Per Axbom's Blog, page 8

Curious about 2016

Being curious is one of the traits that feeds our human intelligence. Curiousity contributes to our speed of development, our level of knowledge and our ability to adapt to new situations.

But even if we are born curious far from everybody retains the habits of exploring, learning and discovering. Curiosity is not something we per definition can just start using; it is a mental muscle that fades if we don’t exercise it regularly.

Imagine being at an event where you run into a person you don’t know. Let’s call her Miriam. Your curiosity guides you in your meeting with her. Three primary types of curiosity are prominent, as described in the book Curious by Ian Leslie:

Diversive curiosity. The most common and widespread curiosity about everything new is that which probably makes you ask Miriam what she works with. Diversive curiosity makes you want to explore new places, people and things.
Epistemic curiosity. This is the curiosity that makes you want to go deep and learn everything you can about a subject area. This curiosity may make you go further and ask Miriam how she does her job and what types of skills are needed. This is conscious, hard work in your search for understanding but it is also the curiosity that rewards you the most.
Empathic curiosity. When you want to understand the real person, her feelings and thoughts, you may ask Miriam why she works with what she does.

The first type, diversive curiosity, is a prerequisite for the other two. The epistemic cuiosity is the one that creates momentum, leading to deep learning and new insights. The empathic curiosity complements the epistemic and invites ut to seek illusive answers in cooperation with others.

In a world where Google provides us with answers in seconds, where we receive a steady stream of information about and from our acquaintances, our diversive curiosity is satisfied en masse. Whatever we are wondering there are answers. But the incentives to dig deeper, to really understand many aspects of a phenomenon, stands aside as we are constantly satisfying curiosity with simple answers. The rewards are short-lived but the cycle keeps us going since there is a continuous flow of rewards around the corner, or behind the next click.

Instead of satisfying myself with the puzzles that are typical for diversive curiosity, in 2016 I want to spend more time with mysteries. Puzzles are the challenges where there is a distinct answer you may pleasantly lean back and rejoice over once you have it. Think crosswords. Even that which we call mystery novels are essentially puzzles as you find out who did it at the end of the book.

What I am referring to with mysteries are the issues without definitive answers — the ones that demand you reflect more on the circumstances of the information at hand. Your curiosity is engaged but never really fulfilled. The brain and human relationships are subject areas I have a passion for, but I also know I want to learn more about the body to open the doors to more insights. A riddle I like to poke – as thousands before me have – is why people struggle so much to perform that which we already believe to be best for us.

To succeed in my ambition I will read more books in 2016. At the least this means one novel and one work of non-fiction per month. I will return to writing more in-depth, allowing me to reflect on what I’m reading. I will schedule and take longer time-outs for reflection and meditation – tranquil interruptions that among other things will allow me to adjust my bearings before I head to far in the wrong direction. In my new role as a professional coach I will also during the year come up close with people I do not yet know, something I am immensely thankful for and humbled by.

I may not come out of 2016 with lots of answers but I will be greatly more enlightened about all that which I know so little about.

Happy new year my friends. Thank you for reading.

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by @axbom

The invisible problem with fairy tale experiences

Based on my lightning talk at UX Open 2015. Also available in Swedish.

Once upon a time, in the land of Carefree, there lived a little girl named Leeloo. But everyone called her Red Riding-Hood as she always wore an old red, grungy hoodie. She was getting a bit tired of always being Red Riding-Hood though. She was thinking of renewing herself. In fact, for the next time she was going to visit her grandmother, she had it in her mind to buy a good-looking green hoodie instead.

She used the Bling search engine and soon found Úlfur’s Woolies. The perfect hoodie was on the start page! With a quick click she ordered the green hoodie, her address was filled in automatically and the money would simply be charged from her PreyPal account.

Three easy, fast clicks!

But when she later read the confirmation message the carrier pigeon brought, Leeloo understood that the shipping costs would be considerably higher than she had first noticed, and the final delivery date meant she actually wouldn’t get her green hoodie in time for her trip to her grandmother’s.

What’s the problem? The website worked really well. All usability testing showed users managing their tasks supremely. And the conversion rate over time is terrific.

So why is Leeloo sad?

Our most common view of UX tends to be easily explained. A user wants to get from A to B. By making this a good experience the user will feel pleased, happy, best case scenario even excited all the way to the target. Thus we have succeeded.

Because what a let-down it would be should the user feel doubt, frustration, confusion or surprise.

Obviously, that’s what we are fighting. Stuff we call friction and barriers. Barriers that keep users from reaching the goal.

Preferably the whole experience should be like a slip-n-slide, we enter at point A and glide swiftly to point B. The website should sweep us off our feet!

But what really goes on in our brains when something is easy? What does the brain do when something is so easy it becomes intuitively simple? It switches over to auto-pilot. We allow our brains save energy. And that is formidably efficient. If your job is to flip the bathroom light-switch. But when our decisions are impacting our well-being the auto-pilot perhaps is not our best friend.

