This document discusses how user experience (UX) design can be used as a competitive advantage for companies. It provides examples of companies like Apple, Mint, Foursquare, Dropbox, Hipmunk, and Etsy that have succeeded by focusing on vision, culture, touchpoints, flow, simplification, rethinking processes, and delighting customers. While data, being a startup, and resistance to change can make prioritizing UX difficult, the document argues that addictive user experiences and scalable distribution are more important than engineering for startup success. It also notes that having leadership champion design, like Steve Jobs at Apple, can help organizations truly value design.

1. Start Using UX as a
Weapon
christian crumlish & erin malone
aol tangible ux

2. what’s ux?

3. design user-centered learnability
aesthetics usability innovation
design thinking ui visde interaction
research copy creative architecture
what’s ux? data
brand content strategy
editorial information marketing
visualization customer touchpoints
relevance ideation

4. i hear you want to be:
the apple of cloud solutions
the mint of healthcare
the foursquare of car sales
your example here

5. so what’s it going
to take?

6. vision

7. culture

8. all touchpoints

9. sounds great in
theory...?

10. flow
TWITTER

11. simplify
DROPBOX

12. rethink
HIPMUNK

13. delight
ETSY

14. that’s nice, but

15. i have data

16. Data eventually becomes a crutch for
every decision, paralyzing the
i have data
company and preventing it from
making any daring design decisions.
~ Doug Bowman
Fast Company, Mar. 2009

17. but

18. we’re a startup

19. Addictive user experience (Design) and
scalable distribution methods (Marketing)
are the most critical components of success
we’re a startup
in consumer internet startups, not pure
engineering talent.
~ Dave McClure
Business Week, Jan. 2010

20. but

21. change is hard

22. What Apple has in Steve Jobs is what every
organization looking to embrace design as a
genuine differentiating factor needs: a
business expert who is able to act as a whole
hearted champion of the value of design.
~ Helen Walters,
Former editor of innovation & design @ Bloomberg BusinessWeek
March 2011

23. 200%

24. fin
christian crumlish & erin malone
@mediajunkie @emalone