User Experience (UX) Team Plan

User Experience

UX Team Best Practices

•Centralized or de-centralized.

•Roles: UX Architect, IA/Interaction Designer, Visual Designer,

Front-End Developer, Usability Expert/Researcher, Content

Strategist.

•Average ratio of Developers to UX Team Members should be

between 5-10 to 1.

•Teams and processes develop over time in stages.

•UX should be integrated into the project software development

life cycle.

Six Core Disciplines of User Experience

Project Software Development Life Cycle

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IT Project Software Development Lifecycle

UX Process What We Should be Doing

• Project request from Sponsor• Sponsor creates Project Profile w/IT• Gate 1• Resources• Kick-off

• Attend IT kick-off (1, 2, 3 or all if identified already)• Determine UX effort/type needed (3)• Determine resources (2)

IT Creates Project Schedule

• Identify UX team members (3)• Work with PM to include UX elements in project schedule (3)

• JAD Sessions• Requirements Document

• Existing site review/research (4)• User/Task Analysis (4)• Attend JAD sessions (1, 3,4, 5, 7, 8, 9)

• Technical Design• Graphic Design

• Assist with requirements (3, 5, 7, 8, 9)• Content inventory (8)• IA (5)• Wireframes (5)• Visual design (6)• Content Creation (8) • Wireframe and/or Prototype Testing (4)

• Coding • Functional testing• Occasional Usability testing

• Create test plan (4)• Build scenarios (4)• Conduct testing (4)• Review results(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)• Implement/retest(5, 7, 3, 4)

• Elevation

• Post-launch survey (4)• Potentially post-launch usability test if more iterations are to be done on the site/app (4)

UX Touch-points

Occasionally, we build wireframes and are involved in usability studies

Often, we do visual design

Sometimes usability studies are done before launch.

Sometimes, surveys are done after launch.

• Content implementation on Content-managed sites (if applicable) (8)

Key Responsibilities: 1:Sponsor 2:IT 3:UX Architect 4:Researcher 5:IA/Interaction Designer 6:Visual Designer 7:Front-End Engineer 8:Content Strategist9:Sponsor Rep

Note: UX Architect oversees UX for project during the SDLC.

UX Team Proposed Near Term

(with External Agency Support) Pooled Team

This model is heavily dependent upon agency support and prioritization of projects.

Risks! •Only one UX resource currently. We are recruiting for a UX Architect but the salary is low compared to Atlanta.

•With most of the work done externally, the Architect may be required to take on project management duties for anything related to Marketing within the project. The identification of this risk shows a gap within digital projects that currently exists – a project manager.

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UX Roles

Actualization/Next Steps

1. Agree and gain approval for this user experience discipline within Marketing.

2. Have conversations with IT to get their buy-in on inclusion of user experience into the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle.)

3. Add required internal resources and external agencies.

4. Socialize and incorporate into Marketing processes.

5. Establish priorities for UX/Usability.

6. Align external resources, (agencies, etc.) to priority projects.

Corporate Usability Maturity Model Stages

6Source: NNGroup presentation UX Week 2013 San Francisco.

Appendix:

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User Experience (UX)

8Source: Nick Finck presentation, Director of User Experience at projekt202, previously with Deloitte Digital and Blink Interactive.

Best Practices UX Team Structure

9Sources: NNGroup Usability Week 2013 conference (Kara Pernice, Managing Director, NNGroup and Christian Rohrer, Chief Design Officer & VP at McAfee), “How to Build a Killer User Experience Team” (http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/build-killer-user-experience-team/)

Researcher: Conducts user research for projects, to include, but not limited to: field studies, usability

studies, focus groups, surveys, competitor app/site reviews.

IA/Interaction Designer: Responsible

for laying out information and plays a key role in

deciding the screen flows and interaction patterns to be followed. Delivers

the wireframes, screenflows, sitemap and

interaction design documents.

Content Strategist: Responsible for shaping up the ‘tone of voice’ of the product by carefully

planning the content. Content includes text, as

well as whatever element is being used to

communicate with the user.

Visual Designer: Through color, typography, visual hierarchy, brand and style, communicates the ideas through whatever medium is available to carry forward the UX vision.

Front-End Engineer: Translates through code the ideas which are in the form of wireframes, documents and visual mockups into a working prototype.

UX Architect: Team visionary. Oversees the project from a UX perspective.

UX Team Proposed Long Term

Option 2 – UX with Internal Resources

Each Channel or combination of like channels would have a UX team for their projects, overseen by the UX Manager

or UX Architect.

This structure requires more internal resources.

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UX Structure that has been used at EBAY

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Bloomberg Financial Products UX Structure

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UX Roles

13Source: “How to build a killer user experience team.” http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/build-killer-user-experience-team/