Design Systems To-Go: Reimagining Developer Handoff, and Introducing App Builder (Part 2)

A Design system is not only about standardizing the UI or accelerating design. In the big picture, it can streamline collaboration between design and development. With this goal in mind, an effective Design system is available to both designers and developers in a format that is native to each discipline. However, getting to this point takes time. But what if we can skip ahead with a starter Design system containing both design and coded components that are ready for use?

Join our activity sessions to see how you can transform your pixel-perfect designs into pixel-perfect code for modern web applications with Indigo.Design. We will also revisit the typical developer handoff by introducing a re-imagined workflow that minimizes rework. In the end, this approach can free up our focus to run Design-Ops better and deliver value sooner.

Part 1 (Thursday): Introducing a starter Design system, and Indigo.Design overview
? Part 2 (Friday): Reimagining developer handoff, and introducing App builder
Part 3 (Friday): Indigo.Design overview and exploring the developer workflow

Systems Provocateur with Dr. Luke Roberts

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“Systems are very good at being resilient,” and “Systems are very good at dehumanizing,” are sentiments that anyone who has worked in organizational transformation or systems change can appreciate. Luke Roberts is the COO and co-founder of HighFive and a speaker at the upcoming Advancing Service Design Conference. As a self-proclaimed “systems provocateur,” Luke emphasizes the importance of understanding the underlying dynamics of any system, whether it’s in education, healthcare, or corporate environments. He and Lou discuss the intricacies of how systems operate and the challenges faced when attempting to provoke meaningful transformation, often drawing on relatable insights from Luke’s work within education systems.

One of the standout insights from the conversation is the vital role of time in enacting change. Luke argues that significant systems change requires a long-term commitment, with research indicating that anything less than three years typically fails to yield lasting results. This understanding is crucial, especially when organizations often seek quick wins that can lead to a cycle of temporary fixes without addressing deeper issues.

Ultimately, our discussion reveals that provoking change is not just about identifying problems or changing individuals; it’s about creating a collective vision and investing the time and energy required to realize it. As we navigate complex systems across various sectors, embracing the challenge of systems change can lead to meaningful and sustainable transformation.

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• The Nature of Systems Change: Understanding that systems are complex and often resistant to change, requiring a nuanced approach to provoke transformation.
• The Importance of Time: Recognizing that meaningful systems change typically takes at least three years, challenging the desire for quick wins and highlighting the need for long-term commitment.
• Energy Dynamics in Systems: Exploring how the flow of information and attention affects change efforts, and how misdirection can stall progress.
• Collaboration Across Stakeholders: The necessity of fostering collaboration among all participants—whether in education, healthcare, or corporate environments—to create a shared vision for change.
• Provocation as a Tool for Change: Learning how to challenge existing norms and behaviors within a system without blaming individuals, thereby encouraging open dialogue and reflection.
• Practical Examples and Insights: Gaining insights from real-world examples, such as the education system, to illustrate how systemic issues can perpetuate negative outcomes and the strategies needed to address them.

Quick Reference Guide:
0:14 – Meet Luke
2:40 – An example of change at a system level – bullying in schools
5:50 – Helpful frameworks – mapping and metaphors
9:06 – Why training individuals is not a long-term solution
14:00 – The window of change
18:13 – 5 reasons to use the Rosenverse
20:28 – Provoking systems
24:58 – Flow of energy
28:49 – Luke’s gift for listeners

Rock Climbing and Security UX with Heidi Trost

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Just as a rock climber meticulously checks their gear and follows strict safety protocols to navigate treacherous heights, security UX professionals must also anticipate risks and design safeguards to ensure a smooth and safe journey for users in a digital landscape. In Lou’s interview with Heidi Trost, author of Human-Centered Security: How to Design Systems that are Both Safe and Usable, Heidi highlights the critical safety protocols climbers and belayers follow, which mirror the precautions needed in system design to mitigate human error and anxiety. This analogy sets the stage for a broader discussion on security user experience challenges.

Heidi stresses the necessity of cross-disciplinary collaboration, especially when dealing with sensitive data like personally identifiable information (PII) and electronic protected health information (EPHI). She points out how involving legal and security teams early can streamline projects and improve outcomes. Designers, as facilitators, must bridge the gap between complex security concepts and user comprehension. Heidi’s book helps them do this by using personas to understand how the dynamic between users, security UX, and threat actors shapes.

Lou and Heidi’s conversation explores the evolution of multi-factor authentication (MFA) and its unintended consequences. What started as a simple 6-digit code morphed into a troublesome fatigue for users. Heidi underscores the importance of iterative design to adapt to these evolving challenges, likening the chaos of security interactions to a relentless ping-pong match.

As they look ahead, Louis and Heidi discuss the rapid evolution of AI in security contexts, emphasizing the balance between technological advancement and user protection. With AI assistants poised to know more about individuals than ever, designers must remain vigilant to prevent potential misuse. Their conversation is an invitation for professionals to rethink how they approach security UX and design, encouraging a proactive stance in this ever-changing landscape.

