ge user experience playbook

Prepared by

GE Center of Excellence 2011 Edition

User Experience Playbook

Draft 05/16/2011Growth : Service & Software

Draft 05/16/2011

GE Center of Excellence 2011 Edition

User Experience Playbook

UX Playbook

Principles 11The core user experience attributes we seek to deliver with our products and services

UX at GE 4

Resources 93A directory of resources for internal and external guidance and support throughout the user experience design process

Contributors 102

Skills 59The core competencies and role of user experience practitioners within a product development team

Certification 83The process for evaluating the quality and brand consistency of our UX Design Process

Process 15The common process steps, tools and templates for crafting a great user experience

54 GE CoE User Experience Playbook - Draft May 2011

Who are GE’s users?

Anyone who interacts with our products and services, including those who:

• Use our digital services and solutions

• Influence customer purchasing decisions

• Support the customer

• Are internal or external to GE

Great user experiences are powered by customer and user-centric thinking in all aspects of design and development.

User Experience is…

• The perceptions and responses someone has when they interact with GE’s products and services. Formed during:

- Selection and purchase

- Delivery and packaging

- Installation and configuration

- Training and ramp up

- Operation via the user interface

- Support and services

- Maintenance and upgrade

- De-installation and disposal

• Influenced by form, function and business architecture

• A strategic driver of business growth

User Experience is NOT…

• Just about the user interface

• Only about technology (it’s about people)

• Just about usability

• Easy to design well

• Expensive to design well

• The concern of only one person or department

• Static

UX Defined


Where are we going?

The UX CoE is leading GE towards a new future where:

• Customers and users both prefer and can identify our products over competitors’

• Our user experiences are globally recognized for innovation and excellence

• Our businesses save time and money by leveraging UX efficiencies

• All our businesses embrace good UX design

Drive revenue and growth by creating preference for GE branded software and platforms.

Concept visualization for a unified experience with Expert on Alert, myEngines, Smart Patient Room.

Pilot versions of Expert on Alert, myEngines, Smart Patient Room.

Initial versions of Expert on Alert, myEngines, Smart Patient Room.Then Now Future

A GE User Experience will be…

• Identifiable as GE

• Responsive to user needs

• Delivering more than expected

• Developed in partnership with the user

• Developed by all disciplines at GE

UX Vision


This document provides a structure to addressing our needs and achieving our vision.

Principles

Process

Pilots*

Skills

Certification

Resources

I want to...We need... The UX Playbook... See

* Existing pilots provide the examples in this document.

How to Use This Book

Consistency

User Contact

Innovation

Expertise

Value

Awareness

• Deliver consistent GE user experience

• Access a central repository for sharing solutions or standards

• Benefit from more direct access to users and customers

• Uncover the user needs that underlie feature requests

• Understand the end user as well as the customer

• Decrease the likelihood of lost sales due to poor user experiences

• Surpass the user experiences offered by our competitors

• Increase the number of user experience professionals on my team

• Improve consistency of results by working with user experience experts

• Have a clear understanding of how successful my software product is and how that rating maps to our profits

• Increase awareness of user experience value, process or benefits

• Defines high-level values to guide GE user experience design

• Introduces UX Central, a web portal, with standards, templates and reusable assets

• Champions cross-functional understanding of customer needs based on first-hand contact

• References user-centered research methods

• Provides examples where outstanding user experience will grow sales

• Provides consistent best practices that will ensure that GE is seen as a leader in software innovation

• Defines the skills needed in all business units to deliver great UX

• Promotes best practice sharing

• Provides a Certification Scorecard that provides clear measurement and understanding of UX contribution to GE profits

• Advocates cross-company passion and pride for GE software

1110

The experience attributes GE products must strive to deliver to users

Principles


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Fleets ShopsMaps KPIs

WelcomingOur experiences are friendly and inviting. We keep them straightforward so our users can easily get started.

ConfidentOur experiences guide our users in moving through information to complete their goals. We create intuitive navigation through clear metaphors and actionable cues.

MeaningfulOur experiences generate value for our users. We make our users smarter and more productive by giving them the means to discover new insights and efficiencies.

DelightfulOur experiences thrill our users by exceeding their expectations. We innovate for our users to live our brand and differentiate GE.

Approachable Leader Dynamic InnovativeGE Brand Attribute

UX Principles

The concept and implementation for any GE product should begin with these four principles, in addition to being informed by business objectives and customer needs. These principles will be set and measured alongside the critical-to-quality metrics (CTQs).

GE’s design principles are the fundamental attributes that we seek to achieve in all elements of the user experience. These principles drive decisions for the visual, interactive and business architecture components that influence users.

Examples of each will be available on UX Central when the site launches.

1514

The framework for crafting a great user experience

Process


This playbook will reference methods and tools that have been used successfully at GE or other businesses. Regardless of the size or type of program you undertake, the same core process steps apply.

IterativeThis process is inherently iterative, both within each phase and throughout the definition, design and development of the product. It also relies on a continual process of learning more about customer needs and wants as you work towards your user experience deliverables, whether those are product concepts, user interface designs or off-line business processes.

CollaborativeThe UX process relies on the collaboration of a cross-functional team throughout all stages of Discover, Design and Produce. You can find these details in the Skills section of the playbook.

