Short talks
In our final session, UXBristol participants were invited to give short, quick fire talks. With five minutes each on the clock, the following speakers shared their experiences…
Five reasons why private betas are awesome
Henry Bacon
A private beta gives a limited number of users access to a product or service for a limited time to get their feedback. Henry’s five reasons why private betas are awesome are:
- Your participants are actually using your service – you can get more insight than from made-up example exercises and the users care about the tasks they are trying to do. Their feedback is much more authentic and useful.
- You’ll find out whether they actually use it – humans are not that good at predicting our own future behaviour. A private beta shows you whether people will use your service, and if they don’t you can ask them why not.
- You’ll discover whether it actually works – you can see if your participants pick up any bugs that your product team missed. These can have a big impact on your users’ experience, so picking them up in a private beta allows you to fix issues before wider release.
- You can run one pretty quickly – you can run them for as little as a week and gain insight. This may vary depending on the nature of your product or service
- You can better decide whether you’re ‘release ready’ – you know if there are any issues you need to address, and you’ll be glad you didn’t go live straight away to the whole world!
The OODA loop
Pete Yeomans
There is a change in language in the autistic community that is worth being aware of – we are not “all on the spectrum”. You’re either on it or you’re not. What changes is your ability to hide it.
It is better to think of the spectrum as a spectrum of human behaviour, like your ability to manage anxiety, or manage your impulsivity. We’re all got the same traits, but what is different for neurodivergent is that it spoils their days.
He recommended a podcast called “Looping the Loop“, which explains the OODA loop!
Things I learned after pivoting to UX from a career in graphic design
Ellie Katona
Ellie was been a visual designer for 16 years, but decided to pivot to a UX role last year.
She learned that:
- Design sort of doesn’t matter – there are multiple ways to draw a cat. Designers think about what something is going to look like, whilst a UX designer has to think about the problem first.
- Research isn’t the same as information gathering – you have to talk to as many people as possible and ask as many questions as possible. You need to learn how to note take effectively.
- UX ‘jargon’ exists for a reason – it gives credibility to an area of expertise that was originally viewed as an art rather than a practice. We need process and data to get us there.
- How to work with stakeholders – involve people early and often. If a stakeholder asks something, as “did a user say that?”
- Learn how to prepare for a meeting – POADs are your friend! POAD stands for purpose, objectives, activities and deliverables.
- Forget the client; the user is king – take on the feedback, but you don’t have to use it. You are the advocate for the user, so design for them
Reflections on UXBristol 2023
Matilda Okuyiga
This morning Matilda went to Kevin’s talk about AI. She assumed AI was trying to take our jobs, but the discussions highlighted that she needs to go away and learn more about AI and it can be our friend – it can enhance what we do.
She highlighted the theme of stories, which came through strongly throughout the day. It made her question how she is going to share stories with her stakeholders and co-workers on Monday morning.
Sitting in discussions throughout the day made her reflect on where she is on her journey and whether she is ready to be a mentor.
Finally the session about inclusivity made her think about values. Matilda wants to learn and keep learning so she can keep making a difference in in her area of work.