Solution Architecture And

User And Customer

Experience

Alan McSweeney

http://ie.linkedin.com/in/alanmcsweeney
Objective

• Identify the importance of including solution usability

within solution architecture
• Identify approaches to measuring solution usability and
the creation of a common measurement framework
• Identify the characteristics of an effective approach to
solution usability

November 1, 2017 2
Solution Architecture And User Experience

• Solution architecture needs to take account of user

experience as part of the overall solution design process
• People are always part of the operation and use of the
solution
• The solution design needs to deliver on user expectations
and provide an experience that matches these
− Create and deliver on realistic and fulfillable expectations
• Solution architects need to be aware of the people and
experience aspects of solutions
• Solution usability contributes to the long-term success of a
solution
November 1, 2017 3
What Is The Solution That The Architect Designs?

• I have a problem
• I want to be able to do what I am currently unable to do
• I cannot do what I want
• I need to be able to do something
• A solution is a Resolver, a Provider or an Enabler
• An originator will identify the need for a solution
• The solution architect must work with the originator to provide
a usable and deliverable answer to the solution need
• The solution architect must being value to the solution design
process
November 1, 2017 4
 IT Architecture As Internal Business Consulting And
Advisory Function
• What IT Architecture Can
Do
• Identify trends in advance that offer
opportunities or represent challenges
• Assist with the design and development of
new business models
• Acquire the skills and experience to be a
credible business advisor
• Be able to translate innovation and
creativity into practical, realistic,
implemented and operated business
solutions
01 November 2017
• What IT Architecture Must
Do To Achieve Its Potential
• Take an appropriate and sufficient approach
to architecture
• Take a realistic approach to innovation
− Radical innovation
− Incremental innovation
− Innovation By reapplication
• Focus on simplicity and speed rather than
completeness and perfection
• Understand appropriate complexity
• Be able to react to changes quickly
5
The Complete Solution Is Always Much More Than
Just …
• … A bunch of software
• Complete solution is the entire set of components needed to
operate the associated business processes
• Users experience the complete operational solution across its entire
scope and experience its functional and quality properties
• Successful solution requires the interoperation of all these
components and that the components are properly designed and
implemented
• Overall solution usage experience is the sum of the experience of
the usage of the components
• Solution architect must be aware of the usability of designed
solutions
• Usability is not an afterthought: it must be embedded in the overall
solution design from the start

November 1, 2017 6
Scope Of Complete Solution
New Custom
Developed Acquired and
Changes to Existing
Applications Information Storage Customised Software
Systems
Facilities Products

System New Business Organisational

Changes to Existing Processes Changes
Integrations/Data
Business Processes
Transfers/Exchanges

Reporting and New Data Loads

Analysis Facilities Existing Data
Training and
Conversions/
Documentation
Migrations

Operational
Central, Distributed Sets of Installation Cutover/Transfer to
Functions and
and Communications and Implementation Production
Processes
Infrastructure Services

Sets of Maintenance, Application Hosting

Parallel Runs Service Management and Management
and Support Services Services
November 1, 2017 7
Any Complete Solution Consists of:
• Zero or more of {Changes to Existing Systems}
• + Zero or more of {New Custom Developed Applications}
• + Zero or more of {Information Storage Facilities}
• + Zero or more of {Acquired and Customised Software Products}
• + Zero or more of {System Integrations/Data Transfers/Exchanges}
• + Zero or more of {Changes to Existing Business Processes}
• + Zero or more of {New Business Processes}
• + Zero or more of {Organisational Changes}
• + Zero or more of {Reporting and Analysis Facilities}
• + Zero or more of {Existing Data Conversions/Migrations}
• + Zero or more of {New Data Loads}
• + Zero or more of {Training and Documentation}
• + Zero or more of {Central, Distributed and Communications Infrastructure}
• + Zero or more of {Sets of Installation and Implementation Services}
• + Zero or more of {Cutover/Transfer to Production}
• + Zero or more of {Operational Functions and Processes}
• + Zero or more of {Parallel Runs}
• + Zero or more of {Sets of Maintenance, Service Management and Support Services}
• + Zero or more of {Application Hosting and Management Services}

