Re: [IxDA Discuss] Building UX Teams
When I learned to drive (many) years ago and I got nervous about the long trail of vehicles building up behind me as I struggled along, my driving instructor would say tell me not to worry about them, for they had all been learners at one time. Same goes for junior UX folks: everyone has been at that level at some point in the past. When I was a junior designer, I often had to work crazy hours, was often given little opportunity to contribute (other than getting the coffees) and the credit for a couple of the good ideas I was allowed to have were stolen by a design director who had little understanding of online issues. At the time, they told me that's how things are, your time will come. I'm not sure if that particular golden panacea has arrived as yet, but I don't agree at all with that attitude. In terms of UX awareness, I personally have plenty of respect for the generation born closer to the current technology and whose intuitions are sometimes more insightful than my Punchcard-Spectrum-Atari contemporaries ;-) Of course, junior doesn't always equate to younger, but whatever its composition, this particular cadre of designers is too often undervalued. As I mentioned in my last post, it's probably better to encourage junior team members to develop consulting expertise sooner rather than later so that a) they can get out there and earn some confidence, respect and fees (or else they will become competitors) and b) they have the savoir faire for Technology X when it comes to be the norm for your org. This is a matter of skills and mentoring, which I know can be scarce qualities these days. In return, you nurture a hard-working, enquiring and hopefully bright individual who will move from supporting to leading in just a short while. If the team (and that's a team, not a dictatorship) can break down tasks in a project properly, then it can easily involve a junior team member properly. Thx, Mike Padgett www.mikepadgett.com Mike Padgett wrote: I like to work in the tried-and-tested law firm format: a senior who provides leadership and also operates on a strategic level, a number of associates each with their specialities (interaction design, usability testing, requirements gathering) with some overlapping of course, and junior members who preferably rotate their duties to gain exposure to all parts of the process. I'd like to know what you guys think about junior interaction designer. In my opinion it's really hard to have the chance to express yourself without real decisional power. Morever, an ixd designer should aim to establish strong relations with all the team: how do you think this can happen if your senior is very capable and everybody refers to him? Junior ixd designers seem a little bit contradictory for the role that this professional figure should represent... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from ixda.org (via iPhone) http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=35869 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Building UX Teams
I like the track that Jay is on here. So at the risk of stating the obvious, my experience has so far been that those organisations that have recognised the intrinsic value of (online) UX in helping to differentiate them from the competition will input the most resources. To illustrate that, online banking - in which I have been heavily involved in the last few years - is a particular area in which I have noted some of the most sophisticated in-house UX operations. In-house is in many ways more interesting to me, because a) all decent agencies should be capable of being considered UX experts anyway and b) orgs have to make a considerable effort to integrate such an alien species into their business cultures in a way that demands considerable creativity when thinking about how to achieve accountability, measurability and billability (sic). As I mentioned in a previous post on this subject, building a UX team to fit organisational expectations, including a quality standard such as ISO9001:2000 or recognised process models (e.g. RUP), can be real challenges for design managers. This sort of integration can and should be encouraged and I consider myself fortunate to have been involved in initiatives like these because they're a two-way street. Artefacts that might seem at first glance fairly unrelated to our field (e.g. feedback loops, sales paths and iterative business modelling) are capable of being adapted and used in UX work itself, indeed they often already inform it. And while much of our work is experimental, these are things that will help us with our daily management responsibilities. Put simply, you can learn a lot from accountants, lawyers and salespeople because their roles have been around a lot longer than ours and we can generally learn a lot from their experience. Or to borrow from Dean Gooderham Acheson, it's not good policy to be an isolationist. Besides, anyone who has run or is running a consultancy will know that you can no longer consider yourself exclusively a designer or whatever. In fact, you're a Photoshop composite of all of the above and you will be a better professional for it. Thx, Mike Padgett www.mikepadgett.com Great inputs from all. Another item I want to throw into the mix here, is, where in the organization are you and how much sponsorship for UX ? That alone would set the tone to how the team should be created and the kind of skills you need etc...etc...etc Are you a cost center or a revenue center? , that is another major differentiator which would lead to what a good team should be made up off. Cost centers revenues centers in my experience needs different types of experience and skill levels .. Regards, Jay Kumar On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 5:02 PM, Linda Yoon [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello everyone, I am interested in learning / hearing about building UX teams. What makes a ³good² UX team? Have you been part of a ³great² UX design department? How would you go about building an ³excellent² UXD team? If you will share your stories and ideas, I¹d appreciate it greatly. Thank you in advance!! Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Building UX Teams
