Originally published on Medium.
Globalization and internet have created a fertile ground for innovation, offering space to new business models in a world that keeps accelerating. To embrace this new paradigm, more and more companies are taking an interest in UX, and sometimes integrate it into their core strategies.
The only drawback? The UX impact for the organization is a benefit that is sometimes complex to quantify at first. It is therefore difficult to implement in an organization if it is not already there.
Today, let's talk about UX maturity levels and how to fight UX dept.
This model is partly inspired by the work of Rich Buttiglieri, Jakob Nielsen and Jonathan Earthy (links at the bottom of the article). It is a sequence of UX maturity stages that companies go through in their evolution. We observe a more or less rapid sequence of stages and often a significant slowdown in the fourth, because it involves the entire organization and years of effort.
The organization does not want to listen to the user and collect his needs, or does not do it consciously. Its objective when building/improving a product is then to add a maximum of features, with a "list of ideas" coming from the intuition of the managers. These ideas (sometimes good ones) are based on untested and biased assumptions because they are envisioned without empathy for the user.
"The customer doesn't understand anything, we need to educate the market!"
The company is self-centered and hostile to the client's problems. The customer is not considered, often blamed when a project fails and no design is questioned.
In order to move on to the next level of maturity, a team member (not an UX professional) gets interested in the topic and begins to evangelize the team.
If it is known, experience design is based on the intuitions of non-designers in the team (developer, marketing manager, project manager, etc.). It is then up to each individual to bring UX to the organization because no dedicated position exists and the application of methodologies is chaotic.
The word design is misunderstood. It stands for "beauty", a paint layer that is only added at the end of a project. We talk about usability at this stage. Product testing, if any, is done at the very end of the projects.
To reach the next stage, a budget will have to be allocated to make it possible to increase the organization's competence.
Reaching this level is a significant milestone as UX clearly enters the organization with the introduction of a process and methodologies.
La considération passe par des projets pilotes qui devront faire preuve de performance. Le plus souvent, on fait appel à des ressources externes (prestataire, recrutement ponctuel) qui viendront distiller la pratique.
Consideration is given to pilot projects that must demonstrate performance. Most often, external resources are used (typically an agency or a freelancer) to distil the practice.