UX Design

Out of context: Reply #17

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  • kona5

    UX at my last company was a fucking joke.

    While I was a manager of design within the UX group, we were thought of as outsiders from the group itself and considered nothing more than production designers. Most of the researchers and architects thought they ran the show.

    Research would test a design often times modifying it as they saw fit. Example: We were trying to design a new button, one that fit better with our brand and research talked the company into spending shit tons of money to test it. Fine. Unfortunately they tested 10 different colored buttons they put together. Blue button with yellow text. Orange button with white text. Yellow button with Black text... it was at this point I realized they were just testing other large ecommerce site's buttons against ours. Best buy. Home Depot. Lowes. Sears. 2 weeks later the results were in and the blue button with yellow text won by a 3% margin.

    Research victory!

    Me: But our brand is Red, White, and Black. How the fuck is a blue button with yellow text going to work?!?
    Research and Company: Well, Red means stop and that's bad for ecommerce.
    Me: Tell that to Target, GNC, Kmart, Virgin, Coca Cola, Band-aid, Pinterest.... you fuks.

    Perfect example of how UX failed.

    Example 2: Same company. We designed a new product and the architects and research wanted to test it. Fine. Problem was they tested a 3d hand-held object online... morons. The test came back exactly as I expected it would. The product and test failed. Great win for research and architects who said it would!!!

    Me: Can we get users in to test it in person?
    Research: Why?
    Me: *Throws chair out of 33rd floor office window*
    Me: Because sometimes what people say they'll do is very different from what they'll do in person.

    A live test was conducted with 22 individuals and it was a smashing success. We tested old device vs. new device. The old device had a 33% success rate for each task given. The new device had a 95% success rate for each task given.

    To Georges point above. Most UX I worked with there are fake and don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

    • Bad, bad user researchers.studderine
    • This. Research is so fucking flawed all the time and yet held up as some sort of logical and moral absolute. Also people don't know when its appropriate.cannonball1978
    • Also, research can't account for taste.cannonball1978
    • Bad research = bad feedback = bad design. Have to know to when to user the right research method and sometimes that requires advanced HCI knowledge!studderine
    • *use the rightstudderine
    • You also need the ability and authority to interpret research insightfully and responsibly to arrive at the right insights.cannonball1978
    • Naked research results != findings or learning and is a disaster if it is used to blindly direct the design process.cannonball1978
    • lies
      damned lies
      UX research
      monNom
    • I've worked on so many projects where it's used as decision lubrication instead of for gaining perspective.cannonball1978
    • Researchers changing button styles would have really pissed me off! hahahaMondoMorphic
    • I love this story.soundsinsilence
    • 33rd floor office window - 33% success...I'd start researching the number 33.see_thru
    • research, being a setup and aware of situation can't be an indicator from which to make decision. Insights, but above all, gut feeling wins.fruitsalad
    • I've met plenty that use opinions instead of facts and facts over common sense. 'We use 'data' to inform our design decisions and optimise performance.'monoboy
    • How about just asking your audience what they want and giving it to them, on brand and on time. Does my head in.monoboy
    • how about the CEO's and folks running the company just being decent people and talking to a good designer, and asking them for their professional design opinionfruitsalad

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