Have you ever used Amazon 1-click ordering? One button that that allows me to buy books with a single click. A single click. What happened for me when I activated this functionality was as predictable as it was sense-less: I bought a lot of books. When I got wind of a new book I didn’t just write it on a list, I actually just went into the Amazon website and pressed “Buy now with 1- Click.” It was titillating! It really is just one click, money gets pulled from your credit card and the book is shipped.

This turned out to be expensive, and administratively inconvenient for me; each book got its own receipt. When I realized what I was doing, 20 books and 20 receipts later, I turned it off.

For Amazon this is of course incredible profitable. But since when did UX professionals become conversion consultants?

When did UX practitioners become conversion optimizers who only focus on A/B-tests and the fastest route to the bottom line?

 

What I want you to reflect on is what pact you feel you have made with users. We who work within UX say we wish the best for the users of any system we are working with. We even like to say we are creating a better world for people. I know that the driving force for working with UX is human-centric. I’m afraid many of us are failing that promise.

When the primary focus is easy-flowing experiences we are in the danger zone of creating cheap-line articles that hide important information and do not at all lead to pleased users, only happy salespeople.

Let me give you some examples of when disappointment arrives in the wash of simplifications:

In Sweden we have the lovely Mathem.se for grocery shopping. Sometimes they give great deals like this one: 6 litres of milk for 70 kronor.

An easy way to add 3 litres of milk to the basket is to click 3 times on the Buy-button. The website really is that fast and efficient, and for a regular visitor this becomes routine.

In the case of the offer pictured above the picture is the same as always (with or without the deal), showcasing one (1) litre of milk. Since I use my eyes to process 70–80% of my cognitive input I click 3 times to get 3 litres of milk.

But when I click this button 3 times I actually get 18 litres of milk delivered, since Mathem have been kind enough to pre-fill the input with 6.

It feels fast and simple. My irritation only peaks at the point of delivery.

When I was involved in redesigning national online health services in Sweden we looked at some really great services that we knew users appreciated — and we made them a lot easier to reach and interact with. The service “Ask a psychiatrist” didn’t stand a chance of handling all the questions that ensued. The result was an inferior experience when many had to wait longer for the responses.

When I started my company the bank SEB had an exemplary form for becoming a customer. It took me 15 seconds to complete. Really swell. They never called me back and I never hired them. But the form was a piece of cake.

Many of us in the field of UX have quoted Gerry McGovern’s story starring a HSBC mortgage form. It was simplified from 17 to 3 form fields and the number of finalized mortgages via the form rose by thousands of percent.

However, we never hear about anyone asking how happy the people were with their loans. How many people incurred debt they could not handle or perhaps could have — based on their unique situation — gotten better terms or advice elsewhere?

Where do we draw the line for how easy something should be? Is it okay to keep optimizing and making it easier for anyone to, let’s say, obtain high-interest loans via text messages? What happens when it all becomes too easy, if anyone can just press a button and get anything? Thoughtfulness disappears. We click. Worst-case someone gets into trouble. But that’s not what we wanted.

We must not, and shall not, act like the salespeople who sold the same woman — a woman with a cognitive disability — no less than four different cell phone plans that she never used. That should be far from how easy we want to aim for.

People are complex. A lot of stuff happens constantly in our lives. We are placed in front of an endless stream of decisions. Of course it’s nice when things are simple, and we do look for shortcuts, and for a chance to give the brain a rest. But we also have values and goals.

When our values and goals are adversely affected we feel bad. As a person responsible for UX you need to add this to your equation.

The risk now is that digital services will continue down the same path as other industries during the 20th century. We package deals pleasantly and hide the information that could give us clues about the what’s going on behind the scenes; how it really works.

In the UX industry we are all creators and contribute to the future we all share. The oil industry, the textile industry the food industry — they all endure copious criticism today. But of course most makers who have contributed to these industries have done so with the intent of working for the good of mankind, thought of themselves as moving in the right direction.

The food industry guides us in the art of presenting products in a pretty package, making them captivating, regardless of the eventual suffering behind the products or any adverse impact they may have on our health. Feature a cartoon tiger, slap on “33% less sugar” and watch the profits grow.

So when all websites begin to look the same, when we constantly optimize for eliminating obstacles, eliminating too much thought, what kind of world are we creating together?

A world where I don’t stop to see if I’m on the right path.

We are creating a world where disappointment is a result of a limited opportunity to reflect on your actions.

Because what is Leeloo’s goal, really? It’s not to buy a green hoodie. She is after the experience of showing her outfit to her grandmother. To redefine herself. To escape being Red Riding-Hood.

If we allow ourselves to shut off the auto-pilot, what could we accomplish?

We can give Leeloo more opportunities on the way to her goal for considering if she is on the right path. Of course we still need to ensure a satisfying experience, but we can not solely regard this as a straight shot to the goal.

We add opportunities to think. Things that interrupt gently, highlighting things that will help her make more aware decisions. We give her more perceptible information and checkpoints.

In Leeloo’s case, little wolves.

Allow me to give you some examples of good friction and obstacles. Quite recently I got the question of why I had put a heading in capital letters. Nowhere else on the site did we have headings in capital letters. And within the question lies of course the answer: I did this precisely because I wanted to break the norm, to make users react to something different and give the heading more attention in this particular instance.