November 1, 2017 8
Solution Usability – Taking The End To End Design
View
System
Acquired and New Custom Integrations/
Customised Developed Data Transfers/
Software Applications Information
Changes to Storage Exchanges
Products
Existing Systems Facilities

New Business Training and

Organisational Processes
Changes Changes to Documentation
New Data Loads
Existing
Business
Processes

Sets of Maintenance,
Installation and Existing Data Service
Implementation Conversions/ Management Parallel Runs
and Support Operational
Services Migrations Functions and
Services
Processes

Central,
Cutover/
Distributed and Application
Reporting and Transfer to
Network Hosting and
Analysis Production
Infrastructure Management
Facilities
Services

November 1, 2017 9
Solution Architecture – Taking The End To End View

• One of the core objectives and purposes of solution architecture is

to understand the scope of the end-to-end solution in order to allow
the true scope of the delivery to be estimated
• It is only if the true scope is needed that informed decisions can be
made on what to include or exclude and to understand the
consequences of those decisions
November 1, 2017 10
Solution Usability – Taking The End To End View

What
What
Contributes
The
to Solution
Solution
Usability
Needs
and Utility

• Implementing the end-to-end components of the solution positively impacts on

solution usability and utility
• Users experience the complete operational solution across its entire scope and
experience its functional and quality properties
• Delivers on expectations
• Without the complete view there will be gaps in the usability of the solution
November 1, 2017 11
User Experience Is The Sum Of Experiences …

• … Across all dimensions of all solutions and the user’s interaction

with it – functionality and quality attributes
− Accuracy
− Ease of interpretation
− Usability
− Utility
− Interoperability
− Integration
− Automation
− Performance
− Consistency
− Reliability
− Availability
− Appearance and navigation
• Not all solution usage experiences can be observed directly or are
based on experience of externally accessed solution functional
components

November 1, 2017 12
Dimensions Of Solution Usability

Components
of Overall
Solution Functional
Components of
Solution

Quality
Properties

November 1, 2017 13
Solution Usability

Functionality and
Quality Attributes
And Solution Scope

Solution
Usability = Σ Interactions With
and Results of
Solution

• Is the sum of all interactions with the solution and the

results the solution provides
• The experience of the individual solution
• Solution usability is much, much more than a user
interface
November 1, 2017 14
User Experience

All

}
Solutions Functionality and

Σ{ Σ
and Quality Attributes
Interactions And Solution Scope
Interactions With
User
Experience = and Results of
Solution

• Is the sum of the interactions across all solutions and their

usability

November 1, 2017 15
Overall Experience

• The outcome of the sum of observations, perceptions,

thoughts and feelings arising from interactions and
relationships (direct and indirect) over an interval of time
between a customer and their supplier

November 1, 2017 16
Solutions/Systems/Applications

• Are the windows into the underlying business processes

• Solutions cannot, in themselves, resolve problems with
underlying business processes without a process redesign
component
• Solutions should have the following characteristics
− Optimise self-service and associated automation and orchestration
− Have a consistent, seamless, continuous experience and appearance
across all channels
− Ensure underlying data is consistent across all applications and usage
points
− Measure usage and implement processes to analyse and take
improvement actions
• Create an inventory of user usage journeys and scenarios

November 1, 2017 17
Overall Context Of Solution Usability

Experience and Experience Management

Solution and System Usability

Customer Relationship Management

Processes and Systems

Customer Facing Operational Systems

and Processes

Internal Operational Systems and

Processes

Data Collection, Analysis and Action

November 1, 2017 18
Overall Context Of Solution Usability

• Solution usability sits in a wider context

− Experience and Experience Management – constructing overall set of
interactions, their aggregation into an overall experience and defining
framework to manage these
− Solution and System Usability
− Customer Relationship Management Processes and Systems –
applications and processes to manage operational customer
interactions
− Customer Facing Operational Systems and Processes – operational
systems and their associated processes that support organisation
delivery with which customer direct interacts
− Internal Operational Systems and Processes - internal systems and
their associated processes that support organisation delivery with which
customer indirect interacts through interactions with employees and
agents
− Data Collection, Analysis and Action – framework for gathering
information on usage, perform analysis, identifying problems,
generating feedback and ensuring actions are taken

