As organizations increasingly look to digital as a primary means of communication, users have come to depend on sites and apps for information in both the good times and the bad. Communicating exceptions or problems to your users–whether a service disruption, weather event, cancellation, or anything else out of the ordinary – is now a critical use case for many online experiences. What is more, recent research shows that a painful experience for a user can have a disproportionately high impact on his or her perception of the entire brand, making it all the more critical to ensure you are doing everything possible to alleviate pain in stressful times. In this talk, we’ll look at case studies from two international Fortune 50 companies who went from hoping for the best to designing for the worst.

1. DESIGNING EXPERIENCES FOR
EMERGENT SITUATIONS
CRISIS UX
BY COLIN EAGAN, M.S.

2. COLIN EAGAN
PLEASED TO MEET YOU.
EXPERIENCE DESIGNER | WASHINGTON, D.C.
@colineags #uxpa2015

3. e·mer·gent*ˈ
TODAY’S FOCUS
*

4. THAT COULD MEAN…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

5. VICIOUS CYCLE
YOU FREAK OUT
USERS FREAK OUT

6. TODAY WE WILL DISCUSS...
HOW TO COMMUNICATE DURING TROUBLED TIMES
HOW TO DESIGN FOR USERS YOU HAVE LET DOWN
UNDERSTANDING THE SOURCE OF USER FRUSTRATION
A USE CASE THAT WILL MAKE YOUR
PROBLEMS SEEM VERY SMALL

7. Browsing the stacks at Holland House Library, London, day after a Luftwaffe air raid -- September, 1940
(Today’s Topic)

9. FOR UPS AND FEDEX, A
PERFECT STORM WAS
BREWING.
DECEMBER 22, 2013.

10. THREE BIG PROBLEMS

11. Jump in package volume overwhelmed distribution centers.
Photo Credit: NY Times

12. Photo Credit: NY Times
Storms grounded planes.

13. Photo Credit: NY Times
And stranded trucks…

14. “It’s like a game of chess where the pieces are planes and trucks.”
Photo Credit: NY Times

15. Photo Credit: NY Times
Packages were delayed.

16. Last minute promises from retailers couldn’t possibly be fulfilled.
Photo Credit: NY Times

17. COME CHRISTMAS
MORNING…

21. -- Via NBC News
BACKLASH

23. SO WHAT DID THE
COMPANIES DO?

24. THEY
SUCKED
IT UP.

26. BOTH COMPANIES SPENT THE NEXT
YEAR MAKING SURE THIS DID NOT
HAPPEN AGAIN. SPECIFICALLY, UPS:
• Improved Volume Forecasting
• (Read: bringing the hammer down on retailers.)
• Improved Network capacity.
• 50 new hub sorts increasing capacity by about 2.5 million
pieces per day.
• Added more than 6,000 new package cars
• 1,000 new LNG (liquefied natural gas) tractors
• More than 11,000 trailers.
• Expect to hire between 90,000 and 95,000 seasonal
employees to handle the extra volume.
• Focused web improvements  We’ll look at this
http://compass.ups.com/how-UPS-is-preparing-for-the-2014-holiday-season/

27. $500,000,000
How much UPS spent in 2014 to avoid repeat.
Source: New York Times.

28. YOU, TOO, WILL HAVE YOUR OWN
SNOWMAGEDON ONE DAY.
AND YOU WILL NEED TO STAY CALM.
HERE ARE SOME LESSONS LEARNED
THE HARD WAY.

29. LESSON 1 // UX CRISIS MANAGEMENT
BE AS TRANSPARENT
Truth will set you free.
AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN

30. MANY USER PROBLEMS BEGAN WITH
DISAPOINTMENT, BUT WERE
COMPOUNDED BY UNCERTAINTITY
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

31. NEW SITE-WIDE ALERTS AND UPDATE PAGE

32. LESSON: DON’T HIDE BEHIND
CORPORATE SPEAK
• Destination scan
• Held by Origin Location
• Hold
• In Transit
• Consignee
• Exception
• Redirect
• Guarantee

33. IMPROVED TRACKING DESIGN

34. WRITING FOR SENSITIVE SITUATIONS
http://alistapart.com/article/dont-poke-the-bear-creating-content-for-sensitive-situations

35. EXAMPLE: NOTIFYING CUSTOMER YOU
ARE CLOSING HIS / HER ACCOUNT
http://alistapart.com/article/dont-poke-the-bear-creating-content-for-sensitive-situations
NOT GREAT
Dear valued customer, we
have sent you three notices,
and we have not received
any payment from you
since December 2012.
We have to take certain
actions when customers fail
to pay their bills.
We had to close your
account because your
balance is six months
past due.
We understand that you
depend on our service,
but we can’t let balances
go past six months due.
BETTER
Calmly and
quickly get
to the point
Use empathy
to normalize
the situation.
Use specifics
where possible

36. ANTI-PATTERN:
BAD ERROR MESSAGES,
I.E. STRESSFUL CONDITIONS
MADE MUCH WORSE

37. ANYONE TRY WINDOWS 8?

38. YES. NO. WAIT…

39. ACTUALLY NOT AWFUL.

40. DEPENDING ON YOUR BRAND, HUMOR CAN HELP

41. LEARN FROM THE PROS
Source: Entrepreneur.com
1. Listen patiently.
2. Show empathy.
3. Lower the voice and slow
down speech.
4. Imagine an audience.
5. Be wrong to be right (agree
even if it’s irrational)
6. Demonstrate emotional
control.
7. Remember it’s not personal.
8. Pretend it’s “a game.”

