How to ideate, prototype & research together remotely. A talk from UX Camp Hamburg 2015. More on this topic on www.johannesbaeck.com.

1. UX DESIGN WITH
DISTRIBUTED TEAMS
how to ideate, prototype & research together remotely
Johannes Baeck - @jbaeck - johannesbaeck.com
UX Camp Hamburg - August 2015

2. Hi, I'm Johannes
• M.A. International
Information Management
• UX Consultant & Designer
at usability.de
(before: Aperto Berlin, IBM)
• Lecturer User-centered Design
at the University of Hildesheim
• UX Design Mentor
at CareerFoundry
• Maker of Music
at the piano and with my ukulele
@jbaeck

3. Lately, I have been working more
and more with distributed teams
Hannover
Berlin Pune
Hamburg
Fürth
Nürnberg

4. Lately, I have been working more
and more with distributed teams
London Hannover
San Francisco
New York

5. And yes I have been in awful
conference calls
“A conference call in real life”
https://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ

6. My recent experience with
distributed teams has been
quite good!
!

7. There are many types of distribution
All distributedOne/some remote Teams in different
locations
inspired by James Kalbach (http://blog.mural.ly/remote-design-collaboration-survey-results-part-1/)

8. Some all-distributed startups have
been designing great products

9. So how can we make user
experience design with
distributed teams work?
?

10. Let’s have a closer look at our process
User Research & Testing
Planning & IdeationPrototyping & Design
Communication
& Team Work

11. Planning & Ideation
with Distributed Teams

12. Ideation sessions using shared
virtual whiteboards
Distributed agency Hanno uses virtual sticky notes in
mural.ly for remote design thinking ideation sessions.
https://logbook.hanno.co/remote-design-thinking-with-murally/

13. Designers at EightShapes use document cameras and screen
sharing to see what their teammate is sketching in real time.
Sharing paper sketches remotely
with document cameras
http://www.eightshapes.com/blog/2011/08/19/sharing-sketches-remotely/

14. Co-located workshops as a starting
point for remote collaboration
An effective design studio session at the beginning of a project
can set the stage for further remote team work.

15. Prototyping & Design
with Distributed Teams
https://flic.kr/p/89qQcz

16. Hovering ADs
hoveringartdirectors.tumblr.com

17. fallback when nothing
else works out
Show, don’t tell — always have a
flexible screen sharing stack available
for this one
corporate client
standard for
internal use
new standard for
corporate clients?
MY CURRENT SETUP

18. Let stakeholders directly interact
with the design you are talking about
InVision LiveShare gives every participant a cursor and the
possibility to directly comment inside the design layout

19. Axure Team Projects make both
remote and non-remote work easier
Axure Team Projects let designers work together in one file
with version control.

20. Set up a workable spec workflow
and adapt to developer tools
UX Design Team
Dev Team
Product
Management
EXAMPLE SETUP
JIRA Agile Board
for functional spec
and clarification
Confluence Wiki
for requirements
and research data
Hosted Axure prototype
incl. visual design spec
with version history

21. User Research & Testing
with Distributed Teams

22. Why remote user research?
• Reach globally distributed users in their natural environment
• Save time and money (do more iterations)
• Have more research tools in your toolbox
• Moderated (e.g. screen-sharing)
• Self-moderated / Automated (e.g. usertesting.com)
• Diary studies

23. Involve remote stakeholders by
streaming research sessions
Dubai
Stakeholder
Location D
Test Participant
Location B
User Researchers
Location A
Stakeholders
Location E
ScreenSharing
Streaming

24. Before you start with remote research
• Know your audience
(are they tech-savvy? how well do they speak your language?)
• Prepare for technology and connectivity issues
• People may behave differently remotely
(scheduling: people less committed to being there, trust:
“can you control my computer?”)
• Combine with contextual interviews or lab usability tests for
better results — if possible

25. Communication & Team Work
with Distributed Teams
https://flic.kr/p/bra8Y4

26. Be aware of your remote constellation
and deliberately rethink your process
- Leif Singer (iDoneThis)
On a high level I think just being aware that you need to have a
remote strategy is important. Don't assume that things will
work the same as in a colocated situation. Don't assume that
it will just work. Try to communicate more than you'd actually
need to. Commit fully, or not at all.
http://www.pajamas.io/leif-singer-idonethis/

27. Learn to choose your mode of
communication wisely
Mail / IM / JIRA
Audio Call
Video Call
Co-located Workshop
Building trust and relationships
Exploring big ideas
Tackling complex problems
Getting “routine” work done
Following a “maker schedule”
Clarifying urgent issues

28. Build and keep connections
Virtual presence
Sqwiggle shows a snapshot of
each team member which updates
throughout the day
In-person meetups
Distributed team at Zapier
on a company retreat
https://zapier.com/learn/the-ultimate-guide-to-remote-working/how-build-culture-remote-team / www.sqwiggle.com

29. Balance remote / non-remote
meetings — prepare & facilitate!
- Jason Fried (Basecamp)
By rationing in-person meetings, their status is evaluated to
that of a rare treat. They become something to be savored,
something special.
http://37signals.com/remote/

30. But why should I care?
Let’s just avoid working with
distributed teams altogether…
?

31. Why thinking about your remote
ux process might prove useful
• You might not be able to avoid working remotely - so make
the most of it!
• You get access to more users for user research and you
can involve more stakeholders
• Your process becomes more flexible —
do more iterations (e.g. ideation sessions)

32. Thanks!
Let’s connect
• twitter.com/jbaeck
• xing.to/jbaeck
• de.linkedin.com/in/johannesbaeck