November 1, 2017 19
Customer Experiences And External Interactions And
Internal Organisation Reality
• Customer experience is the sum of:

Directly through experiences with externally facing

applications

+ Solution
Usability
and
Overall
Organisation
Indirectly through experiences with employees who are users Experience
of internal applications and with whom customers are Experience
interacting

+
Experience of the products and services delivered by the
organisation

• So the usability of each component contributes to overall

solution usability
• However good solution usability and experience can only
go so far

November 1, 2017 20
IT Architecture Context Of Solution Usability
Enterprise
Architecture

Defines Defines
and and
Develops Develops
Solution Usability Experience
Standards Management Standards

Includes Are
Incorporated By Are Includes
Incorporated By

Solution Usability
Solution Experience Management
Measurement Framework
Architecture Measurement Framework

Included In Incorporates Incorporates

Included In
Creates

Solution Included In Part

Solution Design User Experience
Usability In Of
November 1, 2017 21
IT Architecture Context Of Solution Usability

• Enterprise architecture needs to define standards and

associated frameworks for
− Overall experience
− Solution usability
• Each of these needs to include measurement and analysis
framework
• Solution architecture needs to incorporate these standards
into solution designs
− Individual solutions incorporate usability standards
− Overall set of solutions comprise the experience

November 1, 2017 22
Usability Measurement And Action Framework

• Need to understand actual user experiences and solution

usability
• Need to measure experiences and define methodology for
taking action on results
• Need a common measurement framework across all
applications
• Enterprise architecture needs to define a common application
usage data collection measurement framework
• Design and implement a consolidated and shared platform
• Collection of information yields insight into actual application
usability and results of solution architecture and design
• Information can assist with improving solution architecture and
design

November 1, 2017 23
Organisation Business Landscape

Shareholder
Researcher
Intermediary Representative Agent

Shareholder Sub-Contractor
Public
Counterparty
Intermediary Collaborator

Supplier Service
Provider
Regulator Franchisee
Distributor
Contractor

Business
Customer Client Outsourcer
Retail Dealer
Partner Competitor
Customer

November 1, 2017 24
Organisation And Business Solution Business
Landscape
• Organisations typically operate in a complex environment with
multiple interactions with different communication with many
parties of many different type over different channels
− External Actors - xActors
• Business solutions are deployed and used across the
organisation landscape – internal and external
• Externally accessed applications are within the scope of
solution usability and overall experience management
• A successful approach to solution usability and overall
experience management is concerned with the organisation
interacts with some or all of these xActors
• Solution usability and overall experience management is not
necessarily just about the customer xActor, though this may be
its main focus

November 1, 2017 25
Organisation Business Landscape

• Not xActors the organisation interacts with have equal

importance or of equal value
• Each xActor and communications channel has different
characteristics:
− “Distance” from the core of the organisation – composite measure of
value and importance to the organisation
− Volume of interactions
− Complexity of interactions
− Type of interaction – informational or transactional
• Every organisation will have a different xActor and distance
profile
• Follow the value chain and focus on those solution areas that
deliver greatest value

November 1, 2017 26
Extending Processes And Applications Outside The
Organisation Creates Customer Expectations
• Deploying externally accessible application reduces the expected
and tolerated latency and the asynchronicity of communications
between the organisation and external parties
• Customers have an expectation of connected operation and ease of
use of externally facing applications and processes
• Delivering on these expectations is a usability concern
           

           
        
     
  

• Understand, manage, control and deliver on the expectations
November 1, 2017 27
Digital Transformation And Solution Design And
Usability
• Digital transformation involves designing and implementing solutions across a
wide range of application and system areas
• External solution users are more demanding and less tolerant of usability failings
and poor experience

External Party Interaction Zones, Channels and Facilities

Digital Specific Applications and Tools

Internal Interaction Management

Security,
Identity, Access Responsive Integration
and Profile Infrastructure
Management
Applications Delivery and
Management Tools and
Frameworks
Operational and Business
Systems
System Development,
Deployment and Management
November 1, 2017 28
Customer Experiences And External Interactions And
Internal Organisation Reality
• Customer experience is not just about interactions with
systems and applications
• Solution architecture cannot fix wider product and service
delivery and usage problems
• Solution architecture can assist in designing cross-
functional applications
• Enterprise architecture needs to assist with strategy to
bridge and connect silos

