Short Talks

In our final session, UXBristol participants were invited to give short, quick fire talks. With five minutes each on the clock, the following speakers shared their experiences…

Tips to Develop a User-Centred GDPR Policy

Maria Santos

Maria gave a quick introduction to GDPR and shared the framework developed by Ben Coven and Nic Price, which is really useful for identify how early in the research process user needs kick in. This inspired her to create a user-centred GDPR polociy.

Maria reminded us of the four pillars of privacy by design:

• Define your audience with GDPR in mind
• Define your legal grounds for processing
• Define what data you are capturing
• Define how you are storing and processing this data

She shared some tips including…

Before the research, consider:

• Privacy policies
• Access to data
• Anonymise or pseudomise

During the research:

• Pseudomise date collected
• Anonymise online surveys
• Remind participants of their rights

After the research:

• Safely store data
• Get rid of unnecessary data
• Revoke access

Let’s Talk Content

Jonti Eccles

Jonti discussed how to embed content discussions in your projects.  He highlighted some last-minute content entry problems, particularly unanticipated content types, which can lead to back and forth with developers and risks compromises to user needs.

Real content at the early stages is really important, but it can be sketch content or content patterns. 

Jonti shared some ways that UX designers can help include content usability testing early in their processes. He recommended:

• Include content creators in your workshops
• Get content designers into multidisciplinary teams
• Make use of content patters and templates early
• Crit early and often 
• Make everything accessible

The Circle of Strife

Zoe Browning

Zoe described her first university module on design practice. Her lecturer made them practice drawing circles for five weeks. She felt this constrained her and made her feel that she had to strive for perfection.  This followed her into her first UX role.

Zoe found herself creating quick and ugly sketches about what was being discussed. This managed to convey the thoughts of that meeting with more clarity than any of her ‘neat’ work could do.

She argued that the power of imperfection should not be overlooked.

UX is a Team Sport

Simon Rose

Some people are proud of their UX job title, which helps them to feel part of their community, whilst some think that ‘UX’ is an unnecessary decoration. UXers tend to work in agile, multi-disciplinary teams, which is inclusive collaboration.

As a content designer, Simon often wonders if he works in UX. He feels this is because content design is still misunderstood. Often people ask if he can “just add some content in at the end?” How would you feel if someone asked you to just do some UX at the end?

User research is a team sport. He reminded us that content is the user experience: users don’t visit for design – they visit for the content. You need to include a content designer in your team from start to finish. A content designer will contribute the whole way through the design process.

Writing Up User Tests: 7 Euphemisms for ‘Participant is an Idiot”

Kathryn Davies

We have all done user tests that haven’t gone to plan. When we do user research, we have to include all of these people in our results. When you are working with small sample sizes, we can’t ignore them. 

She gave us some light hearted examples of things that she has written in project reports:

• “Participant could not complete the task because they failed to comprehend the section header” i.e. they can’t understand the plain English term
• “Participant became distracted by the low fidelity nature of the prototype” i.e. they wilfully and repeatedly criticised the placeholder image rather than focussing on the task at hand
• “Participant fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the project” i.e. they have got the wrong end of the stick so completely that you can’t go on with the test
• “Participant struggled to engage with the content as they don’t see it as relevant to them:” i.e. they have decided that they don’t like the product and have stopped engaging
• “Participant’s worldview clashed with the site’s design model” i.e. they won’t accept the task solution even when it has been explained to them that there is no other way through the prototype

A Comedian and a UX Designer Walk into a Bar… Lessons from Stand-up

Jane Scaife

Jane has a background in stand-up comedy and shared her reflections on the similarities between creating a good comedy set and creating a good design experience.

1. It’s not all me, me, me – you need to think about your audience thinks is funny, not just what you think is funny
2. You need validation and feedback – you need to workshop material and sometimes have to let go of your favourite joke if it just isn’t working
3. When performing, the unexpected is always the most useful experience
4. Performing stand up allows you to ‘feel the fear’, which is really important in our professional work

She argued that stand-up comedians have the benefit of looking their users in the eye every performance. They are kindred spirits who are spending a lot of time iterating to design their set!

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