Happy Cog's user experience director Kevin M Hoffman answers your questions on selling UX to clients, making meetings work, and whether designers should know how to code
@andy_wickes: How do you convince sceptical clients that UX is worth investing in?
@kevinmhoffman: I don’t really think of the problem that way. If a prospective or current client presents a problem and I see a natural fit for a particular research, analysis, or design technique, I manage expectations by identifying benefits of the technique rather than describe the technique itself. The more I can communicate those benefits in the natural vocabulary of the other party, the better, but once I’m familiar with the basic chess pieces of the problem, plain english usually works pretty well.
Here are a few examples from past experience. A client is convinced that using a “special, uncommon version of a word” will reinforce their brand in the site navigation. Let’s run search metrics to see how many people they lose if they take that approach. A client is convinced that people won’t make a donation because the button is too small? Let’s test that to make sure, because losing web donations translates to an exact budget line they depend on. A client is having a problem aligning department expectations around a large project? Let’s get together in a room and do some focused work together, but let’s not call it a “UX Workshop.” Let’s just call it a “productive meeting.”
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@andy_wickes: How do you convince sceptical clients that UX is worth investing in?
@kevinmhoffman: I don’t really think of the problem that way. If a prospective or current client presents a problem and I see a natural fit for a particular research, analysis, or design technique, I manage expectations by identifying benefits of the technique rather than describe the technique itself. The more I can communicate those benefits in the natural vocabulary of the other party, the better, but once I’m familiar with the basic chess pieces of the problem, plain english usually works pretty well.
Here are a few examples from past experience. A client is convinced that using a “special, uncommon version of a word” will reinforce their brand in the site navigation. Let’s run search metrics to see how many people they lose if they take that approach. A client is convinced that people won’t make a donation because the button is too small? Let’s test that to make sure, because losing web donations translates to an exact budget line they depend on. A client is having a problem aligning department expectations around a large project? Let’s get together in a room and do some focused work together, but let’s not call it a “UX Workshop.” Let’s just call it a “productive meeting.”
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