The Fable of the User-Centred Designer

Almost one year ago, two Saint Mary’s Press project teams set out to develop two distinct products.

One team was tasked with developing an all new product. The second team was tasked with revising a product already being used.  The resulting products would ultimately serve different markets and therefore different customers.

But before each team began to develop, they were asked to read a short story. The story, written by Dr. David Travis, is called the “Fable of the User-Centred Designer”.

Reading this story and the subsequent conversations of the project teams,  signaled the beginning of a shift in how we viewed and approached product development. 

I bring up the story here today because it serves as great background and a helpful illustration of the approach of user-centered design. But also, because  the story serves as a good reminder for all who develop and innovate, that what we create, we do so not apart from but in partnership with, those who use what we develop.

I post the link to the story here with thanks to Dr. David Travis for his encouragement to “pass it on” and for his willingness to share his wisdom.

 Download pdf version 


 

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GOING DEEPER: Read more about red routes here at http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/redroutes.html

The Product Development Stool, Part 2

Last week on the blog, we looked at the role of UCD and the customer in the product development process.

Cathy Espy posted a response to the post and then went to so far as to create a rendition of the 3-legged product development stool. The points in her blog response and her image prompted me to include them here as part of their own post.

Cathy wrote, “Another angle would be to consider UCD and our customer input/view as the seat of the stool, the one thing that each of the legs “plugs into” in order to make it whole and functional. If all the legs aren't "plugged in" to the seat, the customer and/or product that tries to sit on that stool falls down!”
 

C. Espy

Although, as Cathy noted, this is a non-artist’s rendition of  user-centered design, I like it and think its effective because 1) it uses the whole stool and 2) it communicates the idea that every part of the stool is necessary. EVERY PART.

Imagine, if you will, what would happen:  

• if we remove the seat (the customer and UCD) from the picture. We would have 3 legs on their own, not plugged into anything, and we would be creating the content, marketing and design of the product in a vacuum, disconnected from the purpose for which or person for whom it exists.
• if we remove the design leg of the stool. Aside from the fact that the stool is now wobbly, we may have wonderful content that is marketed well, however, there will be no design or form to the way the content is laid out. All of the sudden, that super content, is not as usable for the customer. 
• if we remove the marketing leg of the stool. Though we have wonderful content, designed in a useful way, the customer has no way to learn about it.   
• if we remove the development leg of the stool. We are left with nothing to design except a marketing piece whose function is to market-I’m not sure what.

Every part of the stool is necessary if we want to create products that allow our customers to carry out the tasks of their respective ministries, efficiently, effectively and satisfactorily.

The fact is, every part of the stool is necessary if we want to create a product that reflects fully, the Saint Mary’s Press brand and standard of products and the type of interaction our customers have come to expect when they choose to partner with Saint Mary’s Press.

Be on the lookout for this UCD rendition to pop-up in new areas at the press.

Why UCD Is Not "One More Leg of the Stool”.

In product development, we often refer to the functions of marketing, design and editorial as the “three legs of the product development stool”.

In the last year, as our work with user-centered design has evolved and begun to influence the product development process, there have arisen new questions such as, “Is there another leg to the stool?”, “Should there be a UCD (user-centered design) rep on every project team?” and “If the customer is really this important shouldn’t they get their own leg to the stool?” 

I so appreciate these questions because 1) I think they are questions that many people may have wondered about and 2) because they offer the opportunity to articulate further, the role of UCD in project teams and within the product development process.

While there could be someone representing the voice of the customer or even a representative customer on each team, what I would like to emphasize in this moment is that we don’t want to delegate the thought and reality of the customer to only one person on the team. If the user is a separate leg of the stool,  then the customer is ANOTHER PIECE to consider, rather than the piece around which the content, design and marketing and selling is created. 

The “user” or the “customer” is not meant to be its own leg of the stool, but rather integrated into the work of every function and every leg already present on the stool. Rather than being another leg, it is really the lens through which each function should be carrying out its work.  It is important that the work of each function be so imbued with a sense of the customer that what team members see, hear and create is done so from this unique understanding of the customer’s needs.

