Turi Henderson

Got Friday off to a great start this morning, speaking at Design Network North's "Rise and Design" Event ☀ The theme was “How to give your customers what they REALLY want” so I shared my thoughts on: 1. How to get teams aligned around a shared understanding of who their customers are 2. Getting teams used to declaring assumptions and finding ways to test and learn - quickly 3. How Personas don’t need to be a Marmite asset - focus on situations and contexts and treat as a living document 4. How to find ways to listen to your customers - even when challenged with budget and time constraints 5. And above all, triangulate research insights with data and don’t let *just* your data do the storytelling! Thanks to Terry McStea for the invite to talk, for the audience, their questions and discussions - and to Nick Goodwill of Mamas & Papas for sharing their approach to new product development. It’s great to see these types of events happening “oop North” - and this one is a great way to mix with designers across a range of industries - not just digital. As is life, we have more in common than that which divides us and the more we come together and chew the collective design fat, the more there is opportunity for new perspectives, growth and learning. After all, that's design's superpower - to not necessarily have all the answers, but to have the tools to find out - and have some fun along the way. Image: As per the Hippy Wisdom™ imparted, also by me, this morning "In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, in the experts there are few" - Shunryu Suzuki. Happy Friday! ✌

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I've been working on some service design patterns with Dave Skinner for his project Design Patterns for social housing - https://lnkd.in/eC9p5RRv A service design map is often inaccessible - the designers will have worked hard to capture all the stages but the map will be a PDF or a diagram which doesn't easily resize to fit your phone. Your audience can't resize the text. It can't be read by screen reader software, either. As a solution: try making the map into an HTML table with two columns. For a mobile view, make each row resemble a card. Sorted! 😎 Hire interaction designers to find ways of putting content online. 😇 Transcript: 1. A numbered service stage with a representative icon Describe the stage in detail. Capture any pain points and improvement ideas. "Include verbatim quotes from research." Optional: include an emoji for how the person is feeling at this stage. Backstage - a policy or legal factor (grey) Backstage - a technical factor, such as a database (green) Time-based process (blue) Pain point or blocker (pink)

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Really enjoyed this podcast episode about the state of design leadership and craft, and what might need to be done. https://buff.ly/3Wfm51r

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This week I had the pleasure of participating a ⭕ Circle session on unpacking Accountability with a group of in-house service designers led by Erin Borreson. I really appreciated Erin's thoughtful approach of guiding us through thinking about accountability from different lenses and altitudes. ☕️ Key takeaways from the session included: 1. Accountability is shared, and a shared understanding needs to be built first. 2. Ongoing discussion of accountability is important! If a project feels like it's missing action, take a moment to do an accountability health check, and realign as a group. 3. There are many layers and variables of accountability: individual, team, org, horizontal, vertical, etc. As service designers, I think we all tend to be stronger at the new, shiny, early phases of our work and fizzle out on the follow-through, so this was a great topic. More info on the Circle here: https://lnkd.in/gYb9ZcYu

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Accessibility is getting more important in websites. Let me or us know if you would like an accessibility audit done on your website.

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Designers are being exploited. I've become increasingly concerned with the state of design hiring processes since my first redundancy back in 2021, and I fear we've reached breaking point (at least I have). Today, we're talking about design tasks. It's now commonplace for potential employers to ask jobseekers to complete an unpaid "task" during the selection process. These so-called tasks usually require days of work, and often involve creating designs that the company genuinely needs and could potentially use without payment or permission. This leaves designers in an impossible position: should we leave our dignity at the door, comply, and get used (after all, we're #Desperate for work) - or say no and hope the next company, if there is one, has morals? It's also hard to spend limited time on a task, when you know you're up against other designers who may simply spend longer on it and therefore be selected to move forward, based solely on their "effort" rather than skills. The good news is (unless you sign something to the contrary) any work you create for these tasks belongs to you, even if you use their branding. If you have any legal concerns around IP, speak to Carrie Bradley! I've already made several posts documenting tasks I've been asked to produce in full, so if you're interested in seeing just how much we're being asked for, check out my older content. One company I was a huge fan of ghosted me after I completed a week's worth of work for them. I'm now saying no to tasks, full stop. If none of us comply with their unethical practices, they'll be forced to do something radical: judge us based on our portfolios and CVs that have taken years to curate. Wouldn't that be something?

