My experience with a Low UX Maturity Organisation
UX Design is a vital aspect of every business. What is UX? User Experience Design and UX maturity defines company's bottom lines. What is UX maturity? It is the complete and total inculcation of business practices within the experience of a user. We cannot have great products without getting into the mind of the user.
We cannot make supply chain or product development decisions without conducting competitive audits, user research, comparative analysis, and SWOT analysis of every aspect of product design. That is just the start…Let’s mark down the meaning of UX Maturity, according to Nielsen Norman Group UX Maturity measures an organization’s desire and ability to successfully deliver user-centered design. It encompasses the quality and consistency of research and design processes, resources, tools, and operations, as well as the organization’s propensity to support and strengthen UX now and in the future, through its leadership, workforce, and culture.
WHAT HAS UX DONE FOR THE WORLD AT LARGE?
The term UX is becoming synonymous with business objectives and goals. This is a new phenomenon. The world classified user experience as something that was already seen through proven practices of business success. Nothing separate. This could be seen in countries such as the USA where companies of large scale existed and there was a only large scale. Few competitors and lesser visibility in regard to the total world view. This is because the world wide web had not fully gained mass adoption to the scale you have seen in the last 10 years. According to UXplanet.org UX supports and improves core spheres of human life like health care, education, commerce, and self-expression. In this aspect, UX contributes to different fields of human growth and development. it creates the flows of interactions and layouts for educational websites, applications used in medical treatment and health care, data analysis, technical support, and other directions. Add to it the variety of specialized platforms where people share their creative outcomes like artworks, music, or pieces of writing…That means you could be the Walmart of groceries, and nobody would bat an eye at your small-medium business within the same industry as the industry leader or one of the industry leaders. UX intervened. This changed…everything, business-wise and product-wise. People began to credit user experience as not synonymous with top management but its own sole department with wider organizational implementation. As a result of the large-scale implementation of UX within almost every small and medium business… high-quality products are being shipped at all levels of industry horizontally. You can now have a tailor-made solution in the form of a SAAS. There is reason to believe that the software industry is the only industry at the forefront of UX design and product development at that depth of level. We must be cautious of industry and implicit bias. We are users of products. Tangible and non-tangible. According to the UXMatters blog Leo mentions “What is spectacular about being a great UX designer is the truly sincere desire to improve the world, Many of us want to help change the world for the better. He then goes on to elaborate “The question the reader has posed implies that businesses share that mission, but that is not typically the case. The purpose of a business is to create customers — so said Peter Drucker back in 1954, and it’s still true today. If improving the world supports a company’s mission, UX design will have a place in the company’s strategy. However, because many of today’s business leaders have not yet learned the value of design as a business strategy, they aren’t aware of how design can improve their processes, adoption rates, and top-and bottom-line growth. Nevertheless, in most businesses, the goal of User Experience is to improve business outcomes. But they relegate improving experience outcomes for users to the status of a positive side effect.
UX Maturity has 6 scales to it and those can be seen in the image below;
So what are UX organizations missing? UXmatters brings insight into the topic with the quote below from Leo Frishberg.
WHAT DOES MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE SAY ABOUT UX?
I remember when I worked my first job, I noticed poor design everywhere…mind you, I used to work at Sobeys. Nothing grandeur-like in terms of management and role power when considering I was only a cashier. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane…my cash till did not have any sort of standing space or functional UX from a cashier's standpoint of view. We always had to stand even if it meant during an 8-hour shift. Yeah, I know…it was hell. Let’s point out the positive, Sobeys did provide users with foot mats that alleviated any pains associated with foot soles and ankles. This was a prime example of not giving UX priority but trying to avoid any possible lawsuits in regard to workplace negligence. Keeping the feet comfortable during a long shift does not take away the gravitational pull holding doing muscle mass and creating chances of long-term aches and injuries. A seat would be optimal in this case. Let’s dissect this problem into three categorical points of view. The Business wants the care and needs of the customers looked after without sacrificing bottom-line expectations and company culture upholding. This categorical point of view values user needs while looking at how to enhance the view of the user when looking at the Sobeys brand. A pertinent and always active-looking employee is signified like a machine…always on standby and ready to assist and that can be equated to standing up at all times while the customer is in the store and or out. Now let’s look at the second point of view which is that of the end-user or customer of the brand. The customer is always entering the store with a purpose, whether it is for an immediate need or it’s just to browse or passing by and wishing to see the catalog of products available in the store. Their view is purely consumeristic. They have a need or want that the Sobeys grocery brand can satisfy through its grocery product line. This viewpoint looks to exchange value for goods and feels good about doing that. So having a welcoming front from a humanistic perspective is vital to maintain customer loyalty and the consumer tied into the store’s consistent business. The last but not least viewpoint of the three is the employee. The employee wishes to provide labor-oriented service as agreed under contract to the Sobeys employer. This categorical viewpoint is CRUCIAL to the whole system. This is the middleman where value exchange synergies occur. This service itself has a method to it. You cannot take this service lightly. The business management has traditionally zero to no face-to-face interaction with every possible and existing customer base and the employee fills that gap. That is exactly why the employee must be in a prime position to provide that service at all costs and times. There it is, all categorical user points of view.
