Reflection - Mind Mapping (Sergio Dworak)

Challenge   A news organization needs to update a legacy editorial system that is used for editing and  publishing news items. The key components in a particular type of news organization (news  agency) are speed and accuracy. Both speed and accuracy need to be at a very high level, and one  without the other doesn’t work. The team is at the discovery stage. The project scope includes a  diverse team of participants, such us higher management, editors, reporters and member of the  development team. The team has approximately one week to gather insights for a next major  iteration of the system.

Selection   Mind mapping was selected because it’s a tool that allows people with different needs,  qualifications and user behavior to work together in groups on a problem that is company-wide  and thus transcends particular roles. The method also creates highly visual results that are more  easily digestible for people of different backgrounds who are not necessarily familiar with each  other’s professional terminology and methods.

Application and approach  Key to a right approach is the diversity of the team. Each of the participants is encouraged to  avoid professional jargon and explain a used functionality in a simple in simple terms as  possible. The team interviews approximately eight users who work in different roles and who use  the system a lot. An important insight that the team sees early in the process is that if you  interview people who use the system for many hours a day for a long period of time for relatively  simple tasks, they tend to be very experienced users who actually worked out some turnarounds  for the least usable aspects of the system. That doesn't necessarily mean that these aspects of the  system are usable. The people just get accustomed to it. And because they got accustomed to it,  they tend to say that everything's alright, even if they are forced to do many unnecessary steps or  go through a process that is not intuitive at all. So we need to focus on people who are actually  less experienced because they still haven't got accustomed to the system and thus see its  downsides more clearly.  The team interviews that participants, encouraging them to think aloud, and documents both  what they say and what they do, adding their emotions such as frustration or satisfaction.   The team documents their behavior because what people do and what people sell they do is are  actually different things in most contexts. Then the team has a large pool of sticky notes, which  work well if we have actual physical sticky notes and a physical wall but one could use Miro or  another tool like this. Then in smaller groups of five people which should be interdisciplinary the  team tries to group those sticky notes in order to have several groups that clearly show some pain  points, or decision points or emotions of the users. It's important not to discard outliers, because  some outlying notes could be useful later in the project. After most of the cars are grouped and  the outliers are clearly visible on the margins, the team tries to come up with insights that could  help formulate a solution for a particular problem on inflection point. Those insights are in turn  grouped onto a matrix which shows time and effort needed to implement such an insight and the

importance of this insight for the users, importance being measured in how many users actually  mentioned this or that problem. So this allows a complex view of how people actually think and  what people actually do and to have most important insights prioritized in terms of their  importance and cost.  Mind mapping in some forms is repeated in the usability study when the team has a prototype of  a new release. The tools used at that later stage are affinity / priority diagrams, traffic lights  diagrams and other prioritizing tools. In sum, such an approach allows for quite accurate  detection of design problems and for relatively quick solutions with short iterations.


Reflection - Mind Mapping ( Sergio Dworak ) Challenge A news organization needs to update a legacy editorial system that is used for editing and publishing news items . The key components in a particular type of news organization ( news agency ) are speed and accuracy . Both speed and accuracy need to be at a very high level , and one without the other does n’t work . The team is at the discovery stage . The project scope includes a diverse team of participants , such us higher management , editors , reporters and member of the development team . The team has approximately one week to gather insights for a next major iteration of the system . Selection Mind mapping was selected because it ’s a tool that allows people with different needs , qualifications and user behavior to work together in groups on a problem that is company - wide and thus transcends particular roles . The method also creates highly visual results that are more easily digestible for people of different backgrounds who are not necessarily familiar with each other ’s professional terminology and methods . Application and approach Key to a right approach is the diversity of the team . Each of the participants is encouraged to avoid professional jargon and explain a used functionality in a simple in simple terms as possible . The team interviews approximately eight users who work in different roles and who use the system a lot . An important insight that the team sees early in the process is that if you interview people who use the system for many hours a day for a long period of time for relatively simple tasks , they tend to be very experienced users who actually worked out some turnarounds for the least usable aspects of the system . That does n't necessarily mean that these aspects of the system are usable . The people just get accustomed to it . And because they got accustomed to it , they tend to say that everything 's alright , even if they are forced to do many unnecessary steps or go through a process that is not intuitive at all . So we need to focus on people who are actually less experienced because they still have n't got accustomed to the system and thus see its downsides more clearly . The team interviews that participants , encouraging them to think aloud , and documents both what they say and what they do , adding their emotions such as frustration or satisfaction . The team documents their behavior because what people do and what people sell they do is are actually different things in most contexts . Then the team has a large pool of sticky notes , which work well if we have actual physical sticky notes and a physical wall but one could use Miro or another tool like this . Then in smaller groups of five people which should be interdisciplinary the team tries to group those sticky notes in order to have several groups that clearly show some pain points , or decision points or emotions of the users . It 's important not to discard outliers , because some outlying notes could be useful later in the project . After most of the cars are grouped and the outliers are clearly visible on the margins , the team tries to come up with insights that could help formulate a solution for a particular problem on inflection point . Those insights are in turn grouped onto a matrix which shows time and effort needed to implement such an insight and the importance of this insight for the users , importance being measured in how many users actually mentioned this or that problem . So this allows a complex view of how people actually think and what people actually do and to have most important insights prioritized in terms of their importance and cost . Mind mapping in some forms is repeated in the usability study when the team has a prototype of a new release . The tools used at that later stage are affinity / priority diagrams , traffic lights diagrams and other prioritizing tools . In sum , such an approach allows for quite accurate detection of design problems and for relatively quick solutions with short iterations .