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Interviewing your users can be a daunting task, especially when you do it for the first time. As a UX research lead, Valerie Tham offers in the following fragment a few simple but effective pointers on how to overcome these challenges. Overcoming the challenges of UX research https://lnkd.in/gfBufsPe #Podcast #Networking #Leadership

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In most organisations, research is a way to test if a feature or service is built right, rarely influencing the product roadmap. It’s time to shift gears to a proactive approach. By embedding research early, you can ensure your team is solving the right problems and aligning closely with business goals. Discover how proactive research reduces risks, boosts confidence in decision-making, and drives innovation in enterprise settings. Let’s make UX research a strategic powerhouse! 🚀 Here's a peek into the article: "Every business has its method for prioritising items on the roadmap, often based on a version of value/effort-based metrics and frameworks. Each of these frameworks relies on making estimates of the value offered to businesses and clients and the effort required to develop them. In all these frameworks, there is always a confidence factor, and the success of such prioritisation always depends on the accuracy of the estimates. Through proactive UX research, researchers can enhance confidence in these estimates by providing robust data-driven insights. This approach minimises the risk of investing in low-value features or missing out on high-impact opportunities. Hence, in mature UX-driven organisations, features only make it to the product roadmap with prior research. It enables enterprises to invest resources in feasible solutions aligned with user needs and business goals." #uxresearch #proactiveresearch #userexperience #businessstrategy #innovation

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We got our first website accessibility audit in quite a while done recently. It's important not to be daunted by the report you get back – we are thoroughly working through it to make the improvements needed. We're trying to design and develop things in a robust way, and a nice bonus was some big recently shipped work had no known issues. It just shows that when you build accessibility in from the start it makes a huge impact. #accessibility

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So glad I managed to attend UX Brighton on Friday. Top notch speakers for an obvious but tricky theme: UX & AI. Some personal highlights: - Pablo Stanley's contagious energy, humour and eye-candy slides somehow managed to show really practical "why did I put this button here" advice. Proper Design class! >> check his Lummi app https://www.lummi.ai/ - Maggie Appleton perfectly encapsulated why AI is breaking the free Internet and what possible (mostly-depressing) futures await us. PS: it's all here >> https://lnkd.in/ek6wJ6V8 - Glenn Jones's text-to-functional-UI demo left some speechless. A glimpse into a future of use-once UIs generated on the fly. - Hannah Beresford's solid research work laid out why AI tools don't work yet and what to do about it. - Will Taylor's historical framework was the perfect conference intro and a useful tool to clarify "which AI for which situation". A few reflections: - There are identified ways make chatbot-style AI UIs more usable... but the single box to "ask anything" is far from the being the most useful interaction paradigm. - AIs are rubbish at context, societal norms and verbal cues. It's best to think of them as a smart alien rather than a human. - Data-led products, like AI-driven ones, need to be user tested in context, with real data. Smoke & mirrors prototypes or static mockups are pointless. - It did made me want to work on AI products and try more AI tools! - Also, not one mention of sustainability?? It feels like the elephant in the room. Overall, such an awesome day with Joanna Rusznica Laura Pison David Man Jess Judge Rachel Ward Kounnas Caroline Gardiner Andrew Wood Rosie FitzGerald Carolyn Letts #uxbri #uxbrighton #uxbrighton2024 #ai #ux #design

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In a month's time I'll be talking at UX Scotland about accessibility audits and VPATs (a type of accessibility conformance report). My hope is to demystify the audit process a little - enough to empower others to give accessibility testing a go. Any accessibility testing is better than none! Because there's no way I can share everything I'd like to say in a 45 minute talk, then I'll also be publishing a more detailed article on the same day. After a short introduction to digital accessibility, I'll cover the different types of accessibility audits available and why the VPAT is interesting. I'll go into detail about preparing before an audit, and talk through my audit process with examples, tips, and things to look out for. I'll also include ideas for analysis and understanding what 'good' looks like. More importantly, I'll describe why the VPAT is not the goal, and how instead of stopping at a report, you can treat the audits as a discovery exercise to understand your current state of accessibility, a source of evidence to communicate to your team for improving processes, and a foundation from which to inform a longer term strategy towards accessibility maturity. I can't wait! See you there. #uxscot #accessibility #a11y

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Human Centred Design People are frustrated with everyday things due to ever increasing complexity. The solution for this is Human - Centered Design (HCD), an approach that puts human needs, capabilities and behaviours first and then signs to accommodate those needs. Human centered design is a philosophy. It means starting with a good understanding of people and the needs that design is intended to meet. #humancentereddesign #HCD #users #designapproach

