Andrew Rugg

Interesting article on rethinking the role of UX Teams. https://lnkd.in/eN7SQHEm #design #designthinking #designbuild #designstrategy #product #producctdesign #productmanagement #productstrategy #designprinciples #innovation #designers #digitaltransformation #ux #uxdesign #uiux #uidesign #designinnovation #application #software #softwaredesign #usability #userresearch #research #usercentereddesign #productleadership #uxwriting #designsystems #empathy #interfacedesign #usabilitytesting #userexperience #productdesign #accessibility #ui

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(TL;DR - Listen to your users, design your services considerately) What situation are your patients or service users in, when you're talking to them? I loved this UX Bite from Built for Mars today. The British Gas app gives you a handy little torch button when you're reading your meter. https://lnkd.in/eZ-HiTQr I loved it for two reasons: a) It's something that might not occur to you unless you've been in that situation yourself (or, you know, actively listening to your users!) b) It's something very simple, but it communicates a lot. It says we know we're asking you to complete what can be an absolute faff of a task, we understand it's not easy, here's something to help. A lot of user experience tips from the commercial world don't translate well into public and voluntary services - often they require resources we just don't have in our underfunded corners of the community. But this one is a very simple and universal concept - just think about what situation your users are in, and how your service can be considerate to that. How could we use this concept in community services? A lot of public or voluntary services, particularly in health and care, are there to help people solve a problem in their life. So one aspect of the patient or service user's situation we can easily guess is that a lot of the people we support will probably be a bit stressed. Two things very common for most stressed people: - We don't take in information as well when we're stressed. Some people are going to misunderstand the information and instructions on your website / leaflet / registration form. They're going to ask 'silly' questions. They're going to get things wrong. So your service can help by being approachable, patient, non-judgmental and explaining things clearly in Plain English - We make more mistakes when we're stressed. Some people are are going to forget what time their appointment is. Some are going to miss the bus. Some might have double-booked themselves. That means they might A. Contact you to check or reschedule, or B. Turn up late or not at all. Your service can help by making it easy to do A. (Otherwise, you can't really complain when they do B, can you?) But of course the key thing is listening to your actual patients and service users, to understand what they need when they're using your particular service. More tips on getting to know your users here: https://lnkd.in/edGWfA42 #Margareting #PatientExperience #ServiceUserExperience

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Have you ever _hacked_ a non-computer system? UX Engineers know that so much of what makes a difference is in the relationships we have with our Users - includng the Designers, Maintainers and other indirect users of our products. If you’ve ever tried to book a GP appointment over the phone on a Monday morning and been through the gauntlet of calling back 50 - 100 times only to find out there are no appointments left ‘please try again tomorrow’ you will know that it’s an unpleasant experience for you and the person trying their best to accommodate you. The last time I had to do this I decided to push into the discomfort and try something counter intuitive - I took a pot plant to the surgery on the day of my appointment. Although it was a small gesture, it did seem appreciated and eased the tension in what is a challenging task on both sides of the reception desk. Whilst there was no immediate technical remedy I could offer.. there was a human one, and whilst I expected no special treatment (this was not a bribe) the act of gratitude did remove friction from the interaction for everyone. I’ve been back to the surgery since, over a year later and the plant is still there - and now I’m thinking.. how does gratitude manifest in our digital products.. Not reciprocity or reward.. but simply gratitude #UX #UXEngineering #UserExperience #DesignTechnology #Gratitude

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Question for service design contacts - Has anyone come across a "Design System" or something similar for non-digital services? I'm wondering how to go about creating basically a list of practical design features for creating accessible and inclusive community services. I've heard about "design systems" in UI being a way to create a consistent visual experience by listing standard components and elements that work so people don't keep reinventing the wheel. I know there are really good ones out there for creating accessible and inclusive digital services. And I sort of want to create something similar for non-digital services - like health services, support groups, things like that. I'm currently compiling lots of tips from lots of different sources, and I want to be able to share that research in a way that's easy to use. Does something like that already exist? Or does anyone have any thoughts on how to make that work? #ServiceDesign #DesignSystems #Accessibility #A11y #HealthAndCare #EDI

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The design industry doesn’t do enough to give new entrants access to experience and roles. Read this post by Emma, and let us know if there are schemes you know of, or if you can help.

