Why does so much good design die at the review stage? Why do so many stakeholders disregard the importance of UX? And why do developers ride roughshod over our specs? Martina Hodges-Schell would argue that a lot of the time it’s down to interpersonal anti-patterns: behaviours that we use in good faith that never quite have the effect we expect them to. If you’ve ever justified a design decision by telling the client you have x years of experience, then you know what Martina’s talking about! The job of design isn’t finished when you save the file and close the app: now you have to explain and justify your decisions to the rest of the team. Great design should be able to speak for itself, but in the workplace it’s not always so easy. Your work will find acceptance more easily if you’re able to speak the stakeholders’ language, visibly embrace everyone’s values and explain why your own UX aims are aligned with the business needs. Martina walks through the 13 most common anti-patterns that designers suffer from when it comes to communicating their work. She’ll show you how to spot when you’re falling into an anti-pattern and offer positive patterns to recover with. From the first moments of a new project to the post-release test plan, identifying and overcoming your anti-patterns can make your working life happier and more productive, and speed you up the career ladder. With a little time and practice, you’ll be able to gather more valuable feedback, engage stakeholders and clients on a deeper level and find more efficient methods to communicate with the whole team.

1. Talking to Stakeholders
13 Communication Anti-Patterns That Block Good Ideas
UX Australia, Brisbane, 27 August 2015
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns

2. That’s my
Client from Hell’s
line!
The gameshow where we ask you,
What the hell does your client’s line mean?

3. I’ll show you a piece of feedback from
ClientsFromHell.net
You tell me what
the client is really saying

4. Question 1
“We want the design to be intentionally confusing
to show how complicated the concept is.”
“We’ve conflated complex with confusing, and
we need a design solution that communicates the
complexity without sacrificing usability.”

5. Question 2
“Don’t use sky blue as a“feelgood”background
color. It’s not essential for our users to feel good as
long as they spend money.”
“You need to make the case for the link
between user satisfaction and profit.”

6. Question 3
“Our main goal is to get people to sign up to our
newsletter, we need a huge green sign up
button in the middle of the page, like on
twitter.com”
“Our KPI is to increase signups so your job is to
sell us a better solution.”

7. Final Scores
Clients Designers
3 3

8. UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns

9. LANGUAGE
ANTI-PATTERNS
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns

10. SPEAKING DIFFERENT
LANGUAGES
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns
NO CONSISTENT DESIGN
LANGUAGE
HAVING DIFFERENT KPIs
LANGUAGE ANTI-PATTERNS

11. Speaking different languages

12. STAKEHOLDER SAFARI
THE MEETING BEFORE /
AFTER THE MEETING
STEP BACK
PLAY IT BACK
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns

13. PRESENTING
ANTI-PATTERNS
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns

14. PRESENTING WITHOUT
CONTEXTUALISING
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns
ASSUMING OTHERS DON’T
GET DESIGN
THROWING DELIVERABLES
OVER THE FENCE
PRESENTING ANTI-PATTERNS

15. Presenting without contextualising

16. PREPARE FOR PRESENTATION
BE PRESENT TO PRESENT
CASTING FEEDBACK
SET SCOPE EXPECTATIONS
ACTIVELY CONFIRM
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns

17. WORKING PRACTICE
ANTI-PATTERNS
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns

18. BEING IN THE ROOM, BUT
NOT PRESENT
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns
NOT EMBRACING
EVERYONE’S GOALS
LIVING IN THE DELIVERABLES
INSISTING ON PERFECTION
WORKING ANTI-PATTERNS

19. Being in the room, but not present

20. IN-PERSON ACCESS
STENOGRAPHER’S PATTERN
LIFE IN MONO
SCARY FACE PATTERN
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns

21. DEFENDING
ANTI-PATTERNS
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns

22. RESPONDING TO TONE, NOT
CONTENT
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns
NOT DEFENDING HARD
ENOUGH
DEFENDING TOO HARD
DEFENDING ANTI-PATTERNS

23. Not defending hard enough

24. ARRIVE VIA MoSCoW
BEGINNING, MIDDLE + END
SNAP THE ELASTIC USER
EDUCATE
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns

25. Thanks!
Martina Hodges-Schell
@polaroidgrrl
@13antipatterns
UX AUSTRALIA 2015 @POLAROIDGRRL #13antipatterns