1. The User Experience Team of One
A Research and Design Survival Guide

2. Experience Designer
Web Designer
Interactive Designer
Interactive Designer
Information Architect
Interaction Architect
User Experience Specialist
Information Designer
Web Writer
UI Designer
Human Factors Researcher
User Specialist
Copywriter
Ethnographic Researcher
Web Developer
User Interface Developer
UX TEAM
OF ONE
User Researchers
Interaction Designers
Visual Designers
Content Strategists
Design Prototypists

3. The Biggest
Challenges For
UX Teams of One
Building a basic
understanding of UX
17%
Getting
perm
ission
to
do
the
w
ork
13%
Communicating +selling ideas12%
Just Trying
to Do
Good
Work
12%
Time
8%
Politics
7%
No
Strategy
7%
Creative Isolation6%
Status
Quo
5%
Territory
Disputes
5%
KeepingUpWiththeIndustry
No
Process
HoldingMyGround

4. For teams of one,
ideally methods are...
✓ inclusive & participatory
✓ focused on prioritizing
✓ lowest fidelity possible
✓ self documenting

5. UX QUESTIONNAIRE
UX PROJECT PLAN
LISTENING TOUR
OPPORTUNITY WORKSHOP
PROJECT BRIEF
STRATEGY WORKSHOP
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
LEARNING PLAN
GUERILLA USER
RESEARCH
PROTO PERSONAS
HEURISTIC MARKUP
COMPARATIVE
ASSESSMENT
CONTENT PATTERNS
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
DESIGN BRIEF
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
SKETCHING
SKETCHBOARDS
TASK FLOW
WIREFRAMES
PAPER & INTERACTIVE
PROTOTYPES
BLACK HAT SESSION
QUICK-AND-DIRTY
USABILITY TEST
FIVE-SECOND TEST
UX HEALTH CHECK

6. UX Questionnaire
Team. Who needs to be involved?
Business Goals. Are we targeting measurable outcomes?
Users Goals. What do we know about our target users?
Tasks & Scenarios. What are the key work flows?
Strategy. Why will people choose us over the alternative?
Erin
Product
Manager
Dev
Team
Front-End Dev
Back-End Dev
Database Admin
Dev Manager
Kevin &
Chris
Content
Writers
Data
Import and
Integration
Our
Track-
Record
Great
Content
Jen &
Jaime
Sales &
Marketing
Joe
Founder
CO
RETEAM
APPROVERS
(Need to confirm through competitive analysis)
Our assumptions...
Busy Jobs
Have kids
Upwardly Mobile Professionals
Life Optimizers
Possibly skewing more female?
No idea! Talk to Joe.
Track How I Spend Time
Get Ideas
Review my progress
View
Suggestions
Manual
Entry
Data
Import-or-
View
Dashboard
Read
Daily Email-or-
Add to
My List
Check Off
When Done
Until we know more about the users, we won’t know if these are the right tasks. Need to do user research!

7. UX Project Plan
DURATION ACTIVITY OUTPUT WHO'S INVOLVED
2 weeks User Research
Research in two parts: (1) interview
existing customers about what’s good
and bad about the product, and (2)
interview target customers about how
they balance work/life today, pain
points, tools they use today, etc.
Proto-Personas • Me
• Erin, Product Mgr (attend
interviews and help take
notes)
• Customer Support Team
(help recruit existing
customers to interview)
2 days Product Assessment
Review existing product to identify
what can be used in the new product,
what needs to be improved, and what‘s
not relevant
Heuristic Markup • Me
1 week Strategy Workshop
Share what we’ve learned so far and
create alignment on our vision for the
project
“Vision Board” that
Includes Triads,
Artifact from the
Future, and
Bang/Buck Graph To
Live on the Wall and
Inspire the Team
• Me
• Erin, Product Mgr
• Dev Team
• Customer Support Team
• Kevin & Chris, Content
• Jen, Marketing
• Jaime, Sales
• Joe, Founder
3 days Recommendations
Synthesize research, product
assessment, and strategy workshop and
make design recommendations
Design Brief • Me (co-author)
• Erin (co-author)
• Jen, Jamie, Joe
(approvers)
2 weeks Initial Concepts
Do sketches and run a sketchboard
session. Develop higher fidelity
sketches for approval.
Medium-Fidelity
Concept Sketches for
Core Workflows
• Me
• Erin, Product Mgr
• Dev Team
• Customer Support Team
• Kevin & Chris, Content
• Jen, Marketing
• Jaime, Sales
• Joe, Founder
6-8 weeks Iterative Detailed Design
Co-locate with engineering team and
product detailed wireframes for core
workflows. Bring in contract visual
designer for look and feel.
Detailed Wireframes
and Design Comps
• Me
• Contract Visual Designer
(to be hired)
6-8 weeks
(concurrent
w/ detailed
design)
User Testing
Conduct task-based usability tests on
core workflows
Recommendations for
Improvements to
Designs
• Me (conduct)
• Erin, Product Mgr
(observe)
• Development Team
(observe)
ACTIVITY WK 1 WK 2 WK 3 WK 4 WK 5 WK 6 WK 7 WK 8 WK 9 WK 10 WK 11 WK 12 WK 13 WK 14
User Research
Recruit & Plan
Interview & Document
Product Assessment
Heuristic Markup
Strategy Workshop
Plan
Conduct
Document
Recommendations
Prepare & Deliver Recommendations
Initial Concepts
Sketch
Sketchboard Workshop
Refine Sketches
Iterative Detailed Design
Wireframes
Visual Design
User Testing
Task-Based Usability Tests

8. Lo-Fi Learning Plan

9. Research Questions Mind Map

10. Heuristic Markup
Step 2: Attempt to Sign Up
I guessed and
ended up in the right
place, but I wasn't
totally certain where
this would take me. Is this the same
as my corporate
login? Can't tell...
Couldn't find this button at first.
Blends in with the picure.
What? You're
using my data?
That's makes me
not hesitant to
sign up or sign in.
Phone number
please!
https://intranet.acmecorp.net/benefits/worklife

11. Journey Line
TIME
Sign Up
A little confusing
Start
Profile
Fun to fill out -
asks engaging
questions
Set Goals
Interesting, but
feels a little clunky
Log Event
Pretty easy...
Then I notice that I
can import data.
Data Import
Wow! Very cool. I
didn't realize it could
use my outlook data
Dashboard
Interesting to see it
with my data
Grrr..
Keep hunting around.
Really can't figure out
what I'm supposed to
do. Guess I'll try to
log an event...
Not sure what
to do now, so
I log off.
Next day...
Email
Arrives
Don't mind being
reminded, like that
it has some extra
content
Follow
Link to
Article
Really
interesting!
Add sugges-
tion to my list
This is a cool
feature and feels
really seamless
Now
What?

12. Sketching

13. Task Flow

14. Design Collage

15. Critical/Complex Graph