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Design Systems doing less. What’s that all about? Has anyone read anything compelling about the trend for design systems that I’m seeing which is to “do less”, “make less”, and even go as far as “we’re not making anything new”? I don’t currently understand it. If there’s a need for a thing, why not make it/centralise it. I’d like to understand it.

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Writing up research plans at the moment, found my updated User Research Plan template. Thought I'd share it as it's a valuable starting point for conversations between teams. It's simple, clean and sets intents. #userresearch #ux #bikablo #productdesign

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Leah Buley and my 2nd Edition of THE USER EXPERIENCE TEAM OF ONE is indeed a no-stone-unturned survival guide — 294 pages to be exact — for #UX and #ProductDesign practitioners of all kinds. I'm going to put my humility aside and say this: if you're just starting out or are transitioning from another industry, I've got two words START HERE. There is simply no better, clearer, simpler or more practical guide to all you need to know about this job. That was true of Leah's original release a decade ago — and I've done my level best to make sure it's absolutely true now, after ten years of seismic changes in all we do — and all the ways we do it. But don't take my word for it: “A practical, honest, and incredibly approachable handbook for UX designers to build support, get off the ground, and make a noticeable impact as a UX team of one. Highly recommended!” – Vitaly Friedman, founder of Smashing Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “...a must-read for anyone in design, whether you are just starting out or are an experienced product designer trying to push your organization forward. This book is packed with practical approaches that will help your organization, no matter the size, deliver significant impact through design.” — Andy Vitale, Chief Design Officer at Constant Contact, speaker, educator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Joe is one of our community’s most prolific UX voices and contributors, and this new edition reflects his deep expertise and generosity. Were time travel real, I’d gift this to my past self.” — Amy Santee, career strategist and coach for UX professionals” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “It’s always been one of the best books on UX, and this excellent new edition brings it up-to- date with the dramatically changed UX landscape.” – Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Leah and Joe successfully deliver a rich compendium that balances the concrete with the intuition necessary for making a real impact.” – Kevin Bethune, founder of dreams•design+life and author of Reimagining Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Sets you up for success with great advice on everything from choosing the right battles to exercising influence remotely.” – Cyd Harrell, author of A Civic Technologist’s Practice Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Essential... This book explains how to approach a problem, what tool you should use, and why you’re doing what you’re doing.” – Isaac Gertman, chair, Graphic Design, Maryland Institute College of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Whether you're an actual team of one or just someone looking for a simpler, smarter, better way...this is it:

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Leah Buley and my 2nd Edition of THE USER EXPERIENCE TEAM OF ONE is indeed a no-stone-unturned survival guide — 294 pages to be exact — for #UX and #ProductDesign practitioners of all kinds. I'm going to put my humility aside and say this: if you're just starting out or are transitioning from another industry, I've got two words START HERE. There is simply no better, clearer, simpler or more practical guide to all you need to know about this job. That was true of Leah's original release a decade ago — and I've done my level best to make sure it's absolutely true now, after ten years of seismic changes in all we do — and all the ways we do it. But don't take my word for it: “A practical, honest, and incredibly approachable handbook for UX designers to build support, get off the ground, and make a noticeable impact as a UX team of one. Highly recommended!” – Vitaly Friedman, founder of Smashing Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “...a must-read for anyone in design, whether you are just starting out or are an experienced product designer trying to push your organization forward. This book is packed with practical approaches that will help your organization, no matter the size, deliver significant impact through design.” — Andy Vitale, Chief Design Officer at Constant Contact, speaker, educator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Joe is one of our community’s most prolific UX voices and contributors, and this new edition reflects his deep expertise and generosity. Were time travel real, I’d gift this to my past self.” — Amy Santee, career strategist and coach for UX professionals” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “It’s always been one of the best books on UX, and this excellent new edition brings it up-to- date with the dramatically changed UX landscape.” – Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Leah and Joe successfully deliver a rich compendium that balances the concrete with the intuition necessary for making a real impact.” – Kevin Bethune, founder of dreams•design+life and author of Reimagining Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Sets you up for success with great advice on everything from choosing the right battles to exercising influence remotely.” – Cyd Harrell, author of A Civic Technologist’s Practice Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Essential... This book explains how to approach a problem, what tool you should use, and why you’re doing what you’re doing.” – Isaac Gertman, chair, Graphic Design, Maryland Institute College of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Whether you're an actual team of one or just someone looking for a simpler, smarter, better way...this is it:

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Our Senior Product Designer Rosie Dent-Spargo held a superb session in February with the Product Design team to create values and principles. Using guidance from Dan Makoski's book Uplifting Design, the session was dynamic and layered. The focus wasn't solely on creation, but also how we might embed principles and values into daily work. This write up is the Rolls-Royce of "How to"s, and is a very valuable read for those looking to create and instil values and principles within any team. https://lnkd.in/e7DXm_Ca #productdesign #principles #values

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Great blog and a subject many of our clients are tackling. Its so important to proactively embed #AccessibleDesign processes in order to make meaningful and lasting change. I've always been a big fan of the Government Digital Service (#GDS) approach to design principles, with a big focus on designing for everyone. "Accessible design is good design" 🙏 However, it's not so easy to retrospectively embed accessible design, particularly in an environment of legacy infrastructure, and an already aggressive roadmap of business change. This requires cultural change, buy-in from all delivery disciplines and significant investment in time and business prioritisation. A real accelerator is testing and iterating with real users with accessibility needs. I found this blog particularly insightful... in true GDS style... why reinvent the wheel! https://lnkd.in/eXSnMCQy

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🔍 Measuring Service Design's Value 📊 Today's Circle ⭕️ roundtable dived into figuring out how to measure the impact of Service Design. Led by Will Sharples, we chatted about some important stuff that helped us better visualise our practice. Main Points 🔑 Value Throughout the Project: We discussed how vital Service Design is at different project stages, like how we use our time well, influence team thinking, run meetings/workshops, and absorb information. 🌐 Making a Difference: We wondered how our ideas spread across teams and how we can measure the impact of our work in other teams and areas of the business. More on what we discussed: 📈 Changing Roles and Value: We talked about how our job changes over time. Some of us saw similarities between what we do and POs. We also talked about who we're measuring impact because the value of our work changes depending on whom we're speaking to. 📣 Talking and Convincing: We realised that being good at talking and convincing people is essential to show why Service Design matters. Everyone liked how clear the talk was; it helped us see things about our roles differently. Thanks, Will and everyone else who joined in! Marc Fonteijn Arun Joseph Martin Samantha Chee Katie Shelly

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🏃‍➡️ Digital innovation at speed 🏃‍➡️ How can you determine if your idea is tangible without costing an arm and a leg?

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How a UX audit unlocks a new perspective↓ We're so close to our products daily that our ability to spot problems others experience becomes challenging. This is why speaking with users is so important, but recruiting quality users and setting up calls to then analyse feedback is time-consuming and sometimes lacklustre, especially if you hit a streak of no-shows :( A UX audit is a condensed, value-packed, easy-to-digest boost that can save you time and reveal a new perspective. Here’s what a good UX audit covers: → Your Landing page - how well does your site explain what your app does and how the user can benefit from it. → Design continuity - does your App Store listing match the design direction of your website, or is there a disconnect? Is the value clear and easily understood? → Account creation - how quickly can you get the user set up and reach an 'aha moment' inside your app? (tip: the sooner the better) → Activating users - Is it clear what to do next? The user is in your app; what action must they take that is likely to incentivise further interaction? → Retention - Okay, the user did something in your app, but are they coming back to do it again? Is it clear to them that they should? What type of action leads the user to become a retained user, and are you optimising your onboarding to guide users into this action? (If you take anything away, it’s this point above.) A great audit can help you answer these questions and more. For a limited time, I’m opening up and offering free UX audits for teams that want to level up. A few friends in the product space can vouch for these types of audits. They’re a great boost for product teams. This is what you can expect to get: → Answers to all the above → List of quick wins → Friction point breakdown → First impression report → Holistic design review Sound good? Grab a free audit here: ↓ www.shapeshyft.co.uk

