill and confidence.
2. Follow experienced, well-established, and respected designers and/or organisations: For example, Nielsen Norman Group and Jared Spool.
3. Read, listen and absorb: Books, blogs (ours is great, as is GDS and Co-op), podcasts, videos — take your pick.
4. Attend events: These could be talks, conferences or meet-ups.

2 Take courses

Quality UX courses are more accessible than ever. Some are full-time and intensive, others are short, modular and can be done at your own pace. Some are free, others cost thousands. Some need big upfront investment, others are subscription-based. Find what works for you and invest in it.

3 Find a mentor

What can be more valuable to your development than the guidance and support of a professional? Someone who’s where you want to be and has been where you are now. This kind of support can be adapted to you and your changing needs. And unlike taking a professional course, your development will be broader, more personal and arguably, more real-world applicable.

A mentor can help you:

● Understand UX processes

● Develop your skill set

● Build a network

● Practice on real or realistic briefs

● Teach you the nuance that courses can’t

● Give you access to opportunities

Before finding a mentor, take time to think about what you want from yours. Every mentor is unique, with different skills, knowledge and experience. The clearer you are on what you want, the easier it’ll be finding the right one.

When looking for a mentor, ask them about:

● Their experience and skillset

● How much time they can commit

● Their approach to mentoring

● Whether they’ve been where you are now

● Their values and whether they align with yours

● How they will help you grow

Understand outcomes, hypothesis and measures

Never mind experience, the biggest skills gap I’ve seen over the years is a lack of understanding about the purpose of UX. Many people believe it’s about making things easier, simpler and more enjoyable for the user.

It’s not.

The purpose of UX is to create successful outcomes — for customers AND businesses. So, increasing sales, reducing operational costs, and retaining customers. Making things simpler could help lead to these outcomes, but it’s never going to be an outcome itself.

Every single project needs to start by defining those outcomes. Which is where your hypothesis comes in. Used in science to validate ideas, it is essentially your route to understanding how you might achieve an outcome.

Here’s how to create a hypothesis template:

● Start with your outcome: Let’s say yours is to reduce operational costs

● Identify problems and opportunities: Let’s assume you’ve found a process that’s taking 20 minutes on average to complete and you’re doing it thousands of times a year. That’s hundreds of hours of labour wasted

● Use a hypothesis template: For example: If [action] then [outcome] because [customer need/problem]

Finally, everything you do in a UX role needs a measurable impact. This can be where things get tricky. Because, contrary to popular opinion, understanding how to measure success isn’t just about the feedback you receive. Instead, it’s about identifying metrics that will tell you what impact your work is having on customers and the business. You need a balance — if customers say the changes are great but sales have dropped, that’s a failure, and vice-versa.

Develop your (so-called) soft skills

Of course, technical skills will only get you so far in UX. To really fly, you also need soft skills. Although saying that, there’s nothing soft about them.

They’re much harder to develop than technical skills. They’re straight-forward in comparison, revolving around learning tools, processes, theory and application. Soft skills involve people. And as we all know, people are notoriously complex.

In fact, the most effective designers I know aren’t the best technically. They’re exceptional because they know how to:

● Influence people

● Communicate fluently (verbally, physically and written)

● Be courageous

● Show rapport

● Express kindness

Put simply, you could be the best designer in the world, but if you can’t deal with people, you’re going to struggle.

Put everything into practice

The only way to develop skills is by applying them. There’s a big difference between absorbing information and putting it into practice.

Not to put too fine a point on it, practice is EVERYTHING. You need to practise to understand nuance. To learn which skills work best in which contexts. And to develop your own style.

These are all things you’ll only learn over time, with experimentation and by putting your skills into practice.

Getting your first job in UX is hard. Yes. Competitive. Certainly. But impossible? Absolutely not.

If you have the right mindset, are willing to make mistakes, and continually make (and review) your goals, who knows where your UX career will take you.

Mark Owen, Staff Experience Designer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-owen-63127580/

How to land your first UX job - Part 1: Building skills was originally published in Sainsbury’s Customer Experience Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

My job is to design digital products and services with a focus on the words and information that live in them. That means working with people right across the business, from the in-house legal team to the folks who work on branding.

On a typical day, I might spend a couple of hours working with a designer to go through a new design; help draft guidance for our design system; test my copy with users; or share my work at one of our design crits.

I started at Sainsbury’s just over a year ago. Since then I’ve been lucky enough to work on a real variety of projects. One that stands out is Nectar Prices. This was a huge piece of work that involved teams from across the business coming together to deliver better value for our customers.