– But that’s not a consistent user experience?

I’ll let you in on a secret: Consistent user experience is newspeak for SWITCH OFF THE BRAIN.

Good friction provides guidance. But you need to know what should stick out. It’s good when important things get noticed.

Sometimes I ensure we add loading animations even though they — from a strict technical perspective — aren’t needed, when content could load instantly. I want to give users a clear signal that their effort is having effect. They get feedback on their input, and more time to think before being bombarded with a new pack of information. With a “visual obstacle” I show they have cleared one obstacle and are on their way to the next one.

This is an obvious situation where you give people more time to think and reflect over their actions.

People need a sense of achievement. It IS liberating to clear obstacles. THAT is an experience. You know who else adds obstacles to create a better experience? Game designers.

But I’ve saved my best example for last: A few weeks ago I was signing up with The Coaching House to allow me to rent rooms in my coaching practice. Everything took place online and it took me three days to get through the sign-up process. I’m not kidding. It’s a long process, but incredibly well thought-out. Among other things I got a discount if I was able to find the premise for the discount in the rules of conduct document.

In the end I had to watch an instruction video to receive a password! The password was given to me letter by letter, in 2 minute intervals in a talking head movie explaining my responsibilities as a customer. I could have given up any time but I persevered. I wanted what they were offering. To say the least, the people at The Coaching House get the customers they want: well-read, motivated and — with a high degree of probability — very well-behaved.

You don’t want to catch everyone, contrary to what many who design registration forms seem to think. To succeed you must understand who your customers and stakeholders are and how you can help them. That’s actually somewhat the point of a business plan. When you try to catch everyone you increase the likelihood of catching those who will cost you time and money. Words like refund, frustration, irritation and support organization can become too dominating in your everyday vocabulary.

To succeed you must also have a clear idea of where your loyalty lies.

And before you say “with the user”, I want to assert that this is also too narrow a view.

Your loyalty lies with the user as well the organization and the goal or circumstances. You need to help everyone see the value of Leeloo having her goal fulfilled.

When we hide that which helps the user think we can under certain conditions make more money but we also set the foundation for future disappointment. That is not a relationship based on mutual interests. It is not in line with my promise as a professional: to work for the good of the user giving her time to consider the offer in context with her values and goal.

Only when we show respect for the real goal, and for the user’s right to reach her target, can we add friction that helps her make a decision with a higher level of awareness of the consequences. Only when we see the value of not only removing, but also adding friction, can we as UX professionals say we are contributing to a better world.

Only then can we live happily ever after.

 

Featured image: Charlie Barker, Litte Red Riding Hood

 

Tweets

Now in English! The invisible problem with fairy tale experiences https://t.co/FxSRp2iTMl #ux #uxopen

— Per Axbom (@axbom) October 25, 2015

“To contribute to a better world, we need to see the value of not only removing, but also adding friction.” https://t.co/MwEhBtSJ68 #ux

— Artem Pereverzev (@clartem) October 26, 2015

Great article on ux – The invisible problem with fairy tale experiences https://t.co/7qf1X8MQHH via @axbom pic.twitter.com/Nd8ejg53qf

— WhatUsersDo (@whatusersdo) October 26, 2015

This, a million times. Ethical designer's primary concern should be what is best for the users > https://t.co/yXwAiMmoIZ #ux Thanks @axbom

— Jeremias Ylirotu (@jeremiasylirotu) October 27, 2015

Great article on #ux – The invisible problem with fairy tale experiences https://t.co/Q5YGfLaos9 via @axbom

— Futureheads UX (@FutureheadsUX) October 27, 2015

The invisible problem with fairy tale experiences | #ux #designer #strategy #problems https://t.co/4XHCaGRoSO

— Julia A Fowler (@JuliaAFowler) October 27, 2015

“You don’t want to catch everyone” https://t.co/uZOYoeNLsX
The invisible problem with fairy tale experiences.

— Daniela Meleo (@danielameleo) October 27, 2015

https://t.co/bkwZEGD0tC
Let's not forget the ethics of the UX design.

— Tero A. Laiho (@LaihoTero) October 27, 2015

Splendid article on #userexperience #UX #design : https://t.co/uBTSF1LkO3

— HASAN TINMAZ (@hasan_tinmaz) October 27, 2015

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by @axbom

Take-aways from UXLx 2015 in #sketchnotes

In line with my passion for visual explaining, I doodle whilst listening to presentations which really helps me focus and remember core messages. Here are all the sketches I made at UXLx: from the two workshops I attended on Wednesday, with Abby Covert and Nicole Fenton, as well as the full day of talks.

I’ll be sharing many more insights from the conference, here on the blog and on UX Podcast. I’m also working on a mindmap to summarize the key learnings and how this will impact my everyday work.

If you like this stuff, a retweet is always appreciated. And if you were at the conference, let’s connect on LinkedIn! Thanks!

Workshop – Abby Covert: how to make sense of any mess

Key take-away: There is no academically correct way to architect your information; but you will fare better with a user-centric approach. The important part is to make sure your team is in agreement about the meaning and purpose of the words and structure you use.

