Valencia Bey

Gaining buy-in from stakeholders for a journey mapping exercise as a business analyst requires careful planning and clear communication. Journey mapping isn’t widely considered an exercise for requirements gathering; it’s viewed as more of a UX tool so you have to build trust in the process. To do this, you should make sure that stakeholders […]

Journey mapping is often considered a tool for UX strategists, researchers and architects. It doesn’t immediately come to mind as a useful tool for business analysts. But journey mapping is a very useful tool for BA work. The process of journey mapping lends itself to gathering information for user stories and tasks to create user […]

Product design that doesn’t consider the diverse needs of your customer base are less likely to succeed. To design a great product, you need to know who you’re designing for. Audience analysis helps you better understand what motivates your customers so you can create a product that’s not merely functional, but delightful. It’s a misconception that analytics and […]

Research should be a part of every UX design project. While clients are often tempted to scale back or even eliminate research, it’s a risky practice. Previous findings may no longer be relevant. Target audience needs may have changed. Features and functionality need to be prioritized. Documented research provides guidance during the design and development […]

Enterprise taxonomies are often developed without standard rules or processes. This creates a less-than-ideal environment for content management, particularly during redesigns and migrations. Taxonomy classifies and organizes information, enabling population of the content management system with complete and consistent values. Thinking about taxonomy as the foundation for enterprise information architecture, content relationships and tagging structure is […]

Taxonomy governance is critical to the enterprise content management process. Content is created to be used. To be used it must be found. To be found, and for optimal use, content must be properly labeled and organized. Creating standard processes and rules for your enterprise taxonomy will enhance the efficiency of content management efforts. Taxonomy […]

When the topic of taxonomy is raised, there may be questions around the need as well as a lack of general understanding of taxonomy. We have a content strategy, isn’t that enough? What is taxonomy, exactly? Taxonomy in its simplest sense is a knowledge organization system. It’s at the core of content management and therefore […]

I conducted my first software usability research sessions in a lab back in 1999 as a graduate student. We had desktops and video cameras set up at different angles to capture participants’ facial expressions as well as their interaction with the system. I took notes by hand. I had a stopwatch to record start and […]

We all know how important it is to gather user feedback during the discovery and development phases of a project. Taking the time to determine business requirements seems to be a standard practice when planning large-scale development projects. What are the business goals? How much will it cost? What are the technical requirements? How long […]

I recently attended the first annual Enterprise UX conference. UX professionals of varied backgrounds and areas of specialization, developers, designers, business analysts, content managers, project managers, IT and marketing managers, program managers and more, all gathered to learn how to plan and manage large application development projects. I enjoyed two days of speakers, a full […]

The UX of enterprise applications has typically lagged behind consumer applications. Look at the way you order a product from Lowe’s or Amazon, and it’s click, click, click, done! That’s what consumers are used to, and it’s reasonable to expect that every digital experience will be simple. Enterprise applications have significant differences that challenge design […]