Identify user needs and opportunities to design the right product

• research & Immersion

• Data analysis & Problem framing

• Insight Synthesis & Opportunity areas

• UX requirements Engineering

• Concept Generation & Prioritization

• Wireframing & Low-fidelity Prototyping

• Visual Design

• User Validation

• Business architecture

• Design Specification

• Iterative User testing

• Vision Ownership & Collaboration

• release 0 testing & Qa

• End User feedback and Collaboration

• Ongoing Scorecard Creation & Benchmarking

Create experiences that meet needs for users and the business

Collaborate for excellent UX delivered on target

Measure user experience, impacts & on-going value

Process

Discover Design Produce Evaluate


1DiscoverIdentifying user needs to design the right product

Process Design Produce Evaluate

20 21GE CoE User Experience Playbook - Draft May 2011

Methods• Site visit protocol• User research plan and reports Direct research (in field, 1 required)

• Exploratory interviews• Contextual inquiry Expert led (at desk)

• Secondary and market research• Competitive and analogous

experience landscaping• Expert reviews and task analysis • Cognitive walkthroughs• Heuristic evaluation• Think-aloud protocol

Tools• Audio and video recording

equipment• Permission and release forms• IRB approval workflows

Example : myEnginesObjective

Identify core problems, criteria and constraints from the user perspective.

Direct engagement with users to understand the product “As-Is” to inform what the product should be.

Lead cross-functional teams in conducting user research.

Requires the ability to

• Plan and conduct user research• Collaborate with the project team

• Observe the product or service with an open mind, free from existing product constraints

• Represent GE to the customer with respect, courtesy and utmost professionalism

• Identify customer motivations and value chain, end user goals and existing business architecture

Research & Immersion

For Aviation, a cross-functional team of technologists and designers conducted expert reviews, shop visits and customer interviews, as well as analogous and heuristic reviews to better understand the needs and behaviors that underlie the MRO and workflow processes myEngines impacts.

Discover



After conducting global, direct user interviews with GE employees from across the businesses, the user experience team at frog (see page 101) analyzed the data to uncover the affinities and patterns driving user behavior throughout the GE business.

Example : Digital CollaborationMethods• Project ‘war rooms’ for

collaborative working and thinking

• Concept maps• Data analysis (affinity, theming

and pattern mapping)• Business motivation modeling• Business process analysis• Lean Six Sigma

Tools• BPMN• BMM Standard

Discover

Objective

Analyze data gathered during user research to identify the core needs from the user’s perspective. Investigate what users do, not just what they say, to understand needs they cannot articulate.

Analyze observation, interview and user data to contextualize needs to the work environment and business context.


• Swiftly organize and categorize data• Analyze qualitative, quantitative and business data

• ‘Get off the screen’ and externalize data in a collaborative space• Identify affinities and patterns

• Visualize emergent patterns and user mindsets

• Prune and refine relevant data• See the user as part of a system and relate his or her needs to the needs of

the customer

Data Analysis & Problem Framing



Through direct user contact and business analysis, the cross-functional team identified a key scalability issue with the existing myEngines app structure. The team developed a new service structure centered on user behaviors, resulting in user needs becoming the foundation of the application design.

Example : myEnginesMethods• User archetypes• Journey maps• Workflow diagrams• Product vision roadmaps• Mental modeling• Opportunity maps• Customer scenario mapping• Business process modeling and

simulation

Objective

Extract actionable insights and frame opportunity areas to design products and solutions that meet user needs.

Define baseline user experience measures that will reflect whether user needs are met.


• Filter data and patterns to identify the most compelling areas

• Expand thinking and provoke ‘out of the box’ perspectives• Re-frame user needs into opportunities and guiding insights

• Package insights to be relevant for the team and stakeholders• Communicate the value of these opportunities to the customer and to GE• Create clarity and structure out of user research findings

• Define user experience measures

Insight Synthesis & Opportunity Areas

Discover



Example : Energy ConnectMethods• User feedback plan and report• Requirements reviews• Agile modeling methods• Conjoint analysis

Tools• Blueprint• TopTeam• UML• Industry standards• The business analysis body of

knowledge

Energy Connect maintains requirements records in TopTeam. All records are linked and traceable.

Objective

Launch an iterative process of documenting and prioritizing requirements that will scope and guide the design process.

Identify all applicable principles, standards and constraints that apply to a product or service.

Create a feedback loop with the user.


• Understand the full systems

• Communicate clearly and succinctly in spoken and written form • Negotiate among stakeholders• Establish an operating rhythm for ongoing validation with stakeholders and

end users• Develop requirements that are unambiguous, actionable, testable and clearly

related to user, customer and business justification.

• Return to users and customers with the insights gained to ensure their needs have been correctly identified

Discover

UX Requirements Engineering

29GE CoE User Experience Playbook - Draft May 201128

2DesignCreating experiences that meet needs

Process Discover Produce Evaluate


Once the team understood the use cases for this RM&D data, they quickly explored multiple interface directions with hand-sketched wireframes, then collaboratively selected the best directions.

Example : Experts on AlertMethods• Concept generation• Sketching• Scenarios & storyboarding• Feature prioritization (user)• Prioritization workshops (team)• User experience requirements

definition

Objective

Transform user insights and opportunity areas into product concepts, collaborate with teams to identify business and technology requirements and lead prioritization.


• Generate light-weight concept explorations expressing user needs

• Direct collaborative teams in concept generation• Separate concept generation from prioritization• Integrate business, technology and user requirements in down-selection

Concept Generation & Prioritization

Design



During development of a customer-facing portal, the Controls Connect team identified important gaps in GE Energy’s current capability to keep the knowledge base current. Working with business stakeholders, the team designed and rolled-out new knowledge-centered support (KCS) practices that merged with the commercial rollout of the portal.

