B... Is for Basics

I recently authored a blog post on my company's website offering up "A Framework for Helping Organizations, Teams & Individuals Understand, Embrace & Sustain the Practice of Experience Design." I've posted a LinkedIn article "teasing" the first principle of this framework: Awareness. This article teases the second principle of this framework: Basics.

Let the teasing commence!

In my relatively brief experience on this planet, I've observed an interesting phenomenon about us humans: We tend to believe that the solution to our problems always lies in some complex, new or otherwise not-currently-understood philosophy, process or method. This is true for some of our problems, but I've personally discovered that getting back to basics holds the key to most of my solutions.

Those of you who know me understand that I really don't follow any professional sports. That said, there is an important lesson to be learned from former Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi:

The quote here reflects coach Lombardi's obsession with the fundamentals. As he prepared his team at the beginning of each season, he would begin with an exhaustive review of the basics. This resulted in his team being the best at things everyone else took for granted.

The same is true for Experience Design!

You, your team and your organization will realize more of the benefits of taking a human-centered approach if you can master and consistently apply the basics of Experience Design.

Basic Objectives

Experience Designers have two core objectives:

1. Understand, empathize with and advocate for the people they are designing for
2. Design experiences that balance human-needs against competing objectives (e.g., business, technical, operational, creative, brand, etc.)

Basic Activities

In order to fulfill the two basic objectives listed above, Experience Designers need to be able to engage in 3 basic activities:

1. Design Research - Observing people and understanding their needs, wants, expectations and perceptions.
2. Experience Strategy - Synthesizing and distilling facts into meaningful stories and actionable recommendations.
3. Design - Envisioning and modeling experiences that resonate with the target audience and inspire project sponsors, leaders and teams to unite in a common vision.

Basic Characteristics

When hiring XD talent, you will want to look for someone who thinks with both sides of their brain. Someone who balances...

• Art with analysis,
• Passion with pragmatism; and
• Dreams with details

Basic Needs

Like all professionals, XD practitioners have a set of situational essentials that must be true in order to realize the full value of taking a human-centered approach. Compromising any of the following principles will significantly diminish the impact XD practitioners can have:

• Access to People/Data - You cannot say that you are human-centered unless you have regular and direct access to the humans you are designing for and data they are generating.
• Sustained Focus - XD is an iterative, thinking profession. It's not uncommon for an experience designer to spend hours or even days in their efforts to solve a seemingly small but significant problem.
• Collaborative Relationships - The work of Experience Design cannot be done effectively in a vacuum. XD professionals need regular access to project sponsors, leaders and teams.
• A Seat at the Table - XD professionals must have a voice in decisions that impact their work. I've seen too many well-intentioned project sponsors, leaders and teams operate on their own assumptions of what Experience Designers need to be successful. This must be actively checked an avoided.

The basics of Experience Design are powerful tools in realizing all of the benefits that a human-centered approach promises. I have found that regular review and re-grounding myself, my teams and everyone I work with in these basics is not just a good idea but a critical component to success.

Now go check out the rest of this blog post to learn about how to affect change toward becoming more human-centered.