Institutionalization of UX: A Step-by-Step Guide to a User Experience Practice, Second Edition

Institutionalization of UX: A Step-by-Step Guide to a User Experience Practice, Second Edition

by Eric Schaffer, Apala Lahiri
Released December 2013
Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN: 9780133123845

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Book description

“This book is a great how-to manual for people who want to bring the benefits of improved user experience to their companies. It’s thorough yet still accessible for the smart businessperson. I’ve been working with user-centered design for over twenty years, and I found myself circling tips and tricks.”

–Harley Manning, vice president & research director, customer experience, Forrester Research

”Some argue that the big advances in our impact on user experience will come from better methods or new technologies. Some argue that they will come from earlier involvement in the design and development process. The biggest impact, however, will come as more and more companies realize the benefits of user-centered design and build cultures that embrace it. Eric offers a practical roadmap to get there.”

–Arnie Lund, connected experience labs technology leader and human—systems interaction lab manager, GE Global Research

“User experience issues are a key challenge for development of increasingly complex products and services. This book provides much-needed insights to help managers achieve their key objectives and to develop more successful solutions.”

–Aaron Marcus, president, Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.

“This handy book should be required reading for any executive champions of change in any development organization making products that demand a compelling user experience. It does an excellent job in laying the foundation for incorporating user experience engineering concepts and best practices into these corporations. In today’s competitive economy, business success will greatly depend on instituting the changes in design methods and thinking that are so clearly and simply put forth in this most practical and useful book.”

–Ed Israelski, director, human factors, AbbVie

“If you’re tasked with building a user-experience practice in a large organization, this book is for you (and your boss). Informed by years of case studies and consulting experience, Eric Schaffer provides the long view, clearly describing what to expect, what to avoid, and how to succeed in establishing user-centered principles at your company.”

–Pat Malecek, former user experience manager, AVP, CUA, A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.

”For those of us who have evangelized user experience for so many years, we finally have a book that offers meaningful insights that can only come from years of practical experience in the real world. Here is a wonderful guide for all who wish to make user experience a ‘way of life’ for their companies.”

–Feliça Selenko, Ph.D., former principal technical staff member, AT&T

“Dr. Schaffer’s mantra is that the main differentiator for companies of the future will be the ability to build practical, useful, usable, and satisfying user experiences. This is a book that provides the road map necessary to allow your organization to achieve these goals.”

–Colin Hynes, president, UX Inc.

Computer hardware no longer provides a competitive edge. Software has become a broadly shared commodity. A new differentiator has emerged in information technology: user experience (UX). Executives recognize that the customer satisfaction that applications and websites provide directly impacts a company’s stock price.

While UX practitioners know how to design usable, engaging applications that create good user experiences, establishing that process on an industrial scale poses critical IT challenges for an organization.

  • How do you build user-centered design into your culture?

  • What infrastructure do you need in order to make UX design faster, cheaper, and better?

  • How do you create the organizational structure and staffing solution that will support UX design over time?

    • Institutionalization of UX shows how to develop a mature, user-centered design practice within an enterprise. Eric Schaffer guides readers step by step through a solid methodology for institutionalizing UX, providing practical advice on the organizational change, milestones, toolsets, infrastructure, staffing, governance, and long-term operations needed to achieve fully mature UX engineering.

    First published in 2004 as Institutionalization of Usability, this new, expanded edition looks beyond the science of usability to the broader, deeper implications of UX: Once customers can use your applications and websites easily, how does your organization ensure that those engagements are satisfying, engaging, and relevant? Contextual innovation expert Apala Lahiri contributes a new chapter on managing cultural differences for international organizations.

    Whether you are an executive leading the institutional-ization process, a manager supporting the transition of your organization’s UX practice, or an engineer working on UX issues, this guide will help you build a mature and sustainable practice in UX design.

