@ncapuana@ncapuana

UX survival guide

by Nicole Capuana

@ncapuana

Once upon a time in a kingdom of robots....

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Hello!● Director of User Experience at LeanDog● Founding member of HER Ideas in Motion, a

non-profit teaching girls how to code, design games, & build robots

● Organizer of Cleveland Lean Startup Circle● Over 15 years in UX covering the whole

spectrum - HTML/CSS. interaction design, visual design, information architecture, user research, usability & content strategy

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Saint Possum● Agile maximizing value,

maximizing feedback, and embracing change.

● Lean minimizing waste, validating or invalidating assumptions, learning and adapting to deliver value incrementally.

● UX everything your users experience

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UX is part of the team

● Team member● More than wireframes or mockups● From beginning to end● Stories, chores, and refactoring just

like development

If you don’t have UX on the team,

you need to get them

Lesson 1

● Dedicated ideal

● 2 projects max

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strategy & vision before development

● Allows exploration, experimentation

● View of the whole● Supports business

case & telling story● Defines scope● UX led, design

spikes● Good, Better, Best

mentality

Lesson 2

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Make UX Work Visible

● Represent UX work in release plan & backlog

● Design spikes, chores, & cards● Estimation is on par with Dev● Put your work up on the wall ● Share your work with tools like

InvisionApp and Zeplin

Lesson 3

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Pair on Everything

● Cross-functional powers● Shared understanding● Cross-pollination● You do better work, faster● Promotes a whole team

mindset

Lesson 4

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Be a Balanced Team

● High collaboration

● Skills not roles● Assess

desirability, feasibility & usability together

Lesson 5

● Find better ways to work

● Make a happy team

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Find Your Balance● Let ego go● Let it go● Small, imperfect, but

deliverable (varying levels of fidelity)

● Expand your skills (test, write stories)

Lesson 6

● May feel uncomfortable at first

● There’s always more to do

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Test Early & Often

● Test the riskiest, the most valuable

● Build on the best practices so you don’t have to test everything

● Embrace Test-Driven Design

● Make data informed decisions

● 10x, 100x, 1000x

Lesson 7

● Get it in your user's’ hands ASAP● Design incrementally in thin slices

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There Will Be DeBt

● Issues will be found once you start implementing or building

● Connecting towards the whole can reveal spots that no longer work well

Lesson 8

● Help team prioritize the most valuable or severe first

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Don’t Fall into TRaps● No UX● Playing

catch-up● Working in

silos or alone

● Mockup every screen in Photoshop

● No time for users● Accepting status-quo

● Not embracing change

● Non designers designing

● “I just know what they want”

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You Can Do It

● Don’t look back● Make do with what you

got and take a step to change

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You asked - additional readingsBooks● Don’t Make Me Think AND Rocket Surgery Made Easy, Steve Krug● The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web and Beyond, Jesse James Garrett● Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective

Solutions Bella Martin, Bruce M. Hanington● Agile Experience Design: A Digital Designer's Guide to Agile, Lean, and Continuous Lindsay Ratcliffe, Marc McNeill● Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden

A fantastic and comprehensive list - The Only UX Reading List

Design Studio Method● Todd Zaki Warfel (video) ● Design Studio: A Method for Concepting, ● Critique & Iteration ● Speed Design Studio -● Design Studio for context-aware products ● Introduction to Design Studio Methodology● Design of Design Studio● Design Studio and Agile UX Process and Pitfalls