As I mentioned at the end of last week’s post, when each function understands the path the customers are trying to take through the product,  we can be sure to:

• develop and structure the content to reflect that path
• design the interior to visually convey that path
• market and sell the points on that path that our products address.

When the customer is the lens through which each of these functions carry out their work, the end product and goal will align with a certain and clear path for the customer’s interaction with the product.

While there is often someone assisting project teams currently in building this customer lens, it is the goal and responsibility of every project team member to ensure that the team’s customer lens is clear.  When the lens gets cloudy, from whatever perspective (whether content, design or marketing), we need to help one another clear the lens and return to the question, “What do we know about the customer and their tasks and how they need to interact with this product?”

Then, we bring our experience and our own expertise to bear on the project to facilitate the creation of a path (a way for them to interact with the product) that is clear, accessible, and simple so that, in the end, our customers can complete their tasks efficiently, effectively and satisfactorily. 

Image credit

"Brad Collett, 2012

Used under license from Shutterstock.com"

Gift Giving and Product Development

Last October my nephew, Iveagh, celebrated his first birthday.  Because we’ve noticed that he seems to get really animated around music, I (Aunt Heather) decided to get him one of those baby pianos.  (Ok, maybe it was more for me than it was for him, but gosh, it was cute).  Since then, while he definitely gravitates toward the percussion family of instruments, he actually seems more enamored with the drum than he does with  the piano. 

In reflecting on the purchase, though, I realized that gift giving is so much like product development. We don’t just “give gifts”. We give gifts to a person. We give gifts to a particular person.   Likewise, we don’t just develop a product.  We develop a product for a person. We develop a product for a particular type of person/customer.

Knowing my nephew’s size & personality, I matched the piano to his size, his level of interaction with things, and what I knew about his level of engagement, i.e. I knew that he liked to do things the way adults do them.  When he came to my house, he wanted to sit on the piano bench next to me. I knew it had to be sturdy because he likes to climb on things and would probably try to do something with or on the piano.

But I also knew his parents were part of the “customer” or user as they would have the pleasure of listening to the piano as much as he played it and that they might have requirements about the sound and volume of the piano. So I talked with them about what they felt might work the best, not be a nuisance etc…

To break this down further, take a look at the similarities grid below to view-side by side-how the customer, constraints, tasks and requirements of gift giving are similar to the customer, constraints, tasks and requirements of any product we develop: Similarities Grid.

Truth be told, though we are rarely conscious of it, we are all engaged in user-centered gift giving. We do it naturally.  It’s instinct. Because, when we get right down to it, we want the person to be satisfied-DELIGHTED-with the gift, right? 

Likewise, we instinctively want to create product that matches our customers as well. User-centered design just gives us tools to do that in a more conscious and intentional fashion. The tools of user-centered design help us to collect, process, and then construct or revise product based on what we are learning. Further, it helps us to understand more holistically, not just WHAT our customers are teaching, but HOW they are teaching, the process they are using and the steps and the path they are taking to reach their goal.

When we understand the path our customers are taking, we can be sure to develop and structure the content to reflect that path, design the interior to visually convey that path and market and sell the points on that path that our products address.

Click on the link below to see a short clip of Iveagh on his pint size piano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i53Y6tebkzo&feature=BFa&list=PLDD9B851971BD1C65&lf=mh_lolz

Why Interaction Design Matters

This morning I came across the below video on “interaction design”.   What struck me from this video is not only the topic itself but rather how the topic of interaction was explained. It was simple, yet brilliant.

The video refers to interaction design “as the design of interactions between people and things.” (1)

Rich Ziade says in the attached video that "the design [in the general sense of giving form or structure to something] around the interaction actually thinks about the dialogue and the flow of the experience that [a customer] is going to have with a product." (2)

As I think about the brand of Saint Mary’s Press, I think about the hundreds of thousands of titles that are sold each year. And then I think about the words that our customers have consistently used over the years to explain their experiences of interacting with our product. They use words including:  

accessible - engaging - relevant.

