Crafting the User Experience

In its infancy the new media concerned itself primarily with technical issues (We struggled to create the technology, make it work and accept the novelty). In recent years we've finally started to focus on the quality of the experience. In that sense, the Web really embodies the emergence of "usability" (It's highly graphical, widely accessible, easy to produce and use).

Usability is the competitive edge now. The User Experience Practice (UXP) is the "new kid on the block" in the traditional IT development world. Our challenges are:

• Establish an Identity
• Develop the Infrastructure
• Define our Process

Establish an Identity: Who We Are

The User Experience Practice must become a unified and recognized entity, both within and beyond the enterprise. The very nature of CXP is that most members tend to be eclectic generalists, with substantial "grey area" overlap in skillsets (information architecture, cognitive and behavioral sciences, creative presentation and software user interface engineering).

Develop the Infrastructure: What We Do

Good design is effective only when it is implemented. Organization, documentation and process discipline are essential if we are to maintain "best practices" across the enterprise.

• Maintain Standards (templates, information repositories)
• Define our Methodology
• Provide Guideance

Define our Process: How We Work

In the project environment, the Interaction Designer acts as a liaison among the cultural groups in the organization (Technical, Business, Marketing) and often operates across multiple projects throughout the enterprise. A thorough understanding of client strategy and Internet technology allows us to design a cohesive user experience. We champion the customer perspective.

• Integrate
• Communicate
• Advocate

A long-term business investment in electronically-mediated relationships really deserves a long-term enterprise commitment to the User Experience Practice. That implies a major change in the conventional approach to technology development - and significant "cultural change" within the organization.

In many ways the most important Interaction Design task involves advocacy, education and evangelism within and among departments. Of course, clients must be convinced, too - but that's the easy part.

The big challenge is to forge a working alliance within the enterprise. We need to build a design-oriented infrastructure that can actually do the deed. That requires both organizational skill and management will.

As a strategic player within the enterprise, the User Experience Practice can help identify business opportunities, integrate applications across business lines, and improve the development process.

Who Really Has the Most Influence?

"There is a big difference between listening to and following your customers."

"Customer-driven products don't have a coherent design. They lack …'conceptual integrity', a single-minded vision of a program which … is the most important ingredient to success."

"[This] commitment must extend to giving the interaction designers the moral authority to dictate the shape … of the product…"

Who Owns Product Quality?

"… the interaction designer should be the ultimate owner of product quality." (italics his)

"The most suitable would be someone without an interest in the construction of the product, and with the detachment to put himself in the user's place."

Building Interaction Design Teams

"Keep the teams small."

"Insulate the team from managers and programmers.'

"Assign a design communicator responsible for documenting the team's work."

"Allow the team time to compose its thoughts."

Who's in Charge Here?

"The company's top management … must make plain that the design team is now responsible for product quality … subject, of course, to management oversight."

"The design team must have responsibility for everything that comes in contact with the user."

"We have to build awareness across the entire company that interaction design is a realm that requires professional skills, and that interactive products cannot just be engineered, but must also be designed in order to succeed in the open market."