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A remote working structure can present difficulties for any team, in any field. For those in the UX field, it can be especially challenging. As we have recently transitioned (although temporary) to a complete remote working environment, we'd like to take some pointers from a company with a successful 100% remote structure, NN/g. Here are some specific challenges and recommendations which they've provided.
Challenges of Remote UX Work
Working remotely is a challenge for any team, but it can be especially difficult in the field of UX. NN/g has provided some specific challenges and recommendations, based on their successful 100%-remote structure.
Ideation and Collaboration
UX design often requires collaboration to generate ideas. In-person ideation workshops are much easier than the remote equivalent. When ideation participants are in the same room together, they have a shared context — it’s easy to see what they’re sketching on a sheet of paper and what sticky notes they’re posting on the walls. Also, when people can see each other face to face, the flow of information and emotion is easier to assess. If you’ve ever been on a conference call and rolled your eyes at a coworker, or awkwardly started talking at the same time as someone else, you’ll know the difference.
In a previous role at a different company, we had chronic problems with ineffective remote meetings — often, one or two people would dominate the conversation, while the rest would lurk without contributing.
A simple fix can avoid some of those issues: share webcam video as well as audio as much as possible. Just by being able to see the other people in the meeting, you’ll:
- Encourage empathy and bonding
- Be able to see when someone is about to speak
- Assess body language and expressions to better perceive your coworkers’ emotions
You’ll likely get more engagement from participants if they’re on video as well: it’s obvious when someone has mentally checked out of the meeting or is busy sending unrelated emails.
At NN/g we often use multiple tools to achieve a smooth remote ideation workshop. For example, we might share webcam feeds and audio using Zoom or GoToMeeting, while we share ideas visually using a collaborative product like Google Docs, Miro, or Mural.
This screenshot shows the results of a remote affinity-diagramming exercise. In a video-conferencing meeting we used Miro, a whiteboard application, to cluster the findings from our Life Online research project and generate ideas for future articles and projects.
We tailor the tools to fit the needs of a particular meeting. For example, creating a journey map remotely may require different digital products than an ideation workshop.
Other remote teams have found success by using document cameras: each person in the meeting shares her video and audio streams, as well as her document camera that captures what she’s writing or drawing.
Team Building
When you don’t see your coworkers every day, it’s easy to slip into feeling disconnected from them.
We’ve found that having a company Slack workspace alleviates this feeling. In addition to having project- and topic-specific channels, we also have:
- #nng-pets: For sharing photos of our animal office mates
- #the-office-today: For sharing photos of where you happen to be working that day (a coffee shop, out on your deck, by a pool, etc.)
- #feedback: For requesting quick input on anything you’re currently working on (an idea, a graphic, or an excerpt of writing)
Source: NN/g
What is a Content Audit?
The word “audit” can strike fear into the most stoic of hearts. A Content Audit, however, is nothing to be feared. It is simply the process of taking an inventory of the content on your website. It is a large, detailed list of the information on your website and most often is in the form of a spreadsheet. This list will be the basis for the re-organization of your site.
There are three types of audits: Full, Partial and Sample. A Full audit is just as it sounds; a complete accounting of every page, file and media. A Partial audit’s parameters are less specific. However it will include every section of your site as well as a subset, which can be the top few levels of a hierarchical site or the last few months of articles written. A Sample audit is a compilation of example content.
Why Conduct a Content Audit?
We’ve all gone through our closets at some point in our lives to determine what we have, what we need, what we should keep and what we should throw away. We essentially performed an “audit” of our wardrobe and walked away with a newly reorganized closet, a feeling of accomplishment and a great excuse to go shopping. Auditing the content of the closet known as your website will provide you with a similar result for you and your users.
It allows you to know exactly what information you have on your site, what information you need on your site, what pages you need to keep and what pages are duplicative and can be “thrown away”. In addition it provides you with the information to address potential user pain points as well as opportunities for added value to your user. When you have completed your audit, you will now possess the information platform to create a newly streamlined and re-organized information architecture for your site, a better understanding of your content and great reason to get innovative in the solutions you provide your users.
How to Conduct a Content Audit?
There are different ways that you can audit the content of your website and there are different pieces of data that you can include.
The main recommended categories are:
- Navigation Title (main link to the content)
- Page Name
- URL (web address)
- Comments (any notes you’d like to remember)
- Content Hierarchy (how the content relates to each other).
Other suggested categories are:
- Content Type (page, blog post, media, attachment, article, etc.)
- Entry Points (how the user gets to that information)
- Last Date Updated
- Secure/Open (is the page open to all or secure?)
In order to conduct a successful Content Audit , use the following steps:
- Start with a blank spreadsheet. List your categories in the first row and your main pages or section in the first column
- Choose one page and list the information according to the categories
- If there are sub-pages, create a separate row for each under the main page/section and gather the same information for those as well
- Repeat these steps until every page is listed.
- Using this spreadsheet, analyze to determine where the opportunities and pain points are.
Key Tip #3 for UX success from Agile Practitioners
Soft skills can hold the keys to success in Agile projects. The respondents identified healthy collaboration as a main factor in success. This finding is not surprising; after all, in the Agile Manifesto, individuals and interactions are valued over processes and tools. Good communication is essential in any software-development organization, whatever its process methodology. However, collaboration is even more important in Agile settings, where delivery times are short and time-boxed.
Some organizations chose design-thinking techniques such as ideation and brainstorming to encourage discussion and tear down silos that often block effective communication and teamwork.
“Collaboration has been critical.”
“Close collaboration with other roles in the team has [helped us] arrive at agreements sooner in the process.”
“Constant ongoing collaboration with all team members. We use sketching and whiteboard sessions; journey-experience maps help capture the omnichannel experience.”
“Share info together in cross-functional teams. Communicate more with developer and designers.”
“No putdowns and no dismissal of ideas in early stages.”
“Involve everyone on the team and welcome everyone's suggestions and ideas.”
“Keep the relationship between the business analyst, designer, and engineer close.”
“Meet regularly once a week to update and know the progress. Focus on things to help one another accomplish the work.”
“Daily standups, iteration demos, biweekly pulse meetings, and interaction with management.”
In modern software-development environments, UX is heavily involved in defining how online products and services are developed. As such, the role of UX has expanded to include communication. UX can be the catalyst for good collaboration by involving team members in activities such as usability testing, and field studies, but also group design ideation and brainstorming.
Source: NN/g