    Table of contents

    1. About This eBook
    2. Title Page
    3. Copyright Page
    4. Contents
    5. Preface
    6. Acknowledgments
    7. Read This First!: Cultural Transformation
      1. Changing the Feature Mindset
      2. Changing the Technology Mindset
      3. Changing the Process Mindset
      4. Changing the Graphics Mindset
      5. Executives
      6. Changing Middle Management Values
      7. Changing the Process for Interface Design
      8. The Step-by-Step Process for Institutionalizing User Experience Design
      9. The Long-Term Operations Phase
      10. Summary
    8. About the Authors
    9. Part I: Startup
      1. Chapter 1. The Executive Champion
        1. The Value of Usability
        2. Beyond Classic Usability
        3. CEO Wants a Great Customer Experience: Now Don’t Fall for UX Fads or Half-measures
        4. Who Can Be a Champion?
        5. The Role of the Executive Champion
        6. Keep Moving on the Strategy, Keep Expanding and Innovating
      2. Chapter 2. Selecting a Usability Consultant
        1. Staffing
        2. Completeness of Solution
        3. Domain Expertise
        4. Methodology
        5. Tools and Templates
        6. Object-Oriented Approach
        7. User-Centered Size and Stability
        8. Corporate Cultural Match
        9. Specializations
        10. Organizational Structure
        11. Change Management Ability
        12. Quality Control and Feedback
        13. Ongoing Training for the Consultancy’s Staff
        14. Summary
    10. Part II: Setup
      1. Chapter 3. Institutionalization Strategy
        1. What to Consider When Developing the Strategic Plan
        2. A Proactive Organization
        3. Coordinating Internal Staff and Consultants
        4. The Importance of Sequence
        5. Targets of Opportunity
        6. Slower Can Be Better
        7. Phasing in Design Standards
        8. Key Groups for Support or Resistance
        9. Training
        10. Methodology and Infrastructure
        11. The Project Path
        12. Levels of Investment
        13. Summary
      2. Chapter 4. Methodology
        1. What to Look for in a User-Centered Methodology
        2. An Outline of The HFI Framework
        3. A Quick Check of Your Methodology
        4. The Challenges of Retrofitting a Development Life Cycle
        5. Templates
        6. Summary
      3. Chapter 5. Interface Design Standards
        1. What Is an Interface Design Standard?
        2. Types of Standards
        3. Screen Design Templates
        4. Patterns
        5. Other Contents of a Design Standard
        6. The Scope of Design Standards
        7. The Value of Design Standards
        8. The Process and Cost of Developing Standards
        9. Disseminating, Supporting, and Enforcing Standards
        10. Summary
      4. Chapter 6. Standard User Profiles and Ecosystem Models
        1. The Worst Practice
        2. Thin Personas: “Jane Is 34 and Has a Cat”
        3. Quality Personas
        4. The Best Practice: Working with Full Ecosystems
        5. Standard User Profiles and Ecosystems
        6. Static versus Organic Models
        7. Summary
      5. Chapter 7. Tools, Templates, and Testing Facilities
        1. Introduction to Your Toolkit
        2. Testing Facilities
        3. Recording of Testing Sessions
        4. Modeling Tools and Software
        5. Data Gathering and Testing Techniques
        6. Advanced Methods
        7. The Special Needs of International Testing
        8. Recruiting Interview and Testing Participants
        9. Summary
      6. Chapter 8. Training and Certification
        1. Types of Training
        2. Certification
        3. A Typical Training Plan
        4. Conferences
        5. Summary
      7. Chapter 9. Knowledge Management
        1. Why Conventional Knowledge Management Fails
        2. The Cost of Failure
        3. Object-Oriented UX
        4. Professionals Don’t Start from Scratch
        5. Linkages
        6. Summary
    11. Part III: Organization
      1. Chapter 10. Governance
        1. The Roots of the Governance Problem
        2. Memes That Kill
        3. Education Helps
        4. Verify That a Methodology Is Applied
        5. Closing the Loop on Standards
        6. Checking If the Practice Is Alive
        7. Summary
      2. Chapter 11. Organizational Structure
        1. Organizational Structures for User Experience Design Teams
        2. Placement of a Central Team in the Overall Organization
        3. Escalation of Problems
        4. Graphic Artists, Writers, and Other Usability-Oriented Staff
        5. Summary
      3. Chapter 12. Staffing
        1. The Chief User Experience Executive
        2. The Central Usability Organization Manager
        3. The Central Usability Organization Staff
        4. What to Look for When Hiring
        5. An Offshore Model
        6. Summary
      4. Chapter 13. Projects
        1. Doing It Right
        2. Managing by Project Importance
        3. Who Will Do the User Experience Design?
        4. Different Strategies for Practitioner Involvement
        5. Working Smart
        6. Efficient Project Planning
        7. Estimating Experience Design Work
        8. Summary
    12. Part IV: Long-Term Operations
      1. Chapter 14. Long-Term Activities of the Central Team
        1. Maintaining Respect and Negotiating Effectively
        2. Maintaining Momentum
        3. Evangelizing
        4. Training
        5. Mentoring
        6. Supporting Standards
        7. Supporting the Community
        8. Performing Usability Testing
        9. Focusing on Metrics
        10. Having Responsibility
        11. Reporting to Executives
        12. Summary
      2. Chapter 15. The Future
        1. Symptoms of Leaping the Chasm
        2. Maturity
        3. Your Organization’s Maturity
        4. Process, Capabilities, and Staffing
        5. Strategy, Innovation, and Persuasion
        6. New Technologies
      3. Chapter 16. Design for Worldwide Applications
        1. Do International Markets Really Matter?
        2. How Does Bad Cross-Cultural Design Happen to Good Organizations?
        3. Internationalization, Localization, and the Challenges of Current Practice
        4. Between the Idea and the Reality Falls the Shadow
        5. The Criteria for Success
        6. A New Global Delivery Model for Local User Experience
        7. Critical Tools
        8. Local Understanding, Global Success
        9. Are There Populations We Cannot Reach?
        10. Can We Look Forward to a Unified Globe?
        11. Emergence of the “Third China”
    13. References
    14. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Institutionalization of UX: A Step-by-Step Guide to a User Experience Practice, Second Edition
    • Author(s): Eric Schaffer, Apala Lahiri
    • Release date: December 2013
    • Publisher(s): Addison-Wesley Professional
    • ISBN: 9780133123845