Redesign Must Die

Louis Rosenfeld •  Rosenfeld Media

Orlando, Florida •  18 February 2014

1998: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Before the redesign

Before the redesign

Before the redesign

Before the redesign

A Ribbon Cutting

After the redesign

After the redesign

After the redesign

After the redesign

1998

1998 2000

1998 2000

2003

1998 2000

2003 2005

1998 2000

2003 2005

2007

1998 2000

2003 2005

2007 2010

And now

And now

And now

And now

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”

individualvanity

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”

& organizational stupidity

individualvanity

Who’s to blame?

Who’s to blame?

Attempting the impossible “boil the ocean” in no time at great cost

Believing the unbelievable unwarranted claims from agencies and software vendors

Becoming irresponsible unwarranted declarations of victory at the expense of our teams and users

Misdiagnostics

1993: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Entity consisting of many diverse and autonomous components or parts (called agents) which are interrelated, interdependent, linked through many (dense) interconnections, and behave as a unified whole in learning from experience and in adjusting (not just reacting) to changes in the environment.

Complex Adaptive Systems

Examples of CAS

Examples of CAS

Examples of CAS

Your site is a moving target built on moving targets

Your site is a moving target built on moving targets

Control this?

So who’s to blame?

So who’s to blame?

No one and everyone

How to stop playing God in 5 easy steps

1. Swap control for prioritization

2. Embrace evolution over revolution

3. Emphasize process over projects

4. Use anchors to counterbalance reaction

5. Sneak in governance at the grass roots

1. Swap controlfor prioritization

A little goes a long wayA handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/ documents meet the needs of your most important audiences

A little goes a long wayA handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/ documents meet the needs of your most important audiences

A little goes a long wayA handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/ documents meet the needs of your most important audiences

A little goes a long wayA handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/ documents meet the needs of your most important audiences

A little goes a long wayA handful of queries/tasks/ways to navigate/features/ documents meet the needs of your most important audiences

(and the tail is quite long)

(and the tail is quite long)

(and the tail is quite long)

(and the tail is quite long)

(and the tail is quite long)

Zipf in text

Zipf is The Truth

Not just search queries, but...

• Documents

• Features

• Audience segments

• and more...

George Zipf, your portfolio manager

layer information architecture

usability content strategy

0

1

2

3

4

indexed by search engine

leave it alone leave it alone

tagged by users squeaky wheel issues addressed

refresh annually

tagged by experts (non-topical tags)

test with a service (e.g., UserTesting.com)

refresh monthly

tagged by experts (topical tags)

“traditional” lab-based user testing

titled according to guidelines

deep links to support contextual navigation

A/B testing structured according to schema

Each layer iscumulative

Prioritize each step...

...into a report card...

...then rinseand repeat

More here:http://tinyurl.com/84yxpoo

2. Embrace evolution over revolution

What do they want and when do they want it?

Closer look

IRS before taxes due

IRS before taxes due

IRS after taxes due

3. Emphasizeprocess over projects

Keeping design and research “regular”...

Example: the rolling content inventory

Moving from process to cadence

Cadence in text

WeeklyWeeklyWeekly

Call center data trend analysis 2 – 4 hours behavioral/quantitative

Task analysis 4 – 6 hours behavioral/quantitative

QuarterlyQuarterlyQuarterly

Exploratory analysis of site analytics data 8 – 10 hours behavioral/qualitative

User survey 16 – 24 hours attitudinal/quantitative

AnnuallyAnnuallyAnnually

Net Promoter Score study 3 – 4 days attitudinal/quantitative

Field study 4 – 5 days behavioral/qualitative

4. Use anchors to counterbalance reaction

pace layering

Anchors are familiar beasts

• Charter statement

• Mission statement

• Vision statement

• Values statement

http://www.gogamestorm.com/

Ultimately you’re flying the airplane while fixing it5. Sneak in governance at the grass roots

Ultimately you’re flying the airplane while fixing it5. Sneak in governance at the grass roots

Buy candy for strangers

Develop a pidgin

Dave Gray’s boundary matrix: http://bit.ly/gWoZQm

KPI

goals

segments

personas

It ain’t easy, but...

1. Swap control for prioritization

2. Embrace evolution over revolution

3. Emphasize process over projects

4. Use anchors to counterbalance reaction

5. Sneak in governance at the grass roots

Say hello

Lou Rosenfeld

Rosenfeld Media 

www.louisrosenfeld.com • @louisrosenfeldwww.rosenfeldmedia.com • @rosenfeldmedia