Scaling discovery work in Agile helps teams plan appropriately scoped activities around targeted questions and probable assumptions instead of arbitrary sprint timeframes.
UX designers and engineering teams are often too quick to propose solutions, without understanding the problem (or even if there is a problem at all). Ask questions first, before jumping to a solution.
Data from 343 companies provide a baseline to understanding typical approaches for selecting journey-mapping applications, research methods, contributing roles, and map components.
Visual-design principles can be applied consistently throughout the process of creating a polished UX map. Start by choosing a tool, then create a visual system, establish the basic layout, and finally add content and make adjustments.
Still challenged by the global pandemic but unwavering, intranet-design teams committed to accessibility and inclusion. Empathy and logic prevailed, resulting in winning intranets that are accepting and supportive of all employees equally.
The 2022 Intranet Design Annual winning teams were small relative to the size of their organizations, yet they produced excellent designs quickly. Teams continued to partner with outside consultants for support in development, project management, design, research, and other areas. A wide variety of industries from only four countries were represented this year.
The 6 stages of the design thinking process can be supported by a very wide range of UX methods and activities. Don't limit yourself to the most commonly mentioned methods.
Define objectives and measurable key results to guide and track UX work. Use OKRs as a tool to align your team, provide focus, and a tangible way to monitor progress.
Teams often fall into the trap of focusing on outputs (features, deliverables, and artifacts). Instead, a mindset shift of working toward purposeful outcomes (problems solved, needs addressed, and real benefits) leads to better results.
Use a flexible responsibility-assignment matrix to clarify UX roles and responsibilities, anticipate team collaboration points, and maintain productivity in product development.
Instead of feature-focused roadmaps, theme-based UX roadmaps visualize experience strategy by communicating high-level opportunities and problems to solve. Include these 7 elements in each theme on the roadmap.
Some UX designers (and many clients) aim to "jazz up" the design to supposedly engage users. This usually backfires because extraneous design elements get in the way of users' tasks.
While roadmaps differ in scope, their main benefit is building alignment. We address some of the common questions asked about the topic by practitioners.
User story maps visualize the activities, steps, and details users go through in a product or feature. Instead of heavy requirements documents, story maps communicate how the pieces fit together before design and development.
The foundation of user experience is the difference between the people on the design team and the people using the product. You can't ask users to design, but you also can't ask the designers whether their own design will be easy for the target audience to use.
In UX design meetings, critiques are sometimes based on hypothetical scenarios and pseudoevidence: not actual user problems, but something that *might* happen.
In the discovery phase of a UX project, mapping provides a high-level view of the problem space and makes opportunities obvious. Maps ensure buy-in and alignment around discovery findings.
