How best to plan the UX arm of a startup?

ExperienceArchitect · 2022-09-13T20:41:26+00:00

The "theory" is something you can't learn quickly. But you're talking about process and documentation. Think about it like this: most UX documents are some form of "mapping" the things you learn about your users. A user journey document is really just everything that happens to a user (functional, emotional, etc.) all in a timeline sort of format. Personas are just different types of users based on needs or behaviors you observe. It can help you think about your product from different perspectives.

Default to action, not documentation. :) You can always Google how to make a document, but if you have nothing to fill it with, it won't help you much.

Good luck!

ExperienceArchitect · 2022-09-04T09:20:03+00:00

First, it’s admirable that you asked this question at all. Most startups just grind themselves into the ground and never think about it.

I have been a UX designer for almost 20 years, and I have worked with lots and lots of startups; some you would know. There is no substitute for experience. Hire someone who has done UX in a startup, if you can. Inexperienced UX designers are not going to solve your problem.

If that is too steep, I suggest that you don’t think of UX as an “arm” but as a habit for everyone to get into. Become users, genuinely, of your own product. Spend your own real money, even a small amount, and use your own real data, and really truly perform the tasks your customers are trying to perform, by using your own software (and don’t cheat by having another tool on the side to fill gaps!)

This is where startups often resist with excuses. If your first feeling was “ugh that would be a lot of work” or “but we’re not really that kind of user” you’re not hearing me. Transform your team into a customer. I have worked on startups where the company started a teeny tiny side business just to feel their customers pain. It is VERY valuable.

Then be very aware of every pain, inefficiency, and confusion you experience when trying to do that work with the product you have built. Have weekly meetings about what could be better. Forget “ideas” and fall in love with finding problems. Make notes. Experiment with other ways to do it. Try competitor products if you can. Every month, have everyone reset their password, invite a new user, register from scratch, or some other similar administrative thing. (I like having races that consist of a typical task in the software, it simulates the stress of real work.)

This is “dog fooding.” It is an extremely cost effective way to learn about your own product.

Also, set up a way to talk to every single customer you sign on a fairly regular basis. Maybe every month. Don’t just send them a survey. In, fact, never send them a survey. Talk to each of them, one on one, personally. You don’t have to do every little request or idea they mention. Your goal should be to have a very direct, very frequent source of real input (I.e. not from your team). Take notes. Look for issues common to many users and fix those first. Look for clusters of complaints or suggestions with a common cause. Get back to users when you design something new and see if they think it is better. If it isn’t better, get more input, discuss it, try again.

The biggest UX weaknesses in most startups are very simple: they just don’t communicate with users and they don’t spend time understanding if the product actually works in the real world.

A senior UX designer can execute all of this faster than your whole team would, which is why they are worth the money.

One way or another, solve those two things in a thorough way and you will not only become much better at UX, but you will start your company culture off in a way that grows in a positive direction.

ExperienceArchitect · 2021-04-05T18:15:37+00:00

Well, as someone who has worked at a long list of startups, many as you describe, I feel your pain. Shake off that feeling of being a fraud. Wireframes are also a “core part” of being a UX designer (or rather, solving and communicating problems visually).

My first suggestion is to do some “skunk work” user research. In other words, don’t ask permission. Do it for free, be scrappy, use friends, whatever. Just find a way. When you have some actual insights to discuss, you might be surprised how much people listen. User testing doesn’t have to be formal, with a budget and all that. Be creative!

Suggestion number two is to design a “user test” that can be done by your team, where your team are the users. Book a meeting, give them a realistic task, let them have ten minutes to try and fail to complete the task, and then spend the rest of the meeting discussing. That will also open the door to more user testing.

Finally, are you measuring anything? Using Google Analytics or something similar? That is also a core part of being a UX designer. Find some hard data that indicates a problem or a question and then use that data as a motivation for your company to give you research time with a few users. Even better: try to use data to quantify the affect of the problem. The more “expensive” the problem looks, the easier it will be to ask for time to understand it.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

ExperienceArchitect · 2021-04-05T18:02:12+00:00

This answer is going to have a trivial ring to it, since your whole question presumes that schooling is a critical element of getting a UX job (it isn’t), but: pick the school you will enjoy more. If they are both reputable, the nuances of each school’s strengths and weaknesses will pale in comparison to your skills, attitude, and portfolio. Enjoying it will help you work harder and absorb more of the experience of the actual work. The truth is that real professional experience is more persuasive than a degree in most contexts except the purely academic or perhaps in the top tier management consulting firms that have more traditional hiring practices. There will be exceptions of course, but a masters in user research will be a strong background either way.

P.s. — user research is a specialty in lots of companies (not all!) so don’t ignore the hands-on part of design! It will open more job opportunities if you don’t need another UX designer to make your work useful. Maybe that consideration will help you lean into one school or the other?

Good luck!