Catching up with all the emails. Im not sure if this was mentioned yet by anyone... the following is a presented by Ms. Leah Buley at the IA Summit 08: http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2008/05/07/ia-summit-08-slidecast-how-to-be-a-ux-team-of-one/ hope that gives you some insight.. Fabian On Nov 21, 2008, at 4:02 AM, Linda Yoon wrote: Hello everyone, I am interested in learning / hearing about building UX teams. What makes a “good” UX team? Have you been part of a “great” UX design department? How would you go about building an “excellent” UXD team? If you will share your stories and ideas, I’d appreciate it greatly. Thank you in advance!! Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Building UX Teams
Hi Linda: Your question = What makes a good UX team? Have you been part of a great UX design department? How would you go about building an excellent UXD team? Some thoughts on what makes a good UX team: 1. Can communicate clearly 2. Is able to teach methods and empower those outside of the UX team to find insights to improve UX (so does not keep UX all to themselves) See next point. 3. Can sell UX organizationally - http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000335.php 4. Can help the business improve products and services and pick the right projects to work on (rather than just talk about design or UX for its own sake) 5. Can prove their value - http://www.apogeehk.com/articles/Value.html 6. Has a simple set of tools and knows when to use them at the right time to find the right answers (but does not get caught up in the tool itself) - See: Choosing the Right Usability Technique (Getting the Answers You Need) - http://www.wqusability.com/publications.html#workshops and http://www.sitepoint.com/kits/usability1/ 7. Can walkthrough results and bridge research into design - http://uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000199.php 8. Can build relationships - http://www.apogeehk.com/articles/Six_techniques_for_advocating_design_in_your_organization.html 9. Has a strong manager who can filter work opportunities, advocate for UX organizationally and know how to manage a team with varied skill sets 10. Fill in your own :) rgds, Dan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=35869 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Building UX Teams
Great inputs from all. Another item I want to throw into the mix here, is, where in the organization are you and how much sponsorship for UX ? That alone would set the tone to how the team should be created and the kind of skills you need etc...etc...etc Are you a cost center or a revenue center? , that is another major differentiator which would lead to what a good team should be made up off. Cost centers revenues centers in my experience needs different types of experience and skill levels .. Regards, Jay Kumar On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 5:02 PM, Linda Yoon [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello everyone, I am interested in learning / hearing about building UX teams. What makes a ³good² UX team? Have you been part of a ³great² UX design department? How would you go about building an ³excellent² UXD team? If you will share your stories and ideas, I¹d appreciate it greatly. Thank you in advance!! Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Building UX Teams
Hello everyone, I am interested in learning / hearing about building UX teams. What makes a ³good² UX team? Have you been part of a ³great² UX design department? How would you go about building an ³excellent² UXD team? If you will share your stories and ideas, I¹d appreciate it greatly. Thank you in advance!! Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Building UX Teams
Here's an article that may help: http://www.uie.com/articles/ideal_UX_team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=35869 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Building UX Teams
Ahoj Linda, I've worked in a number of teams such as might interest you. All of them were small (= 6 members), so I wouldn't want to theorise about how bigger teams would work. The best situations for me have always been those in which the notion of a UX team is really a label used for convenience by human resources folks rather than a properly distinct business unit. That pours cold water on the ideas of those who like to 'build empires' but there you go. Maintaining a team as a kind of separate entity to developers or business analysts doesn't really work in my experience, usually because of the fact that what we do is still alien to a lot of people. I like to work in the tried-and-tested law firm format: a senior who provides leadership and also operates on a strategic level, a number of associates each with their specialities (interaction design, usability testing, requirements gathering) with some overlapping of course, and junior members who preferably rotate their duties to gain exposure to all parts of the process. I think junior team members don't get enough opportunities to develop themselves nowadays. It's important to encourage them to develop additional capabilities that can be utilised when they reach associate level and a kind of maturity in writing through their contributions to project documentation. Apart from feeling valued, they also respond well to being considered as upcoming experts in their areas. Discussions on this board and elsewhere have also highlighted the interesting angle of practising a methodology such as Agile or RUP. I'm working in a RUP regime at the moment and it's relatively new ground though much of it is common sense. It's always interesting to take what you know and make it work under the prevailing (and frequently different) business conditions, but in practical terms, it leads to an improved rapport between UX teams and the business/client which has been working this way for a lot longer. In this way, I once had to remodel a visual design team's business processes in order to meet ISO9001:2000 quality standards. You can probably imagine that, a UX professional sitting in seminars about feedback loops and kite marks, but there's actually a surprising amount of common ground in there with what we do everyday and I found myself really curious and increasingly keen despite myself! ;-) Thx, Mike Padgett www.mikepadgett.com Hello everyone, I am interested in learning / hearing about building UX teams. What makes a ³good² UX team? Have you been part of a ³great² UX design department? How would you go about building an ³excellent² UXD team? If you will share your stories and ideas, I¹d appreciate it greatly. Thank you in advance!! Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