I was involved from the very beginning. Part of a team that collaborated with stakeholders on the proposition. Helping to define and illustrate the initial vision. Since then, we’ve worked with different teams to craft the experience in-store, online, in contact centres, and through our colleagues.

I was responsible for creating, testing and reviewing content at all stages of the customer journey. Working across platforms and brands to deliver clear and consistent content. From establishing a bank of key messages to deciding on the words that live on our product cards. Helping to make sure customers could easily understand what Nectar Prices are, how to get them, and how much they’ll pay and save when they do.

It’s the part of my job that I really love. I don’t just craft the words. Instead, I get stuck in, working with specialists in design, research, and accessibility, I come up with ideas and solve problems. So I’m not just developing in one direction. I’m broadening my knowledge and becoming a more well-rounded designer.

None of this would be possible without my talented and hardworking colleagues. Sainsbury’s does a great job of encouraging an open and collaborative atmosphere. The Customer Experience team is full of lovely people who want to get it right for the customer. It feels like we’re all working towards the same goal, creating a great customer experience.

And I think that’s what it always comes down to. Delivering for the customer. So long as we’re asking ourselves what impact our work is going to have, we won’t go too far wrong.

Scarlett Rushton, Content Designer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scarlett-rushton-4429749b/

I don’t just craft the words. I come up with ideas and solve problems. was originally published in Sainsbury’s Customer Experience Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If user experience is concerned with the way a customer interacts with a company, then brand is concerned with how a company is perceived by its customers.

At Sainsbury’s, our Content Design team work closely with our brand copywriters and experience designers to ensure the language we use across our products and services is clear and consistent, as well as accessible and easy to understand. Serving the customer whilst presenting our brand in the best possible way.

The newsletter below is written by our brand copywriters. It contains writing tips and tricks, as well as helpful information to give our colleagues the tools they need to write effectively, whatever channel they’re writing for.

When it comes to adjectives, we like ours strong and objective at Sainsbury’s.

That’s because we’re telling a story every time we use them.

For example, do you like tasty crisps?

Or do you like zingy crisps with a satisfying crunch?

That’s the subtle power of storytelling. Just a sprinkle of it can turn something like the mundane act of frying an egg into a full-blown kitchen disco for one.

See it in action

Here’s how we’ve told a cracking story using creative and copy in the past.

And because stories are for more than just bedtime, other brands tell them too.

Like these…

• Heinz tomato ketchup: Grown, not made
• Apple iPad: Your next computer is not a computer
• The Economist: Where guesses become educated
• Jack Daniel’s: The best tales can’t be told over text

Handy writing tip

What’s one of the most persuasive words we use every day? Because

Even if a point isn’t backed by rock-solid reasoning…

This word nudges our brains to somewhat believe it.

So say it more in your meetings and presentations.

And if you’re feeling rebellious, start your sentences with it too.

Because there’s nothing wrong with that.

Despite what your school teacher told you.

Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.

– Film director, Jean Luc Godard

Happy writing!

The Sainsburys A Cup of Copy team
Nichole Miranda, Daisy Newman, and Scarlett Rushton

Kick back with A Cup of Copy was originally published in Sainsbury’s Customer Experience Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

But what if we said (based on some observation of people using the Sainsbury’s website), that people are bad at searching?

Like all first approximation statements about human behaviour, it’s a massive generalisation. Like saying men are good at DIY. But you have to start somewhere to understand what motivates people to do things.

So if people need help searching, what then?

The current hypothesis

It’s fair to say that our “incumbent assumption” — on which our online shopping experience is broadly based — is that customers know what they want.

This view of search says that you enter the name of something you have decided to buy, and find it. You then put it into your basket. We also (tacitly) assume that in doing that you also intend to buy it: to check out and go.

We might even call this the “classical model” of online shopping. The “finding” part of which concentrates on the activity of the search page.

But a big part of UX is to ask the stupid questions.

The stupid questions are the most powerful questions. When you ask why is it this way? That’s where the power is, when you push. And that’s the breakthrough that leads to great radical innovation. — Don Norman

Do we believe that people know what they want? Is that why our customer experience is as it is?

Signals: inflection and reflection

At Sainsbury’s, we’re lucky to have access to lots of good quality analytics data. This is useful to help confirm our “models” of customer behaviour (but remember data alone can only tell us what is happening, not why).

Sometimes, we can see disconnects between what that data says and what we think are the reasons for things. In fact, part of the reason for writing this article is that right now there seems to be a disconnect between our data and what you would expect from the classical model.

The data shows customer uncertainty in the form of changing basket contents, filters and the use of “favourites”, amongst other things. There are also clearly problems (for example) with filtering, which by definition removes things from view, reducing serendipity, and other things.