November 1, 2017 29
External Interactions And Internal Organisation
Reality
External Organisation Interactions And Supporting Applications

Internal Organisation Reality

November 1, 2017 30
Solutions And Processes

• Solutions implement business processes

• Processes are greater than their constituent solutions
• Processes define journeys, interactions and touch points
• Journeys represent usage and interaction scenarios

November 1, 2017 31
Inventory Of Organisation Interaction (Customer)
Journeys And Scenarios
Journey 1

Journey 2

Journey 3

Journey 4

November 1, 2017 32
Organisation Interaction (Customer) Journeys And
Scenarios
• Interaction paths will correspond to business processes
• Business processes will be (partially) implemented or
supported by systems (solutions)
• There will be many organisation interaction paths with your
organisation, depending on:
− Type of interacting party
− Number of interactions
• Create an inventory of interaction journeys to understand how
users and customers interact with and experience the
organisation’s solutions
− Enable problems to be identified
− Use as a basis for a measurement and action framework
− Journeys inventory should be prioritised

November 1, 2017 33
Mapping Organisation Interactions To Solutions

Interaction Journeys Mapped To Solutions That

Deliver Functionality

Solutions External Parties

Directly Interact With

Solutions External Parties Indirectly Interact With

Through Interactions With Employees and Agents
November 1, 2017 34
Customer Experiences And External Interactions And
Internal Organisation Reality
External users expect to experience
seamless end-to-end interactions

External users
also interact
with internal
users
Internal users
frequently
experience
disconnected
processes and
systems/
solutions

Internal Organisation Users

November 1, 2017 35
External Interactions And Internal Organisation
Reality
• Internal organisation reality all too frequently consists of
siloed non-integrated, disconnected and disparate
structures, business processes and supporting applications
• Interactions with the organisation can exist in several
contexts
− Ad hoc interactions with no (initial) long-term objective
− Interactions as part of a transaction
• Any external interaction represents the organisation’s
brand

November 1, 2017 36
Operational Silos

• Are an unfortunate fact of organisational life

• Caused by the way organisations are allowed to grow and
develop
• Business function leaders develop careers on owning and
then protecting siloed areas
• Silo owners are not incentivised on optimising inter-silo
cross functional operation
• Siloes can remain isolated within the organisation
• Siloes contribute to poor solution design and user
experience
November 1, 2017 37
Organisation Operational Silos

November 1, 2017 38
Operational Silos

• There are too many operational units that operate

independently with walls effectively between them
• There is too much throwing of work over the walls
between operational units with no cross-functional/cross-
capability, end-to-end view and no seamless operation
• When you extend business processes outside the
organisation, you need to ensure cross-functional/cross-
capability operation
• External parties are not concerned with process limitations
caused by a siloed organisation not operating efficiently
• Lack of seamless operation of business processes not
evident (to a lesser or greater extent) to the outside world
November 1, 2017 39
Overall Experiences Cross “Vertical” Operational
Organisational Units

November 1, 2017 40
Core Overall Experiences

• Three core overall experience areas that are common to all

organisations
− Product/service delivery
• From order/specification/design/selection to
delivery/installation/implementation/provision and billing
− Customer management
• From customer acquisition to management to repeat business to up-sell/cross-sell
− New product/service provision
• From research to product/service design to implementation and commercialisation
• These experience areas cross multiple internal organisation
boundaries and have multiple handoffs but they are what concern
customers
• These cross-functional experiences and associated processes deliver
value
− Value to the customer
− Value to the company
• Integrated cross-functional processes means better customer service
and more satisfied and more customers

November 1, 2017 41
Core Overall Experiences And Solution Design

• Good solution design presents seamless and integrated

interactions
• Hides the complexity of integrations, handoffs,
movements

November 1, 2017 42
Operational Silos And Conway’s Law

• Short article written by Dr Melvin Conway in April 1968 -

How Do Committees Invent? - Design Organization
Criteria
− http://www.melconway.com/Home/pdf/committees.pdf
• Nearly 50 years old and still as insightful as when it was
originally written
−“ … there is a very close relationship between the
structure of a system and the structure of the
organization which designed it.”
−“… organizations which design systems … are
constrained to produce designs which are copies of the
communication structures of these organizations.”

