UX Process Standardization

UX Process Standardization

• The UCD process has been defined and applied to the stakeholder UX projects
• Four primary UX Deliverable Types have been defined and developed:
  • Full UX Process
  • User Research
  • Accessibility Review
  • Consultation
• Seven User Research Methodology categories have been defined and developed:
  • Usability Testing
  • Expert Usability Evaluation
  • User Interview
  • User Study
  • Design Workshop
  • Market Research
  • Quantitative Research
• The Stakeholder UX Project Request Process has been streamlined within Jira
• The SSE ES team’s UX Project Allocation Process has been defined and implemented
• Concurrent Project Requests have been prioritized by Level of Effort (LOE)
• The Accessibility Guidelines have been defined and developed:
  • The Accessibility Requirements have been defined and developed
  • The Accessibility Coding Best Practices have been exemplified and shared with the development teams
  • The Accessibility Development Guidelines have been documented and shared with the development teams

Knowledge-Sharing Sessions & Presentations for Product Teams
The following sessions have been successfully delivered:

• Usability Testing for Everyone
• Most Commonly Used HTML Tags & Attributes for Accessibility
• UX Process & Strategy Topic – Storyboarding
• SSE Accessibility Requirement Discovery with Product Teams
• Tier 01 Accessibility
• Oracle Accessibility Process

Reviews & Documentations
The following processes and methodologies have been finalized and published on the team’s Wiki as official references:

• The UX Deliverable Types and User Research Methodologies
  • Official reference for the Stakeholder Jira UX Project Request Process
• Project Allocation Process
• UX Methodology Series:
  • Cognitive Walkthroughs
  • Formative UX Evaluation
  • Summative UX Evaluation
• SSE Accessibility Requirements
  • Accessibility Coding Best Practices
  • Accessibility Coding Examples

Collaborating with a fellow UX designer, I spearheaded the standardization of our team’s UX process. This initiative formalized key procedures, including a dedicated Jira UX Project Request Process, defined UX Deliverable Types, and established User Research Methodology Lists.

Through this standardization, we proactively educated product teams on the value of adopting the UCD approach early in their product development cycles—from user pain point discovery to usability testing and UX evaluations.

To enhance internal project management, I led the development of a Project Allocation Process and a Prioritization Framework based on the Level of Effort (LOE). This allowed our team to proactively provide product teams with clear, standardized options for different UX deliverable types and their corresponding minimum project lengths, effectively managing expectations and workload.

Additionally, my co-worker and I instituted ongoing knowledge-sharing sessions with the product teams to share our UX and accessibility domain expertise and the standardized UX process within our organization.

In collaboration with a colleague, I co-developed the SSE Accessibility Requirements, contributing specifically to accessible code examples and best practices within the documentation.

I also created the Accessibility Development Guidelines document for further tailored details. We then integrated and shared these resources with the project development team, enabling them to adopt accessibility best practices into the early stages of the product development lifecycle.

To mitigate post-launch usability risks, the Summative Evaluation became a highly demanded UX research methodology. I proactively joined the clinical UX Process Community to learn about its research process, and I ultimately contributed to developing an enhanced Summative Evaluation UX research process with two fellow UX researchers within this UX Process Community.

We developed this process not only for clinical applications, but also for non-clinical ones. This initiative allowed me to increase the adoption rate of the Summative Evaluation research method within the SSE ES UX team’s projects.

• I learned that many initial plans were abandoned due to constant changes. Therefore, adopting an agile and lean approach was invaluable. Performing constant user feedback sessions, such as UX evaluations and user interviews, along with iterations based on learned findings, generates more efficient, lighter outcomes. This approach increases the product’s efficiency and usability, which ultimately boosts the overall user experience.
• I learned that good design considers sustainability to sustain the product in the long run. Thus, it is better to adopt a modular design approach for each functionality and directly embed the original design source, compared to recreating the contents. In this way, it improves long-term maintenance.
• I learned that it is crucial to create presentation materials and resources that are easy to understand and simple to share with cross-functional product teams. This is because people are busy and only know their own expertise.
• I learned that it is better to generalize UX process content within high-level principles compared to being too specific, because industry standards and trends keep updating.
• I learned that a User Story Mapping methodology creates a better shared understanding between stakeholders and UX designers. It can make a big difference when the UX team joins the product development cycle as early as possible.
• I learned that accessibility should be considered from the early stages of the product development cycle, such as the product planning and design stages.
• I learned that having a third person’s perspective is better than being siloed with a perfectionist mind.
• I learned that securing company leadership support is a key factor for integrating User-Centered Design and Design Thinking principles into the company culture throughout the product development cycle.