UX 101

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What is user experience design?

Think about the products you love, and what makes them so special. In many cases, these products find a critical balance between having the right features and making them easy to use. This is the goal behind user experience design: to build great products and services that meet our customer's needs and are a joy to use. There are many ways to create great designs, but UX 101 will introduce you to a set of core tools and methods that can help you create better products and services.

Who should attend?

Anyone who wants to build a better product for their customers, but isn't familiar with the concepts and methods of great design. It doesn't matter what your background is, this workshop will be engaging, hands-on, and fun! We welcome ...

• Designers
• Content Creators
• Marketing & Communications
• Developers
• Project & Product Managers
• Executives

... and anyone else who is interested in User Experience Design, and is looking for a practical introduction to the concepts and methods in the field!

Why should I attend?

This introduction to User Experience design will be useful to anyone who...

Wants to reduce risk and improve the ROI of your product development

UX strategy helps you identify the features that will deliver the most value for your customers and your organization

Wants to deliver products and services that meet customers' needs

UX research helps you understand the context in which customers user your products and services, helping you design solutions that fit into your customer's lives

Wants to create a product that is a "joy to use"

UX design methods help you explore more design options faster, and evaluate the effectiveness of those designs with real customers

What will I learn?

The workshop will give you an overview of User Experience Design as a practice and a culture, then walk you through some practical methods for designing better experiences:

Strategy: Product Planning, Brainstorming

Design strategy focuses on building the right product with the right features at the right time.

Research: Interviews, Data Analysis, Usability Testing

UX research focuses on understanding customer's needs, their goals, and understanding how and when products are used

Design: Sketching, Storyboards, Workflows, Prototyping

Learn how to quickly generate design concepts, how to make sure everything fits into one cohesive experience, and efficient methods for getting feedback from customers

What if I'm not a designer?

It doesn't matter what your role is: you contribute to creating a great experience for your customer. And you can get better at doing so by adopting user experience methods in your work.

Want to ask us a question?

Feel free to send Abe and Jackson an email (ux101@morebetterlabs.com) or give us a call at (919) 285-1694.

I'm a User Experience professional, should I attend?

This course in an introduction to the methods and concepts in UX design. Take a look at the agenda, you can decide for yourself if any of these methods would be useful for you in your practice.

What does the agenda look like?

Day 1

Why does UX matter?

• Bad UX causes confusion, frustration, inefficiency, and wastes money
• Good UX makes customers happy, employees efficient, and saves money
  • Amazon: $300 million button
  • Mint: acquired in two years for $5 million/employee
  • Nielsen Norman: median UCD intranet improved productivity by 44%

The UX Process

• Strategy
• Research
  • Analysis and Ideation
• Design
  • Evaluation and Iteration

UX Strategy

• Framing the problem
  • Understanding business goals and metrics
  • Establishing stakeholder priorities
  • Building on user needs
• Using experience principles to guide design
• Creating a plan for the project
  • Keeping the big picture in mind
• Practical realities and tips for implementing UX strategy

UX Research

• Defining research projects
  • Establishing concrete objectives
  • Writing good research questions
  • Finding participants
• An introduction to research methods
  • Usability studies
  • Interviews
  • Analytics
• Analyzing the findings
• Structuring and presenting your findings
  • Creative presentation techniques
  • Making decisions based on research
  • Getting buy-in from colleagues
• Practical realities and tips for implementing UX research

Day 2

UX Design

• UX Design Perspective
  • Get users involved in the design process
  • Put established design patterns into practice
  • Test early and often
• The UX Designer's Toolkit
  • Conceptual Design: Ideation and exploration, finding design directions
    • Sketching
    • Storyboards
  • Interaction Design: Refining the idea and adding detail
    • User flows
    • Wireframes
    • Functional prototypes
  • Rapid iterative testing and evaluation
    • Using research skills in the design process

UX Culture

• Putting UX into practice in your organization
  • How to integrate UX thinking into the company?  
  • How do you implement this stuff when you don't have any power? 
  • Developing a culture in which good design is valued
• Next steps, and making commitments to take action 

About the Presenters

Jackson Fox and Abe Crystal, Ph.D., are principals at MoreBetterLabs, a small but feisty company dedicated to creating a better Web through design.

We’re currently developing our first product, ruzuku. Ruzuku helps passionate experts (such as authors, speakers, and coaches) create online learning communities.

In addition, we work with clients (such as Duke University, NC State University, and NC LIVE), to improve their user experience. We’ve designed online communities, digital libraries, and ecommerce sites.

Abe and Jackson met in grad school at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science, and have worked together to grow the Triangle Usability Professionals Association.