The Winter Edition, UX Energy - Issue #13
It's been a while! Time for a special seasonal edition ❄️
Finding your North Star
Christmas is fast approaching. For some that means family time; for others it means time off work. I know it's been a rough past few years, with Covid, lockdown and layoffs. This period can also be a time of reflection. However you spend this time of year, I hope you have peace!
You may be familiar with the Christian story of the Nativity (love this Scrooge-inspired poem from Spoken Word artist, Glen Scrivener). One of the key elements of the story is the three wise men. These were likely ancient-Zoroastrian astrologists. They were guided to Bethlehem following the star. The wise men brought Jesus precious gifts of Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh. And they found the one they were looking for, the child in the manger.
Jumping into the UX world for a sec, take that imagery forward a bit. In your own job, reflect and ask yourself these questions:
What is your North Star?
What does success look like for your organisation?
What are the routes you're taking to get there?
How do you know you're reaching your goals?
Amplitude have an awesome workshop they recommend which helps you find your North Star. Having a shared direction will help you measure the long-term impact of your work.
Input Metrics:
Breadth (the Gold) - How many users are you engaging?
Depth (the Frankincense) - What level of engagement are you?
Frequency (the Myrrh) - How often do your users engage?
Converging these data points together, you can define the metrics for your North Star. This exercise can be performed in 1 hour, and gives your team a focus.
Go check it out, and have a great Christmas! Happy holidays!
Some really epic accessibility articles to read 💝:
All-terrain wheelchairs arrive at U.S. parks: ‘This is life-changing’ — www.washingtonpost.com Parks in Georgia, South Dakota, Minnesota and Michigan are providing wheelchair users with free adaptive equipment to explore off-road trails.
Zoom Boosts Accessibility with Sign Language Interpretation View — www-uctoday-com.cdn.ampproject.org
Zoom is making its platform more accessible by adding a sign language interpretation view for Zoom Meetings and Webinars.
When life gives you lemons, write better error messages — wix-ux.com
Error messages are part of our daily lives online. Every time a server is down or we don’t have internet, or we forget to add some info in a form, we get an error message.
Other noteworthy links 🎁:
Are you brand new to UX Research? Cool! Here's an epic writeup from UXR leader, Maria Panagiotidi.
Be prepared for the Spring Clean! Figma plugin that tidies your layers in one click. What's not to love?
The screen recorder for clearly pointing things out to your colleagues! This simple tool had #1 on Product Hunt.
Yay, no more awkward intro chats. NNg have provided some handy templates for running stakeholder interviews. Nice one!
Hey Jonah, why so delayed?
Yeah, great question! I've been pretty busy juggling personal stuff (I got engaged) and also putting more time into UX Energy Mentoring. It's been awesome helping this group develop in-depth case studies.
The students are currently collaborating together on a freelance project with a SaaS product. They're providing in-depth UX research and design services, and in return will have real-world case studies to add to their portfolios.
I'm really humbled by this progress. We started in August and a few months in, we have loads of new folks joining. Here's some highlights:
Over 12 podcasts episodes have been recorded.
I've created 107 articles, templates, resources and events.
4 in-depth case study camps to help students improve their portfolio
We celebrate over 115 members.
The newsletter has 13 issues written.
I've been busy with other education providers too, working on creating x2 online courses. So my spare time has lessened! More on this later!
If you're interested in joining the UX Energy Programme, you can sign up today using the 10% off discount: NEWSLETTER10.
I'm incredibly grateful for your support with following this newsletter and in the new year I hope to change this to a monthly thing. Do you have any topics you'd like to share or contribute? Just reply!
For now, have a great holiday break ahead, and speak to you soon!