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ENGAGING MEANINGFULLY WITH CLIENTS

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UXSW

Banksy - Elephant

Great digital experience happen when we engage clients, not just users Workshop will help build empathy for clients

Describe techniques which demonstrate value of UX Build better relationships

Gain trust

LESS CLEAR THAN WE’D ADMIT

We require client to: 1. Keep pace

2. learn our ways 3. understand our skills

4. interpret what we deliver. It’s all from our POV

James Clar - BOOM

1. Flat images of web design 2. Focus on home page

3. Mobile first - content first, what? 4. Increased costs of RWD

5. No one size fits all How can we engage clients better in the process?

USERS

Apply what we’ve learned about people As with all good UX, it starts with empathy

Goals Need Hopes Fears

ACTIVITY 1

{ }Imagine what it’s like

for a client to hire a designer?

1 Goals 2 Needs 3 Hopes 4 Fears

In your groups, answer the question . . . Think about goals, needs, hopes and fears.

At least one for each. Write your answer on postits

Ask from one of each from each group NOTE: Make note of the most important on flip chart

“I WANTED SOMEONEI COULD WORK WITHI GOT A FANATIC”

Most clients have horror story To do with attitude, communication and understanding of goals.

Their goal is to find someone they can work with They need someone to make them look good

The fear is they get someone who’s a headache We could blame communication,

but we probably communicate regularly. Perhaps it’s the words we use?

USABILITY

INTERACTION DESIGN

UXEXPERIENCEARCHITECT

INFORMATIONARCHITECT

USER CENTRED

DESIGNUSEREXPERIENCE

?

EXPERIENCEARCHITECT

Today, I tell my clients that I’m a User Experience Designer. But what we do is synonymous, or at least closely related to many other words.

Clients find this confusing. This schizophrenia does not instil confidence in what we do. A pretty poor start for the guardians of simplicity.

But even if titles are come and go, we’ve got beautifully visualised process diagram to wow clients and explain what we do, right? !

UNLEASH THELEXICON

In new business meetings, where process diagrams like this are unleashed.  Hard it is for clients to see the true value of what we do.

The problem here is these diagrams: Lists activities from our perspective

Not showing the relationship between activities Fail to show the activities which are most valuable to the client

Sitemap

Task Analysis

WireframesPersonas

CONFUSION . . .

User Testing

Pieces of a jigsaw to the client large degree of mental processing

Seldom in plain English. We only understand them

Stop asking so much of clients. Fundamentally, they don’t invite input

FLATIMAGES

People don’t just look at websites, they use them!

Though clients to value flat images of webpages Need to reeducate

Red herring of digital Change the conversation with clients away from flat images, deeper understanding of why a user will engage with the clients site and brand.

People use, not just look at website !

DESIGN IN ISOLATION

At it’s worse, all this amounts us designing in isolation Results in a loss of control away from the designer

Why? Human nature to try and control what we do not understand Perhaps you can think of a controlling client?

M

IMAGINE A WORLD

WITHOUT A CLIENT . . . Increasing number of designers abandoning client work altogether to build their own apps?

I was lucky as part of Analog Cooperative It was different, but not how you’d expect.

Focus is on delivery, not deliverables. The things you do for yourself are different to those you do to show value to a client.

Even in a start-up, you need a product owner or internal client

THE HOLYTRINITYOF DESIGN

When these things work together great UX happens Should always be tension in design

Push and pull of different perspectives reveals beautiful designs. Certain tension bad:

Like when designers try to differentiate ourselves through our designs, this pulls the relationship apart. We don’t own the designs

It’s the client who’ll have to live with the site

ENGAGEDCLIENT

Greatly improved Removed complexity and multiple forms

via search links or PPC ads content related to their search Pat Odey, the Virgin Product Manager for this project described to me a product owner / designer relationship

70% of the project time at the agency, LBi’s offices. This was a partnership.

Pat describes being extremely engaged Chris Ball of LBi describes Pat as one of the team.

!

ACTIVITY 2 - 5 mins

{ }1. What were the key

steps you took on your last project?

1 Discover 2 Define 3 Design 4 Develop

In your groups, using postits, answer this question . . . With one activity or step per posit

Use the 4 phases as a guide

ACTIVITY 2 - 5 mins

{ }2. How engaged was the client at

each step?