Example : Controls ConnectMethods• Business motivation modeling• Business process analysis &

modeling• Information modeling• Use case modeling• Gap analysis• Change Acceleration Process

(CAP)

Tools• OMG Business Motivation

Modeling Standard• BPMN• Business Process Modeling tools• Enterprise Architecture tools

Objective

Collaborate with program managers and systems engineers to develop business architecture.

Provide user requirements and advocacy in the design and evolution of strategies, organizations and business practices.

Advocate for “One GE” and the elimination of silos in customer engagement.


• Identify all customer and user touchpoints for a product or service throughout the customer lifecycle.

• Quickly learn the operational characteristics of a customer• Examine the business process, including user, operational and technology

contexts• Be a change agent: Identify and find ownership for changes that will provide

value both to customers and to GE• Provide a holistic vision for the business system that supports users

Design

Business Architecture Design

OrganizationPartnership

Process Engineering

Commercial Strategy



Methods• Card-sorting (open and closed)• Site map/application map• Workflow diagrams• Low-fidelity prototyping• Research plan and reports

ToolsCurrently available

• GE UX Principles

To be developed

• Standards library• GE Wireframing toolset which

supports GE-wide standard asset sets and light-weight prototype generation

The Expert On Alert team used low-fidelity wireframes to lay out the information and interaction architecture for the next version of their remote monitoring and diagnostics user interface. These easy-to-change prototypes do not distract evaluators with visual design questions.

Example : Expert on AlertObjective

Express selected concepts in tangible form for communication with the development team, business team and users.


• Express the concept and desired interactions in a structured format• Evaluate various interaction models and identify the most appropriate for the

user and system need

• Develop navigation and light-weight explorations to test with users• Develop an information architecture• Define the product in collaboration with designer and developers

Wireframing & Low-Fidelity Prototyping

Design



The GE Smart Patient Room Hand Hygiene prototype team explored multiple design concepts before selecting the most effective visualization strategy. Selection involved a cross-functional team and both customers and representative users.

Original

Current

Visual mock-ups

Example : Smart Patient Room

Design

Methods• User landscape reviews

Tools• Visual design application• Standards Library• GE UX Principles• Business/product specific GE DLS

Objective

Express the information architecture and system interactions in a branded design that is clear and appealing to users.


• Understand user needs and translate into an effective visual design

• Design for user needs with awareness of technical implementation• Collaborate with UX expert, prototyper and product team

Visual Design



GE Energy used the GE process to develop a customer-facing self-service knowledge portal. From initial paper prototypes through the live prototype, user evaluation was part of each iteration. A cross-functional team of UX experts, business leads and engineers collaborated on the project

Example : Controls Connect

Design

Methods• A/B testing• Usability testing (may include

time-on-task, task completion, eye-tracking and other methods to evaluate performance as needed)

• Qualitative usability reviews and Think Aloud

• Concept evaluation workshops• Research plan and report

Tools• Remote testing tools• Eye tracking• GRC facial recognition and

affective modeling system

Objective

Validate interaction and visual design directions with users throughout the process to ensure appeal as well as identify usability issues prior to robust development.


• Scope, plan, produce and run user validation sessions

• Select methods within available time• Moderate user research sessions• Analyze and synthesize data into tangible recommendations and strategies for

implementation

• Access end users

User Validation

Validation Best Practices


3ProduceCollaborating for excellent UX delivered on target

Process Discover Design Evaluate


Example : myEngines

frog (see page 101) created both a visual and interaction design style guide, and a functional proof-of-concept mobile web app for iPhone used to test integration and design viability. Together, these elements formed the first stage of design specification for the myEngines application.

Methods• Written functional specification

(including behaviors, case logic and state definition)

• Visual specification• Experience prototypes for

functional specification

ToolsTo be developed

• GE standard wireframing tool• Standards library• Requirements repository• Specification templates

Objective

Translate the user experience into formal documentation for use by the development and business team.

Design specification is often done with text narrative and experience prototypes, showing the interactions and behaviors most challenging to express on paper.


• Develop detailed documentation in text, as well as, experience prototypes for features, functions and interactions

• Plan for agile sprints

• Compose specification to enable efficient post-sprint modification• Update user experience measures to reflect the final experience direction

Produce

Design Specification



Example : insideGE

The latest iteration of insideGE introduced a new, clean design based on extensive research. To make sure they got it right, the team involved employees and stakeholders throughout the development process. The team rolled out the alpha to 500 employees, and the beta to 60,000 and encouraged extensive feedback. The service won a prestigious Nielsen Norman award in 2009.

Methods• Representative user reviews (only

when significant user research exists)

• Remote walkthroughs• ‘User Fridays’ (scheduled reviews

with 2-3 users every other week)• Usability testing

• Research plan and report

Objective

Participate in agile development processes by incorporating quick user input sessions for key sprint cycles.


• Integrate testing cycles with agile sprint cycle• Plan and conduct feature-focused testing• Provide recommendations that maintain the product vision and user needs

Produce

Iterative User Testing



Methods• Frequent collaboration and

contact with team members• Product vision roadmap and

documents • Project ‘war rooms’ / co-location• User archetypes and workflows• Cognitive walkthroughs• Prototyping

To keep the team aligned on the vision for the Expert on Alert system throughout the process, the user experience team at frog (see page 101) created a roadmap that mapped the current experience to the future experience the team was designing.

Example : Expert on Alert

Produce

Objective

Allocate UX experts to the product team throughout the process to speed development and collaboratively solve challenges while maintaining the concept vision and delivering on user needs.