42. USEFUL TOOL: CONTENT MATRIX

43. LESSON 2 // UX CRISIS MANAGEMENT
CONSIDER LESS-THAN-
Get out of fantasy land.
IDEAL USER FLOWS

44. CUSTOMER JOURNEYS ARE OFTEN
BIASED TOWARD THE “HAPPY PATH”

45. WHY ARE
PEOPLE IN
PERSONAS
ALWAYS
SMILING?
Seriously, have you noticed this?

46. Is this really your accounting team?
.

47. Is this really your accounting team?.

48. Or is this your accounting team.

49. KEYWORD ANALYSIS: FIND “REAL LANGUAGE”

50. NEW
HOLIDAY
HELP
CENTER
•
•
•

51. LESSON 3 // UX CRISIS MANAGEMENT
WHATEVER YOU DO, PLEASE
What kind of UX person are you anyway.
DON’T BLAME YOUR USERS

52. THE TYLENOL
MURDERS
Learn from:

53. THE TYLENOL MURDERS

54. DON’T BLAME YOUR USERS
VIA ENTREPENEUR.COM, MARCH 03, 2014

55. VIA ENTREPENEUR.COM, MARCH 03, 2014

56. BETTER!

58. HELP USERS BE PROACTIVE NEXT TIME
•
•
•

59. LESSON 4 // UX CRISIS MANAGEMENT
CONSIDER THE PSYCOLOGY
They don’t always think like you like to think they always think.
BEHIND STRESSFUL DECISIONS

60. UNDERSTAND HOW PAIN IS PROCESSED

61. EXPERIENCING SELF REMEMBERING SELF
THE TWO MINDS
What we think customers use What they actually use

62. AUTOMATIC MIND
What we think customers use
REFLECTIVE MIND
What they actually use
- Forrester Research. Design Enjoyable Experiences Now by John Dalton, July 10, 2012

63. “The experiencing self does not have a voice. The
remembering self is sometimes wrong, but it is the one
that keeps score and governs what we learn from living.”
“The ‘peak-end’ rule shows that a person’s memory of a
painful experience can be reliably predicted by the average of
the level of pain reported at the worst moment of the
experience and the level of pain reported at the end.
Remarkably, the research also shows that the duration of the
pain had no effect on the individual’s evaluation of total pain.”
--Source: Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011, p. 381.
THE PEAK-END RULE

64. “IF YOU’VE EVER BEEN TO A MOVIE AND
ENJOYED 50 MINUTES OF BLISS ONLY
TO HAVE IT ALL RUINED BECAUSE A
BABY STARTED CRYING NEAR THE END,
THEN YOU’RE WELL AWARE OF THE FACT
THAT WE ARE SADDLED WITH TWO
CONFLICTING SELVES.”

65. “IT TAKES 20 YEARS TO BUILD A
REPUTATION AND FIVE MINUTES TO
RUIN IT. IF YOU THINK ABOUT THAT,
YOU’LL DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY.”
-WARREN BUFFETT

66. WHAT TO DO
Sensing that its parking arrangements
might be damaging the overall client
experience, health care provider Kaiser
Permanente spent 30 days analyzing
Twitter activity to gauge customer
impressions. Sure enough, there was a
significant displeasure.
They didn’t hate the healthcare
experience, they simply hated the
parking – and the parking lot was
where the interaction always ended!

67. -- Via Jared Spool

68. -- Via Jared Spool

69. USAA ANTICIPATES USER STRESS
Via Forrester

70. CLICK ANALYSIS ON CUSTOMER SERIVCE
•
•

71. NEW
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
DESIGN
• Introduced new chat
feature
• Re-prioritized links
based on usage
• Added clarification for
users on when to use
• Prioritized “Self-Help”
links to web content
(hint: customer service
loves this)

72. DARKARTSAh shit.
OH CRAP WE REALLY SCREWED UP.

73. Remember the BP oilrig disaster?

74. DO YOU HAVE A “DARK SITE”?

75. DARK SITE CHARACTERISTICS
•
•
•
•
•

76. FINALLY,
PLEASE REMEMBER:
YOU WILL
NEVER MAKE
EVERYONE
HAPPY.

77. http://www.wsj.com/articles/ups-fedex-got-back-on-time-this-holiday-1419886180
Up 11%
GOING BACK TO OUR LITTLE STORY…

78. GREAT FOR CUSTOMERS!

79. “Peak plans were designed to provide high quality service for
volume surges. The extra capacity was necessary to process
the extreme spike in package volume on Cyber Monday and
peak day, Dec. 22. However, demand was less than expected
on other days. This resulted in a sub-optimized network during
peak season, UPS said. A decline in productivity, increased
contract carrier rates, as well as costs associated with
overtime and training hours contributed to the excess cost.”
BAD FOR “SHAREHOLDERS.”

80. SCREW IT.

81. @colineags #uxpa2015

82. THANK YOU
YOU ARE GREAT.
COLIN EAGAN, M.S. | WASHINGTON, D.C.
@colineags #uxpa2015