OEG Best Practice: UX transition: Overview of the U.S.E.R. methodology

AnaplanOEG

Looking at transitioning from Classic to UX?

The U.S.E.R. methodology can be your guide in this journey. Follow these four steps to facilitate your adoption of the UX:

	Understand The goal with understanding is to build a vision for the UX in your company and empathize with users and address their challenges. This is the foundation for your new planning experience. Explore how the UX can enhance current processes and determine what the value of the UX is for your company. Pro tip: Check out our UX space. Personalized experience Enhanced visualization On the go Collaboration Enhanced productivity Then, think about how UX can provide a better experience for users. Ask yourself who your users are (contributors, planners, or end users)? Think about how they are interacting with the UX; is it frequent or irregular? Are they primarily on mobile or desktop? What is intuitive and value-adding for them? And what are their frustrations? Pro tip: Group users by common behaviors and create a persona.
	Sketch The goal of this section is to envision the experience quickly and at a low cost and allow ideation and feedback. This is the first step for realizing the vision. At this stage, it's all about finding the right starting point. We recommend that you choose a simple process with a defined persona; keep it simple and controlled. Begin with: Your most used Classic dashboards; this will drive excitement and adoption. Or, identify dashboards that are not working well in their Classic form; you can then solve users’ frustrations. Once you figured out where to start, use pen and paper and map out the user journey. Highlight each interaction and make sure you identify the persona for each step.   We recommend that you draw the experience for the users with: Boxes and arrows, color-coding for each persona. You can also use post-it notes (eco-friendly versions are available online). Or, print/screenshot the existing experience (Classic Dashboards or other existing tools) and draw over. Use this opportunity to re-envision the type of Pages you want to leverage: Large grids? Try a worksheet. Overview? Charts? Landing page? Try a board. Many dashboards in a process? Try consolidating details with the worksheet's Insights Panel. Once your sketches are ready, organize them by Categories and start building your App's Table of Contents.  It can be by process steps, by roles, or by grouped by similarity/relation.
	Execute The goal of this section is to follow the plan and start building! This is where your work is brought to life.  Now that you have your plan and a good idea of how it should look like, it's all about making it real! If you haven't already, take the UX e-learning class, and if you are in need of a refresher, check out the micro-lessons. Then, follow your plan! As you build your Apps and Pages: Leverage the Best Practices (aka the Planual). Use our Top 5 design best practices for the UX.  Check in with your users regularly to keep adjusting to their needs. We recommend doing more than a simple lift-and-shift; augment and enhance the experience while leveraging new features of the UX.
	Repeat  The goal of this section is to reflect on lessons learned, setup continuous improvement, and identify the next steps. This is the beginning of your journey and is all about continuous iteration. Set up regular touch points with your users, give them time to adopt your initial pages and set-up feedback loops Keep up-to-date with the Releases Leverage the enablement content and keep an eye out for new features you can use to add even more value Engage with our Research team, let us know your thoughts, and help us continuously improve

 

Are you already following the U.S.E.R. methodology? Thinking about adopting it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Author AJ Balsamo.