• Own and defend user needs and concept vision throughout process

• Creatively respond to barriers to achieve an optimal solution• Communicate with engineers, developers and business leads

• Frame user needs in business value

Vision Ownership & Collaboration



Methods• QA testing and validation of user

experience requirements and workflows

• Final usability testing

Tools• TopTeam • Infrastructure QA

Produce

Controls Connect performed release testing at multiple levels:

1. Unit, Integration and Regression testing by the development/quality assurance team

2. User acceptance testing with the business analysis team, broad business stakeholders and a pilot user team from actual and potential customers who used the application in context

Example : Controls ConnectObjective

Ensure the final product meets user needs and provides a good GE user experience prior to first launch.

This should never be the first phase of user contact or usability testing. If adequate UX involvement has been present and taken into account, minimal changes should be necessary during this phase.


• Evaluate that the actual product user experience matches the user experience requirements established at the start of the phase

Release 0 Testing and QA


4EvaluateMeasuring UX impacts and ongoing value

Process Discover Design Produce


frog (see page 101) monitors the on-going performance of key initiatives, such as Healthymagination and Ecomagination, to provide a weekly dashboard for performance. This provides leaders the ability to quickly understand the status of the initiatives via traditional and social metrics and to target needed changes quickly.

Example : GE CorporateMethods• Direct user contact• Voice of the Customer• Surveys and questionnaires• UX Scorecard

Tools• Quantitative data collection

tools/services• Survey application/tool• Scorecard tracking tools/service

Objective

Evaluate how user experience affects the performance of GE products.

Report quarterly on the user experience performance of GE products.


• Design and implement surveys• Monitor measurements

• Identify opportunities for improvement• Plan and conduct user input sessions

• Maintain professional on-going relationships with GE product users• Analyze data and extract meaningful trends

• Identify opportunities for improvement• Map data to experience and financial impacts meaningful to GE

• On-going product benchmark analysis

Evaluate

Ongoing Scorecard Creation & Benchmarking

Ecomagination Dashboard 2/7-2/13

Top Ecomagination Content (page views) Top Challenge Content (page views)

1. 53,049 1. 10,841 2. 24,692 2. 9,380 3. 20,840 3. 2,478 4. 18,804 4. 2,198 5. 10,574 5. 1,781

Top Ecomagination Traffic Sources (visits) Top Challenge Traffic Sources (visits)

1. 15,600 1. 3,574 2. 6,756 2. 2,371 3. 3,185 3. 1,923 4. 2,793 4. 895 5. 2,054 5. 493

Social SEM: ContentSocial 1/31-2/6 2/7-2/13 Views ClicksTotal social volume 1,777 1,610 Total 1,907,499 762 0.04%

1,907,499 762 0.04%Twitter @pepsi @ecoTotal followers 56,372 40,085 Overall "Klout" score 65 67

SEM: SearchViews Clicks

Total 333,670 4,289 1.29%Retweeted by BethSEGreen 2/7: 1,013 followers 274,699 3,256 1.19%

Bing 58,971 1,033 1.75%Facebook* PepsiFans 3,301,189 1,882 Interactions - 15

Traffic (visits)

Google

Ecomagination

*Counts relevant posts generated by brand only

GE.com Twitter

RT @ecomagination: 27acre solar field 2 lower Princeton's energy cost 8% Princeton Plans Largest Solar Field for Any U.S. University ...

Conversion

Google (CPC) ecomagination.comDirect traffic Google (organic)Google (organic) Google (CPC)

Conversion

Google

Projects Powering Your Home: My Profile

Traffic to ecomagination.com increased by 98% this week, drawing just over 33,000 visits to the site. More than half of these visits were a result of paid advertising - Google and DailyMotion. Dailymotion, a new vendor to appear as a top traffic source, seems to have driven an increase in pages per visit. Meanwhile, traffic to the Challenge site remained relatively stable this week. Social volume and Facebook interactions are down from last week. Traffic to Twitter continues to grow and has reached over 40,000 followers though influence (as measured by Klout) decreased this week. Beth Bond, editor of Southeast Green, a green and sustainability business website, retweeted a story about a solar power field at Princeton University to her 1,014 followers.

Home Powering Your Home: IdeasTechnologies Powering Your Home: Home

Topics HomeNews View Idea

Dailymotion (advertising) Direct.com

36,330 visits 18,35910% repeat visitors 14%

4.3 pages/visit 1.677% bounce rate 75%

12,362 visits 12,44228% repeat visitors 26%

3.8 pages/visit 3.652% bounce rate 53%

Process Discover Design Produce


Evaluate

Greg Levinsky and the Home and Business team dramatically improved their net promoter scores and turned 67% of their online detractors to neutral and 20% of detractors to advocates for GE appliances through actively identifying and engaging in Facebook and Twitter conversations about GE appliances.

Example : GE AppliancesMethods• Customer advisory boards

ToolsTo be developed

• Online forums• Social media• Embedded feedback

mechanisms • Software instrumentation• Usage tracking, logging• In-product/Online feedback

mechanisms for customer/user input to be built into the products themselves

Objective

Leverage social media, embedded features and software instrumentation to maintain an ongoing conversation with users, as well as capture their feedback and enhancement requests.


