"Why Invest in UX?" Workshop

Preparing a UX workshop, focusing on the role and value of UX

# UXR
# Workshop

Overview

In Jan -Feb 2023, right after I graduated from my UX Bootcamp at Mento Design Academy, I had the opportunity to collaborate with my mentor. Banca Transilvania, a major bank in Romania, reached out to as as their marketing team was considering investing in UX and wanted to learn further.

Note that the responsibilities were split amongst myself and my mentor.
Moyai - Research and prepare workshop slides
Mentor - Review, Romanian translation and workshop facilitation

role
UX Researcher
Duration
1mo. (Jan - Feb 2023)
Tools
Figma, FigJam
Output
UX Workshop Slides
jump to:
prep
Delivery
Feedback
Takeaways
prep
Understanding where the client is coming from

One of the first steps I took was to unpack the problem space with the mentor. Since I did not have direct contact with the client for this project, I asked all kinds of questions in order to understand where the client was coming from such as:

1.
How did the client learn about UX?
2.
What about UX are they interested in?
3.
What do they want to achieve through their UX workshop?
4.
Who is our target audience?

Let's quickly summarize the context so we are on the same page:

Client

Banca Transilvania, a major bank in Romania

Why

Banca Transilvania is considering implementing UX into their business and want to be educated on this topic

Target Audience

Marketing team from Banca Transilvania

Delivery

An on-site workshop about UX lasting half day at most

Explaining the role and importance of UX to those with non-design backgrounds needs to be done with extra caution to ensure proper implementation and understanding. Let me share what my thought process looked like:

-
Use simple words so it's easy to comprehend, as this is a new topic for most of the audience
-
Use lots of visuals and examples
-
Ask questions throughout for involvement and engagement
-
Prepare small group activities, if possible, to practice UX application
delivery
Creating informative & educational slides

Through multiple interactions and iterations, My final delivery was a 15-slide presentation discussing UX best practices, common mistakes and facts. Here are some of the slides that were used as a part of the workshop. Please note that some of the below slides were translated into Romanian during review for final delivery.

Start with interesting UX facts, ask the audience for guesses and get them involved

Cover the benefits of UX and how that will bring value to their marketing team

Summarize best practices, both web and mobile with lots of visuals so it's easier to grasp

Summarize common mistakes and what to watch out for

Prepare small group activities to maintain engagement and interest. For example, use their company website (something they are familiar with), and ask them to take notes on any areas that can be improved.

Aim for an open-ended discussion to point them in the right direction.

feedback
How it all went

The workshop was conducted on-site in Romania, facilitated by my mentor. Right after the workshop was done, she contacted me to let me know that it was a successful half-day session, full of energy and participation. I also received the following feedback regarding my involvement:

"Hey Moyai. Just wanted to let you know that the workshop went great! They (client) loved it, I had a very good delivery - the slides were awesome, everything was great and I just want to thank you!"
Senior Designer & Mentor
takeaways
Approaching UX from various perspectives
01
Taking every opportunity possible

Despite it wasn't a typical UI/UX project, I'm glad I took this project earlier on in my career as it taught me the importance of working with another collaborator/reviewer and how to split responsibilities in a small team.

02
UX isn't just about designing wireframes and prototypes

One major takeaway from this project is that it taught me that the responsibility of a UI/UX designer doesn't just sit within Figma. The definition and role of UX Design can be blurry, so being able to explain its role and value to fit the needs other users is an important role of a UI/UX Designer.

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