A review by ichbinkreativ
The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide by Leah Buley Buley

informative medium-paced

2.0

“This book is intended to be approachable for anyone who picks it up. Maybe you are new UX and product design. […] Or you might be an experienced partitioner seeking ways to work more efficiently with cross-functional teams.” This is how the authors define the target audience of the second edition of the book. 

From my perspective, the book meets these claims only partially. The book presents some good approaches and methods, but I would recommend other books to people from other disciplines (e.g. product managers or developers) and new UX designers. More on this later. Furthermore, I would not recommend new UX designers to take a job where they are the only user experience person. If they would even be considered for such a position. 

Here are a few things that bothered me while reading the book:

Chapter 1: UX 101

Defining User Experience: No Clear Breakdown and Explanation

Visual design is equated with user interface design and defined once in a regular section and twice in sidebars. Content design, on the other hand, is only mentioned as a role designation (content designer), but is only indirectly defined via “UX writing and content strategy”, which in turn is not necessarily the same thing.

Chapter 2: Getting Started

Get to Know the UX Improvement Process: Overwhelming

The authors begin, correctly, with an explanation that there is not one UX process, but many flavors. What is missing, however, is a clear overview of a process that they want to use to explain things to their readers. Instead, the authors jump straight into possible process steps and their possible components, which they explain at a high level. For experienced UX designers, these components are understandable, but for beginners, these components may be overwhelming at this point. I would have found it better to give a clear overview of a process at this point and then explain all the relevant components step by step in the following chapters. And to be fair, some components (methods) are explained in the following chapters, but by no means all of the components that are explained at this point. Rather, at the end of the section, reference is made to other books, which brings us to the next point.

– Supplementary Books: Questionable Approach and Selection

Book recommendations are generally a great thing. However, when this takes place right at the beginning of a book and these book recommendations obviously address similar topics to the book that I am currently reading and from which I am hoping to learn more, this leaves me with a somewhat strange impression. Furthermore, I consider the selection of books to be somewhat questionable for beginners. For example, the book “Information Architecture for the Web and Beyond”, which was published in its fourth edition in 2015, is no longer something I can recommend to anyone with a clear conscience, even though information architecture is still important. 

– Minimal Viable Product: Incorrect Explanation

“[…] an actual product with minimal feature set, offer it to customers, and observe their actual behavior using it […]” This is incorrect and does not correspond to the clarification made later by Mr. Ries. An MVP is the smallest possible experiment that can be carried out to learn something. For example, about potential users or the product. The product can also simply be a digital or physical prototype.

– Font-End Development Skills: Questionable Statement 

“Font-End development (CSS, HTML, JavaScript) has become an increasingly expected part of the job. […]” A solid understanding of these languages is certainly helpful for UX designers, and there are certainly some companies that would like to get it all from one person to save money. Personally, I think such companies are questionable these days and mixing UX design and front-end development is not very effective. Not least because UX already encompasses many activities. I'm not saying that it's impossible to do good work in both disciplines, especially if a person already has several years of experience in one or the other, but often one or the other is already enough work.

Chapter 4: Planning and Discovery Methods

UX Questionnaire: Misleading Title

Learning more about a product (strategy, business model, stakeholders, etc.) in a structured form is a good idea. However, I think the title is misleading. 

And this applies to several of the following methods, although the authors themselves state in the previous chapter: “UX is rife with jargon that can be off-putting to people from other fields, and it makes effective communication across internationally distributed teams extremely difficult. Terminology, jargon, and acronyms obscure meaning.”

Chapter 5: Research Methods

Learning Plan: Misleading Title

This method involves writing down assumptions about personas and considering how these assumptions can be tested (validated or falsified). Other authors call such a method briefly and succinctly: “Assumption Persona”, “Proto Persona” or “Bullshit Persona.”

Guerrilla User Research: Negligent Omission

Talking to users is, without a doubt, important. At the same time, legal aspects such as data protection are just as important nowadays. To merely address this in a short paragraph about “housekeeping” and “informed consent” is, in my opinion, negligent these days. In any case, talk to your manager or, if you have one, to the legal team before you talk to external people. Violations can be expensive for you and the company you work for. 

User Archetypes: Misleading Title

This method is again about writing down “Assumptions Personas.” This time together with the team. This also makes sense, but this separation and the title do not. 

Heuristic Markup: Misleading Title

The idea is to experience a specific user journey and record what you think and feel. Essentially, it is about mapping a “User Journey” with the help of screenshots.

Comparative Assessment: Misleading Title

Now it is about analyzing indirect competitors, which users may use, and certain aspects of their product. Normally this is simply called “Competitor Analysis,” regardless of whether they are direct or indirect competitors.

Content Patterns: Questionable Method and Screenshots

I don't understand the point of this method. It seems to be about recording the rough structure of a product (several pages) in order to somehow analyze its quality. In the explanation, the authors explicitly state that this is not a content inventory, as this would be very time-consuming, even though the table in the screenshots is named “Content Inventory”.

Chapter 7: Testing and Validation Methods

Interactive Prototypes: Overlap with Rapid Usability Test

Step three describes nothing else than usability testing, which will be explained again later.

Black Hat Session: Crucial Information Missing

This method is about collecting feedback on certain aspects from stakeholders. This is a good idea, as good design needs feedback and debate. However, there is no mention of the fact that good expectation management is also important. Not all feedback can or should be implemented; it is not about design by committee. This must be clearly communicated in advance, and if something cannot be implemented, it is essential to explain the reasons for this to colleagues. Alternatively, this method is also known as design critique.

Chapter 9: Growing Yourself and Your Career

Online Professional Communities: Maybe, Maybe Not

Having one or more people you can absolutely trust and with whom you can discuss professional topics and problems is extremely important. Even better if you can actively look for possible ways to solve problems with this person and have fun. Do you need a superficial network like LinkedIn, etc., and groups on such a platform to grow your career? I think such an exchange can be helpful, but it is not essential. I would prefer a few trusted people and waste less time with online groups. 

Going Independent: Target Audience, Anyone?

The information is valid, but I think that this information is not essential for this book with the previously defined target audience. Instead, more polish of the other information would have been desirable.

Conclusion

For me, rating this book is tough. If I take the documented points into account, and also other UX books that I rated with three stars, I tend to arrive at two out of five stars for “The User Experience Team of One.” 

Book Recommendations

For new UX Designers, and anyone who is interested: 

• “The Design of Everyday Things” by Donald Norman
• “Collaborative Product Design: Help Any Team Build a Better Experience” by Austin Govella
• “Articulating Design Decisions: Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience” by Tom Greever
• “Validating Product Ideas: Through Lean User Research” by Tomer Sharon
• “Writing Is Designing: Words and the User Experience” by Andy Welfle, Michael J. Metts