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If your main metric for success for design systems is measuring adoption, then consider this: Adoption does not equal value. Value is better communicated by money saving or money generated when it comes to organisations. This can be calculated by time savings for example. Adoption only tells you how much it is being used - without the former you cannot realise the scale of value. #designsystems #design #designmatrics

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November vs June. There's something happening and it's a problem I learned about yesterday at New Designers following a load of conversations. Some product design courses are having very low numbers of students doing placements. Typically, without a placement, the students go on to do their final year and the degree is completed as a 3 year course. (I'm aware this may not be true for EVERY University). My view is that a 12 month placement makes you much better in your final year, and a better designer when it comes to trying to land a job. It's incredibly valuable. My bet would be that most people in industry would agree. So why is the 3 year completion with no placement apparently becoming more common? I was told students have to lock in their accommodation for the following year in November. So, when it gets to November there's the feeling of "Oh shit. I haven't landed a placement. I need to live somewhere. I'll commit to accommodation, not do a placement and do final year". This is happening in November but lots of postings for placements don't go out until Dec-Jan! At other Universities I spoke to, there was a complete all-in commitment to landing a placement. The mindset wasn't that it's a 3 year course and you CAN do a placement. The mindset was that you DO a placement and it would be odd if you didn't. With this, the "Oh shit" moment wasn't in November but in June - needing to desperately find somewhere to live. Either way, the students are put in a tight spot and the accommodation factor causes a lot of stress. And that's without the general feeling that there are fewer placements around. Thought it was worth sharing as I wasn't privy to this but was always curious when so many seemed to be doing 3 years. The other part of this is graduate expectations of walking into a product design job after 3 years and no internships when the competition of designers from the same graduating year have 12 months of experience. #industrialdesign #productdesign #designplacements

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I speak to Jeremy Miller about why Service Designers should occupy key roles and specialty focus in business. The reason is different areas of business get different funding for resources. WE NEED TO GO WHERE THE WORK IS. I don't see a lot of Service Designers going into the areas of practice and service that you hear about from the EU community. I think it's important to prepare career transitioners and new grads for the reality of the business environments. These roles are on the rise. 🔴 Product Manager Service Designer - Combines strategic product management with user-centric service design to align products with broader service ecosystems. This hybrid role ensures products meet market demands and enhance customer experiences by connecting every touchpoint. This drives product-market fit, fosters alignment across teams, and identifies new opportunities by bridging business goals and user needs. 🔵 Business Analyst Service Designer - Merges data-driven insights with service design thinking to optimize processes and balance business requirements with user journeys. This role uncovers inefficiencies, enabling the design of streamlined services. This position reduces operational costs, enhances service delivery, and informs strategic business decisions while improving customer satisfaction. 🟣 User Experience Service Designer - Integrates UX principles into service design, ensuring seamless digital-physical interactions and emotional engagement throughout the customer journey. This boosts customer loyalty, usability, and key experience metrics like NPS and CES by crafting intuitive and delightful user experiences. 🟢 Product Design Service Designer - Aligns product design with service frameworks, creating adaptable, integrated solutions that meet user needs and scale with business contexts. This role enhances ROI by designing products that drive satisfaction, scalability, and competitive advantage through innovation. These hybrid roles address our current state challenges by blending human-centered design with strategic business thinking. They also bridge silos and connect teams for cohesive solutions and align user needs with business goals. By integrating systems design, data insights, and strategic vision with these product and digital roles, we can create products and services of high value to enable growth and competitive success.

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I think it's pretty obvious when I talk about Patchworks how proud I am of the no-code / low-code UX that Conor Barr, 💻Aaron Nesbitt, Andrew Downey and team have delivered but it's the way it's been delivered is of utmost importance. The product team have built everything off our micro-service, API first, cloud native (MACH Alliance certified of course) architecture and that API is open to our partners and merchants to use to automate tasks from their continuous integration environment, source control, other systems or even from within our platform. This API documentation is now available here: https://lnkd.in/eM7biMBF and some marketing collateral here: https://lnkd.in/eNJiFXhF Brilliant work by the team, partners could even use this to build other platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, Commercetools, Magento) apps to be installed by calling the API from within that wrapper - we're open to all ideas - contact us in the comments! #innovation #ipaas #integration #ecommerce

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