 

Workshop – Nicole Fenton: Interface Writing

Key take-away: Content can come neither first or last, as it will change over time. Work with content must be iterative and we need to experiment with content just as we experiment with visual design.

1. Lisa Welchman: Architecting the Information Age

Key take-away: In our work we are defining the future of information design and our work has an impact on humanity as a whole. We should be able to stand up for the work we do, and assert that to the best of our knowledge we are doing the right thing.

2. Josh Seiden: Innovation in Realtime

Key take-away: Go live as soon as possible, faking the completeness of your product or service. Real use will bring real insights that let you focus on features that bring the outcomes you want.

3. Stephen Hay: The Art of Deception

Key take-away: People don’t need to understand how it works and the complexity should never be visible to them. We need less steps between the user and the user’s end-goal.

4. Nicole Fenton: Words as Material

Key take-away: Writing is the fastest way of designing. Sketch with words before you start sketching visually.

(Bonus link: I recently read this article by Steph Hay which aligns very well with what Nicole Fenton was describing, despite its title: Content-First Design )

5. Brad Frost: Atomic Design

Key take-away: Content does not live on specific screen sizes or in pages. We need to start with smaller blocks of content, not only enabling device-independent content but also a design process where developers and designers work much more in parallell.

6. Abby Covert: IA for Everybody

Key take-away: People will always attach meaning to your words and structure, even if it is not articulated or written down. By deliberately talking and agreeing on the meaning of words, phrases and structure you are better equipped to fend off confusion and deliver better quality. Yes, your organization has an information architecture today, even if you have never hired an information architect or consciously decided on it; The big question is: are you happy with it?

7. Mike Atherton: Designing with Linked Data

Key take-away: By opening up our data, making it available to the world and enabling the linking of different data sources, we will open up new knowledge, create more awareness and cultivate a better understanding of the world we live in. Other people can do with our data what we have not yet imagined ourselves.

8. Stephen Wendel: 3 Strategies for Behavior Change

Key take-away: In our quest to influence our users into creating habits of using our products and services we may need to disrupt habits already in place, but also: we need to help the user take action, ensuring that people do not fall out of any of the steps in the CREATE funnel, as they pass through it over and over again.

9. Josh Clark: Magical UX and the Internet of Things

Key take-away: The interface you are creating is not real. The interface is an illusion used to trick the user into not realizing that digital services are just composed of ones and zeros. We need to embrace this concept of illusions and note that we are using the illusions to alleviate cognitive load, allowing people to be more human and care less about the technology. As we create and make digital solutions in a world where anything can be an interface, thinking about how we can let the technology support people in being more human will help us combat the negative social effects of tiring and obsessive technology.

Here are also Josh’s slides from his talk:

Magical UX and the Internet of Things from Josh Clark

Big thanks to Bruno (the amazing curator of UXLx!), his team, all the speakers and all the amazing participants of UXLx who all made this yet another unforgettable UX experience in Lisbon.

Reactions:

Loving these sketches from @axbom! #uxlx https://t.co/yJroJDJbYw

— Hugo Froes (@ginmau) June 4, 2015

you really should follow the amazing work @axbom is doing: https://t.co/l1PBTqmEza #uxlx amazing sketch notes

— Bruno Amaral (@brunoamaral) June 4, 2015

@axbom hi. I was sitting behind you at the talks yesterday at #uxlx loved the sketches. Do you have them all in a compilation? Ta

— Vanessa Mateus (@vanessapilgrim) June 5, 2015

Take-aways from UXLx 2015 in #sketchnotes (all on one page!) http://t.co/kWp3zlcsdv #uxlx @uxlx

— Per Axbom (@axbom) June 7, 2015

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by @axbom

Timeless advice for becoming a player in the field of UX

More and more people are reaching out to me, asking for advice on how to get into working more with UX. This is the post I would like to be able to point everyone towards.

But first, let me tell you how I got here.

My story

I didn’t study UX. User experience wasn’t even close to a common term when I went to school, or college. I’m forty. I studied communication science. Turns out that was actually a pretty good foundation for what I do. Not primarily in the sense of giving me better tools and making me a better UX:er, but in the sense of giving me the terminology to better describe the usefulness of what I do and how it fits into the big picture of organizations.

Gaining acceptance for your role in an organization can actually often prove be one of your bigger challenges.

What I really wanted to study though was journalism, as I’ve been writing extensively since the age of ten — and I developed a thorough understanding of how to write for engagement, gaining insights about how to approach different people with different messages. Of course, the fact that I got my first computer at the age of eight, in 1982, has also been beneficial to working with digital communication.

You need to understand though that I have no formal education in working with the web, or with interaction design, or any kind of design work really. And yet today I give talks and teach at colleges and universities around these subject areas. And I happen to run a successful, profitable business doing UX work.

So you’re not going to get a list of what classes you need to attend, what companies to approach, or what software to buy. I am certainly a firm believer of doing what you love, loving what you do and creating your own career path.

And the true nature of UX is really part of anything and everything we do.

Because you. Can not. Escape. Your brain.

Pursuing a career in UX

Thinking about how to give advice to someone pursuing a career in UX today, when so many professionals are still arguing about what that even means, I have to take a step back and look at the big picture of what makes me tick.

