THE USER EXPERIENCE TEAM OF ONE
A RESEARCH AND DESIGN SURVIVAL GUIDE
Leah Buley
The User Experience Team of One
A Research and Design Survival Guide
Leah Buley
Rosenfeld Media, LLC
457 Third Street, #4R
Brooklyn, New York
11215 USA
On the Web: www.rosenfeldmedia.com
Please send errors to: [email protected]
Publisher: Louis Rosenfeld
Developmental Editor: Marta Justak
Interior Layout: Danielle Foster
Cover Design: The Heads of State
Cover Illustrator: Josh Cochran
Indexer: Sharon Shock
Proofreader: Sue Boshers
© 2013 Leah Buley
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 1-933820-18-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-933820-18-7
LCCN: 2013939951
Printed and bound in the United States of America
For Theo and Chris, my boy and my man.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
Who Should Read This Book?
While many people are attracted to the field of user experience because they want to be champions for users, simply loving users doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be a successful user experience team of one. UX teams of one are people who love users and also make sure that designs get tested, business people’s questions are answered, design problems receive an appropriate amount of creative exploration, UX specifications are implemented according to plan, the product is continually monitored and improved upon, and support for UX is ever growing. And they do it all without a roadmap or a blueprint, with the help of people who may or may not be active supporters of UX themselves.
This book is for anyone who is interested in taking on the challenging and rewarding work of spreading a user-centered mindset to new places where it’s never been before. While this book is intended to be approachable for anyone who picks it up, it was written with two particular audiences in mind.
• One core audience for this book is people who are already working on product teams in another role but are interested in transitioning into the field of UX. If that sounds like you, that may mean that you’ve never thought of yourself as a UX professional before, and you’re interested in crossing over into the field, either as a main role or part of an adjacent role. For this type of reader, Chapters 1 and 2 are a must.
• Another core audience for this book is more experienced practitioners who are seeking ways to work more effectively within a cross-functional team. For this type of reader, Chapters 3 and 4 are highly recommended.
What’s in This Book?
The user experience team of one ethos is equal parts philosophy and practice (see Figure 0.1). It focuses on having the right attitude, seeking out opportunities, being patient and inclusive, and doing the best work you can. Between philosophy and practice, I’ll cover not just guiding principles, but also the nuts and bolts of how to successfully run a UX project as a team of one.
Accordingly, this book is organized in two parts: Part I is philosophy, and Part II is practice.
FIGURE 0.1 Being a successful UX team of one is equal parts thought and action, head and hand, philosophy and practice.
Part I, “Philosophy,” is a frank walk-through of the UX team of one’s concerns, from start to finish. In this section, I’ll explain what it means to be a UX team of one, how to establish a successful foundation, how to grow yourself and your career, and how to involve others and build support for UX along the way.
• Chapter 1, “UX 101,” gives an overview of what UX is, how it came to be, and what it takes to be a UX practitioner.
• Chapter 2, “Getting Started,” focuses on how to begin, including the fundamentals of user research and design for the new and aspiring UX team of one.
• Chapter 3, “Building Support for Your Work,” addresses some of the most challenging parts of life as a team of one: how to build support and do great work in spite of real-world organizational and interpersonal constraints.
• Chapter 4, “Growing Yourself and Your Career,” is a blueprint for thriving and flourishing as you grow yourself and your career in user experience.
In Part II, “Practice,” I’ll focus on the nuts and bolts of user experience work. This half of the book is intended to function as a ready reference, full of practical methods that have been selected and, in some cases, adapted to fit the realities of a UX team-of-one’s situation. What is this reality? Most importantly, teams of one must rely heavily on their non-UX colleagues to help them get work done. That means there is a preference here for methods that can be done in a quick-and-dirty fashion, and an even greater bias toward methods that invite collaboration and cross-functional participation. In some cases, these methods may already be familiar to you, but the approach and tips are adapted for the work of a team of
