User Experience newsletter — May 2020
This month I've been converting in-person training courses into live, virtual events. It's difficult to see when — or even if — face-to-face training will happen again. So I'm gradually adapting my courses so they can be delivered as remote workshops. For once, the challenge isn't (just) the technology. It's trying to create the same experience as a face-to-face course. If you've attended one of my courses, you'll know that they are based around practice projects, discussions and interactive activities. But thanks to Google Docs, Mural and Zoom's Breakout Rooms feature, I think I've managed it.
We have two courses coming up:
The good news is that, because they are online events, you can attend from anywhere in the world!
In other news, here are some articles that I think are worth your attention:
I like this approach of balancing conversion rate with the “nag metric”.
Word(s) of the day: Gemba Walk. “Gemba walks denote the action of going to see the actual process, understand the work, ask questions, and learn.”
I don’t pretend to understand the maths in this paper but, sadly, the overall conclusion has face validity: CEOs that improve customer satisfaction scores get paid less than CEOs that boost sales and productivity.
If you’re doing any kind of remote, collaborative work at the moment (design sprints, training) this is gold: how to handle video, whiteboards, voting, facilitation, interviews, and pretty much everything else.
I often wondered why the RITE Method of usability testing wasn’t more widely adopted. This article does a good job of explaining why.
Sometimes you discover something on YouTube and think wow, what a resource. Such as this: Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky’s entire course on Human Behavioral Biology.
5-minute videos on UX
- Two questions to ask on a field visit. I answer the question, “Can you please tell me a few open-ended questions you always ask in product discovery interviews in order to learn more about the problem space?”
- How to level up your firm’s UX maturity. I answer the question, “What can you do to help level up a company’s UX maturity? and What’s the UX maturity progression secret sauce?”
- Remote usability testing - Dealing with lag. I answer the question, “A very specific question. I’m about to do some remote usability testing but I’m unable to give the user a login due to security. I am left with the options of letting the user control my mouse over Zoom with some lag, or asking them to direct me to use the controls. What would you see as the pros and cons? If I have to control the mouse, should I scroll to show the whole screen when I land on a page — or is that too leading?”
- What are the competencies of UX? I answer the question, “I am introducing an intern to the roles of UX. At the moment she has been given various tasks to support research but is struggling to see the big picture. Are there any resources you recommend to help explain the landscape of UX roles and help her understand how her practical skills fit.”
Want me to answer a UX-related question in a future video? Just reply to this email.
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David Travis.
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