• Engage with end users and customers over time

• Monitor multiple feedback channels• Collaborate with product team to understand and evaluate emergent user

needs and opportunities

End-User Feedback and Collaboration


EvaluateProduceDiscover Design

Methods Templates Tools

Exploratory Interviews

Contextual Inquiry

Secondary & Market Research

Competitive Reviews

Expert Reviews & Task Analysis

Cognitive Walkthroughs

Heuristic Evaluation

Business Value Analysis

‘War Room’ & Co-location

Benchmarking

Data Analysis & Synthesis

Mental Modeling

Opportunity Mapping

Business Analysis

Processes (6Sigma)

Research Plans & Reports

Concept Map

User Archetypes

Journey Map

Workflow Diagrams

Product Roadmap & Vision

Forms & Process Flows

Research Equipment

BPMN

Wireframing App

GE Wireframe Assets

Visual Design App

Standards Library

GE UX Principles

GE & Business DLSs

Concept Generation

Sketching

Scenarios & Storyboards

Feature Prioritization (user)

Prioritization Workshop (team)

Card Sorting

Visual Landscape Reviews

A/B Testing

Usability Testing

Concept Evaluation Workshop

Prototyping

UX Requirements Engineering

UX Requirements

Site / Application Map

Interaction Specification

Functional Specification

Visual Specification

Survey App/Tool

Scorecard Tracker Service

User Feedback Service

Scorecard Report

Experience Prototypes

Remote Walkthroughs

User Panels

User Fridays

QA Testing & Validation

Metrics Collection

User Input Collection

Support Materials

Process

Discover

Design

Produce

Evaluate

* Most methods, templates and tools apply throughout the process. Groupings represent initial or primary use.

5958

Building teams to craft great GE user experiences.

Skills


Skills The best UX design comes from a diverse set of expertsskilled in user-centered design methodologies. These experts will be actively engaged in the GE user experience community and seek continual process improvement.

ExpertWe need an expert team to achieve our vision. The UX practitioners will lead cross-functional teams to understand end users and own creative delivery to drive innovation.

SystematicTo build the practice, they will articulate the business value of systematically creating good user experiences in GE software.

• Communication across Disciplines

• Collaboration & facilitation

• Systems thinking

• User requirements advocacy

• User Insight for Unmet Needs

• Create & Value User Experience requirements

• User Product Lifecycle Modeling

• Competitive auditing

• Prototyping Before Locking System Design

• Prototype testing with Users

• Prototype Iteration & requirements Specification

• Identify Measures for User Experience

• track & Score User Experience Measures

• Share reusable Solutions for Speed & Consistency

Cross-functional team Know Your User Prototype

& IterateMeasure & Extend


ACross-FunctionalTeamsLeveraging all skills for great UX

Objective

The best user experience teams blend UX experts, business strategists, creative technologists and engineers.


• Communicate effectively with team members from other disciplines

• Understand the needs of the technology, engineering and business team members

• Translate business, technology, user needs and design issues within the team

Skills to Hire• Strong communicators• Experience in cross-functional

environments

Skills / Cross-Functional Teams

Communication Across Disciplines


Objective

For GE to lead in user experience design, teams must be staffed to support collaboration between the disciplines throughout product development.


• Build rapport and trust within the team and among disciplines

• Guide creative collaboration and maintain team balance

• Lead group facilitation activities

Skills to Hire• Creative leadership • Facilitation of group reviews and

discussions• Experience integrating user

experience requirements with business, engineering and developer requirements

• Experience translating needs into terms meaningful to other disciplines


Collaboration & Facilitation Systems Thinking

Objective

User experience leaders must see the user as part of a contextual system that includes assets, information, people and processes. They must leverage the expertise from multiple disciplines to find solutions that optimize the system.


• Map and model systems

• Diagram and model system influencers and drivers

• Facilitate cross-functional teams to develop a common understanding of how system components impact each other

• Identify, dissect and challenge assumptions about how systems work

• Understand and clearly communicate the high-level system view, as well as the detailed system elements

• Analyze models of a system to trace root causes of problems and identify patterns of behavior

Skills to Hire• Business analysis• Systems engineering• User experience service or

systems delivery



User Requirements Advocacy

Objective

UX experts must act as the advocate for the needs of the user throughout product planning, conceptualization, design and development.


• Develop materials that communicate and summarize user needs effectively

• Communicate user needs to express the value to different business stakeholders

• Link needs and concepts with product design and UI decisions

• Maintain a high-level vision that informs detailed design decisions

Skills to Hire• Evangelists• User insights specialists• Storytelling and visual

communication


BKnow Your UsersOngoing user insights generation


Objective

In order to deliver products with great user experiences, GE must discover and synthesize insights and concepts based on the unmet needs of the user.


• Plan and deliver great user research sessions that build customer trust in GE’s approach

• Build rapport with account management needs and concerns

• Discover and synthesize user experience insights

Skills to Hire• Design research• Research facilitation and

moderation• Experience balancing business

concerns with gathering user input

• Leadership in developing long-term user contact channels with customers/B2B environments

• Ability to craft innovative methods to fit opportunities

Skills / Know Your Users

User Insights for Unmet Needs

Objective

The UX expert must ensure that user needs are aligned with GE business innovation and engineering requirements. They will create and manage models that align user needs with market opportunities throughout the software development lifecycle.


• Conduct research and synthesize user insights

• Conceptualize user experiences based on design research and insights

• Document user experience requirements

• Drive development of prototypes to explore and express requirements

• Marry business and user needs into opportunity areas for GE

Skills to Hire• Strong design research and

synthesis experience• Ability to create user experience

requirements• Experience tracing insights from

initial research throughout the development process

• Customer segmentation


Create & Value UX Requirements


Objective

Beyond generating insights for user needs today, the UX expert needs to develop a strategic vision for the evolution of the user experience over the product lifecycle and business strategy, and work with the full team to tier the rollout and evolution of features.