The more you dig, the more the incumbent assumption that people know what they want seems problematic in terms of things like product availability, interaction, decision making and utility.

Testing the idea of a new thing

So if we ask the stupid questions, one place that might lead us to is a “recommendation” journey.

Obviously, there are going to be various ways that such a journey might be designed. But for the sake of a worked example, let’s say it’s a system that looks at who you are and what you like, and shows you a suggested shopping basket based on our understanding of other people’s shopping habits (Big Data! Like it’s 2010 all over again!).

But I have the feeling there would be some pitfalls in this theoretical “recommendation” design idea.

Part of the problem might be in the absence of agency…

The activity of search is complex, and that complexity is in turn stimulating. A good outline is given in this paper which cites the existence of 16 information seeking strategies and 20 search intentions. These include learning from the data set, self-improvement and the exercise of information “foraging” skills.

We are pre-disposed to work for results in any domain, and resent having results handed to us (at least too much). The psychological feedback our work creates is linked to mental health, self worth and purpose — the latter strongly linked to happiness.

So the idea of simply being told what to buy — even if the system gives us variety — seems unfulfilling. Even the laziest customer at a fast food restaurant will spend some effort trying to decide from the limited choices on the menu.

Not a good idea after all?

Well, it depends… But wait — can’t we research this?

You’ll notice that none of the above has mentioned user testing 😉

The trite reason for this is that if it were possible to just ask or observe customers to obtain the right design for a search experience, we wouldn’t need UX designers.

But it’s also true that the only way we can acquire beliefs is by observation, which in turn needs interpretation on our part. Luckily for my example, the UX of search in a commercial context is a very rich area for design. So we can’t avoid testing our stated hypothesis with design ideas in the buying of a basket of groceries, toys for a child, or a TV for the living room. The commercial imperatives are too great not to do so.

But whatever our observations, we have to think through the meaning of our ideas and why we believe they are or are not working.

So what?

Aside from showing that user experience design is eternally difficult, the point of all this is to show that it’s our beliefs and not the design interventions based on them that really matter.

Putting it another way: ideas are easy to come by and mostly fairly obvious. But the beliefs that give rise to them are harder to recognise and challenge. We must “ask the stupid questions”.

So in the the case of search, while there is doubtless a local maximum involved in any particular approach, experimenting with the “bad at searching” idea (while preserving satisfactions brought about by earning the results) might be a worth it in case the incumbent hypothesis isn’t as strong as we think.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbakerbates/

Thought experiments in search: an example of design thinking was originally published in Sainsbury’s Customer Experience Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As an Experience Design Manager, this means I look after the tools, products and experiences for the suppliers of our products, and for the teams that manage all that. It’s at the beginning of the product’s journey through Sainsbury’s — where buyers, suppliers and their relationships with us need to be negotiated: from price changes to promotions, to our supplier portal “Together With”, and more.

It changes day to day, which is something I love about it. It means working with a lot of colleagues as well as spending time with my team so that they’re always up to date and engaged. Yes, there’s probably more emails and meetings than design these days. But it’s great when I can get to work with the team on design, or their development and goals.

If I can make one change, for one person, that’s a success to me. It’s great going into a store or store support centre and seeing how happy people are with the changes I’ve made. My work makes a difference to around 6,500 suppliers and 200,000 colleagues, so their feedback brings me a lot of joy.

One project that stands out and that I’m proud of is the absence management app, which allows us to spend more time focusing on supporting colleagues back to work.

We were all in lockdown so couldn’t go into the store. I was working on my own, all remotely. It was a confusing time for everyone, especially when you’re trying to get hold of colleagues to complete research which would have normally been done in person.

The new app I designed is really quick. Managers can log absences on the go. It was designed for and by them, which has contributed to its success. It’s also saved them on average 20 minutes of time per absence logged, which scales up to around 10 years of labour across 12 months! Crucially, it’s simple to use. Nobody needs training — you just pick it up and use it, which is how I approach all my designs.

I’m also proud of progressing to be a manager. I have a team that I mentor, and I need to make sure that everything I do has a tangible meaning. And I get great feedback from them! It’s rewarding to have been able to step out of my comfort zone, learn new skills and be involved in new conversations. I’ve had full support from my line manager, and I get to make a difference to people’s lives!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/petergeoffreyholmes/

If I can make one change, for one person, that’s a success to me was originally published in Sainsbury’s Customer Experience Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

My day begins when my twin girls wake me! After I’ve done the school drop-off, I can ease into a day of working from home with a cup of tea in peace.