Those words are not just nice descriptors that we should use in marketing, but rather point to and mark the type of interaction our customers have had in the use of our products, as they have been in dialogue with our products, as they have interacted with our products and as they have forged a path through our products. 

Those words and the reality they point to are labeling not a product, but an experience, not just the words or the look of the product but the sum total of an interaction.

No matter what type of product we are developing, whether we are creating a digital product, a website, or the three legs of the development stool are gathered around a table revising a curriculum, it is the following we must keep in front of us. 

What we are creating and influencing on a daily basis are the dynamics of the dialogue or the interaction between our products and our customers,  “the flow of the experience that [our customers] are going to have  with our product”. (3)  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCeL5ByBwt0&context=C3c99e45ADOEgsToPDskIH_KgIc0Rp7J24kEYRr5eD

1-Sketchcaster. "Why Interaction
   Design Matters." YouTube.
   Web. 31 Jul 2007.
2-Ibid.
3-Ibid.
4-Ibid.

How HP Simplifies the User Experience

To be honest, I first learned about user-centered design through the work we've done here at the press.

However, as I continue to research the best practices of incorporating the customer clearly and concretely into our work, I've come to realize that we are not alone in using this particular approach.  Further, the number & caliber of corporate powerhouses that have embraced this philosophy and understand the value of incorporating these principles is worthy of noting.

Take a look at how HP, a multi-billion dollar company, simplifies the user experience. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTxmiovW848

Data is Meaningless

Last June during a company meeting, John (our CEO) had a conversation with us about metrics and data. He began by saying, "In and of themselves, data is meaningless." (Truth be told, my ears perked up at that point, considering my entire position is framed around data gathering and maintenance of data integrity.) 

He went on to say, "The interpretation and insight generation from the data that leads to improvement decisions is the ultimate aim and value of the performance metrics. In other words,it's not about the metrics and rubrics and data; it’s about the conversation generated from it, and the insight and improvements that flow out of the conversation."

 "It’s about the conversation generated from it, 

and the insight and improvements that flow out of the conversation."

I spent the majority of yesterday in a retreat with about 12 other coworkers around a topic central to one of the markets we serve. To be honest, I found myself shocked at what I was witnessing and came away at the end of the day a bit in awe at what I was blessed to behold.

What occurred to me throughout the meeting was that I was witnessing the fruit of last year’s direct user observation metric. Sure, I had remembered those words, "It's not about the hours, it's about the insight", but now I was hearing conversations that were so strikingly different to those I've heard previously that I felt compelled to share and articulate what I see unfolding. 

Certainly, we all come to meetings, gatherings and project retreats with those insights formed by our own individual experience. But yesterday, a new- more widespread-certainty permeated the De La Salle room. I found myself in the midst of conversation so steeped in customer insight and customer experience that I was surprised again to recall how far we've come in just one year. 

At least 20 different times during the retreat (ok, after 20, I stopped keeping track) I heard the words, "What I've seen in my site visits", "What I've learned from my time with the customer", "When I was at a parish..."

The conversation from our retreat yesterday is one that was generated uniquely from data we've gathered and the insights we've gleaned from our time with the customer. All in all, it's a conversation that finds it's starting point not in the hours of observation, but in the insights we've gleaned from those hours. 

Our conversations will eventually set in motion improvements we will make to solve the problems we know our customers have and the needs we anticipate they may have tomorrow.

But for now, as the insights and wisdom from yesterday's retreat continue to percolate, we can be assured that the new dynamics that help to shape our conversations today, bring us even closer alongside the man in whose footsteps we follow, for St. John Baptist De La Salle never lost sight of the reality of those he served. He stayed with them in many different ways. And in staying with them, he understood better, how he could serve them.