Three Alternative Ways to Help Build Design Culture
If you are like me, a starry eyed user experience designer that loves your craft, you’ll want your employer to share the same sentiment. But how can you create an environment that fosters design thinking in all levels of your organization? You should always involve your team in research and user testing, but thinking like a designer let’s find creative ways to win them over. Here are just a few alternative ways to make your colleagues start thinking like designers.
Host a Lunch and Learn
At my agency, we have a series where employees get to talk about their craft and what they do. So I had the opportunity to present on UX. The slides were meant to educate my colleagues on all that UX encompasses and to teach them the value of research. UX is more than wireframes, but we all know that.
This was great because they came for the food and stayed to listen about the importance of UX. They left knowing just a bit more about how UX can impact the agency and our clients.
I find that are many misconceptions about UX, and what it can mean for your company and its product. So this could be an opportunity for you to reinforce how UX could improve the product you’re creating, and maybe the budget won’t allow for pizza, but hopefully you can bring some snacks.
Watch a Webinar Together With Your Team
There is a ton of free resources out there that provide awesome content for UX designers:
- InVision Design Talks https://www.invisionapp.com/webinars
- UXPA https://uxpa.org/event/webinars
- Userzoom https://www.userzoom.com/webinar/
These are just a few places that will provide great content and webinars. Invite your team to watch one along with you, then discuss how you could implement some of the suggestion to your product.
Share Important Content on Slack
At my agency we use Slack to intercommunicate. I am constantly sharing on multiple channels relevant information about tools we can implement, and how some industries leader are wining with UX.
Slack is a great and effortless communication tool. Create a channel so you can share articles and new cool products that can inspire your team. Don’t have Slack, then use good old fashioned email and include a quick point of view. This way your team and stake holders can understand why they should care.
Summary
While you should be including your team in research and testing to gain their trust and confidence, there are other alternatives ways to win them over on UX. Outlined here are simple steps you can take to help your team think and solve problems like designers. Give your team a presentation about the importance of UX, or watch a webinar together and share ideas, and create a space to share important industry content. Slowly but surely they’ll start to see the value of solving problems with good research, especially if they see others are winning.