During the day I’m often in meetings with team members and other stakeholders, but there are meeting-free days too, which allows focus time. Apart from that, there’s no typical day because it depends what you’re working on at the time.

Research will come in waves. Some weeks I’ll be interviewing customers remotely, before analysing the data and making recommendations. I really enjoy it because it’s my chance to ‘geek out’ over customers and their shopping habits.

I also like going into stores to speak to our customers. Sometimes they even come up to us when we’re wearing our research t-shirts. Last year I was out in store asking people about how they use our checkouts. It’s so interesting to collect customer stories and make sure their voice is heard when we’re making changes to the experiences — some might be happy, some less so, but they’re all important.

I got the chance to be involved in the launch of the new Pick&Go store in Holborn, which uses cameras to detect what you pick up in store. I had to sign an NDA, and doing research under such strict constraints was a challenge. We ended up mocking up a fake store in the basement of our Holborn offices that allowed us to test the flow of the customer journey, including signage and mobile prototypes. It showed us what we needed to change before launch and what to flag as a risk to stakeholders. It was super exciting — stressful in a satisfying way!

One thing that has really helped my work life balance is not having to commute into London every day.

Sainsbury’s also really understand, and are are supportive of the fact that I have children. There’s a lot more flexibility involved in working from home.

This week I’ve been invited to an assembly at school at late notice. Luckily with our new ‘Smart Working’, I can manage my day to allow me to attend, whilst still getting work done. I also use this flexible working to get in visits to the gym during the day (when it’s not so busy!) and that’s been great for my physical and mental health!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vicky-coughlan/

I’m influencing the customer experience, and that’s the best feeling. was originally published in Sainsbury’s Customer Experience Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I’m Tiffany Chau.

My first impression of Nectar was that they like to explore the tech world and evolve. Some people might think that the business might be quite behind in terms of tech, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Nectar is a massive business and you can’t run one like it on old, outdated technology.

I don’t have a typical day, as such. We do workshops where we do work through concepts and improvements, and some days it’s more hands-on with design, and even getting the sketchbook out. I have calls with developers and designers too, which could be a catch-up or just getting to know each other, which helps when you work from home. In fact, I’m about 80% work from home these days. As long as you can do your job, it doesn’t matter where you work from.

The ‘Great Fruit and Veg Challenge’ was one of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on at Nectar so far. The main objective of the campaign is to encourage the public to eat more fruit and vegetables. Designing for social good and seeing many people enjoy the challenge gave me incentives to do better at my work. Also, working with a multi-disciplinary team has been great fun!

Throughout my time here I’ve worked with a lot of teams, built trust and improved our ways of working. We try to make everything usable and flexible — breaking down a screen to building blocks that we can use again. Of course, the customer won’t notice how much work goes into it, but that’s fine. If it’s good design, it should be seamless.

I like that we work collaboratively too. It’s fun to work together and find ways around things.

Sainsbury’s has certainly been supportive in terms of my career. We have internal meetings called ‘Design Time’ every Friday. For one or two hours we’ll get together and catch up. It might be about work, or maybe sharing our favourite design books or knowledge. And we sometimes do ideation too, just sketching out ideas. It’s a chance to find out what everyone is working on, look at things with new eyes, and having your colleagues doing the same for you. We also do ‘Good News Friday’ where you can shout out to your colleagues, or share good news. It’s a great way to end the week on a positive vibe and keeps us all connected.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffchau/

My love for Nectar brought me here was originally published in Sainsbury’s Customer Experience Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I’m Jon Hickinbotham.

I started at Sainsbury’s as a C4 experience designer, working on products and strategy. It meant working closely with engineering and business teams. Then I moved to a senior role, primarily on research projects.

My role has recently changed again — it’s about Staff Experience Design so it’s my task to get the most out of the design team. I consult and manage my time to get involved in projects that might need any level of design resource. I’ll guide them, point out any holes that need filling or if we could improve ways of working and so on. I’m using my knowledge to push design on, in the team and across the business, and really enjoying it.

Sainsbury’s is the most flexible place I’ve ever worked, by far! My day starts with taking my son to nursery, grabbing a coffee and my laptop and saying hello to the team before anything else. I get the smaller things out of the way first and then move on to the bigger tasks.

There’s lots I enjoy about it but helping others is a highlight. Perhaps I can share experiences in the immediate or wider team, guide people through challenges and being useful that way. Most of my happiness comes from flying the flag for store colleagues, making sure that their voices are heard and they’re being represented.

I also enjoy that I have capacity to change the way the business works. It’s unique in that I get to lead by example on how to do design in big projects where no design has ever been done. There’s lots of scope too for improving ways of working with colleagues, such as the way we manage up. I’m often asked how to do all these different things and the left to my own devices to do it, which is something I’ve always craved anyway.

