Death of a Design: 5 Stages of Grief

Death of a designThe five stages of grief Raschel Iarocci

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Raschel IarocciLead Experience Architect

888.310.5327

• Responsible for all things UX, from research through experience design

• Currently focusing in the healthcare space

at EffectiveUI

@rascheliarocci

Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance

Stages of grief

#1Denial

"This participant is just a weirdo, an outlier, the next will be better.”1

"It’s not that bad. Remember this design tested well in the past. We’ll be fine.”

2

What to do

Denial

Sit back and let your team experience this feeling1

Document usability problems but don’t feel compelled to share your thoughts/solutions just yet

2

#2Anger

"The moderator isn’t asking the right questions!”1

"Well, if only the development team built it how it looked in the mockups…”

2

"Your UX team is supposed to be experts, why didn’t you get this right the first time?”

3

"This problem can’t be solved with design; the content/business requirements are flawed!”

4

What to do

Anger

Don’t take comments personally and change this energy from negative to positive

1

Conduct a ‘Design Studio’ workshop2

Design studio

• Sketch (5 min)

• Share (10 min)

ROUND 1

• Sketch (10 min)

• Share (20 min)

ROUND 2

• Sketch (10 min)

• Share (20 min)

ROUND 3

#3Bargaining

"If only we had tested with a larger, more diverse group of participants the first time.”

1

"Oh, I know! Let’s solve all these problems with this one tiny design change here.”

2

What to do

Bargaining

Actively listen and support client design discussions but don’t offer false hope

1

Schedule another usability session2

#4Depression

"This is hopeless. We’re never going to solve this problem.”1

"What’s the point? There’s not enough time to make drastic changes before product launch anyway.”

2

What to do

Depression

Bring in fresh faces1

Organize a ceremony for demolishing the feature(s) that tested poorly during the usability session

2

#5Acceptance

"This is a very complex problem that needs time devoted to it but we have concrete ideas for moving forward.”

Discussion

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