Welcome to UXCF2010
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Tom McEwan, Edinburgh Napier University and Chair BCS Interaction SG
This morning, after this introduction,
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Position papers
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John Knight - a survey of the dimensions in UX job adverts
Rob Mettler and colleagues, PA Consulting Group
David Travis, User Focus Ltd
Jose-Rodrigo Cordoba-Pachon, Royal Holloway, Univ of London
Stephen Chambers, RedGate
Scott Dodgson, SKOPOS
Breakout (use the materials on the resource bench)
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A – Identify ideal person specifications for UX. Jonathan Earthy & Chandra Harrison
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The underpinning knowledge, skills, qualifications and experience used in UX.
We start from a list of attributes in existing frameworks. Can we add to this list? Can we remove outdated
terminology? Can we refine what we mean by certain terms?
B – Identify ideal UX job descriptions & organisational structures. Claire Mitchell & Tony Russell Rose
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What roles are there in your organisation? How do they interact?
What changes are needed to cope with emerging trends? Which department(s) own UX? Which should?
Welcome to UXCF2010 (part 2)
• After lunch (supplied)
– Chandra Harrison chairs and presents a survey (By UPA UK) of existing UX
occupations and salaries
• Position papers
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William Hudson, Syntagm
Susan Turner & Phil Turner, Edinburgh Napier University
Phil Day & colleagues, NCR Corporation
Mitja Koštomaj, Thames Valley University
Alison Black, Alison Black Researching & Consultancy
• Breakout groups – how to make progress in each case
• Final Session – chaired by Nigel Bevan
• Break for food (not supplied) then reconvene at RSE
Rationale
• Why have we got the UK’s finest UX experts all gathered in this room?
• Employment is now regimented by definitions of competency
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Due to equal opportunities and employment protection legislation
Comparable pay for comparable jobs etc
The need to benchmark our skills against other countries
To automate HR (see HR-XML now v3)
To automate skills gap analysis
• HCI/Usability/UX are basically nice people
– We don’t elbow our way into the standards
– Too busy doing the job to play the strategy games?
– Get 37 of us in a room and get 75 different definitions of UX?
Yet we have been making progress for 20
years
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Charles Brennan
Jonathan Earthy
Nigel Bevan
And many, many more – see the HCI Educators paper
• UX-related roles in SFIA v3 (2005) and SFIA v4 (2008)
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4 core human factors roles
6 other core roles (IOHO)
~25 other roles that support or relate to UX
Out of 78 total IT roles
• Ccskills (Design) and Skillset (Interactive Media) also cover UX space
• Then again what about Marketing, Financial Services etc
• Today we start the process for the next round of standards
Common ideas about UX roles and jobs
• UX is the result of a combination of individual roles plus an evolution
of an organisational culture.
• The existing well known roles of Usability Evaluation, Usability
Engineer or Cognitive Engineer are in most definitions of the UX team
• Several papers highlighted that Interaction Designers and Prototype
Engineers were also part of the UX team (there was a wide range of
other roles mentioned, however).
Common ideas about UX knowledge/skills
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Business & organisational:
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General knowledge from the field of marketing
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Professional communication skills – in particular the ability to create effective visual summaries
of complex issues and action lists/trade offs
Expertise in negotiation, consultancy and project management
Specific techniques and methods:
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The ability to present and exert influence within large organisation, in particular the ability to
raise UX awareness/maturity levels in organisation
The ability to “deliver” in projects, covering a range of viewpoints, from being a pragmatic
completer-finisher, to someone who ensures no details are neglected
Techniques and methods from ethnography or anthropology
A knowledge of Experiential Design and other contemporary participative design approaches
Expertise in evaluation techniques and processes
A detailed understanding of usability, in particular as defined by ISO standards
Innovation:
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The ability to apply theoretical knowledge to novel and unexpected areas
Expertise in rapid development methods and research techniques in the context of product
development processes.
National Skills Academy Network
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Construction
Creative and Cultural Skills (initially for ‘backstage’ and ‘offstage’ roles in theatre and live music events)
Enterprise
Financial Services
Food & Drink Manufacturing
Hospitality
Breaking news
IT Skills Academy vision:
IT
to produce
Manufacturing
“highly skilled,
Materials, Production & Supply
multidisciplinary technology
Nuclear
professionals who
Process Industries
understand how business
Retail
works and can confidently
Social Care
manage projects, systems
Sport & Active Leisure
and people”
Basic roles
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Pre-Entry / Junior Technician
Associate Professional
Professional
Senior Professional
Lead professional
IT & Telecoms NOS (e-Skills 2009)
• “Pre-Entry / Junior Technician Role:
– Competence (4.3.J.1) – Carry out, under supervision, specified human needs
analysis activities
– Competent performance requires Understanding (4.3.J.1.U.) of:
• a) what needs to be considered when analysing human needs
– is meant by a user experience
– is the range of available communication methods and
media, both electronic and non electronic and their
appropriateness for meeting the needs of consumers
and/or organisations
• b) the importance of undertaking investigations such as interviewing, observation and
questioning during human needs analysis”
• ...and on p54 g) Assist (the APs) in documenting the required user
experiences
© Copyright e-skills UK Sector Skills Council Ltd 2000-2009 Page 53 of 566 IT and Telecoms NOS Approved Sep 09
• (P61) Professional Role:
• Competence (4.3.P.1) – Manage, under supervision, information
to direct human needs analysis assignments
• a) Correctly identify and use business requirements and the required
user experiences, so that they can be reflected in human needs
analysis assignments, under direction
• ....the importance of:
– accurately and completely representing the business requirements for the user
experience in the HCI design
• Competence (7.2.P.2): Monitor and report on the effectiveness
and customer satisfaction of ‘Service Help Desk and Incident
Management’ activities (p359)
John Knight
• PROVES