• Develop a strategic vision for customer interaction

• Prioritize features into a multi-stage model

• Communicate the long-term product strategy based on addressing the most important user needs

Skills to Hire• Journey mapping• Moments of Truth identification

and communication• Experience modeling• Service design• Product strategy• Product lifecycle modeling


User Product Lifecycle Modeling

Objective

To generate a compelling user experience, the UX expert must be able to look at the wider context of software and service experiences, as well as interaction patterns and opportunities.


• Describe the product space from the user and customer perspective by analyzing competitive and analogous experiences within, and outside of, the product category

• Identify relevant experiences

• Clearly document findings and recommendations

Skills to Hire• Trendscaping• Heuristic analysis• Cognitive walkthroughs• Segmentation and behavior

analysis• Product/experience landscaping


Competitive Auditing


CPrototype & IterateFast concept creation and evaluation

Objective

In order to gain the most value from investment in interactive prototypes, these prototypes must be designed before the system architecture and features are locked, so that flexibility to integrate findings remains.


• Generate multiple concepts to provide a range of options

• Quickly develop prototypes that represent the user experience (even if they are on another platform than the final implementation)

• Swiftly gather and synthesize research and iterate prototypes

Skills to Hire• Creative development• Agile prototyping• Iterative design• Design agency experience• Divergent, creative thinker

Skills / Prototype & Iterate

Prototype before Locking in Design


Objective

To prevent downstream costs and wasted efforts, both low and high-fidelity prototypes should be tested with users.

Light-weight testing often integrates well with agile development.


• Identify and prioritize research questions

• Develop appropriate testing processes to answer key questions

• Develop concept prototypes to address core questions

Skills to Hire• Test design• Usability testing• Concept evaluation• Research protocol design• Research facilitation• Testing for agile development• Research moderation


Prototype Testing with Users

Objective

To ensure usability and that user needs are met throughout the details of the production process, UX experts should be a part of the ongoing review of production deliverables.


• Collaborate with the production team

• Engage user inputs throughout the process

• Interpret interactions and collaborate on solutions

Skills to Hire• Collaboration and

communication skills during production

• Sketching and iteration• Understanding of technology

capabilities of the field/industry/business


Prototype Iteration and Requirements Specification


D Measure & ExtendProving value and building a single source

Objective

To track the success of user experiences, measures must be identified during the requirements definition process and measured throughout the product lifecycle.


• Define user experience requirements

• Identify and prioritize key interactions for the user experience

• Develop measures for key interactions

• Refine measures over time

Skills to Hire• Measurement of UX impacts• Data analysis for user experience• Quantitative study design• Qualitative study design

Skills / Measure & Extend

Identify Measures for User Experience


Objective

User experiences should be measured over time to identify areas for improvement and to benchmark ongoing user experience updates.


• Gather data over time

• Analyze results

• Manage data in a consistent format across the company

• Generate insights and recommendations from research

• Communicate findings

Skills to Hire• Quantitative research• Data analysis• Trend identification

Skills / Measure & Extend

Track & Score UX Measures

Objective

Deliver great experiences faster by reusing proven solutions.

Contribute to the growth of consistent GE solutions by sharing assets and patterns with the GE community and reusing proven solutions.


• Understand the GE product ecosystem to identify solutions with broad applicability

• Identify and communicate solutions

• Prioritize documentation and sharing

• Integrate reuse of solutions into the design process

Skills to Hire• Knowledge management• Interaction design

Skills | Measure & Extend

Share Reusable Solutions


Skills

Proposed Staffing Roles

To deliver strong, consistent GE user experiences that meet the unique needs of each business and industry we serve, we recommend that each business hire at least one full-time leader in most of the following roles.

* Minimum required effort and investment per business and major software platform (e.g. Proficy)

** Recommended per business and major platform, but which can also be outsourced to qualified vendors (Qualified vendors must be willing to integrate with GE UX standards and tools and provide assets for GE knowledge management)

Other roles are recommended to support the overall growth of UX in the business

Visionary Leader* Lead the business UX. Evangelize broadly and at the C-level

Project Manager Manage special UX projects and vendor relationships

Research Specialist** Lead user research practice

Training Lead Lead training on UX and professional development for staff

Visual Design Specialist** Lead visual design practice and standards

UX Knowledge Manager* Own the primary GE UX content and standards

Evangelist Own internal advocacy, award programs and other advocacy for UX

User Experience Specialist** Lead interaction design practice

Prototyping Specialist** Lead prototyping and tech integration practice

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Auditable checkpoints for compliance with our UX Design Process and for measurement of outcomes

Certification


Certification Auditable checkpoints during each phase drive process compliance.

ConsistentCertification drives consistent improvement in our software user experiences by creating an auditable and repeatable process connected to measurable outcomes.

MeasurableThe certification process generates both GE-standard and product-specific experience measures to track throughout the life of the product to demonstrate the impact of user experience decisions.

UX is involved & part of team from start

Design research is performed with users

User archetypes are created for key roles

User insights and key principles are documented for the product

Concepts are analyzed for GE design patterns and standards

Experience prototypes are created

Experience prototypes are tested with users

Final specifications are created based on GE standards

Summative testing is done with key user archetypes prior to product release

Post-launch data is collected into the UX Scorecard

Product scorecard is benchmarked and analyzed for improvement opportunities


Conduct user research and integrate findings with the product plan

Design GE experiences that resonate with users and leverage GE standards

Collaborate on specification and delivery of the product

Measure user experience and the impacts on product value over time


UX is involved and part of the team from the start Concepts are analyzed for GE design patterns and standards

Design research is performed with usersExperience prototypes are created

User archetypes for each key role are developed based on current user research

Experience prototypes are tested with users

User insights and key principles are documented for the product

UX lead allocated in the project plan for the full duration of the project

Pattern analysis inventory

User archetypes

Research plan

Sessions conducted

Requirement recommendations

User Insights brief

User roles are defined

Research plan created

Research conducted and analyzed

Experience prototype(s)

Goals GoalsCertification Points: Certification Points:

Discover DiscoverDesign DesignProduce ProduceEvaluate Evaluate

Certification Certification

Objective

Delivering great user experiences requires that UX experts and users be an integrated part of the process from concept through delivery and ongoing maintenance.

