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Based in Denver, Joel Kilby currently works as Sr. UX Manager for RiaMoneyTransfer.com, and co-founded WeAreGiant.co. He knows what it takes to be keen on the practice. Here are his 9 insights on user experience.
1. Great user experience comes from the top.
Over the years I’ve seen that the benefits of focusing on user experience often take significantly longer to become apparent. This is especially true in eCommerce organizations where most of the time the benchmarks are year-over-year sales numbers and other data points that are much easier to quantify.
Some of the key UX measures are less objective. Customers’ feelings toward a product are harder to put numbers to, and sometimes take years before patterns become visible. However, no one will argue that providing positive customer experience will have an impact on a business’s numbers. It’s just a little harder to create that spreadsheet.
To that end, a successful UX practice must have support from the top of the organization.
Building the best UX team in the world will not get close to the potential value if the decision makers in the organization are not on board with that long term customer-centered roadmap.
2. Speaking of top, look out for number one.
Your business doesn’t exist without your customers. The users. They may be buyers or sellers or businesses or people, but they are the reason your business exists. It’s your business to understand them, and put yourself in their position. That’s what the field of user experience is about. Putting the customer, the user, in their place at the top.
3. UX is not UI.
User experience is a field full of specialties. Often, companies with new or immature UX practices think any creative person will do. And because it’s sometimes easier to write a job description for a “web designer” that’s normally the first spot to get filled. The fact is that there are many creative people that make up a healthy user experience organization. Sure, there are visual and interaction designers (user interface) in that bunch, but there are also content strategists, front end developers, writers, information architects, researchers, and so on.
My friend and colleague Anthony Sanders wrote a really cool post that nails it.
4. Be human.
A core tenet of the UX world is empathy. When user experience is done right we strive to understand the context, hurdles, and primary objectives our users are facing. That’s empathy. And we use that to treat “users” as people.
5. If you don’t test you’re guessing.
It takes months, sometimes years, to get a site to market. In that time designers and developers become intimately familiar with “how it’s supposed to work”. The people who will use the site do not have that familiarity. In fact, they probably have a completely different expectation of what the site should do. The only way to effectively craft an experience is to test early and test often… WITH your intended audience.
6. You are not your user.
This is an old mantra within the UX community. It goes back to empathy. You just can’t create an effective product for someone if you don’t know how, where, when, or why they need to use it.
7. Use all the data.
UX practitioners love their data. Usability testing, live site metrics, statistics, other peoples’ research. All of it. No doubt it’s impossible to create a user-centered product without learning about users. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. In addition to live site analytics, you’ll want to employ a bunch of other tests, tools, and procedures. There is an almost endless array of testing that you can do before and after products go live. From simple five second design tests online to sophisticated eye tracking you should research as many options as you can and decide what works best for your product.
8. Arrogance in this field will crush you.
I’ve been doing this work for over 12 years. Because of that, I have gotten a lot of great experience. Through all that experience I’ve developed my own sense of what’s right and wrong in terms of a website’s design. I’ve also learned that in order to create something valuable for people using a site I need to leave my opinions (and ego) out of it. It’s not about design that I think is good. It’s about what my users respond to and what makes sense to them.
9. Hire people better than you.
I’ve learned that if you want your team to succeed you can’t do it all. When you finally get the green light to add people to your team, look to bring on people with different and better skills than you. Great managers aren’t intimidated by by talented people. They empower them. Read more about hiring people here.
