Establishing a company-wide, user-centred culture is central to my work and philosophy here. Simply talking about it and instructing the comapny to follow this path doesn’t work - we have to create the conditions that encourage such an approach to blossom. We use our UX design process as an opportunity to do this.

Establishing a company-wide, user-centred culture is central to my work and philosophy here. Simply talking about it and instructing the comapny to follow this path doesn’t work - we have to create the conditions that encourage such an approach to blossom. We use our UX design process as an opportunity to do this.

First we clearly identify business requirements, which usually takes shape through stakeholder interviews. The goal is to clearly understand the business’s needs. To make sure we are solving real problems that exist in our users lives, we perform rigourous user research by way of qualitative analysis such as interviews, observation, surveys, participatory desgin, remote and guerilla user testing. Quantitative analysis is facilitated by tools such as Google Analytics, CrazyEgg and Splunk to name a few. Finding new and inovative ways to share user testing videos and user research findings is key to promoting user-centred design across the company.

First we clearly identify business requirements, which usually takes shape through stakeholder interviews. The goal is to clearly understand the business’s needs. To make sure we are solving real problems that exist in our users lives, we perform rigourous user research by way of qualitative analysis such as interviews, observation, surveys, participatory desgin, remote and guerilla user testing. Quantitative analysis is facilitated by tools such as Google Analytics, CrazyEgg and Splunk to name a few. Finding new and inovative ways to share user testing videos and user research findings is key to promoting user-centred design across the company.

To make sure everyone is singing from the same song sheet, and to keep a project from drifting into something that isn't a UX project, I lead cross-collaborative lean workshops, structured around Jeff Gothelf’s lean methodology. These workshops consist of developers, product owners and sometimes marketing folk, in which we identify business goals, user goals and features that may serve the former two. Hypothesese statements are created off the back of these, with success metrics determined by our business goals. MVPs are designed to test our hypotheses, and we are able to gain feedback much quicker. With the focus being on learning, risk is reduced as we are able to bring to light problems and opportunities much faster. As a team we test, learn and iterate.

To make sure everyone is singing from the same song sheet, and to keep a project from drifting into something that isn't a UX project, I lead cross-collaborative lean workshops, structured around Jeff Gothelf’s lean methodology. These workshops consist of developers, product owners and sometimes marketing folk, in which we identify business goals, user goals and features that may serve the former two. Hypothesese statements are created off the back of these, with success metrics determined by our business goals. MVPs are designed to test our hypotheses, and we are able to gain feedback much quicker. With the focus being on learning, risk is reduced as we are able to bring to light problems and opportunities much faster. As a team we test, learn and iterate.

Projects at Kurt Geiger are varied, but largely we follow certain steps during the design phase. Before pen is put to paper, user flows and experience maps are produced to better map the customer journey across all channels. These also help us understand complex technical flows and help define the scope for our developers. Information Architecture activities such as card sorting are utilised to bring order to our websites, and were pivotal to increasing the findability of products. To keep our products focused, we build personas to better communicate our user needs to the project teams.

Projects at Kurt Geiger are varied, but largely we follow certain steps during the design phase. Before pen is put to paper, user flows and experience maps are produced to better map the customer journey across all channels. These also help us understand complex technical flows and help define the scope for our developers. Information Architecture activities such as card sorting are utilised to bring order to our websites, and were pivotal to increasing the findability of products. To keep our products focused, we build personas to better communicate our user needs to the project teams.

Depending on the task at hand, we design wireframes, prototypes or both. The fidelity required depends on the audience. Amoungst the team, we encourage pen and paper activities to ideate quicker. Low and Hi-Fidelity prototypes are produced, predominently in Axure, and it’s these Hi-Fi prototypes we use to both present to our sharehoulders, and test with our users. I implemented the use of pattern libraries to quicken the production of prototypes and MVP’s. I also introduced methods to improve the way in which we support our developers with a hybrid of annotated wireframes and user stories written in gherkin language, or acceptance criterias.

Depending on the task at hand, we design wireframes, prototypes or both. The fidelity required depends on the audience. Amoungst the team, we encourage pen and paper activities to ideate quicker. Low and Hi-Fidelity prototypes are produced, predominently in Axure, and it’s these Hi-Fi prototypes we use to both present to our sharehoulders, and test with our users. I implemented the use of pattern libraries to quicken the production of prototypes and MVP’s. I also introduced methods to improve the way in which we support our developers with a hybrid of annotated wireframes and user stories written in gherkin language, or acceptance criterias.

A vast amount of work has been produced over my 5 years at Kurt Geiger. The scope of work is wide and varied. Too much to fit to fit here. Instead, this article is a small insight into my UX process, and to illustrate my unwavering belief that good UX is embedded in the organisational DNA. This idea of fostering design-thinking in a work place, both at small team and enterprise level, is central to my work in the capacity of a UX Manager.

Some of my greatest learnings have been through finding that success is hidden in the understanding of individual personalities in my team, learning their creative processes and the nuances they possess, knowing when to push them and when to step back. The tone of voice, method of communication and process employed with one developer maybe completely different to the next. There is no one silver bullet for all. Understanding the political matrix of an organisation I find to be extremely important in steering any given project in the right direction, keeping the team happy, whilst advocating good UX with people that hold influence. Converting colleagues into user experience advocates is central to changing the culture.

A vast amount of work has been produced over my 5 years at Kurt Geiger. The scope of work is wide and varied. Too much to fit to fit here. Instead, this article is a small insight into my UX process, and to illustrate my unwavering belief that good UX is embedded in the organisational DNA. This idea of fostering design-thinking in a work place, both at small team and enterprise level, is central to my work in the capacity of a UX Manager.

Some of my greatest learnings have been through finding that success is hidden in the understanding of individual personalities in my team, learning their creative processes and the nuances they possess, knowing when to push them and when to step back. The tone of voice, method of communication and process employed with one developer maybe completely different to the next. There is no one silver bullet for all. Understanding the political matrix of an organisation I find to be extremely important in steering any given project in the right direction, keeping the team happy, whilst advocating good UX with people that hold influence. Converting colleagues into user experience advocates is central to changing the culture.