Change is Good
Or
How to reduce anxiety and increase quality by
embracing change as part of your organization’s
design and development process.
Follow me: @ravijsingh
Friend me: facebook.com/ravisingh
Network with me: linkedin.com/in/ravijsingh
Ravi Singh
User Experience Architect
I love you just the way you are
“Successful businesses hate change.
People with great jobs hate change.
Market leaders seek out and cherish
dependable systems.”
- Seth Godin, Fast Company, "Survival Is Not Enough" Dec 31, 2001
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
A profile in innovation and quality
Meet the DysonTM
• Innovative cyclone design
challenged the status quo,
introducing a vacuum cleaner that
never loses suction
• Clear vacuum chamber exposes its
actual performance
• Innovative industrial design
• Most reliable vacuum cleaner
according to Consumer Reports
• Resulted in a billion dollar empire
for Sir James Dyson
What’s quality?
Best in class in terms of
• Design
• Engineering
• Reliability
• Consistency
• Functionality
• Utility
• Usability
• Ergonomics
• Innovation
& Emotional response!
Birth of a quality product
Did John Dyson just piece together others’ good ideas?
Or find a gimmick that one-upped the competition?
Or was he divinely inspired?
Could it be?
Outtakes takes are more than funny, they’re useful
The Dyson design solution took
12 years of development &
over 5,000 prototypes.
Simplicity is not effortless –
it’s an outcome of a lot refinement (aka, trial and error).
By definition, quality and completeness come late in the process
when the design is the most educated.
Design learnings come from failures, so
Try  Succeed or Fail  Learn  Refine Quickly
Stay relevant by embracing change
Change is a means to an end:
better products for
better user experiences and
better company value.
If you don't like change, you're
going to like irrelevance even less.
– General Eric Shinseki,
Chief of Staff, U. S. Army
Big changes – exciting stuff!
Paradigm shifts can render conventional product designs obsolete
This happens over decades
Small changes for continuous improvement
Early prototype
Still same form
This happens over years
Change is a challenge to the status quo
Predictability ensures
usability
“Easy”
but Innovation leads to
differentiation.
VS
“Awesome”
Design is about micro-change
The design process is a series of
cumulative adjustments and
occasional leaps of inspiration
or creative destruction.
Designer: Matt Willey
Watch online: youtube.com/watch?v=uhnV21sL9UI
Designers must enlighten
stakeholders to the value of an
iterative process for visual
design, information
architecture and technical
development.
We’re not talking pocket change
As a BIG IDEA, change is an
active process of discovery,
improvement & innovation.
Show, don’t tell
The most persuasive
presentation for change is
through a literal prototype
of the actual thing.
Build, tinker, test and
sell it by demonstration, just
like Dyson did, in whatever
your medium happens to be.
Vetting your prototype is the
best way to mitigate the risk
of an ill-conceived design
change.
Not all change is equal
An attempt for Positive Change
Outcomes
Responses
Value
Worse than
before
Uh oh.
Undo the
change!
A way to identify bad ideas
that can be avoided in the
future. Something was
learned.
Just
different
Better than
before
Hmm…
Why bother
changing?
Yippee!
Claim victory and
make progress.
Part of an explorative process.
An active way to encounter
serendipity.
Improved design. But watch
for unintended consequences
and cost to achieve.
Evolution or Revolution, for better or worse
Southwest.com 1999 – All visual metaphors (cutting edge for ‘99)
Evolution or Revolution, for better or worse
Southwest.com 2005 – Changed to unambiguous links and facts
Evolution or Revolution, for better or worse
Southwest.com 2008 – Focus on Key Tasks, a change for the better
Evolution or Revolution, for better or worse
Southwest.com 2010 – Less focus, more options – a step in the wrong direction?
A change averse design-dev process
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Identify a business idea
Describe and research the audience for the idea
Recruit customers that fit the audience description
Talk to them about their requirements
Design a solution for the customer the business
Get feedback from customers the business on the design concept
Refine the concept based on the customer feedback
Test the experience with the customers on a high-fidelity prototype
Refine the prototype
Develop and deploy the solution
Test customer satisfaction in production for the first time
A value-oriented, customer-centric change process
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Identify a business idea
Describe and research the audience for the idea
Recruit customers that fit the audience description
Talk to them about their requirements
Design a solution for the customer
Get feedback from customers on the design concept
Refine the concept based on the customer feedback
Test the experience with the customers on a high-fidelity prototype
Refine the prototype
Develop and deploy the solution
Test customer satisfaction in production
Iterative customer-centered design process
Design/Research Iterations
Internal
Reviews
Project
Kickoff
Project Scoping
Business Case
Customer
Research
Prototype
Design
End User
Feedback
Customer
Validation
Refinements
Project
Completion
Finalized
Design
Requirements Document
Graphic Design
Copywriting
Development
System testing
Marketing Campaign
Conversion Analysis
Acknowledge emotions during a process of change
Consumer feedback is critical when
proposing large-scale design changes.
It also helps reassure project
stakeholders.
Before
After
Branding is very sentimental, so only
testing unbranded prototypes of a
product may not completely reveal
actual consumer response.
Consumer response:
Don’t be Tropicana, so in love with
your own innovative redesign that
you lose sight of the consumers it
should appeal to.
“ I miss the orange with
the straw in it.”
Unintended Consequence:
20% drop in sales
Don’t rock my boat!
Sources of resistance to change:
•
Customers (end users)
•
Designers
•
Product managers
•
Project managers and sponsors
who are comfortable with an existing product
experience and have too many things to adapt to
already in the world
who don’t want to address changing business
requirements and cling tight to their ideals
with a personal investment in a preferred or
functioning design
who are focused on scope, budget and time vs.
product quality
Yet, these are also the parties that often
influence change.
Tips for Managing Change
•
Identify the change influencers up-front:
sponsors, stakeholders, analysts, designers,
researchers, developers, marketers, security,
legal, testers, trainers and most of all,
customers
•
Embrace quick iterations with immediate
feedback; try, fail and recover quickly
•
If no consensus, declare a design stopped
and get end-user or sponsor feedback to
settle unresolved concerns
•
Engage “non-designers” in the design
process
•
•
Embrace white boards and paper prototypes
Use a change-control process to manage
infinite, unhealthy change and to
communicate change to dependent parties
•
Keep the work products flexible to
encourage painless revision
•
Use a “parking lot” to retain great ideas for
future product releases
•
Collaborate and co-own ideas
•
Design transparently (not privately)
•
Harness consensus and customer-focus with
your change influencers to settle on a design
and agree to stop iterating
Remember: Don’t settle for status quo
when innovative ideas are in reach –
•
Avoid analysis-paralysis that prevents a
design from firming up
Differentiate by embracing creative change!
Seth gets the last word
“[Through positive change and successful new
techniques], organizations can defeat their
slower competitors.
It is our fear of changing a winning strategy
and our reliance on command-and-control
tactics that make us miserable – not change.
Change doesn't have to be the enemy.”
- Seth Godin, Fast Company, "Survival Is Not Enough" Dec 31, 2001