Creating the User Experience—Experience

Being responsible for the user experience is often not what you’re hired for. I’m usually brought on to improve the user interface of an application or redesign it, but I’m rarely called upon to test the usability of an application or measure the effectiveness of a feature.

Let’s face it—most projects do not have a dedicated UX role. I’m not sure why this is—but I do know in the software development industry, user centered design is thought of as expensive. It may eliminate a lot of risk, but it’s still something that hasn’t caught on everywhere quite yet. A lot of projects don’t hire specialists in usability because they’re afraid of what the results might bring. The truth can be pretty scary.

I’ve learned recently that you have to create a User Experience—Experience. Nope, I’m not being redundant at all. You have to create a reputation that the UX guys are the good guys and sell it to everyone you meet. Here are some tips that will help create this experience I’m talking about:

• “My job is to make you look good.” When the users are taken care of, we all win. You have to win over management support and to do so, you have to remind them that when the users are happy, that feature you’re responsible for will make everyone involved look good.
• “Did somebody say users?” Take every opportunity to get in front of actual users. If you’re in a meeting with stakeholders and they mention a particular user or user base that could be affected—that’s when your head should pop up with a big smile asking for a time and a place when you can interview/observe these users.
• “Well, in our user research, we learned that…” If there is an opportunity to cite what you’ve learned from your users, take it. I talk about users almost every day. Your research is the most valuable tool you have. Use it frequently.
• “What would our users think? Let’s ask them!” Never jump to conclusions or let your team guess when it comes to design. Test a few options with a set of users—nobody can argue with the facts.