Ad hoc ux Product Design tactics
paratrooper design
In User Experience Design, you don’t always have the luxury of starting from the beginning or having all the requirements. You have to have a plan to succeed and the skills to survive!
it’s knowing what to do when you get up that matters
If you’re in UX, you’ve been blindly drooped into a project at some point.
This is a map to help you figure out where you are and to understand what to do next.
In the early days of a design group, the team will often be included in projects long past the planning phase. This undermines the key value of UX and can often lead to wasted time and sub-optimal user-centered design practices.
Project Objectives
Create a set of tactics, expectations, and dynamic processes that will help a designer find their way when UX has not been properly fit into a project that is already underway.
My Contributions
I designed this process and refined it over years of tinkering. I developed this to not only be a process map for designers, but also an opportunity to educate other disciplines within a product team on the values of UX and the risks of sacrificing key UX milestones. I also directed visual design of the map itself.
Download the Process Map Here
This is an early concept of the UX Paratrooper Design Map that will give you an understanding of the process flow, things to consider, and outcome expectations. Special thanks to Beth Kun for visual representation of map.
Possible outcomes
The path a project team taken will determine risk of having a successful product outcome.
The Full Monty [LOW RISK]
This is a project where you’ve done all the steps. UX was engaged in early research and planning, solid user research was conducted before starting requirements, UCD iteration flow occurred, success was a balance of technical feasibility, business requirement, AND user experience, post-development review was conducted, and proper training and hand-off occurrred.
Big Brother [MODERATE RISK]
This is a full contextual research and summative follow-up to assure that design goals and user needs are met. This has a moderate amount of risk because it does not assure that best design standards and practices are being utilized. This focusing on oversight related to research and results.
Recon [MODERATE RISK]
This is pure contextual research and is not involved in the design process out outcome oversight. This is valuable as a service but cannot guarentee good execution. Although, sometimes, good intel means there is not execution!
Kubla Khan [ELEVATED RISK]
In this project type, you’ve done the upfront research, the proper design cycles, and the hand-offs….unfortunatly, you skipped the summative testing to tell you if the thing your team built is actually atisfying the users’ needs once everything came together. It is not uncommon to product teams to run out of appatite for more research and time at this point…as a UX person, try to stand your ground and make sure the job is done and not just another unfinished poem.
Heuristic Design [HIGH RISK]
This is designing with a vision based on what someone thinks is try, as opposed to doing actual user research. It has all the other parts in place…but it is a guess based on an unchecked set of assumptions. Sometimes this works great and generates a lot of inspiration…but sometimes it fails.
Dorodango [EXTREME RISK]
This is perhaps the most common form of project for companies that are just starting to work with UX.
Dorodango (Japanese: 泥だんご, lit. “mud dumpling”) is a Japanese art form in which earth and water are combined and moulded, then carefully polished to create a delicate shiny sphere resembling a billiard ball. It is sometimes done with mud…sometimes with animal droppings. In the end…it is turd polishing.
When it comes to UX, this is simply a project were they bring UX in for esthetics only…to “sprinkle on some UX,” “make it pop,” esentially polish the turd.
I do not recommend this method.
Judgement Day [EXTREME RISK]
Ok….now you’ve gone and done it. You did a whole project without UX involvement and now you want them to come tell you what a great job you did. If you are lucky, you’re fine. If you aren’t, expect an earful. Your chances of success without a solid UX process comes down to luck.
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I welcome any feedback comments or questions about any work you find on this site. I am also always interested in exploring new opportunities and new ideas.