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Question for service design contacts - Has anyone come across a "Design System" or something similar for non-digital services? I'm wondering how to go about creating basically a list of practical design features for creating accessible and inclusive community services. I've heard about "design systems" in UI being a way to create a consistent visual experience by listing standard components and elements that work so people don't keep reinventing the wheel. I know there are really good ones out there for creating accessible and inclusive digital services. And I sort of want to create something similar for non-digital services - like health services, support groups, things like that. I'm currently compiling lots of tips from lots of different sources, and I want to be able to share that research in a way that's easy to use. Does something like that already exist? Or does anyone have any thoughts on how to make that work? #ServiceDesign #DesignSystems #Accessibility #A11y #HealthAndCare #EDI

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On #BraveUX this week - a special bonus episode! Nitzan Shaer speaks candidly about the future of UX research 💡, why simulated audiences are a step beyond synthetic 🦾, and how UX professionals can leverage them effectively 💪. Highlights include: ⭐ What’s the vision you’re building towards with WEVO? ⭐ How can simulated audiences help accelerate innovation? ⭐ What does the near future hold for UX research with AI advancements? ⭐ Could simulated research eventually surpass human research in accuracy? ⭐ How would you define the difference between synthetic and simulated research? Plus much more! - - - - - 📺 Watch the episode here - https://lnkd.in/gu4NbCkZ Subscribe and listen to Brave UX on... 🎧 Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/3rzixVc 🎧 Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3q47pPA 🎧 iHeart Radio - https://lnkd.in/g5X5zs_i 🎧 TuneIn + Alexa - https://bit.ly/3jAVkz7 🎧 Stitcher - https://bit.ly/3ezPSw0 - - - - - Who is Nitzan Shaer? Nitzan is the CEO and co-founder of WEVO, a user research platform that leverages AI to deliver reliable insights to designers, marketers, and product managers—in a fraction of the time that traditional research requires 😳. Before co-founding WEVO, Nitzan was the co-founder and managing partner of High Start Group, an innovation consulting firm dedicated to helping companies create and launch breakthrough products 🚀. He also led product management, partner relationships, and defined Skype’s strategy for mobile phones as head of the Mobile Phones and Product Group 📱, where the challenges of working with customers across 150+ countries sparked his vision for WEVO. Complementing his hands-on experience in building and scaling products, Nitzan holds an MBA from Harvard Business School 🏫 and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology. An active contributor to the broader product and business community, Nitzan has shared his insights on stages such as The Product Podcast, Product-Led Summit New York, and at Harvard Business School 🎙️. - - - - - Don’t forget to check out the show notes on YouTube for quick-access to interview chapters, as well as where to find Nitzan. #UX #AI #UXAI #UXR #UXResearch #UserResearch #MarketResearch #AIResearch #UXAItools

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Introverts vs extroverts and then all the nuance and folk who sit in between those two ends of the scale. To be a good design leader (or a leader more generally) do you need to be one or the other? Both have different strengths, values and likely different ways of approaching things. I think the two ends of that scale will likely have quite different styles but I would argue that there is no one size fits all approach. Interested to see what folk think. #design #leadership #people

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UX Researchers are a waste of money - ask questions yourself. I was speaking to someone recently who was made redundant from their UX Research role. I then found out that they were the ONLY researcher in the business. Their previous employer now has no UX Research capability 👀 "We can ask questions ourselves" This was the general attitude that was being reported. The company failed to see the value in UX, not just in UX Research 🤦‍♂️ Do they have a point? No. Here's why... 💡 UX Research is far more than simply asking questions. It is an art and it is part of a bigger cross-functional process. 💡 It is about an EMPATHETIC approach. Not just empathy for your clients, but also your colleagues / employees. 💡 Understanding the art of UX Research and executing it properly can save you a LOT of money. 💡 UX Research can improve your conversion rates, ROI and improve trust with your clients / customers. 💡 Understanding customers in depth, their ways of working, their pain points, their passion points, their desires and, their stories. This where you will find how to perform better and provide what customers want / need. 💡 Designing and setting up research properly takes time. It isn't done over night. 💡 It WILL validate your assumptions and help to guide you where there is value in spending money (if it is done properly). So if you want to do any of the above, think about it. Investment into a small team (or a solo experienced person) is far better for you financially and strategically. We don't "just ask questions".

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