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UX New Zealand 2020: things that stood out for me

I joined the online version of UX New Zealand this year. Here’s one thing that stood out for me from each of a few of the talks.

Day one

  • Stop looking for who to include and start looking at what practices and mindsets are exclusionary (from “Consider the periphery” by Elizabeth Lang).
  • Make sure you don’t stop at the MVP: keep refining it (from “More than an MVP: The case for continuous improvement in the COVID era” by James Ford and Pete Lister).
  • IRACIS model - Increase Revenue; Avoid Costs; Improve Service. (from “How to measure the experience (UX ROI)” by Anna Bek).
  • Best way of learning is incremental, with low cognitive load (aka brainouch) (from “Take a load off: How to identify and reduce cognitive load” by Clint Schnee)
  • “You can’t be curious and defensive at the same time” – Peter Levine (from “‘Bipartisan’ UX: A call for the middle ground” by Ruth Brown)

I also made some sketchnotes 👇.

sketchnotes for "consider the periphery" sketchnotes for "More than an MVP: The case for continuous improvement in the COVID era" sketchnotes for "More than an MVP: The case for continuous improvement in the COVID era" sketchnotes for "Take a load off: How to identify and reduce cognitive load" sketchnotes for "'Bipartisan' UX: A call for the middle ground"

Day two

  • Value people’s time (from “Design with mental health in mind” by Bradley Gabr-Ryn).
  • Call things what they are (use clear, plain, language), e.g. “period care” not “feminine hygiene” or “sanitary products” (from “Wine, bacon and periods: Product categories and our journey to wrangle them” by Jennie Leng).
  • Stay (with the prototype) as long as needed, you’re prototyping to learn (from “Prototyping the prototype: Evolving the design mindset” by Julie Watson and Ruth Elliott).
  • Give people jobs to do, specific to their expertise (from “Presenting design work: And getting great feedback” by Donna Spencer).

I also made some sketchnotes 👇.

sketchnotes for "Design with mental health in mind" sketchnotes for "Wine, bacon and periods: Product categories and our journey to wrangle them" sketchnotes for "Prototyping the prototype: Evolving the design mindset" sketchnotes for "Presenting design work: And getting great feedback"

Summary

Phew! There was a lot in two days! I’ll definitely be back next year.

Three principles / ideas that pull the talks together for me:

  • Reframe, take a look from another angle;
  • Take small, careful, steps;
  • Be specific and clear.