Agency pitches and user experience design
A nice man called David tweeted me once with a link to a video of Russell Davies talking about interestingness, size and creativity. In the video, Russell refers to a project I did a couple of years ago for Birdseye. I just wanted to thank David as it’s always nice to know there are people out there who share the passions I get out of bed for:-)
I’ve been thinking about advertising agencies big and small, partly because of the LGFE reunion, and partly because I’m pretty much always stuck in the thick of one or other user-centred design process debate.
At the time, I sent the following question to a recruiter as we were talking about maybe working together. I still don’t know the answer, but I’m pretty sure it’s tough for a passionate user experience person to work without discovery…
Here was the question I had in mind:
80% of the magic of user-centered design happens in the discovery phase, prior to the IA proposing the information model for an interface. As most pitches involve going to the client with a ready-made proposal, agencies tend to find it difficult to produce user-centered design. Does your agency have a strategy in place to overcome this challenge?
I suppose the answer is “win the business then shove the UE thinking through the door” but I can’t imagine this guy, this guy, this guy, this woman or this guy playing it like that…
Are you a senior agency bod? How do you handle ideas of value, resonance, co-creation and needs assessment? I’m still working on the question :-)
I have been with several interactive and design agencies and I've seen everything from no method for approaching user experience (other than assuming the designer will figure it out) all the way to outsourcing to usability specialists and market researchers during the discovery phase. And typically in the proposals the cost and importance of testing and user experience were both stated up front. The latter was usually used when the agency was pitching to a client where it was imperative. Like say, a government web site.
You may be interested in this article that reviews usability tools from Website Magazine by Brian Eisenberg http://bit.ly/32mqlQ
I am affiliated with http://www.usertesting.com but the article covers several tools. Tools which I feel can be used in planning phases or helpful even if you didn't take user experience into consideration until after the site's launch.
Amanda
Thanks Amanda, and good point about government rfps.
The same applies in this country and most government and council websites are now accessible and DirectGov spend a fortune on experience research.