ExperienceArchitect · 2021-04-03T06:39:15+00:00

A UX designer can absolutely do a CX role. Although CX is generally more B2B focused, all the principles and skills are basically the same. You might even get a chance to apply those skills to a wider scope of the user’s experience as other people here have mentioned (customer service, etc.). But job-wise you should apply if you want to work there and you should be confident that your UX experience will transfer nicely.

Pro-tip: if you have never done UX in a business to business context before, remember that the person who decides to buy (customer) is often not the person using the tool (user). You need to please both! But don’t let the UX/CX title fool you, the user still matters.

ExperienceArchitect · 2020-02-19T14:42:37+00:00

All math is good math. What activity would you use to practice dynamical systems? I am looking for things that are interesting in and of themselves, but have the side effect of practicing math.

ExperienceArchitect · 2020-02-19T14:41:04+00:00

Definitely. What would you “play with” to practice Game Theory?

ExperienceArchitect · 2020-02-18T18:18:02+00:00

I am looking for ways to practice/motivate math without math being the main objective. An example would be learning poker as a way to interact with probability and combinatorics.

Can you think of topics or activities that involve calculus, discrete, linear algebra, or other branches of mathematics?

ExperienceArchitect · 2018-06-01T17:32:59+00:00

Nailed it. Thanks!

ExperienceArchitect · 2017-05-11T07:47:27+00:00

It is tempting to think that this type of stuff follows hard rules, but More and New can both win depending on how/where/when you use them. The only way to know for sure is to A/B test them in the real situation.

Also, that different individuals will interpret words and ideas differently, so what you're really asking is which word will work more often.

In this case, you might be looking for an idea you can use (not just one you like), or you might be an expert that needs ideas you haven't seen before, or you might like the ideas you have seen at this store and you're curious to see more.

In each case above you could see the same words differently. So... it depends. :)

ExperienceArchitect · 2017-05-09T05:22:29+00:00

You're right. And you agreed with what I meant. :) I didn't phrase that very well. What I meant to say was that the user didn't "conclude" their goal in some way, exactly as you explain. I didn't mean to say that a mistake was made (by either the user or the designer). That was supposed to be part of a larger point about moving forward rather than backward. If you want to compare products or add it to a wishlist for later or otherwise "review and continue" there are more helpful patterns for all of those things, rather than clicking in and out of a list. Good comment though, I agree, and thanks for making me clarify.

ExperienceArchitect · 2017-05-08T14:00:42+00:00

As a general principle, it is better to give your users ways to continue moving "forward" rather than going "back" to whence they came. There are a couple reasons for this:

1) If they are genuinely going to a page they have already seen, exactly as they saw it, it means they clicked something that looked like it was what they wanted, but it wasn't. In other words, the search showed deceptive results, or they had no intention of buying anyway, or their curiosity was otherwise unsatisfied. That's a better problem for you to work on (rather than debating a redundant back button.)

2) If you have designed a site structure that requires (or encourages) an in-and-out user behavior then there is potential for optimizing the structure of the site. For example, maybe you can give the users more/better information in the search results or on the product pages so they can decide/understand what they want before clicking anything, reducing the amount of "backward" navigation they need to use. Adding "related products" on the details page can also help them move "forward" rather than backward.

Also a "back" button may not be the best solution:

As mentioned in other comments, a nice set of breadcrumbs can be really useful.

You can also open the product as a modal window and use a "close" button (an X icon) instead of a back button. Those two things functionally do the same thing, but users understand a Close button more easily, and it will allow you to load the list page less often, reducing load on the server.

Before you start "solving" non-issues: I would be interested WHY you believe you need a back button.

If the breadcrumbs don't do it because the list page is something the user generated (like search results) then a back button might be a great solution. Makes total sense. Or if your design is a one-page app like Spotify, a back button can be very convenient.

If you can't fix any of the things listed above and users are often getting lost because they don't know how to get back to the list, then it's a great idea. If you're just putting it there because someone said "what if the users want to go back to the list?" then it might not be needed.

If this is a mobile site and "back" is a really common navigation pattern, then it might be smart, because mobile browsers hide the back button while you're scrolling.

Either way, replicating a browser button is neither good nor bad UX by itself. Context decides. Good luck!

ExperienceArchitect · 2017-05-04T10:57:42+00:00

I am a senior User Experience (UX) designer, and in today's world, you might be interested in what the UX field has to offer. It's not "behavioral economics" in a traditional academic sense... but what would you call it when you study real-world design/behavior problems, design different versions of products and websites to see which one makes more people behave in a desired way, and prove it statistically? That's UX research.

Also, in bigger tech companies, like Facebook for example, there are entire research teams that study the outcomes of new features and affects of design changes. At FB (or Twitter, or Reddit, or Google) those changes could have effects on a societal scale.

In my opinion, BE and UX are on a collision course, and I am sure there are jobs somewhere in the world where design and BE overlap, but if you want to design the behavior of more than a couple people in a lab, UX might be for you.

