Have you ever reached a point during a design or development sprint where team members or stakeholders were surprised at what they saw in the build? Did you hear things like, “why does it work like this?” Or “where’s the place where we show them this content?” Or “I thought we were going to…” And you think to yourself, “weren’t we all in the same meetings where this was discussed/decided?”
In this fourth installment of our video series, I’m going to show you how and why those disconnects happen.
Even though we spent time determining what’s important and feasible, it is still painfully easy for people to dive into the UX work itself with very different ideas about what’s being designed and built. Everyone thinks they’re on the same page, but build reviews, as in the example above, often tell a very different story.
Quite often, everyone assumes that everyone else shares their vision for UX — how these features and functions will manifest themselves in the final product: screens, workflow, UI elements, data captured, etc. But the truth is it’s very easy for people to walk away from sprint planning sessions thinking Apples when the discussion was really about Oranges. Those disconnects can derail a project at frightening speed, and can be extremely difficult to recover from. This video will give you my time-tested methods to prevent these disconnects from happening in the future.
Join the Conversation
The best part of writing Think First, my blog posts and speaking engagements is the conversations that they spark. I learn as much from others as they hopefully learn from me. In that spirit, I’d like to know what you think:
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where what you designed or built was different from what other people expected? How did you deal with it?
Share your answer with me on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Stay tuned for part 5 of this video series — and in the meantime, GIVE GOOD UX!
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