So why break down the problem from three lens perspective? Well, to be an industry leader, the UX department would look at all three points of view and contemplate all possible situations, conduct research, collect data, synthesize the data, communicate the data for stakeholder buyout, look at developing prototypes or mock-ups of the problem solution, carried out user testing and finally help all teams collaborate at pace while shipping the product with the design team.
That is what UX does and did for organizations that value business growth and couple that with ambitious goals in mind, short and long term. If I could go back in time and suggest a possible solution for Sobeys to implement company-wide? Yeah, do some research on employee feedback when it comes to personal and business experiences. Take that into account and then cross-reference/validate with brand users. This allows the business manager responsible for user needs while fully pushing for brand awareness as a considerate organization that wants to ensure the experience of ALL of its stakeholders is a pleasant one. My two cents as a designer who fights for the user. End user to be exact, yeah that’s the brand user also known as the consumer that walks into the storefront looking to buy grocery products off Sobeys shelves.
MY CURRENT COMPANY BASE
Without naming the current employer, I would like to say, that this company is a great people company, they take good care from a mental health perspective when looking at employees. With that being said, let’s bash them a little on their UX practices. No, I am just kidding, I am voicing this out for purposes of learning for other companies as well. Other companies usually are unable to get the scope of the business when it may come to learn about UX practices. Every company must go through its own struggle when it comes to UX. This company I work at has its own challenge and the role of a UX Designer within the company is merged with the programmers/software developers. What this means is that User Experience is limited according to the Nielson Norman maturity scale of UX. There are three characteristics of such maturity, it is uneven, haphazard, and aspirational. Let’s dive straight into practical examples of this at my company, The CEO just accompanies the duties of design to the programmers at the company without the care of a dedicated UX designer. The only good benefit of this is temporary short-term cost savings. When looking at UX design the company has been present in its field for the last 10 years and yet the company still faces shortcomings in the end-of User Experience. The company product has the feel of something that came out in 2000 without any sort of simple design being implemented at all.
SO WHERE DOES UX MATURITY FIT IN ALL OF THIS?
Every single example here, ranging from research-based fact points to my personal experience builds on why UX maturity matters. When you view problems from a Macro lens and solidify business goals, your end user may be losing out. They have the most to lose out on. When the end user’s financial pocket hurts, the business can only expect possible short-term gains and long-term unsustainability. The darker sides of a company’s downfalls when highlighted have a root cause. This root cause is neglecting the end user in some shape or form. UX maturity will always have a long-term and short-term resolution to save the company from imminent damage, both long-term and short-term financing. The company’s mission and values are projected in a positive manner when UX maturity reaches structured levels. It is hard to achieve such levels, but it is not impossible. Most companies are usually seen in the limited UX maturity scale to literally absent. This is where the company is either struggling to gain long-term clients as well as find new clients in the process as well. This is why.
My conclusive words…
All in all, there are some short takeaways from having UX maturity at the highest levels within your company. You have to be aware of the framework of UX maturity that the world knows. The Nielsen Norman Group framework of UX Maturity is a very good gauge. 6 stages altogether from the very low level to the high level of UX maturity. This creates the right awareness within the organization. This leads to a better understanding of why UX maturity matters and is valuable to track at the company. It creates the roadmap of how to better the company. Talk to your stakeholders, and the company leadership, and discuss what UX maturity is and how it can become a guiding light to a better product and a great user experience for users of the product. Furthermore taking that a step further is having key people within the organization that is dedicated to creating UX governance and policy structure with the right key stakeholder buyout. Lead with these methods. See what is reverted back to you by the leadership. Then implement what you can. Remember a good company with a good product will support good UX practices, resulting in higher UX maturity. A bad company with a good product will eventually fail at maintaining this approach and well…bad company and bad product…you know the rest. Take my words with some key start points for your explorative journey towards UX maturity. Until then…Keep fighting for the users…