November 1, 2017 43
Solution Usability Corollary to Conway’s Law

• Externally presented
solutions and
experiences tend
replicate siloed
internal organisation
processes, limitations,
constraints and
structures
• Solution usability and
solution experience of
external solutions
replicate the designs Siloed Applications Developed for Organisation
of internal solutions Silos

November 1, 2017 44
Solution Usability Corollary to Conway’s Law

• Organisations are prisoners of their own corporate

experiences and structures
• That experience constrains choices, produces limitations
• Good solution usability and overall experience is
frequently outside the knowledge and understanding of
organisations

November 1, 2017 45
Solutions Bridging Organisational Silos

• Solutions need to Bridging Interface Applications

bridge
organisational silos
to ensure usability
and to delivery
good overall
experience
• Organisations focus
on line of business
applications to
meet individual Bridging Cross Functional Process Applications
business function
needs Bridging Data Applications And Measurement Framework

November 1, 2017 46
EA Leadership In Solution Usability And Experience

• Enterprise architecture needs to provide leadership in

defining and implementing approach to measuring
solution usability
• Embed lessons learned into solution usability

November 1, 2017 47
Metrics

• Measure what you can and assign it an importance to it

rather than measuring what is actually important and
reflects

November 1, 2017 48
Solution Experience And Overall Experience

• Solutions enable the operation of business processes

• Experience with business processes comprise overall
experience
• Solution usability – directly by customers and indirectly by
employees interacting with customers – contributes to
experience

November 1, 2017 49
User And Customer Experience

• High level of employee satisfaction contributes to higher

levels of customer satisfaction
• Good user experience of internal applications contributes
to good external user experience

November 1, 2017 50
Solution Architecture And Solution Design

• Good solution design is concerned with making user

experiences better
• Experiences can be direct – of the solution itself – or
indirect – of the products and services that the solution
delivers or provides access to
• The overall experience is the sum of the experiences of
individual interactions
• Every solution usage results in an experience
• Good solution design embeds usability and experience
• Poor usability means poor experience
November 1, 2017 51
Applications Cannot Remediate Underlying Product
And Service Issues
• Good application architecture, design and usability leading
to good experiences can only go so far
• These limitations needs to be accepted and understood
• If the underlying products and services being
ordered/accessed are poor then good application
architecture, design and usability cannot resolve these

November 1, 2017 52
Design, Usability And Experience

• Two sides of the same coin

− Design and usability drives experience

November 1, 2017 53
Cost Of Lack Of Usability And Poor Experience

• Poor usability and experience negatively influences

outcomes
− Frustration and reduced efficiency
− Abandonment of interaction
− Seeking uncosted peer support
− Errors requiring subsequent resolution
− Lack of repeat business

November 1, 2017 54
Lack Of Implementation Of User Experience In
Solution Architecture
• Organisations almost always do not include user experience in
solution architecture and design
− Lack of understanding or appreciation of what usability is
− Fear of the scope of usability and its impact on solution design and
delivery schedule and cost
• Focus of solution architecture is on meeting stated business
requirements and not perceived intangibles such as usability
• Poor solution usability design leads to poor user experience
− Lack of user satisfaction increases cost along the spectrum of solution
operation and solution usage outcomes
− Greater support, slowness of usage, bypassing systems, rework and
abandonment by external users who go elsewhere
− Poor usability is not a support issue: by then it is too late
November 1, 2017 55
Usability Focus In Solution Architecture and Designs

• Embed usability and experience into solution architecture

and design
• Take a end-to-end solution view and understand how
internal solution component interactions impact usability
and experience
• Create a user usage journey inventory for all users and
walk through customer journeys to understand user
experiences
• Define usability and experience measurement framework
to link usability to influences on outcomes

November 1, 2017 56
Embedding Usability Into Solution Architecture

• This is at the interface between solution architecture and

enterprise architecture
• Cross application consideration
• Constraint and functionality should be inherited from
enterprise architecture
• Capability needed to be part of enterprise architecture practice
in order to support its use across solution architectures
• Enterprise architecture function needs to have design and
usability skills
• May require a significant cultural change in enterprise and
solution architecture functions
November 1, 2017 57
Role of Enterprise Architecture in Usability