Let me try and outline the behavioral patterns that are common to many UX:ers.

Obviously, identifying that you want to work with UX is a fantastic first step. Understanding how that desire comes about in the people who have approached me I can see that the big attraction is the user part. In a broader sense: the desire to do help humans feel less pain when interacting with tools and services. Maybe even enjoy interacting with them (crazy thought!)

So either your motivation can be helping organizations make more money by attracting more loyal users OR helping people not burn out because they are exposed to ego-depleting systems every day. Whatever tickles your fancy.

The tendency in general is to regard the core of UX as taking away stuff that is ruining how users feel and interact with a service, and adding stuff that enhances the willingness to use the same service.

Having understood this you’ve already come a long way in you inner journey. Now let’s get to helping you make that journey a part of your purpose on Earth.

My list of solid cornerstones for working with UX.
1. Understand ego depletion. No. Really understand it.

In my talks I often reference the cookie-radish experiment conducted by Roy Baumeister, giving roots to the term ego depletion.

The widespread conclusion of studies conducted by Baumeister and his colleagues is that humans have a limited amount of cognitive energy. All conscious effort requires energy and when that energy is running low, humans become worse at maintaining self-control, poorer at decision-making and have an increased tendency to avoid anything that requires more cognitive energy.

The term ego depletion is also closely related to the concept of decision fatigue.

What does this mean? It means that products and services that cause regular friction and frustration will cause people to fumble and make mistakes, make wrong decisions about what path is best for them, and if possible avoid the service altogether.

This is where the concept of UX excels, at identifying all the touchpoints where people have a hard time with products and services (online or offline) and working hard at fixing those weaknesses.

Some of those remedies could be:

eliminating bad touchpoints completely,
making interactions feel less complicated by themselves or in comparison to any alternatives,
making interactions appear and feel entertaining, giving something back to the user,
making the reward — or content — of such desirable quality that the tough interactions are just worth it,
and remembering to give time for the user to rest and recover between interactions.

There is also the option of actually replenishing cognitive energy, through design that gives rise to the production of positive energy, and in essence: endorphins. This is usually where designers turn to the concept of gamification as well as try to appeal to more senses with multimedia.

Of course, if your product is great, then it should actually already be helping people realize a positive change in their lives. I call that giving users superpowers.

You need to be certain of this, though: Ego Depletion is your archrival.

2. And leave your own ego at the door please.

The concept of the usability guru has been with me my whole career. Go to the guru at the top of the mountain (or in cubicle 33A), ask where the button shall be placed — maybe even what color it should be — and do whatever the guru says.

Forget the guru.

A real UX advocate will recognize that her role is not to give general advice but to dig deep into users’ desires, wishes, challenges and fears — watch for patterns — and marry these insights with the same type of insights about the organization trying to connect with the users.

Also: developers, customer service personnel, the receptionist… they all have great ideas. Yes, even middle managers might have some great ones! Your job isn’t to tell people what to do, your job really is to get them into the mindset of thinking about and understanding the challenges of the end-user. Make them feel empathy for the people on the receiving end. You’re not going to be there to pick at every detail, it’s much better if everyone understands the challenges, the goals and priorities and can work that into how they approach their everyday work.

The user is important, but the user is also part of a bigger puzzle.

If you are not prepared to sit in a meeting and have your design proposal challenged by a rookie javascript developer —  recognizing that her ideas are valid and in many cases can be more viable than your own — then you are not there yet.

Take a deep breath and realize you are not sitting with all the answers. The users are. Other people are.

3. Listen.

If you’re not being surprised by a lot of the stuff you learn, you’re probably not asking the right questions, or watching for the right things.

For example: many users I interview and observe have various troubles using a computer. Some are taken aback by the thought of using a trackpad on a portable computer. Some don’t understand the concept of opening the same website in two different tabs. Some can’t copy/paste content using the keyboard. Things that I know would make their lives easier.

But I’m not there to teach them how to use a computer, I’m there to adapt my user interface (if that’s what I’m designing) to the way they actually do use a computer. Within the context of THEIR lives, not my fantasy of how perfect users should be.

One of your most important competencies to develop may well be the ability to conduct an open-ended interview where you actually listen to a person’s pain points well outside the realm of the specific service you are researching, can identify patterns in behavior, and not feel that twenty seconds of silence is awkward.

Silence means a person is thinking. Don’t interrupt them. It’s those thoughts that will help you realize what problems to solve.

4. Not everything can be easy.

One of the most common misconceptions about usability and UX is that it’s about making everything easy. And what happens is that you can be stuck in 2-hour meetings discussing what font size a breadcrumb link should be.

But UX is about real people. For it to be easy your product would have to be about displaying monosyllabic chants with accompanying sound. But we can’t all be heeeeeeeey.com — Anything beyond that actually requires some level of effort.

What you can work with is minimizing any effort required, but also with the intent to create more enjoyable experiences. For that to happen you usually need to affect peoples’ lives momentously not only within the context of a user interface, but within the context of everyday habits and routines.

