John DouglassSocial UX Research, Google

Make Your Ideas StickUXPA DC - July 2014

flickr: quinnanya

JON SNOW

www.pakistantoday.com.pk

JOHN SNOW

johnsnow.matrix.msu.edu

How did Cholera spread? He had an idea...How did Cholera spread? He had an idea...

Johnson Cameraface

The idea could be expressed many ways.

The way he chose made it stick. The way he chose made it stick.

UX Tools Help Us Convey Powerful IdeasUX Tools Help Us Convey Powerful Ideas

Lars Kristian Flem

We make lives better by expressing great ideas, BIG or small.

But our UX education doesn’t fully prepare us to be great influencers.

Nic Price

Hey,Guess What?

Hey,Guess What?

Doug88888

YOUARE

CURSEDMikko Luntiala

CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE

CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE

timetrax23

Can’t Be an Expert and Novice Simultaneously

Garry Wilmore

CELL PHONE SALESPEOPLE

Q: How long do you think it takes people to learn how to set up their phones?

Experts said 13 minutes

Users spent 33 minutes

154% longer than predicted

We need special skills to get stakeholders to pay attention, remember, believe and care.

We need special skills to get stakeholders to pay attention, remember, believe and care.

Ideas aren’t born interesting, they’re made interesting.

Put VELCRO on your ideas. Give each more hooks to get stuck on your audience.

more hooks = more stickDoun Dounell

2

1

3

THREE TECHNIQUES TO MAKE YOUR IDEAS STICK

Make It Concrete

Tell Stories

Know Your First Audience

1Make it Concrete

When you sell UX, what do you talk about?

What do clients or stakeholders hear?

UX speak doesn’t speak to stakeholders.

Lessons are encoded with physical, material details.Lessons are encoded with physical, material details.

Concrete ideas engage the senses.

“An important ecological area to the east of Silicon Valley.” “An important ecological area to the east of Silicon Valley.”

How do you make this more concrete? How do you make this more concrete?

The Mount Hamilton Wilderness

The Mount Hamilton Wilderness

via Made to Stick

Games engage but can get in the way.

How do we maximize the best parts of games and minimize the annoying stuff? What did we call this concept?

Social gaming aggregator? An entertainment stream?

Game ClosetGame Closet

Had designs to help new Google+ sign-ups connect with their friends and interests: how did we frame our ideas?

Better on-boarding? Increasing edge growth? Friend previewing?

Warm WelcomeWarm Welcome

A new design direction for all of Google - consistent UI and design guidelines. How do we get developers engaged?

Android & Chrome OS design guidelines?Google UX principles? Google design framework?

Material Design

Material Design

Statistics, Analytics, Numbers?

Use Human Scale. Statistics, Analytics, Numbers?

Use Human Scale. themarkeworld.com

Facts are stickier when they’re in HUMAN SCALE.

Rob Pettengill | Mark Vegas

Avoid UX speak. Use metaphors of physical and material experiences.

Use human scale to represent facts & figures.

1 Make It Concrete Recap

2Tell Stories

Escape from Alcatraz TriathlonEscape from Alcatraz Triathlon

Thomas Caleshu

Babson College

Me

Bored roomBored room

The facts describe the events

We are swimming in data and events, not stories

Facts Tell, Stories Sell

Stories change your audience’s physical state. We simulate what we hear.

Sorry I put this in your headSorry I put this in your head

Thomas Caleshu

Stories are not just a narrative of events.

They should have

1. activities2. motivations3. characters

A story focused our design sprint

Mark

Deflate story criticism with stats

Mark

≈5 million people with similar issues

But how do you get find, collect and share stories?

Ask users:

tell me about last timebefore/afterwhy/why/why

Ask users:

tell me about last timebefore/afterwhy/why/why

Use search logs, customer service records, survey data to find stories.

Use search logs, customer service records, survey data to find stories.

Jacopo Romei

Pinterest recruits others to help generate their stories

Pinterest recruits others to help generate their stories

Illustrate stories easily MakeBeliefsComix.com

Facts tell, stories sell.

Look for activities, motivations, characters.

Find stories in existing data or when talking to users.

2 Tell Stories Recap

3Know Your First Audience

You

Client

Boss

Tech Lead

Users

In a perfect world: you’re all on the same page.

You

Client

Boss

Tech Lead

Users

In a real world: you have a first audience before the user.

You

Client

Boss

Tech Lead

Users

These people are your users too.

Conduct user research on your first audience.

Put your client in an eye-tracker.

Fernando Rodriguez, Jr.

Ask yourself (and them)

how do they get promoted?what keeps them up at night?what reduces their workload? who are their heroes?

In high stakes pitches, people start with solving a problem.

In high stakes pitches, people start with solving a problem.

Steve Bowbrick

Define the problem in a way your stakeholders care about.

Making requests at Tesla goes better when focusing on the first audience. Making requests at Tesla goes better when focusing on the first audience.

Patrick Herbert

Strategic leaders - generate and maintain a common vision.

Managers - keep entire team on track.

Tech experts - implement the vision, make the detailed decisions.

What’s your job?

UX Researcher

I learn about users’ needs, goals and behaviors to build great products.

UX Researcher to Grandma

You may get frustrated with our products and stop using them. I find out what’s going wrong and how to keep you happy.

Define the problem

You may get frustrated with our products and stop using them. I find out what’s going wrong and how to keep you happy.

Give the resolution

UX Researcher to Tech Lead

You know the analytics but not if people enjoy using our product. I find out which experiences feel broken and how to fix them.

Conduct user research on your stakeholders.

Start with a problem they care about. Reveal the solution.

3 Know Your First Audience Recap

2

1

3

THREE TECHNIQUES TO MAKE YOUR IDEAS STICK

Make It Concrete

Tell Stories

Know Your First Audience

Apply one technique for your project.

2

1

3

Use metaphor + human scale

Find stories that sell

Research your stakeholders. Start with their problems.

Concrete

Stories

First Audience

DO MORE WORK :)

k thx bye

supplements your process

medium.com/@willdjthrill/

BREAKSYOUR

CURSE

makes UX more influential makes UX more influential

helps your users

helps your users

John DouglassGoogle.com/+JohnDouglass@JDouglass (twitter)

Q&A