1 Easy to explain

2 Well received

3 Involved 4 Empowered

Arrange them on the wall linearly according to phase Answering the following question Using the scale to gauge engagement Discuss as you go From this exercise, I hope you are starting to think about the best ways to engage clients

ACTIVITY 2One of the team

Signed-off

Just wanted it done

3

2

1

-3

-2

-1

0

DISCOVER DEFINE DESIGN DEVELOP

6 ENGAGINGTECHNIQUES*

* Some clients just want it done

Here are some steps I take, which I find really engage clients meaningfully in the process of design. Before, highlight the importance of preparation

Don’t set it up right, you’re setting yourself up for a fall. Also, not all clients will get involved.

You may have to work harder with some.

1. FAT HEADDIAGRAM

Discovery phase

Objective - customer or user profile. It only takes 10 - 15 minutes per profile.

Goal is to create empathy for the end users The looseness of this sketched person removes inhibitions,

Allowing clients to imagine, and input easily

2. EXPERIENCE VISION

Define phase

Shared vision that works on UX Magazine. Working more fluidly, vision becomes more important

Simply a sentence or group of works expressing the core of the experience people will have with the site. - Bring the project team together

- Keeps people focused on who’s important - Creates a culture of shared ownership

They’re surprisingly easy to create and have a lasting effect on the project.

3. EXPERIENCE MAPPING

Low-fi Hi-fi

Discover and Define phases

We’re good at visualisation, the before unseen.  Site is supporting the needs of business and customers

See the process through eyes of customer Describe experience over time

Mark positive and negative point Lay the grounds for cross channel analysis

Identify opportunities for service improvements We build the user layer, based on research,

together with the client, you build the business layer. Key is to do this collaboratively with the client.

Engaging their imagination in a technique that they used to thinking about, but probably haven't found a way to visualise.

4. SKETCHING

Discover, Define and Design phases

Engages the brain in the kind of visual sense-making 30,000 years. Sketching is a power technique

Generate concepts quickly Not costly

The looseness of a sketch removes inhibitions, granting clients permission to Consider and challenge the ideas it represents. Stick men are a great ice breaker

People often ask when do you stop sketching? For me, when it stops being about ideas, then it’s time to stop

!

5. STORYTELLING

The Forest Holiday website is intuitive & clear. Inviting exploration, it feels tailored to my needs, in a friendly way, that leaves me full of excitement.

Low-fi

Hi-fi

Define phase

Power technique for engaging people They're built on a framework that we know. 

They have the right cues and tap into our collective psyche. Stories also work incredibly well to engage clients by: 

Putting a human face on data Making complex things simple

Pack a lot in Motivating, persuading and inspiring

Bringing consistent narrative across device A power technique

!If any of this sounds complex, it's not.

!We tell stories everyday, it’s not complicated

Understand the basic formula: 1. Character 2. Ambition 2. Tension

6. SKETCH BOARDS

Define & Design phases

7. PROTOTYPE

It’s doesn’t matter what you use, just make it move

Define & Design phase

People don’t just look at websites, they use them. The web moves now

Show movement early, can save a lot of time later More powerful and relevant than flat images

Next time, think about the client

EMPATHY OPEN TO INPUT STRUCTURED

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Soft skills, not software Removes inhibitions

SUMMARY

Framework to input to

Add context to data

Less of a call to arms than a call for Pause On your next project

Consider how you can engage clients Starting with empathy

RECAP

No jargon or complex process diagrams. Speak in terms that the client

will understand

PLAIN ENGLISH

Not just users, in terms that they can relate to

their business

VALUE TO CLIENT

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What have we learned?

1 2 3

A simple statement defining the core of the

experience users will have with the site

SHARED VISION

RECAP

Away from flat images of web pages to a much

deeper understanding of why users will engage

with their brand

CHANGE CONVERSATION

Like sketches do, because they are loose, so they

grant permission to challenge the ideas they

represent

INVITE PEOPLE’S INPUT

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What have we learned?

4 5 6

A good client / designer relationship is one that

has an inevitable outcome, rather than Ta-dah!

MAKE IT INEVITABLE

CHECKLIST

Based on a vision

Creates shared ownership

Built on a framework

Bring people together

Creates empathy

!

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Not on a screen

Remove inhibitions

Grant permission to challenge

Engages imagination

All about ideas

For engaging techniques

LINKS

Requiring complete understanding of

something, but the end result feels understated, confident and inevitable.

We design websites & apps in the context

that they will be used: the browser

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• Creating a Shared Vision - Alan Colville - UX Magazine

• Part 1 - http://uxmag.com/articles/shared-vision

• Part 2 - http://uxmag.com/articles/creating-a-shared-vision-that-works

• Sketch boards - Adaptive Path - Youtube: http://youtu.be/iVFTBj_BYy0

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