You need to realize that a user interface is an enabler but also a hinderance on the way to what you really are trying to do for users:

Alleviate people’s feelings of fear, boredom, uncertainty, pain, rejection and inadequacy.
Raise their feelings of pleasure, mastery, hope and social belonging.

Think again. Humans are not easy. They’re complicated. That’s why UX is a thing.

5. You can’t work your magic in a secluded room.

You are not always the creative who comes up with the solution. But you are the person who makes sure the solution works for the user.

The UX responsible can often be perceived as a quite lonely role. But you need to be making friends all over.

You need to be making friends with customer service staff because they’ve been screamed at by real users with real problems.
You need to be making friends with the business strategists because they can tell you what makes certain features financially viable or not.
You need to be making friends with people in product maintenance because they can tell you what features will cost money just to sustain.
You need to be making friends with like-minded people on Twitter, because they can give you the energy and advice you need to keep pushing for more UX work to be done.
And no, I did not forget your best friends forever — the users — who you need to be pals with for reasons that should be obvious this far into the article.

So my friend, what you need to excel at… is communication. Other people need to be confident that what you are saying is based on a solid understanding of the business, the product and the people on both ends. You need to be saying stuff like: “I’ve done this research and I’m confident that…” “I’ve aligned these tasks with business goals…” and “We have prioritized the functionality based on user insight, which has also been aligned with relative return on investment, affordability and urgency.”

In the end, whatever product or service you deliver, more often than not you yourself aren’t going to be the one using it, you aren’t going to be the one maintaining the code for it, giving support for it, selling it, writing the manual for it, fretting about it at midnight and responsible for funding it.

You need to befriend and understand all of those people because a service that doesn’t work across the board and makes anyone along the line miserable will in the end make users miserable, no matter how shiny and user-friendly it is. That’s why we obsess about story mapping.

Pro tip: make screencasts, short explainer videos and record any demo presentations of your product you may have (best case you do these every three weeks if you work in sprints). Make sure to share these often with key stakeholders to help them feel involved and give them opportunity to provide feedback.

6. Work UX into your life.

Remember this: if you get into UX now chances are pretty high you won’t be calling it that in 10 years time. Because more and more you understand how it is an integral part of what everyone in an organization should be doing.

If you really are passionate about UX chances are pretty high you are already commenting on anything and everything in your life, noting how the logistics of the restaurant could be better, how managers use the wrong words when sending out newsletters, how the parking payment system is awry, how the waiting time in the emergency room could be put to better use or even how the inside of bathroom doors fail to signal to you if they are locked or not.

Don’t stop doing that.

Yeah ok, but what can I do now?

So I realize that these high-and-mighty life lessons maybe aren’t helping you take the next step. But I really, really wanted you to consider them before taking the plunge. So what should your next step be?

Well actually, here are six more tips (another list! yay!) to gently push you in the right direction:

Put UX on your business card. Seriously, that’s what I did. It’s a mindset, either you have it or you don’t. I’ve met UX Developers, UX Architects, UX Strategists, UX Zebras. Well, maybe not the last one, but you get the idea.
Start doing UX work. Learning by doing has been my mantra like, forever. If you have a job today, that’s awesome. What you need to be doing is fitting stuff like research, interviews, story mapping into your work. If you don’t have a job today, that’s awesome too. Start offering UX services on Fiverr. Do interaction design, learn to handle clients, build a portfolio and get your resumé out in front of employers or higher-paying clients. Be sure to document how you are already doing UX work, how the changes you fight for and implement have an impact on the user experience. Chances are you are already doing UX work without even calling it that. The trick is to bring that up to the front and show it off.
Start calling to UX meetings. Ok, maybe first you start sharing articles and insights around the office, all relating to creating better user experiences. Everyone will be all: “Who is that?”. And sooner or later people will start responding… “I think that’s the UX specialist”.
Make a research plan and put it up on the wall. Make sure people see it. In fact, put every visual output you produce up on a wall. It puts you in control, gives you a birds-eye view, jogs your memory and tells everyone you are confident enough in your data to show the world what you are doing. Have you ever watched a crime thriller where the detective fills a wall with photos, leads, newspaper clippings and then places red string between things that are related?  (Of course you have.) That’s what your wall should look like. You know, without seeming like too much of a psychopath.
Attend conferences and workshops. Hook up with me on social media and I can push you in the right direction. Also, check out Lanyrd. There are bound to be some meetups in your area. And you might even consider starting your own meetup group; way to take the lead on the UX discussions going on in your area! — If in Stockholm, join me for a UX Marshals meetup. On UX Podcast we talk about a fair number of conferences as well.
Collect and share stories. Remember the time I told you to keep observing your environment for UX fallacies? (Hint, it was seven paragraphs ago). Those stories and more from your everyday work is what will grab people’s attention and make them feel more comfortable with entertaining UX as more of a core part of their operations. When people can relate to stories from everyday life (like mobile phones and parking meters) — and with your help realize how this is closely related to how their service is perceived by other people — that’s when you know they’ll let you in to play.

Because seriously, UX has been my playground for years and years. Truly understanding that your work, which actually means most people’s work, somewhere along the line affects whether real people frown or smile is enough for anyone to boost their job satisfaction.

