So, here is another question: Who owns the user experience in a
digital agency, the UE or the Research & Insight (R&I) teams?
It transpires that R&I are closer to the user and are better
positioned to champion user involvement in the design process. My brief
exposure and experience of digital agencies suggests that UE teams have
been relegated to Interaction Design and IA; not to say that either is
not important, but it appears that they have lost touch with the end
users of their designs.
The problem with R&I owning the
user experience is that the people within R&I teams tend to have a
market research background and carry with them different sensitivities
to user needs and requirements. While some of the tools and methods
used in traditional market research are familiar to UE professionals,
market researchers are more interested in numbers, trends, and market
segmentations than getting under the users' skin and creating an
environment that fosters innovation. For example, they may propose
focus groups as a means of collecting user requirements while it has
been proven that focus groups are notorious for understanding user
needs. However, focus groups can reveal a trend, however unreliable,
that the creative team will pick up and develop a final design and
product.
I would argue it is time for UE teams to reclaim
ownership of the user experience and work closely with R&I to A)
ensure that the right methods and tools are used, and B) evangelise
user involvement within agencies by presenting successful case studies.
I know there have been arguments that the user experience should
be owned by the entire company and not only by a UE team. While I fully
agree with this position, the user centred approach to design needs to
be managed and promoted by a defined entity and not be left to the
entire organisation.