Sanna Lindkvist (UX Manager) and Camilla Lilja (Senior UX Designer) who led the course are two real UX enthusiasts and they really succeeded in spreading their enthusiasm and knowledge to us in an easy way. We were introduced to the Visma UX Value loop and led through a lot of the different tools that guides you through the first part, which is called the Discovery phase. A lot of different roles were represented and we came from different parts of the company. The course contained both theory and practical exercises to test how to do the different parts of the UX Value loop and learn about the do’s and don’ts.
Understand, Explore and Visualise Concept
During the first day, we got an introduction to how to meet our customers, what effect meeting the customer has on what we choose to develop and how it will be done. We also learned that “UX is not a job – it’s a mindset and team effort”.
We got a mission to do field studies in-house to see how different people in the company would find information about different internal courses and how to sign up for those. We were divided into groups of 3-4 persons. Within our groups, we then took turns in what role we acted as during the field studies. We practiced active listening, not asking leading questions, reflecting the user and clarifying that we understood what they told us. With this new knowledge, we went for lunch!
Then it was time to do some impact mapping and answer the questions Why? Who? What? related to our findings. A big challenge for us, because of the brain being eager to find a solution, was to ignore that and instead dig deeper into the problem itself. The next step was to prioritise our findings and vote for what we wanted to continue working on.
“UX is not a job – it’s a mindset and team effort”
Build, Validate and Release & Measure
This day was the day when we got the possibility to do what many people are longing for = find a solution. We started to prototype on paper, in Balsamiq and also tried using Adobe XD but focusing on low-fidelity prototypes. Easy to do, easy to change and easy to throw away. We tested our prototypes on our own group and then, most importantly on our internal USERS!
With the feedback we got, we went back to the drawing board and iterated and improved. New user tests were conducted and new roles were set in the groups.
Takeaways
What did we gain? The training gave us all a reignition and gave us the strength to start/continue to work more user-centered and to do it together! The more we practice – the more we learn and the better we get. And with more knowledge and tools we will have more confidence when we meet and collaborate with our users. If you want to join the road to make a difference, sign up for this training!
About the authors
Rebecca Spjuth, Service owner Visma eAccounting
I just started to work with this exciting product with a fantastic team and I am eager to join the user-centered way of development. Delivering new valuable features and doing it together in the team is what drives me and makes me happy at work. And coffee, a lot of coffee.
Cecilia Sällström, Business Analyst, eAccounting
My role as a Business Analyst is both challenging and creative. I work closely with our developers to develop and maintain the features in eAccounting. I love being in the process where you can go from having an idea to an actual awesome feature! And best of all – when our customer loves our small (or big) improvements.