Did I say job? I meant passion.

Per Axbom is a freelancing business consultant, web strategist, interaction designer and speaker working out of Stockholm, Sweden. He has been blogging in Swedish about usability since 2002 and since 2011 he has co-hosted the English podcast UX Podcast.

You may also want to read: Slaying 5 UX myths for the good of mankind.

Photo credit (featured image): Marina Alam

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by @axbom

Slaying 5 UX myths for the good of mankind

1. UX is about asking users what they want

No. Just. No.

If users were able to articulate their needs then running a business and being an entrepreneur would be a walk in the park. If there’s anything I’ve learnt in my 18 years of user-centric design work, it is that humans — yes, you and me both — are eerily unaware of their own decision-making processes.

The past few decades we have seen immense progress in the art of understanding how people function emotionally, leading to many new insights into, for example:

What motivates people
What makes people feel good
How new habits form
How people make decisions

Many of these new theories actually overthrow old adages about how companies should approach and even advertise to customers. Gone is the view of humans as rational beings who make decisions based on logical reasoning. Embrace instead humans as they are, turning to intuition when too tired to read, making poorer decisions when grumpy and who want to buy from you because you have a pretty smile and you like cats.

But it really looks like you’re asking what users want?

I really do get where this myth comes form. We say we need to listen to users, we say we need to adhere to their needs. It seems obvious that to obtain this information that we ask them.

However, asking is not the preferred form of information retrieval in this case, even though it may look like that’s what many are doing. What we are really doing is talking, listening, observing and identifying patterns in behavior.

One person saying they “want a faster search engine” tells me nothing. Many people saying the same thing is a pattern. In interviews I may later discover that the reason they want a faster search engine is because what they most often are looking for isn’t part of the site navigation. In fact, creating a better menu may eliminate their need for a search engine altogether. So you see, there is a real difference to asking users what they want, and understanding the real problem.

The closest thing I’ve had to a user actually really telling me what she wants is when I did work for an insurance company. In response to questions about how she went about signing up for insurance she finally blurted out:

“I don’t care! I don’t care about all these options! Just give me ONE button that says, give me insurance. Let me click that and I’m done.”

In the end people don’t really want to use most of your services at all. They actually want to be done with them. It’s a giveaway that the world’s most popular site, Google’s search engine, is really successful by having people leave the site as soon as possible.

It’s my job to come up with the solution, but I can’t do that without first understanding the real problem. Users are rarely aware of the real problems but I can get to them by understanding their real pain points. That’s what user research is all about.

I just now realized I wrote a whole post about this in 2012: Don’t ask users what they want!

2. UX is about designing interfaces

No, but you wouldn’t be the only one confusing UX with interaction design. It’s true that many who are responsible for UX also master, or come from, interaction design. But mastering interaction design alone will not bring clarity to the experience of a service.

A person focusing solely on interaction design can create something that is appealing and easy to use, but UX infers an obligation to look at the bigger picture. To create something valuable it must also fit with

business goals,
available personnel and resources,
as well as investments in other channels and touchpoints.

Hence, UX looks not only at what will work well for the users in the present, but also at what will continue working working well for the users in the future. To ensure this the solution must not place too much of a strain on the cost and effort required to maintain it, and it must not digress from that which makes the organization valuable.

An apparent, and common, risk is that we create something that is well received when it is first released but the organization does not have the resources to maintain the level of commitment to the service that it sets out to promise. Disappointment is not a recipe for success.

There should be a handover of user research from UX responsibles (that may not be what they call themselves, but you know what I mean) to interaction designers to ensure a design that is founded on context and real circumstance. And yes, to add to the confusion, many times these different roles are the same person.

Also read my post from 2011: The difference between an interaction designer and a UX designer

3. UX is about coming up with new, trendy solutions

No, UX is about understanding what solutions will create a win-win situation for an organization and the people it is targeting. Staying up-to-date with emerging technologies is absolutely important; a person responsible for UX should have a firm grasp of available options. And the appeal of innovative technology should of course always be considered.

It is not the search for the new and ultramodern, however, that should be the driving force behind UX work but rather the search for solutions that do the job well. They should prove powerful and superior, but within their own context and not always in comparison to media’s high-praised apps.

Working for Ericsson many years ago a web-based recruitment tool provided by a third-party supplier failed miserably in the tests we setup. The troubles were mainly with performance. The project was terminated and the supplier lost the contract.

More importantly, having worked closely with the target group (recruiters) for three months I was in a position to reinvent the solution.

Using the insights I had gathered we were able to solve many of the user needs in a matter of weeks, using Microsoft Outlook, working with available filters and mechanisms for sorting and sharing across business units. This had many benefits:

all users already had Microsoft Outlook on their computers
users were already accustomed to having the application open all day
the majority of applications (resumés, not software) coming in were already in Microsoft Outlook, there was hence no costly migration process
there was very little learning curve — the interface was familiar
there were no extra costs for the tool

To this day this project is my greatest reminder of how 3 months of user research allowed me to build a viable and valuable solution in 3 weeks, using a tool everyone was familiar with but had not even considered. It was very unsexy. It was extremely cost-efficient. The users had no objections.

