1. Take time out for Big Picture Design Sprints as needed, in addition to the up-front discovery phase

2. Expedite Decision Making by proposing solutions through sketches, data, and user feedback

3. Assign a Design Owner to ensure consistency and carry-through the vision

4. Avoid Design Tunnel Vision by ensuring the details fit into the big picture

5. Collaborate often with developers and architects to validate the design process

6. Partner with the Business Analysts to gather requirements and fully understand the business

7. Get ahead so that the design Influences the Backlog and user stories

8. Form a committee of end users to provide regular User Feedback

9. Quickly Prototype complex design solutions and iterate prior to implementation

I read an article earlier this year, and quickly passed it on to everyone I know - to help them understand what it is that I do for a living. In the UX field, there are unfortunately many misconceptions about our role, our deliverables, and our approach - this article speaks to the 10 most common misconceptions. Pass it along, and spread the word.


10 Most Common Misconceptions about User Experience Design, by Whitney Hess

In my work, I always remind people who aren't trained in user research to take what users say with a grain of salt. Yes, talking to users is a must if you're designing something for them, but the information you take away from the conversations you have could either help you build a great product or lead you down the wrong path.

In reality, people don't always know what they need and can't make accurate predictions about how and if they're going to use a product. Also, people have bad memories and retrieving information is tough - especially information that they didn't store with the intention to retrieve. They're not liars, and they're not just trying to impress you; they may genuinely want to help and tell you about their day, their motivations, their behavior to the best that they can recall. But it's not always accurate. They may even play along with you and try to predict their future, but it's simply a prediction. 

As researchers, it's up to us to pick the useful information from all the "clutter" that isn't useful to us. It's important to take clues from the environment, to observe when we can, to ask the right questions (that lead to accurate and specific responses), and to always validate our assumptions. Data collection is easy, but filtering through it to find the most useful elements is the most important part.