Objective

UX experts work closely with the business, design and development teams to ensure that meaningful, consistent user experiences are developed and tested with users throughout the process.

indicates a step for which a template document will be created.


Final specifications are created based on GE standards

Summative testing is done with key user archetypes prior to product release

Updated pattern analysis inventory

Research plan

Scorecard created

Research report and recommendations

Goals Certification Points:


Certification

Objective

UX experts integrate with the production process by creating user experience specifications and testing against them.

Post-launch data is collected into the UX Scorecard

Product is benchmarked and analyzed for improvement opportunities

UX Scorecard

Benchmark report

Goals Certification Points:


Certification

Objective

Working with the product manager, the UX expert maintains an ongoing relationship with the product to measure outcomes and ascertain that user experience targets are met.


Scorecard

Connecting our design efforts to customer outcomes.

The UX Scorecard is a formal tool to systematically understand customer and business outcomes, which result from our GE user experience efforts.

Scorecard Elements

Certification

Universal Measures

Product Measures

Existing Product Performance Measures

GE UX Principles

UX Basics / SUS

Assumed in Use

Per-User Archetype (as derived from user research)

Self-reported Data

Observed Data

• Welcoming• Confident• Meaningful• Delightful

• Intuitive Navigation • Visual Appeal• Content Clarity

• Success rate• Time to completion• Usage & task productivity

• Satisfaction with top 5 capabilities

• Net Revenue• Net Sales• Sales Growth• Market Share• Differentiated Value Proposition• Net Promoter Score

Key features:

• Systematic collection of UX measures into an online scorecard

• Formal tool for analysis and identification of opportunities for point release improvements

• Enables peer comparison and release 0 testing thresholds

Universal measures are based on our GE User Experience Principles, which are common to all products.

Product-specific measures are created from user requirements identified at the end of the Discover phase.

Correlating UX measures with existing product performance measures will highlight achievements and opportunities for improvement.

Concept for Scorecard

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Existing and planned tools and teams, which will deliver on our UX vision

Resources


Standards

The UX CoE team develops and maintains GE UX principles, processes and tools. These assets are constantly under review and are updated to reflect state-of-the-art design solutions for GE through active dialog with the GE UX community and investigation of global trends.

Support

We provide both direct and self-service support to the businesses. Our experts maintain active discussion threads, and develop How-To’s and other materials to support recommended processes and ongoing professional development. Through strategic projects and UX vendor qualification and matchmaking, we help all GE products move toward UX excellence.

Advocacy

To support the GE culture in embracing a user-centered mindset when developing digital solutions, we will conduct training and internal PR on GE UX processes, successes and opportunities. We will also integrate with new hire and executive training, as well as build expert groups and professional development opportunities.

Innovation

As a cross-business organization, the UX CoE members will be charged with identifying innovation trends, synergies and opportunities across the company. They will also actively engage with the wider UX community globally and develop special reports for the community about market trends that impact our clients, industries and services. Beyond identifying market movements, the UX CoE will also pursue propriety GE innovations in user experience.

UX Center of Excellence

Resources

Our Mission

The UX Center of Excellence provides GE businesses with the knowledge, methods and tools to create welcoming, confident, meaningful and delightful user experiences that will drive revenue and growth by creating preference for GE branded software and platforms.

How We Help

How To’s Standards

Get

ting

Stat

ed

Metrics

Support

Getting St

arte

d

ThinkTank

ResearchLead

Interaction Design Lead

Visual DesignLead Prototyping

Lead

Knowledge Manager

ProjectManager

Evangelist

Training Lead

InnovationLead

VisionaryLeader

Research Knowledge Mgr.

User experiences

TemplatesDesign Language

Play

book

Certi

ficatio

n

U

X Pr

inci

ples

Cross-Business Trends

Technology

Platform Guidance

Trends

Markets

Behaviors & Needs

How To’s & ForumsDesign Assets / Themes

Special Projects

Vendor Matchm

aking

Aw

ards

/ Pu

blic

atio

ns

Roa

dsho

ws

Executive Briefings

Expert Groups / Workshops

Self Service

Direct

Tools

Proc

esses

Prin

cipl

es

Emerging

Global

TrainingBusinessspecific

Inte

rnal

PR

Stan

dards

Advocacy

Support

Innovation

UXCoE


UX standards, the value of outstanding user experience and the process to achieve them at GE.

Content Types

• Guiding vision

• UX Playbook• UX Principles• Compliance process

Enables comparison of outcomes and measurement of financial impacts of UX.

Content Types

• Scorecard data• Benchmark data• Trend visualization

• Measurement tools

Provide guidance and access to key tools and templates.

Content Types

• Detailed methods• UX topics

• Best practices• Tutorials• Templates

• Examples

Expert identification of internal and external UX trends.

Content Types

• CoE & expert articles• Emerging topic

coverage• Trend coverage

Enables cross-business sharing of standards and user interface and code assets.

