Experience visions:a case studyFred Randell

UX Australia 2009

Coming up...

A bit about me

The part with the definition

The case study

Wrap-up

Questions

1997-2004: Senior information architect at Red Square

Panasonic Australia / P&O Nedlloyd / YHA Australia

2004-now: Director of Boomworks

web.experience.design

Telstra / wotnews / ING Australia

Previous presentations by Fred Randell

1999: “The exciting, emerging technology, WAP: fully utilising the16k limit, and unleashing the power of monochrome graphics.”

About me

What is an experience vision?

“It is the future you see.”Yoda, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Jared Spool

“The flag in the sand”

“Because the flag is clearly visible, the team knows if every step they take brings them

closer or farther away”

Steve Baty

“An experience strategy is that collection of activities that an organization chooses to undertake to deliver a series of (positive,

exceptional) interactions which, when taken together, constitute an (product or service)

offering that is superior in some meaningful, hard-to-replicate way; that is unique, distinct &

distinguishable from that available from a competitor.”

My take

An experience vision is a tangible artefact that can be used as a reference point for current activities such that they align to or progress toward an ideal future state.

The case study: Telstra.com

“Now, you've got a corpse in a car, minus a head, in a garage.

Take me to it.”Winston Wolf, Pulp Fiction

The project

Telstra’s Transformation“Create a world of 1 click, 1 touch, 1 button, 1 screen, 1 step solutions that are simple, easy and valued.”

Team of experts assembled to deliver the online user experience

Boomworks / PTG / Eclipse

The mission

Develop a seamless customer experience across all self-service channels…

…that adheres to the company-wide One Click, One Touch, One Button, One Screen, One Step

Product Design Principles and Guidelines…

...and accommodates Telstra’s high level business objectives.

The crucial first step...

...come up with an awesome team name

The awesome team name

ContendersCE (Customer Experience) team

Boomlipse Global

My personal favourite:X-team

The disappointing winner:UI Team

And then?

“You enter, you go ‘Hi’, and I go, ‘Hello.’

Now.. we need something here...”Jerry Seinfeld, The Cheever Letters

Establish experience principles

1. Customer focussed

2. Personalised

3. Unified

4. Standardised

5. Compelling

6. Forward looking

Establish experience principles

Apply them to key interactions

User Interface & Interaction

Navigation and Way-finding

Identity Management

Customisation / Personalisation

Search

Help

Promotions

Notifications

Shopping Cart & Checkout

Online Bill

Product Information

Make one of them...

Principles = useful

Company = large

Timeframe = long/phased

Now.... go!

Now... go!

“The catch is, a boat this big doesn't exactly stop on a dime”

Seaman Jones, The Hunt for Red October

The challenges

Huge undertaking to devise entirely new interface for all online properties

Fragmented experience

Size of company / complex nature of requirements

Confusion

Long timeframe / numerous dropsLoss of focus

The solution

A tangible manifestation of the UI team principles

Introducing the End State Vision (ESV)

A visual and descriptive presentation of the future transformed Telstra customer

experience...

...providing a reference point for which all channels can ultimately aim.

The how

Similar approach to a regular project...

Requirements review

Audience identification

Stakeholder engagement

Best practice review

Project cross-stream requirements

The what

“If you build what, who will come?”Annie Kinsella, Field of Dreams

The what

Domain name strategyEstablished a consistent and easy to follow policy on which elements sit inside the telstra.com domain and which do not.

Information architectureWe undertook user interviews, card sorting sessions and benchmark tested the current site and competitor sites, and arrived at an end-state IA.

High-level wireframes of key interactions60+ wireframes illustrating: home / product browse / shopping cart & purchase / login & register / view and manage account / bill payment

Interactive prototypeUndertook a round of initial paper prototype testing, which we refined and iterated on. We built an interactive HTML prototype and undertook 3 rounds of testing x 12 users each round. Iterations and refinements between rounds

Conceptual visual designAllowed us to show an alignment to a single template and brand style – not reflected in the site at the time – across channels. Also provides a means of saying – looks similar / uses common technology platform.

What then?

“We’ve got the vision,

now let’s have some fun.”MGMT, Time to Pretend

Sharing the vision

Jared Spool says:“Having the vision exist only in the head of one or two people doesn’t help the team know how to make important decisions. The vision must be shared throughout the organization.”

Artefacts distilled into a presentationWe distilled all of our work (wireframes/designs/principles) into a single story which we took on the road.

Key stakeholders were targeted for roadshow

Started at the top – seeking buy in from senior management. Easy to get them excited and get endorsement by showing them what the site could be / the full potential of the transformation vision.

Sign-off soughtIn total, over 60 different presentations across the business resulting in sign-off.

What did we achieve

Stakeholder buy-in

Common reference point for all streams

Baseline for first phase of transformation UI roll-out

Artefacts still in use today

Subsequent activities

Global page templates / pattern library

Interface specifications for individual transformation activities

Transformation continues.... the desire to make a better experience is still at the forefront – the ESV is providing a target for these activities

Recent chapters

ESV used as reference for Account, Shop, Registration projects

New home page and IA based on ESV deployed in very short time frame

Earlier this year a new home page and an interim IA, which were based heavily on the ESV were deployed. In A/B testing with the old home page and IA as the control, the new solution significantly outperformed the old one and fulfilment figures continues to grow.

Pattern library still in useStandardising new interactions across all of Telstra’s properties.

Experience visions: a summary

“Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your

newsletter.”Homer Simpson, Mountain of Madness

Using an experience vision

Can be crucial on large-scale / long-timeframe projects

Experience Visions do not have to be employed just at a corporate scale (they can be crucial in that context though)

Also effective on small scale / self-contained projects

We’ve successfully employed an experience visions approach on smaller and self-contained projects (social tagging, product acquisition process)

Benefits

Clear, defined direction all parties can subscribe to

Not constrained by technology, ingrained business mentality, existing roadblocks

Inspirational

References

User Interface Engineering:

The 3 Steps for Creating an Experience Vision Jared M. Spool

Knowledge Navigator Deconstructed: Building an Envisionment Jared M. Spool

JOHNNY HOLLAND MAGAZINE:

What is an Experience Strategy? Steve Baty

Joel on Software:

Fruity treats, customization, and supersonics: FogBugz 7 is here Joel Spolsky

Adaptive Path:

Aurora: Concept Video Part 1 Jesse James Garrett

Questions?

Here are some I prepared earlierI love everything you said, just one question: what’s an Experience Vision?

As an industry how should we refer to ourselves? (“X-team” isn’t taken yet )

My scarf is faulty/black/too warm, where can I get another one?

Fred RandellExperience Visions: A Case Study

UX Australia 2009

www.boomworks.com.au

@fredrandell