Paul Boag

User Experience Revolution

Many companies try to create a great experience for customers. But few are willing to make the changes required to deliver on that promise. In fact most don’t even realize just how bad their experience can be.

Do you feel like the only person at your company who understands what a huge competitive advantage a good user experience provides? Are you frustrated that your management team doesn’t see the value of creating great user experiences? Do you struggle to convince colleagues to approach projects from a users perspective?

Published on April 2017
Tags: UX

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“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

Smashing Magazine reader

About The Book

248 pages. Written by Paul Boag. Designed by Veerle Pieters.

Why This Book Is For You

This book is for anybody passionate about user experience, but who is in a company that needs an extra push. You might be a designer, marketer, content specialist or any one of many jobs concerned about user experience.

You don’t need to be a manager, although you might be. You don’t 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.

Print + eBook

$ 48.75 $ 63.00

Quality hardcover. Free worldwide shipping. 100 days money-back-guarantee.

eBook

$ 19.00

DRM-free, of course. ePUB, Kindle, PDF.
Included with your Smashing Membership.

Getting Real About User Experience Design +

Customer Relationship
Involving Customers Into The Product Design Process
Understanding Users’ Needs

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.

How To Sell The Benefits Of User Experience Design +

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

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.

Create Customer Experience Evangelists +

Find Colleagues Who Care
Reach Out To Your Potential Evangelists
Establish A Common Vision
User Experience Principles

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.

Raise The Profile Of The Customer +

Pages
Humanise Your Customer
Tell The Customer’s Story
Communicate With Data
Ask Users For Feedback
Establish Regular Communication
Encourage Action

Let’s imagine two employees at two different companies. 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.

Get Managerial Support +

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

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.

Develop A Proof Of Concept +

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

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.

Establish Better Working Practices +

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

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.

Transform The Organizational Culture +

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

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?

A Vision Of A UX-Focused Company +

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

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.

About The Author

Paul is a leader in conversion rate optimisation and user experience design thinking. He has over 25 years experience working with clients such as Doctors Without Borders and PUMA. He is the author of six books and a well respected presenter.

Print + eBook

$ 48.75 $ 63.00

Quality hardcover. Free worldwide shipping. 100 days money-back-guarantee.

eBook

$ 19.00

DRM-free, of course. ePUB, Kindle, PDF.
Included with your Smashing Membership.

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