Every day we are surrounded by companies treating customers with utter disrespect, both offline and on. They sell their data and waste their time. They leverage dark patterns and demonstrate complete indifference.
When I saw a paying customer forcibly dragged off an airplane, it woke me up. It was so wrong on so many levels, not least of which was that it was the ultimate expression of a terrible user experience.
The troubling thing is this is not a conscious decision companies are making. Rarely do company executives get up in the morning and decide to screw over their customers. In fact, many of them will say they care about the user experience. They even know it is important.
The United Airlines incident perfectly demonstrates how one uncompromising customer and a smartphone can bring a multi-national corporation to its knees. Executives are afraid of this new reality, and they just don’t know what to do about it.
Start A User Experience Revolution, Today.
We can help them. We are the product of a different school of thought. We are user-centric, agile and design-led. The skills and experience we have can extend beyond the screen. We can help companies become more customer-centric, to focus on the user experience.
Today I am launching my new book, User Experience Revolution, and to be honest it could not have come at a better time. Companies desperately need to change, and the book shows you how to help them do that.
Who Is The Book For? Everybody!
This book is for anybody passionate about user experience, but who is working in a company that is failing its customers. It contains a battle plan of practical advice for changing the culture of businesses. Changing them, so they put the user first.
You might be a designer, marketer, content specialist or any one of many jobs concerned about user experience.
You do not need to be a manager, although you might be. You do not need to be an expert in user experience. You just need a willingness to challenge the way your company does things and be relentless at putting the user first.
This Book Will:
- Encourage you to break out of your comfort zone and start influencing the full scope of the user experience.
- Teach you how to articulate the benefits of user-centric thinking efficiently.
- Guide you through the process of building a grassroots movement within your company — a movement that will advocate the needs of your users.
- Provide practical ways you can raise the profile of the user within your organization.
- Help you find and build a proof of concepts to sell the benefits of a user-centric approach.
- Show you how to get management interested in user experience, and gain their support.
- Identify ways of embedding user-centric methodologies into the culture of the company.
Table Of Contents
| CHAPTER | DETAILS |
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| 1. Getting Real About User Experience Design | |
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Summary • The world has changed and there is a new generation of empowered, connected consumers – consumers with higher expectations than ever before. If your company does not meet those expectations customers will go elsewhere. In fact, according to Customer Think, 89% of customers will stop doing business with a company after a single poor customer experience. Keywords • Customer Relationship • Involving Customers Into The Product Design Process • Understanding Users' Needs |
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| 2. How To Sell The Benefits Of User Experience Design | |
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Summary • Across all sectors, executives are more concerned with their agendas than fulfilling the needs of users. This makes convincing them of the value of user experience design very hard. Keywords • Understand Customer Expectations • Users Have Limited Time and Tolerance • User Experience In The B2B Sector • User Experience Builds Brand • User Experience Cost Savings • User Experience And Increase Sales |
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| 3. Create Customer Experience Evangelists | |
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Summary • Harry saw himself as the sole custodian of the user experience, a lone maverick trying to bring about change single-handedly. The more he met resistance, the more he saw himself as the only one who cared. Over time, he ended up bitter and angry at his management team and colleagues. He came to see them as the enemy. Keywords • Find Colleagues Who Care • Reach Out To Your Potential Evangelists • Establish A Common Vision • User Experience Principles |
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| 4. Raise The Profile Of The Customer | |
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Summary • Let’s imagine two employees at two different compa- nies. We’ll call one Nigel and the other Helen. The companies have been around for the same length of time, are of similar size, and operate in the same industry. Both Nigel and Helen work in legal. Their job is to make sure the companies meet their regulatory obligations and protect them from risk. Both are nice people whom you would enjoy an evening out with. But while Nigel is a constant roadblock to improving the experience of users, Helen is not. Keywords • Pages • Humanise Your Customer • Tell The Customer’s Story • Communicate With Data • Ask Users For Feedback • Establish Regular Communication • Encourage Action • |