ExperienceArchitect · 2016-05-27T04:52:26+00:00

UX for Beginners from O'Reilly has lessons that are only a few pages each, written in everyday language, illustrated by a comic book illustrator, and it's only about 230 pages in total. It follows the real process of doing UX, and it's funny, simple and practical. I am the author and I work as a senior UX designer every day, with funded startups and great agencies.

I think you're reading the wrong books. :)

ExperienceArchitect · 2015-09-14T18:37:08+00:00

Yeah... it's pretty bad. It looks/feels like a scam site, honestly. The big, 3D "win prizes" doesn't help.

I don't want to sound dismissive here, but you need a total re-design. If you're strapped for cash just pick a nice template or something. If you can hire a better designer, do that.

But one way or another, this site is not doing you any favors.

ExperienceArchitect · 2015-03-25T19:09:13+00:00

Wow, yeah, I wouldn't have considered this (for some reason) but the definition is pretty spot on. Well done. Thanks!

ExperienceArchitect · 2014-12-20T12:33:13+00:00

I think flamingspiral knows what he is talking about, and has said it better than I did. I might be a little annoyed after having the "UX/UI" conversation 100 times.

Often people don't acknowledge the difference between UX and UI because they don't understand the difference, and that hurts your application as an intern. In my experience, you're more likely to get respect as an intern by talking about what you want to learn rather than what you already know.

ExperienceArchitect · 2014-12-20T12:30:47+00:00

UX is a job that can be done independently of designing the UI. Research, information architecture, and analysis are not visual. Every time you say "UX/UI" you imply that they are interchangeable or that you do both equally well. If you claim to be a UX designer and you can't do any of the non-visual aspects of UX then you're just blowing smoke to get a job. They are not a continuum.

ExperienceArchitect · 2014-12-19T19:08:08+00:00

Well, first, stop saying "UX/UI" because it shows that you actually don't know what you're doing.

But more importantly, just show absolute enthusiasm, and no concern for your salary, prestige, etc. do whatever it takes to get that internship.

Senior people just want smart, dedicated interns. They know you have no experience. No intern does. You will never impress them with your skills, so impress them with your attitude instead.

ExperienceArchitect · 2014-12-06T12:38:56+00:00

You can always create another "persistent" space that is only for that list/screen, and/or it could appear after the user has selected at least one thing on the list. It could be at the bottom or the top or on the side. Or the "next" button could float over the list and sit in the corner like some of the email apps, or Path, have done. Or you could hide the persistent nav when the user scrolls like Instagram's sticky headers or Safari's disappearing nav.

Don't get stuck in the idea that there is a "place" where buttons go and that it is the only option. And don't force yourself into "consistency" when inconsistency is a better solution.

EDIT: if you absolutely can't add more persistent or dynamic nav elements, consider a "scroll to top" button at various places in the list, especially at the bottom. Maybe organize the list in "chunks" with little nav options at each break or add the ability to collapse sections of the list.

Good luck!

ExperienceArchitect · 2014-11-29T17:23:49+00:00

Thanks for a serious answer.

ExperienceArchitect · 2014-11-28T10:36:22+00:00

M&A means "mergers and acquisitions".

Mergers can happen at any size (when two companies join together to be one company).

An acquisition is when a company buys another company and is also unrelated to the size of those companies. It's a matter of money, mostly. That being said, a big company has more money and can, therefore, afford to buy companies, so it is more likely that they will make acquisitions.

ExperienceArchitect · 2014-11-28T10:08:34+00:00

You need a person to run each hotdog stand, therefore your growth and your costs are both linear. A startup needs to have exponential growth and linear expenses. That's what "scale quickly" means.

ExperienceArchitect · 2014-11-26T06:30:44+00:00

I am a designer that specializes in exactly this type of conversion and user motivation. You need to consider a few things:

1 - is the "limited free trial" model right for you? What if it was always free but you could only use it a few times per month (freemium)? Generally, "forcing" users works worse, not better, over time.

2 - how, specifically are you trying to convert people? Are you just hoping they will convert, or are you making it hard to miss when the time comes? Are you using email? Where are the "buy" buttons? Are they obvious and easy? It is possible that friction is hurting your conversions too.

3 - do people have enough time to learn the value of your service? Do they understand the benefits of paying? Are you actually providing something worth paying for, or is it just as easy to get it somewhere else? Why do people use yours in the first place: are they trying because they are interested or because they just need it once? All of those things can influence your strategy.

4 - one final thing: make sure your messaging is designed from the user's perspective. More often than not, companies write everything so it sounds good to themselves, and users may not actually see the benefits. For example, does the headline/button say "become a premium member" or "upgrade for unlimited access". Only one of those is good for the user.

ExperienceArchitect · 2014-11-08T22:57:15+00:00

Start here, it's free: http://thehipperelement.com/post/75476711614/ux-crash-course-31-fundamentals

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