Design Collaboration Strategies: Slack With UXPin

Slack is today’s go-to tool for ongoing conversations. You can even comment on images right in the chat — but you can’t point out details or respond to specific notes on the prototype itself.

Luckily UXPin lets people give feedback on specific points of working prototypes. These points are better than writing, “that icon, second from the left in the upper right corner, should be smaller” in chat.

Based on our own experience designing and testing our product, we’ll explain how you can use Slack and UXPin as part of a comprehensive design collaboration strategy.

Collaboration Strategies

The key to using both tools is to know where to post different kinds of comments.

Comments left in prototypes themselves are great at pointing out specific issues within the design, and suggestions on how to improve them.

Meanwhile, Slack is the solid choice for discussing options on how to proceed.

Back-and-forth chats hash out options in real time, and let people share images and links. We recommend creating channels for all teams (e.g. Design, Marketing, Sales, etc.), and then specific channels by project (e.g. “Ebook Landing Page Redesign”, “UXPin 3.0 Redesign”, etc.).

People can read UXPin comments in any order they choose, while Slack’s real-time responses are linear. In short, you can use Slack to discuss in detail the feedback provided within UXPin.

Here’s a few tips based on our experience using both tools:

1. Agree to a clear decision-maker from the start.

While other teams can offer feedback, the design team (lead by our VP of Design Kamil Zieba) makes the final decision. The goal of collaborative design isn’t that everyone helps design the product. The goal is ensuring the product team makes decisions based on the greatest amount of information and perspectives available.

2. The lower the fidelity, the more participatory design you need.

During earlier design stages, we’ll invite developers, sales managers, marketers, and other designers to visualize their ideas. They’re still welcome to just comment on the designs, but we encourage them to also create a lo-fi prototype or wireframe in UXPin to better illustrate their points. We’ll then create a Slack channel for that specific project and invite others to discuss feedback in greater detail.

3. Describe the problem, not the solution.

It’s human nature to want to solve a perceived problem. In the design process, however, feedback is much more valuable to designers when you explain the problem you’re aiming to solve.

For instance, instead of saying “Let’s left-justify the body text,” it’s more useful to first state that “Body text lacks readability, could we perhaps left-justify?” By first stating the problem and then describing your suggestion, you offer context to designers. Even if they disagree with your specific solution, they’ll at least understand the problem that is worth investigating.

4. When beta testing your product, create a dedicated Slack channel to consolidate feedback

Commenting in a Slack channel is much easier than asking users to post in a feedback forum or emailing you their thoughts. Less friction results in more reliable and useful feedback.

Once we entered the closed beta testing phase for the redesigned UXPin 3.0 prototype, we invited all 80 participants to a dedicated “usability” Slack channel. Our UX Researcher Ben Kim moderated daily discussions and followed up in individual messages to ask more questions.

Staying on Track

Now that we’ve explained the strategy behind pairing both tools, let’s explain how to execute.

Since UXPin’s live preview links are open to any recipient you choose (no account required), you can copy/paste a preview’s URL right into Slack.

Smart designers and stakeholders will also jot a quick note with the URL, explaining its project and goals. Since Slack is searchable, writing keywords with URLs shows their relevance.

We recommend periodically re-stating the prototype’s goals to keep conversations on track. Otherwise, you open yourself up to eliciting people’s personal opinions with questions like “What do you think?”

For example, try phrasing questions like: “We need the project to improve conversion rate from 5 to 6% on the “Pricing” page. Does this prototype provide a clearer path to conversion?” Or “Research shows that users respond well to shorter blog posts. Does this prototype’s typography make posts easily digestible?”

Notice that these examples end with focused questions. Prompting your team to share their opinions is a great way to keep them engaged when using both tools together. And “together” is the operative word. As collaborative tools, UXPin and Slack address design teams’ — and their stakeholders — different needs. Together they lend themselves to a comprehensive design collaboration strategy.

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