Making Together: The Merging Journeys of UX, Design & Development

MAKING TOGETHERTHE MERGING JOURNEYS OF UX, DESIGN &

DEVELOPMENT

#gogetdirty

Robin Smail @robin2go

Bevin Hernandez@bevinhernandez

#psuweb

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DESIGN/REDESIGN A WEB

APPLICATION?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DESIGN/REDESIGN A WEB

APPLICATION?

really

PARALLEL LINES NEVER CONVERGE

HOW DO DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT INTERACT?

OUR STORY

–What Counts As Learning

“The chance to rethink what counts as learning, how to recognize and make visible the learning

that takes place anywhere, anytime, on any device”

THE OPPORTUNITY

–Bevin Hernandez & Robin Smail

“For anyone.”

amesphotos.com

To take a project that had been considered reasonably successful, and add a bunch of features….

With a brand new project team

Who were brand new to the language

In 3 months

“Oh shit.”

USER STORIES AREN’T JUST FOR UX

THE IMPORTANCE OF STORYTELLING






We are doing user stories; we just know these people.

OK, SO WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY?

INITIAL FACULTY RESEARCH“The content should all be in the system”

“This shouldn’t be an LMS”“I want to embed this into Moodle”

“I don’t want the students to have to come to the system”

“I want the students to be able to do it all in the system”

“The students care about the badge graphics”

“I don’t want to have to design badge graphics - students won’t care“

“I want to be sure the badges have rigor and individual feedback“

“I don’t want to have to evaluate these badges, can we add automated quizzing“

“This needs to integrate with ANGEL”

“People need to access it who aren’t at Penn State”

**All actual statements from consultations

TRADITIONALISTS

• They save and believe in delayed reward

• They adhere to the rules

• They feel contributing to the collective good is important

• They don’t question authority

• They are loyal

• They believe in duty before pleasure

• They work hard to earn the American dream

• They are disciplined and responsible

GENERATION Z:THE RE-GENERATION

• They save and are reluctant to incur debt

• They are more likely to rent

• They recycle, share, trade and barter

• They are authorized

• They are normal, not exceptional, users of technology

• They don’t schedule

• They improvise

• They compromise

–Tammy Erickson, Harvard Business Review (Jan 2014)

Only 12% strongly agree that a nice home is an important status symbol;


only 9% strongly agree that a nice car is an important status symbol

Only 44% say they are likely or very likely to ever have a mortgage


37% believe they learn more outside the classroom than they do in school


The #1 thing they wish they were learning in school is how to get a job


THE CHALLENGE

Create a competency-based microcredentialing system that incorporates multiple use cases with very diverse learning goals, use of technology and needs.

VERSION 1.0

RECOGNIZED NEEDS

• break up the badge creation process into manageable pieces

• organize content, have a strategy

• create group functionality

• lower barriers to entry with a better user experience

VERSION 2.0

RECOGNIZED NEEDS

• this thing was starting to get huge; needed to rethink in terms of scalability and navigation

• begin user testing on workable prototypes

• move from website feel to application feel

• HAD to work on mobile; HAD to be accessible

VERSION 3.0

NAVIGATABLE ACCESSIBLE

We envision a world where everyone has access to educationregardless of:

Values

Age

Money

Race

Ability

Time

Location

3 CRITICAL PIECES

Team

Vision

Empathy

Don’t be afraid to get dirty

Free your team from processes designed to divide

Believe in the vision

Find your stories

SIMPLE LESSONS LEARNED

less of this.

–Johnny Appleseed

“Type a quote here.”

PARALLEL LINES NEVER CONVERGE

OR RATHER - PARALLEL LINES CONVERGE AT INFINITY

INFINITY IS WAY TOO FREAKING LATE FOR THIS

PROJECT.

MAKING TOGETHERTHE MERGING JOURNEYS OF UX, DESIGN &

DEVELOPMENT

#gogetdirty

Robin Smail @robin2go

Bevin Hernandez@bevinhernandez

#psuweb