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IT Unconference

5 Steps to Start Providing Great User Experience

Proposed by David Tom, Brian Young, Forrest Glick

Let's talk about how to get started providing great user experiences. This session will have open discussion, provide some specific steps, and resources to help along the way.
Notes

Title: "5 Steps to Start Providing Great UX"

Workspace and presentation: Figjam Collaboration Space 

Activity:3 minutes brainstorm on stickies. Prompt: "What are some things you can do to start providing great user experiences?"

Presentation Material:

5 Steps to Start Providing Great UX

  1. Get user feedback
  2. Identify top user tasks
  3. Follow usability best practices
  4. Use visual standards
  5. Measure success & iterate

1. Get User Feedback

What: Gather and review current user feedback from available sources (e.g., support staff comments and statistics, ServiceNow incident/request data, application traffic, etc.) to uncover existing UX issues. Prioritize issues and include in your product objectives.

Why: Feedback is foundational to understanding and optimizing user experience.

How:

2. Identify Top User Tasks

What: Identify the primary user task flow or funnel, establish at least one related user success metric, and prioritize the design to improve that metric.

Why: Make the top tasks work well, and you’ll be on the right track. Get them wrong, and chances are you’ll be getting help requests or complaints.

How:

3. Follow Usability Best Practices

What: Review against common usability best practices to understand areas of needed improvement and to prioritize top issues into product requirements.

Why: UX heuristics create a structured method for evaluating a system's usability.

How: 

4. Use Visual Standards

What: Review against approved Stanford branding, identity, and style guidelines to ensure compliance.

Why: The identity guide was informed by many conversations, research, and workshops across campus. It’s intended to inspire and align efforts and aid in the creation of strong, cohesive material across mediums.

How:

5. Measure Success & Iterate

What: Ensure subsequent and ongoing user reviews, audits, and/or feedback collection is defined in any related operations and continuous improvement plan. 

Why: The user experience of a product/service can erode as new features/functionality are added or the focus area of product friction can change as UX improvements are made in other parts of the product. Additionally, UX debt (see below article) can become overbearing over time.

How: 

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