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| 5. Get Managerial Support | |
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Summary • The time will come when you will have done all you can behind the scenes. You will need permission to take the next big step. Where that line is and what that next big step will be will vary from company to company. The longer you leave it, the more momentum will be behind your cause and the more compelling your case will be. You will have more support, more statistics, more stories. In short, you will be better prepared. That will be important if you want management to take you seriously. Keywords • Get The Attention Of Management • Apply Ux Design Principles To Management Needs • Frame Your Request Around Management’s Agenda • Validate Your Arguments • Get An External Perspective • Find Comparable Case Studies • Get Management’s Approval • Scare Your Management • Inspire Management • Give Management A Simple Next Step |
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| 6. Develop A Proof Of Concept | |
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Summary • The real barriers to implementing the principles of user experience design are external constraints: constraints of the technology; constraints around compliance and policies; constraints around requirements. These limitations have prevented you from ever showing what a great user experience looks like. Keywords • An Experiment In User Experience Design • Delivering A Successful Pilot Project • Put Together The Right Team • The Three Rules Of Piloting • Find The Time For Your Pilot |
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| 7. Establish Better Working Practices | |
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Summary • Although Hannah and her team were experts in their field, they were constantly prevented from doing their best work by the organisational culture. They found themselves compromising their work just to get it out of the door in a difficult environment. Keywords • Begin With User Needs • Enforcing Usability Testing • Collaborate Through Prototyping • Explore Alternative Approaches • Focus On Saving Users’ Time • Focus On Simplicity • Help Colleagues See Complexity • Making Legacy Simple |
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| 8. Transform The Organizational Culture | |
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Summary • I was fortunate enough to work with an organisation whose senior management team sent out such an email. They made it clear that customer experience was their number one goal. Yet, a year on and little had changed, despite countless initiatives and training sessions. Any momentum gathered had stalled despite the best intentions of management. What had gone wrong? Keywords • Work Across Silos • Address Organisational Structure • Break The Fear Of Failure • Make UX An Operational Expense • Update Policies And Procedures Establish • New Metrics At Every Level |
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| 9. A Vision Of A UX-Focused Company | |
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Summary • Changing an organisation’s culture is a major undertaking. It will take years and you might not see the end. But it is a journey worth making. It won’t just help the business. It will help you, too. It will develop your skills and increase your employability. It will raise your profile in the business. Most of all, it will make a tangible difference here and now. Although some of what I have written about will take years to achieve, you can apply much of what I have covered today, things that will make a difference immediately. Keywords • Work Across Silos • Address Organisational Structure • Break The Fear Of Failure • Make UX An Operational Expense • Update Policies And Procedures Establish • New Metrics At Every Level |
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Testimonials From Our Readers
- “I’m currently reading the User Experience Revolution book and I absolutely like it because of the strategic thinking, and its excellent examples.”
— Norbert Boros - Free PDF Sample: “Get Managerial Support” (PDF, 0.8 MB)
- Get Managerial Support (HTML, audio)
- Extra Goodie: 52 Free Culture Cards (PDF, 112 MB)
- 248 pages, 14 × 21 cm (5.5 × 8.25 inches),
- ISBN: 978-3-945749-51-7 (print),
- Quality hardcover with stitched binding and a ribbon page marker,
- All pre-orders have been shipped already. The hardcover book will be sent out starting from today (April 18th) via free worldwide airmail shipping from Germany.
- The eBook will be immediately available in PDF, EPUB, and Amazon Kindle formats,
- Available as printed, gorgeous hardcover and eBook.
Sneak Preview (PDF Sample)
To give you a more detailed idea of what the book is like, feel free to download a free sample of the book on how to get managerial support of your ideas. You should also check out my free culture cards. This pack of 52 cards each contain a technique you can use to shift the culture of companies to be more user centric.
Technical Details
