Recap: UX Show and Tell at Forum One

Last night, Forum One hosted a UX show and tell session with Chris Avore. Chris's idea was to bring together ux practitioners to share the documentation that we create and establish an open dialogue about the work that we do. Nine user experience designers gathered in Forum One's conference room for a little less than two hours and we discussed usability reports, wireframes, and creative briefs. In short, we participated in a UX show and tell.

Usability Reports
One of the participants brought a very detailed usability report and asked the group how we translate usability recommendations into designs and keep up with them during the design process. We had a lively discussion about the format of his report and many noted how they liked the separation of severe issues that needed to be addressed immediately and smaller issues that could be address later. Some participants mentioned that they use a much more visual style of report and showed examples of reports that included a screen shot of the page / functionality under scrutiny with call outs to usability participant's comments about the issue.

Many of us suggested that the recommendations from the usability report be brought into either a bug tracking system or a requirements documentation system. For further traceability, some people suggested that you number the recommendations in a way that they can be tracked within your requirements system.

Wireframes
Another participant shared a set of wireframes. The group was extremely impressed by the level of detailed included in these wireframes (I think there were over 100+ pages of detail!). The group had some discussion around wireframing tools (of course) and also how knowledge of javascript libraries can help you make sound design decisions.

Creative Briefs
We shared a creative brief for one of our recent projects and lead a discussion around how to best capture visual requirements for both client sign-off and to inform the visual design process. While most people said that our current report format served the goals that we have for it, some participants suggested new ways for us to collect the feedback that goes into the reports. More than a few people suggested that rather than sending out a questionnaire (as we sometimes do) we interview stakeholders with our design partner on the phone, thus allowing them to ask probing questions about visual design feedback. Chris also suggested that we may be able to learn something about our moodboard process by reading Kim Goodwin's Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services

Thanks again to all who attended. It was a great event!