Object-Oriented UX

Object-Oriented UX is a digital design philosophy that respects the fact that people think in objects. Our brains have evolved to recognize solid objects that adhere to the laws of physics. But digital environments are not beholden to the laws of physics, which can wreck havoc on our users’ ability to understand them.

OOUX gives you a new set of principles so you can create naturally intuitive apps, websites, and software. With these principles, you'll avoid designing objects that are too abstract or visually inconsistent.

The Object-Oriented UX workshop is a great way to gain consensus and definition on what exactly the team needs to design and build. We will explore:

1. Core user and business objects (which will define templates)
2. Object-to-object relationships (which will define navigation)
3. Users’ capabilities on these objects (which will define features)
4. The granular data structure of each objects’ attributes (which will define content and taxonomy)

Objects. Relationships. Capabilities. Attributes.

We call this process ORCA and we go through several rounds as we continue to add detail to the structure of the project.

The first few rounds of this process leads to incredible clarity and answers many questions—but it elicits even more questions. This is a good thing. Together we identify complexity and assumptions on user needs, business requirements, and business model uncertainties. Many of these questions would otherwise not come up until much later—while detailed wireframes are presented, or worse, while developers are implementing half-baked designs.

Sequence of Activities

Planning

This engagement includes about 6-8 hours of collaborative planning time and research leading up to the workshop. As much as possible, the workshop will be customized to your unique problem and we want to make sure we come in knowledgeable. Here’s some ways we might spend this time:

• Exploring your current system
• Analyzing your competitors
• Reading case studies, vision decks, other material
• Analyzing previous user research
• Working with you and your leadership to understand the current context of your product development and roadmap
• Working with you on workshop logistics (room setup, etc)

When we get closer to the workshop date, we will create a detailed schedule with start time, end time, breaks, and lunch hour.

The Workshop

The workshop is delivered in morning and afternoon segments with a one-hour lunch break in between. There will be regular bio/coffee breaks, but please feel free to bring refreshments and snacks so we can have minimal disruptions and stay focused throughout the day.

It is important that we do not have participants coming and going throughout the day. Popping in and out (either physically or mentally into email, chats, etc.) is often disruptive to the group! If a participant leaves for more than a few minutes, they should plan on returning as an observer, not a participant.

Location:

In-person is preferred, but sessions can be held remotely from anywhere in the world.

Duration:

From start to finish, expect this to take at least 1 week, subject to availability of your team. It's 2-days of workshop and about 1 week to compile and deliver findings.

Scheduling:

We can usually schedule the workshop within a few business days.

Participation:

Critical leaders and decision makers from your team must participate.

Deliverables:

Post-workshop, we will take the output from the workshop and deliver it to you in a cleaned-up and digitized format. Within a week, you will receive:

• An Object-Relationship Diagram showing all the objects and their relationships.
• Your Object Map in Sketch, Miro, or Trello.
• A list of important questions/discoveries that came up during the sessions.