Have you ever been to Collaborate? If not, we would thoroughly recommend it. Now in its ninth year, the South West’s leading design conference continues to deliver incredible talks from industry leaders that leave the audience completely inspired.
If you weren’t lucky enough to go, don’t feel too disappointed. Here’s our top 5 Takeaways from the entire day. Disclaimer: Narrowing it down to 5 was not an easy task!
One.
People can only hold 5-9 things in their short term memory; as referenced in Millers Law. So if we’re asking people in a complex organisation to work with 5+ applications or interfaces (think spreadsheets, portals etc.) then actually we’re introducing inefficiency. People simply cannot retain the knowledge of how to use them, so mistakes are made and best practice is nowhere to be seen. So to combat this we can use “how might we” statement generation and discovery to map common themes and unify things for the user.
Venessa Bennett, Head of UX at Cazoo.
Two.
Accept that the ‘best user experience’ cannot be delivered on the first attempt. To truly create the optimum experience, you’ll need to release, then gather data and feedback which will allow you to improve it further. So when it comes to developing and designing, the creators should bear this in mind. Take the focus off ‘best possible experience’ and move it towards ‘easier to change’.
Nis Bjorn, Design Lead at Metalab
Three.
Stakeholder partnership > stakeholder management. Great client work is all about partnerships. Taking the time to get to know top stakeholders, understand their objectives and really pin down what success looks like for them; they may be very different to what was agreed on paper. Creating that relationship will make the entire process easier. People will fight your corner when you’re not in the room.
Kayode Olorunfemi, VP & UX Lead at JP Morgan Chase
Four.
Adopt a big picture mentality. If you can understand the big picture, you can work to provide a solution to the whole problem. Where it’s not possible to solve the entire problem, use the big picture to create your vision and keep true to it. “Dreaming is free”. A great example is What to do after someone dies: Tell Us Once - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), which unifies government services in what is often an extremely difficult time for the user, making it easier for them to achieve their task.
Alkistis Geropoulou, Head of User Centred Design at Companies House
Five.
AI may be digital, but it can still adopt a personality. When giving AI prompts, provide as much detail as possible as to the style and format you want the response delivered in. The more information and direction you provide, the higher the quality of response.
Chris Richards, Creative Director at Nomensa and Gareth Williams, Lead UX and Product Design Contractor
A huge thank you to the team at Collaborate for organising a truly insightful day. If you have the opportunity to attend Collaborate, don’t hesitate. You’ll meet fellow design enthusiasts and leave with a wealth of knowledge and actionable takeaways. We’ll see you there!
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