@lily_dart lilydart.com

Lily Dart

Freelance service design & user research

Building stronger teams for better user experience

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

User Experience Designer

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

We’re all striving for great user experience

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Experience

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

back-end developers

brand designerssysadmins

product managers

clients

copywritersuser researchers

quality assurance

marketing

dev-ops

front-end developers

Experiencecustomer services

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

back-end developerscustomer services

brand designerssysadmins

product managers

clients

copywritersuser researchers

quality assurance

marketing

dev-ops

front-end developers

Experience

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

User Experience Designer

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

User experience is a team sport

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Successful design doesn’t happen in isolation

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

coding standards

git workflowaccessibility standards

application architecture

front-end interactions

user journeys

test coverage

UI design

naming conventions

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Clear vision

Good leadership

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Too many people view management as leadership. It's not.

Leadership comes from influence, and influence can come from anyone at any level and in any role.

Kurt Uhlir

“

”

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Empathy

Getting groups of people excited about an idea requires understanding what motivates them

Bryan Zmijewski

“”

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

A good leader is empathetic

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

A good leader is empathetic

They understand our individual needs

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

A good leader is empathetic

They understand our individual needs

They listen to our expertise

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

A good leader is empathetic

They understand our individual needs

They listen to, and prioritise, our concerns

They listen to our expertise

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

“I thought someone else was doing that?”

“The developer didn’t follow my design”

“I told the designer we couldn’t do that”

Lack of commitment to decisionsWhen there is no empathy, you get:

“I decided not to it that way in the end”

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Use empathy to connect with colleagues

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Understand what motivates them

Use empathy to connect with colleagues

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Understand what motivates them

Take time to understand their concerns

Use empathy to connect with colleagues

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Understand what motivates them

Consider colleagues needs as you would your users needs

Take time to understand their concerns

Use empathy to connect with colleagues

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Direction and focus

The greatest leaders mobilise others by coalescing people around a shared vision

Ken Blanchard

“”

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

A good leader sets direction and focus

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

A good leader sets direction and focus

They communicate goals, not details

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

A good leader sets direction and focus

They communicate goals, not details

They explain why those goals are important

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

A good leader sets direction and focus

They communicate goals, not details

They are open to change when change is necessary

They explain why those goals are important

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

“I know what my own customers want”

“Won’t work because of the flux capacitor”

“This is best practice”

“Because I’ve been doing this for 10 years”

ConflictWhen there is no direction and focus, you get:

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Set goals for your work

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Don’t wait for someone else to define those goals

Set goals for your work

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Don’t wait for someone else to define those goals

Define metrics to measure your success

Set goals for your work

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Don’t wait for someone else to define those goals

If something isn’t working, change it

Define metrics to measure your success

Set goals for your work

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Collaboration

Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work.

Vince Lombardi

“”

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

A good leader facilitates collaboration

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

They make space for new ideas to be considered

A good leader facilitates collaboration

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

They make space for new ideas to be considered

They empower teams to make their own decisions

A good leader facilitates collaboration

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

They make space for new ideas to be considered

They don’t claim personal credit for successes

They empower teams to make their own decisions

A good leader facilitates collaboration

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

“The feature description was unclear”

“That bug is her fault” “The QA should have checked that”

BlameWhen there is no collaboration, you get:

“The back-end is slow, not the javascript”

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Facilitate collaboration

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Be open to feedback and new ideas

Facilitate collaboration

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Be open to feedback and new ideas

Focus your communication on what is relevant to your team

Facilitate collaboration

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Be open to feedback and new ideas

Admit your mistakes, and credit others successes

Focus your communication on what is relevant to your team

Facilitate collaboration

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Be empatheticWhen something doesn’t go as planned, take the time to understand why, instead of working out who to blame.

Make sure everyone is heard, and avoid lack of commitment to decisions.

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Contribute to direction and focusMake sure you understand what success looks like, and

that your team shares the same vision.

Use impersonal measures, to avoid the conflict that comes with incompatible individual opions.

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Facilitate collaborationAdmit your mistakes, and credit your colleagues successes.

Avoid the blame culture that stops everyone committing themselves to the success of the team.

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Helping your team to work towards the

same goal

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Helping your team to work towards the

same goal isn’t about writing more

documentation

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Helping your team to work towards the

same goal isn’t about creating UI

style guides

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Helping your team to work towards the

same goal isn’t about blaming

individuals

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

We can’t design a better user experience…

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

We can’t design a better user experience if…

we don’t each take responsibility for our influence.

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

We can’t design a better user experience if…

we don’t each take responsibility for our influence.

we don’t agree what we’re direction we’re going in.

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

We can’t design a better user experience if…

we don’t each take responsibility for our influence.

we don’t agree what we’re direction we’re going in.

we don’t acknowledge we can’t do it alone.

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Building stronger teams for better user experience

Creating better UX

is about building stronger teams

and being better colleagues

@lily_dart lilydart.com

Lily Dart

Freelance service design & user research

Any questions?