Business: Evangelizing UX

Many of our colleagues still do not understand the function of UX design. This problem is systemic in many companies, cascading from a C-level where there is a gaping User Experience void—and no leader to fill it adequately—and fueling misconceptions at every level of the organization.

As a UXmatters reader, you probably don’t need me to educate you on the differences between User Experience and user-interface (UI) design. But many of the people with whom you work probably do need to better understand the differences—so they can more effectively engage your efforts and you can engage with theirs. Do you have time to sit each of them down and explain to them the fundamental differences between User Experience and UI design? Not likely. So, in this column, I’ll describe some ways in which you can progressively educate your colleagues on the differences between User Experience and UI design, as follows:

• tactfully responding to misinformed comments
• advocating for user-centered requirements
• producing deliverables that reveal the why behind your designs Read More

This edition of Ask UXmatters discusses how to communicate and sell the UX message across all levels of an organization. Our experts share what strategies and tactics for evangelizing UX have worked for them.

Ask UXmatters is here to answer your questions about user experience matters. If you want to read our experts’ responses to your questions in an upcoming edition of Ask UXmatters, please send your questions to: [email protected].

Q: Executive buy-in is important, but communicating and selling the UX message across the organization, at all levels, is just as important. I would be most interested in learning more about the corporate cultures that embrace UX or customer-centered thinking and understanding more about why they have and what makes them ripe. What worked in the organizations you’ve worked for? What caused frustrations? It seems when everyone is trying to improve the user experience, it can help empower a usability / UX / design team to work on more strategic initiatives instead of facing roadblocks along the way.—from a UXmatters reader.

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Many professionals who focus on User Experience (UX), Customer Experience (CX), and innovation describe the maturity of these practices within their organization as elusive muses that are perpetually out of reach. It’s challenging just to build awareness of these practices much less to bring them to maturity—that is, to get them to the point where they’re woven into the fabric of a company’s charter and business objectives.

At Rockwell Automation, we’re forging a path to UX, CX, and innovation maturity by using several tactics. One of the most impactful tactics has been cultivating communities of practice (CoP) throughout the organization. These communities of practice focus on design, innovation, and related best practices. Making our various communities of practice successful requires a concerted effort—a big part of which is establishing strong, dedicated leadership. Therefore, I’ve asked the following CoP leaders from Rockwell to join me in a Q&A-style discussion for this column:

• Krystal Thibault, Innovation Program Manager and Innovation CoP Leader
• Daniel Zinzow, Senior Lead UX Strategist and Design CoP Leader
• Magda Jagielska, Customer Experience (CX) System Manager and CX CoP Leader   Read More