Of course, the premise for my 3 months of user research was a large IT-project that failed and was scrapped in a matter of days. We can’t all be that lucky.

So, no, it doesn’t have to be new and fashionable. That will even scare some people away. There’s a lot to be said for second-hand stores. Just make sure the shoe fits.

4. UX is about making users understand instantly how it works

No, this is a frustrating myth that many people working with usability continue to strengthen by the way many usability tests are performed. If the users do not understand how to perform the tasks in a usability test, the conclusion is often that bad usability is to blame.

Then it’s back to the drawing board, searching for that holy grail of a design solution that people will grasp in an instant.

The very idea that everything can be designed for immediate comprehension is, however, pretty far-fetched.

Imagine usability testing children who are learning to ride a bike. After 50 or so children have tried straddling the bicycle and instantly fallen over, the bikes must surely be considered a failure. To me, bikes are pretty awesome though, once you learn to ride them.

And the next time I’m in a music store I think I’ll pick up a saxophone and play Jungleland. If I can’t I’m going to assume the usability testing was awry.

A focus on UX will allow the creation of a service that the target users can learn and become friends with, over time. It’s not always about love at first sight and not even about being the most valued tool in the toolbox. Not everyone can be a hammer; The wrench is valuable too, even though it may take a while longer to master.

5. UX is about digital experiences

No, UX is by no means limited to the digital space. On the contrary it is an understanding of all the touchpoints of an organization that will bring you insights enabling you to contribute to a coherent experience.

Currently working within the healthcare sector it may be true that I am designing a tool for online therapy, but my concerns stretch far beyond the tool. I map out the scenarios in which people will learn about the tool, what doctors say at the first meeting, what the introductory material on paper will look like, how they will talk to friends about it, how it fits into their weekly routines, what other health services they encounter, and what other related tools they use (be they digital calendars or physical sketchbooks).

I work to ensure the part of the whole experience I am responsible for does not clash with the other touchpoints. Instead I pull on the familiarities of other interactions to reduce the overall friction and make the service more approachable.

When I say clash with the other touchpoints, this can happen in any number of ways: with regards to design, tone of voice, faulty links, how passwords are handled, having to enter the same information on multiple occasions, expectations put forward by information in other channels, how customer service responds to queries and so on.

I will most certainly speak up about how the different touchpoints should be engineered to work together, albeit I may not as a consultant have the mandate to affect them all. My understanding of the others will impact how I design but also how I interpret the results of user research.

As an advocate of UX I see it as my mission to share my insights and help others see what the concept of user experience means for organizations with many touchpoints and how they all work together to form the complete experience.

And yes, in the end, I think many of us see how one could work with UX and not deliver a digital solution. I myself sometimes turn to Frank and Lillian Gilbreth for inspiration in UX work, and they were born in the late 1800s.

Myths confine us

When myths are allowed to grow they quickly turn into walls and may limit us from moving into areas and obtaining information we need to perform well in our job. That’s why I make it a point to talk to anyone expressing the prejudices outlined in this article.

Make it a point to understand other people’s preconceptions of what you do. But don’t ever tell them they are wrong, that’s a lousy way to have a conversation, and that’s not what UX:ers do, right? Rather, listen closely to their story and share how your view of UX can be applied in situations familiar to them.

So remember to keep moving

I am far from correct in everything I do and conclude. It is not uncommon for me to feel like I’ve nailed a design solution only to learn that others fail to pick up on it in the way I anticipated. The key in these cases is to pursue solutions that work, keep learning about the situation, listening and being modest and humble in your approach.

Something in my user research always surprises me. If you are not being surprised, you are probably doing it wrong.

The world of services, especially online, is also now in constant motion and innovation, so sometimes you just have to get over yourself and move along with it. My stories are already a thing of the past and the field of UX is in continuous transformation.

You know, some years later the Microsoft Outlook solution I built was replaced by a younger and sexier web interface. And some day in the future we may very well have bicycles that children can learn to ride in a matter of seconds – well in fact they exist already, they’re called running bikes.

So when I lay awake at night, struggling with my definition of UX and how I can get others to understand my passion, my biggest consolation is this: As long as there are frustrations and friction there will be people like you and me actively trying to eliminate them, whether we call it UX or not.

photo credit, featured image: Christian Stock

Feedback on Twitter

This may be the best UX quote I have ever read (and most spot on) via @axbom http://t.co/pY0zum9ev8

— Emily Campbell (@elou) February 11, 2015

@axbom Thank you for the excellent ranting!

— Artem Pereverzev (@clartem) February 11, 2015

Nice article from @axbom http://t.co/p8y7SSorud Most articles of this type are infuriating but Per's is grounded and balanced. Good job.

— donnacha costello (@donnachatweets) February 11, 2015

Bästa jag läst på länge! “@axbom: I went off on a rant. Slaying 5 UX myths for the good of mankind: http://t.co/WsirFQKavS #ux”

— Anna Stam (@annastam) February 11, 2015

@axbom Hej! Really enjoyed your myth busting article. Seems like you an I think about this stuff in very similar ways.