I get nice feedback from my team — they’re always appreciative. And I have full autonomy over my time so that I can really influence the way the business works with design for the better.

Not long ago, we did a piece of work to understand what is bothering our colleagues in store — stopping them doing what they need to do, or making them not enjoy their job. We found lots of methods and ways to improve, and created a framework that’s still in place now. I had the opportunity to speak to 40 or 50 colleagues and ask them what’s up! They told us, and it was a lovely piece of work. Years on we can still use it to frame our design work. I still remember what they said too, and use it in my design.

I’ve won the odd award in my time here, which has really blown me away as they’re colleague and management-led awards. The whole of the engineering family for retail has a special award for a singular person of the year, in the whole of the business, who has helped them achieve their goals, and I won that, which was incredible. It was nice to have the recognition for the team and business.

It’s important to do what makes you happy.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-h-75276286/

I’m extremely proud and honoured to fly the flag for store colleagues. was originally published in Sainsbury’s Customer Experience Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In the Customer Experience Design (CXD) team, it’s our job to think about the customer and colleague experience from start to finish. The Sainsbury’s eco-system is made up of multiple brands: Sainsbury’s, Argos, Habitat, Nectar, and Tu. Each one of these brands has different processes for both our customers and our colleagues.

Take the returns process at Argos, for example. What does that look like? What does it involve? Or how does a Sainsbury’s store design flow, and what interactions does a customer make as a result of those design choices? Or how will digital interactions make the experience better for both customers and staff?

These are the kinds of questions we have to answer in the CXD team. We, as designers, ask these questions, and the detail of the answers all go into the solutions we come up with. When it comes to explaining our ideas, which can be complex and full of detailed information, it can be hard to achieve clarity and convey the overall vision — and too easy to get distracted by specific details.

What is a UX storyboard?

One way to get around this is with storyboarding. Storyboards are an effective tool to communicate visions and solutions to complex issues by showing journeys in a visual way. This helps stakeholders see the experience from a customer’s or colleague’s perspective, and greatly assists with research and end-to-end testing.

Storyboards help cut out a lot of the noise, letting us communicate an overall journey or vision without the audience getting hung up on the details. That way, it’s easier to align teams and different areas of the business.

But more than that, they put you in the customer’s shoes. How the customer arrived, their journey through the store, the interactions they had, and how they left. Storyboards give that understanding with a clarity that a written list simply can’t convey.

Hitesh, a Senior Experience Designer in our CXD team, has used this method for a long time. Having a graphic design background, he has always used visual means of communication to explain projects, engage people and get buy-in. When he shared this method with the team, the feedback was very positive, both with the CX team and from other areas of the business.

Storyboarding workshops

Colleagues wanted to know how to create their own storyboards and use them in their own work. This led to Hitesh creating and running storyboarding workshops to give his colleagues the tools and techniques they could use for their own projects.

The workshops covered the makeup of a storyboard — such as the customer persona, and the scenario being considered. The process itself is straightforward: plot out a narrative of a customer journey or scenario, pick out the steps that will best convey it, and finally, get drawing.

Hitesh shares a few ways to create the visuals in the workshop. If you’re already a confident sketcher, simply picking up a pen and paper is probably the quickest way to start. Hitesh uses a digital pen tool to sketch freehand. If not, one approach is to visualise what you want to sketch, then find a relevant picture online or from a central database like Figma. Hitesh has set up a central store of useful pictures and sketches — showing stores, devices, customers, baskets, phone-screen close-ups and so on.

Several digital pictures can be put together and sketched around even, so the process can be adapted to each person’s preferred way of working. It doesn’t matter how the visuals are created — they are just there to communicate an idea and help the audience focus.

Why use storyboards?

Drawing out the scenes in the journey can help in many ways. It can lead to new ideas and perspectives, or the development of creative solutions. It can also help identify what we do — and don’t — know about the customer journey. These revelations are what help make storyboarding so effective. They are also particularly helpful when used to communicate a vision with a view to gaining buy-in and engagement from across the business or for research and testing purposes, to help gather valuable feedback by walking customers through the end-to-end experience.

Inspired by Hitesh’s workshops and following positive feedback from colleagues within and outside the CXD team, more and more CX colleagues are finding their own way to storyboard as part of the experience design process.

Written by Hitesh Supeda
Senior Experience Designer (Product) — Habitat/Argos

UX Storyboarding: Where communication and clarity collide was originally published in Sainsbury’s Customer Experience Design on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.