Content Types

• CoE pattern libraries• Code and UI elements

• Definitions and links to tutorials and examples

• Searchable reference

Encourages GE UX dialog and access to qualified vendors and UX CoE support.

Content Types

• Discussion threads• UX CoE staff

• CoE pilot program standards and application

• Vendor directory• Vendor standards

UX Central

Resources

Getting Started MetricsHow To’s ThinkTankStandards Discussion Support

A Single Source for Standards, UX Expertise and Outcomes

Training internal PR and leadership will get the UX word out, while UX Central provides a dedicated source for all GE UX content. The website is currently being scoped and designed. It will provide core reference and learning materials, official standards, process explanations and access to key trends and opportunities for the businesses.

Growing and gardening the content on this site will be a major, ongoing responsibility of UX CoE staff, as the site must be active and continually reacting to changes and needs in the business and the market.


UX Central

Resources

Standards Content Example

1. Provides access to reusable templates and code to drive consistency.2. Guidance in evaluating the application of the standard.3. Includes links to associated information.

Landing Page Example

1. Provides step-by-step materials for each phase.2. Primers and detailed instructions help experts and novices refine skills and access templates.3. Provides social presence for UX leaders to grow the GE UX community.

2

2

1

1

3

3


ArtefactBrandtrustBressler GroupBrooks StevensCarbon Design GroupCooperEcho VisualizationForest GiantFormation DesignfrogGeneral AssemblyGravity TankIA CollaborativeLextantThe Patricia Seybold GroupPriority DesignVSARazorfishRedaliRichard SmithSapientStrategy Product DevelopmentUser InsightUsability ScienceZiba - CaliforniaUniversal MindWhipsaw

www.artefactgroup.comwww. brandtrust.comwww.bresslergroup.comwww.brooksstevens.comwww.carbondesign.comwww.cooper.comwww.echoviz.comwww. forestgiant.comwww.formationdesign.comwww.frogdesign.comwww.productg.comwww.gravitytank.comwww.iacollaborative.comwww.lextant.comwww.psgroup.comwww.priotydesigns.comwww.vsapartners.comwww.razorfish.comwww.redali.comwww.richardsmithcreative.comwww.sapient.comwww.strategypd.comwww.userinsight.comwww.usabilitysciences.comwww.ziba.comwww.universalmind.comwww.whipsawinc.com

UX in the GE Businesses Directory of External Partners

Resources Resources

UX Vendor Qualification and Matchmaking

To support GE businesses in delivering the best GE experiences, particularly prior to full staffing, the UX CoE will develop a directory of qualified GE user experience vendors and advise on matchmaking.

A Place to Start

With more than 6000 GE employees focused on non-embedded software, many people at GE are invested in making great user experiences. Key leaders and small teams of user experience experts exist within some businesses and are able to lead the processes and foster the skills recommended in this playbook.

This is an initial survey of user experience leaders at GE. Additions are sought.

GE Aviation Justin Hendrix myEngines

Aaron Gannon Systems Human Factors

GE Home and Business

Chris Melski Marketing and Social Media

Lou Lenzi Industrial Design

GE Energy

Ken Ceglia Software Solutions

Kristen Martin-Claret Global Digital Media

GE Healthcare

Bob Schwartz Global Design

James Maccubbin IT Clinical Solutions

Erika Orrick IT UX and Customer Collaboration

GE Capital

No UX team identified.

GE Transportation

No UX team identified.

UX Agencies with GE Experience Academic PartnersCarnegie Mellon Human Computer Interaction Institutewww.hcii.cmu.edu

Georgia Tech Cognitive Engineering Center www.cognitiveengineering.gatech.edu

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Contributors Get Involved!UX CoE Steering Committee

Tom Gentile Linda Boff Ravi Adapathya Israel Alquindique Amy Aragones Vic Bhagat Arlene Borokowski Mike Carlson Rich Carpenter Eduardo Cocozza Franceso Del Greco John Powley Jeff Schnitzer Jude Schramm Bob Schwartz Peter Thomas Angelica Tritzo Paul Weatherbee Lauren Whitsell

GE Contributors

GE Healthcare

Kathleen BaumanJim KohliSteve E LinthicumJames MaccubbinSampada Marathe Erika Orrick Daniel Sloat Joyce Thomas

Share Great methods, tools and examples at www.geuxcentral.com/standards*

DiscussAdd your voice to the shape of the UX CoE at www.geuxcentral.com/discuss*

LearnRead and comment on our growing body of methods and process at www.geuxcentral.com/how-to*

Contact Amy Aragones to be added to the GE UX expert list. Email: [email protected]

* URLs are all draft. The UX Central site is not yet built . In the interim, please visit http://supportcentral.ge.com/products/sup_products.asp?prod_id=161601

GE Global Research

Doug FormanEofn Williams

GE Energy

Justine Aylmer Robert DonaldsonKristen Martin-Claret Giri IyerKristina Lindau Karl Meyer

GE Aviation

Aaron Gannon Alison Starr

GE Tech Infra

Elizabeth EarleyArt Virgin

GE Corporate

James BlombergPaul Marcum Sean A Morton

GE Appl & Light

Alessio Palmieri

GE Oil & Gas

Elizabeth Earley

Outside Contributors

The Engelbart Institute

Christina Engelbart

frog

Alis CambolRobert FabricantMelinda FloresDaniel HoltzmanYoo-Jung KimLawrence LipkinTuri McKinleyErin SkurdalAntoine Veliz

The Patricia Seybold Group

Patricia SeyboldRonni MarshakMeg Lewis