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• The Importance of Safety Protocols: Just as climbers rely on safety checks, security UX requires robust protocols to protect users from potential threats.
• Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: The value of involving legal, privacy, and security teams early in the design process to streamline project timelines and enhance security measures.
• User Dynamics: Insights into the complex relationships between users, security measures, and threat actors, and how these dynamics affect user trust and experience.
• Iterative Design in Security: The necessity of adapting security measures, such as multi-factor authentication, based on user feedback and evolving threats to avoid fatigue and exploitation.
• The security threats of AI: The challenges and considerations of integrating AI technologies in security systems, focusing on the need for vigilance to prevent misuse and ensure user protection.
• The Role of Designers as Facilitators: How designers can bridge the gap between complex security concepts and user comprehension, fostering better communication and understanding in security UX.

Quick Reference Guide:
0:25 – Meet Heidi and get a rock climbing primer
5:55 – Emerging protocols in the security space
8:20 – The designer’s role in security
10:13 – Other “roles” – the user, the security user experience, the threat actor
15:09 – Designers as translators, conversation facilitators, and advocates
17:22 – Rosenverse – why you need it
19:44 – Security UX vs other types of UX
22:38 – The threat actor
26:06 – Changes and threats with AI
31:59 – Heidi’s gift for listeners

One Research Team for All – Influence Without Authority

Research teams are at the frontier of uncovering valuable insights that can inform products, services, and strategy choices. Few researchers in large organizations have the visibility and buy-in to exert influence across all of product, engineering, customer success, marketing, and overall organizational direction. How do you break down silos and maximize the impact of your research?

Join us in conversation with Joanna Vodopivec, Principal Design Researcher at Intuit, to learn how she makes her team’s research relevant to colleagues in product, marketing, and services, and the latest initiatives she has led to enable the research team to be truly seen in a large organization. You will also hear the creative approaches Joanna and her team take to engage and influence, even when working remotely.

How to Make Research Appealing to Anyone: A Chat with Abby Covert

You’re sitting in front of a mound of user research data. How do you take that mound and make it into valuable bite-sized chunks? How do you make decisionmakers care? Abby Covert, author of How to Make Sense of Any Mess, shares her approach to packaging research in ways that get at what audiences need.

Stronger Together: Lessons Learned from UX Research Ops

Design Ops and Research Ops teams are essential to design and research, providing strategic perspective as they solve problems and remove blockers. In this session, we review the shared functions of these two teams, focusing on Knowledge Management. We will talk about the rise and fall of research repositories in the ReOps space, outline the lessons learned, and present a way forward: a knowledge management system for both Design and Research – created and managed by Ops.

What’s Next for Research? (Videoconference)

For the next Advancing Research Community Call, we’re going to switch things up. We’ll be breaking into small discussion groups to get thoughts from you about the current challenges, opportunities, and key themes for the future of research. You’ll have the opportunity to facilitate or contribute to your group’s discussion of the burning issues in our field.

How are you thinking about users, participants, stakeholders, and communities we serve? What changes do you see to the frameworks, toolkits, and methods we apply to understanding the problem space? Into which areas (e.g., industry, academia, government, nonprofit) can research move and from which areas can research borrow; where are the opportunities for us to bridge divides? Join us on June 17th to share and learn what’s next for the practice of research.

Making Research a Team Sport

Research is for everyone. User research is about connecting with customers, and learning from them to make better decisions for them, and for your business. Everyone in an organization can and should benefit from that. But that doesn’t mean everyone is a researcher. In this session we’ll cover:

• How to identify the right stakeholders for your research
• How to get different kinds of collaborators involved in your research
• How to make sure your research is being used and making an impact

The Future of ReOps as a Strategic Function: A Roadmap for Getting There

Imagine a future where UX Research Operations (ReOps) is not just part of research execution, but a pivotal force driving business performance and competitive edge. In this session, we will explore the hidden and often untapped superpowers of Strategic Programs already available in your team. Discover how ReOps can evolve from a supportive function for research alone to a strategic linchpin that fuels your business competitive position, at scale. Through engaging case studies, actionable program plans, and measures, this session will equip you with a practical roadmap to assess the current research lifecycle, effectively advocate for resource gaps with research intelligence, and creative approaches to your research hiring & people strategy. Don’t miss the opportunity to transform your approach to Research Ops into a strategic pillar of business strategy. This evolution will lead to a significant shift in research perceptions, excellence, and maturity.

Building a Rapid Research Program (Videoconference)

Design teams are often faced with lack of research resources that can lead to bottlenecks in execution, an ever growing backlog of research questions or worse releasing products without sufficient research. This can lead to rework and expensive development costs.

A rapid research program is a tactical, flexible framework that helps teams build better products by executing on more research faster. This model requires aligning resources to operationalize the process and reduce the overhead and time of standard research processes like recruiting.