Convergence of UX and Technical Communication

Pam NoreaultTwitter @pnoreault

LavaCon 2014

Me

• ACI Worldwide• Sr. Mgr Information Development• 22+ years experience• Gadget geek• People watcher

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Convergence

1. Why?

2. Start Here

3. When/how to Engage

4. Overall Strategy

5. Content Strategy based on Customer Engagement Results

6. Success Measures

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Why?

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UX Convergence

If customers rule, companies must converge user experience designers (UXD) and technical writers under the user experience (UX) umbrella

Trainers and UI designers belong as well

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Poll Question

How many of you work for companies that have done this convergence?

•Yes, we have converged•No, not happened•No UXD where I work

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Interested? Start Here

• Who talks to customers?• Listen, learn, apply – REPEAT

• It’s not about asking what your customers want, it’s about understanding how they work

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Strategies

• Listen• Observe• Interview• Contextual interviews • Usability tests• Card sorts• Surveys

• Consumer communities, partner programs, focus groups

• Prototyping• Task analysis

(observe users doing tasks)

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Opportunities

• Collaborate with those who talk to customers

• Social media– Review LinkedIn and other forums related to

your company’s line of business– Monitor your customers on Twitter– Monitor your own company’s tweets – Find Facebook chatter

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Get Creative

• Mine from social networking sites• Join LinkedIn groups and ask questions

and post surveys• Seek input from people who represent

the same personas as your users

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Poll Question

Are you engaging with your customers directly prior to starting a project?

•Yes•No

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Create the Strategy

Engagement Types

Schedule

Determine How to Use InfoMeasure Success

Keep the Conversation

Going

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Strategy Example

Two major releases this year, I am going to:

Step 1 – Engagement types• Complete five customer interviews• Observe same five customers using our product• Pull the user assistance-related support cases

that have been opened in the past year

Step 2 - Schedule

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Strategy Example

Step 3 – Information Use• Improve my deliverables• Create different deliverables that better meet customer

needs

Step 4 – Measuring Success• Complete validating testing with customers

Step 5 – Keep conversation going• Share the improvements made and new deliverables

with these five customers

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Measure Success

• Measure “time on task”• Measure the reduction in support calls

around issues you addressed • Ask customers to tout the positive

experience (case studies, testimonials, email/call to your manager or support mgr, tweet, comments in company or social media forums, etc.)

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Real World - Validation

1. Online Help

2. Content Uplift

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Report Your Results

• Decreased activity time • Increased customer satisfaction with

your deliverables • Reduced support calls around the issues

you addressed • Positive PR from customers (What’s

better than positive PR!)

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Poll Question

How many of you are validating project deliverables with customers?

•I’ve thought about doing this•Yes, I do this•No, who has time for validation

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Repeat!

Engagement Types

Schedule

Determine How to Use InfoMeasure Success

Keep the Conversation

Going

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Just Do It

• UX convergence is happening• Customer engagement is not a fad

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Call to Action

• Obtain a UX certificate or degree

• Take online classes that focus on user research, measuring customer satisfaction, or accessing customer needs

• Attend free webinars on intelligent content, user research, measuring customer satisfaction, or accessing customer needs

• Network and partner with UX professionals

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Recap

1. Why?

2. Start Here

3. When/how to Engage

4. Overall Strategy

5. Content Strategy based on Customer Engagement Results

6. Success Measures

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Questions?

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Keep the Conversation Going

Pam Noreault – Sr. Mgr Information Development

• pamela.noreault@aciworldwide.com • pamnoreault@gmail.com• Twitter – @pnoreault• LinkedIn – Pam Noreault

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Further Reading

• Goodman, Elizabeth; Kuniavsky, Mike; and Moed, Andrea.

Observing the User Experience, Second Edition: A Practitioner’s

Guide to User Research. Waltham: Elsevier, 2012.

• Gothelf, Jeff. Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve

User Experience. Sebastopol: O’Reilly, 2013.

• Lea, Wendy. “The New Rules of Customer Engagement,”

Inc.com. Inc Magazine, 5 April 2012, accessed 16 February

2014.

• “User Research Basics,” Usability.gov. US Department of Health

& Human Services, 6 June 2013, accessed 16 February 2014.

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