• Acquire design skills, understand the principles and value

of usability design in solution architectures
• Provide leadership and internal organisation consulting
competencies
• Define overall approach and standards
• Acquire common technologies
• Drive education and adoption
• Common framework reduces effort required by individual
solution architectures
• Enterprise architecture view of usability enables
systematic approach
November 1, 2017 58
Understanding Usability And Experience

• How to measure the effectiveness of customer usability

and customer experience
• What metrics to use?
• Need to embed measurement of usage in solution to
• Standard measurement and analysis framework
• Take action on analysis

November 1, 2017 59
Principles Of Usability Architecture And Design

• Redesign and optimise underlying business processes

• Consistent, seamless, continuous experience across all
user interaction channels and touchpoints
• Create inventory of customer journeys
• Define measurement framework
• Approach to usability is part of any customer-centric
strategy
• Measurements overlaid on top of customer journeys show
actual user experiences of applications and processes
• Journey view links organisation silos to create cross-
functional view
November 1, 2017 60
Solution Usability Is Not A Programme

• It is not a separate set of activities

• It is not just a layer or skin on top of applications
• Usability and customer experience should be integrated into
normal architecture and design activities
• Embed in the architecture and design process
• Solution architecture needs to understand the requirements of
usability and change the design process if necessary
• Question the solution usability and resulting user experience
from the outset
• Need to understand the usability of the solutions being
designed
• Have a common approach to design/usability/experience to
reduce overhead and cost and increase adoption and quality
November 1, 2017 61
Usability

• Is not just about creativity, appearance and navigation – it

is about results and outcomes
• It is not about having lots of functionality and features
• It is not just about meeting business requirements – it is
about meeting the needs of the user
• The needs of the user relate to achieving a result
• Outcomes are not results
• There are many different types of user: frequent and
infrequent, expert and inexperienced – design for all but
focus on volume usage scenarios, frequent users are not
necessarily expert

November 1, 2017 62
What Does Usability Mean

• Primary or direct usability

− Usable for large volumes of transactions and numbers of users
− Usable for large volumes of data
− Usable for complex interactions
− Usable for easy access and navigation
• Secondary or indirect usability
− Usability to achieve or influence outcomes
− Usability to increase user satisfaction
− Usability for greater efficiency
− Usability to drive usage and growth
− Usability to build or enhance brand
• Not all are relevant or apply to all organisations
• What are you trying to achieve
November 1, 2017 63
Not All Outcomes Can Be Achieved

• Some outcomes cannot be managed, only influenced

• Outcomes include:
− Sales
− Sales conversion rate
− Revenue
− Profit
− Cashflow
• Outcomes can only be influenced through activities:
− Improved customer satisfaction
− More sales activity
− Greater value for money
• Focussing end-to-end usability is a key way of influencing outcomes
and delivering value
November 1, 2017 64
Illusion of Attempting to Manage Outcomes
Activities Outcomes

Develop and Sell the Right

Product at the Right Price You cannot force
customers to buy
more products and
Identify the Right Customers services

Fulfil Orders Correctly and

Satisfactorily
Sell More
Products/
Generate More
Manage Customer Relationships Services and
Profit
More
Profitably
Be Easy to Do Business With

Be an Organisation Customers
Want to Do Business With

Generate and Maintain High

Customer Satisfaction
November 1, 2017 65
Illusion of Attempting to Manage Outcomes
Activities Outcomes
But you can
take actions Develop and Sell the Right
and perform Product at the Right Price You cannot force
activities customers to buy
that will more products and
increase the Identify the Right Customers services
propensity
of customers Fulfil Orders Correctly and
to buy more Satisfactorily
Sell More
Products/
Generate More
Manage Customer Relationships Services and
Profit
More
Profitably
Be Easy to Do Business With

Be an Organisation Customers
Want to Do Business With

Generate and Maintain High

Customer Satisfaction
November 1, 2017 66
Good Usability Design

• Means understanding what the user population wants or

needs the solution to achieve and ultimately what the user
wants to achieve
• Understand what is important to users
• Usability matches what the organisation does with how
users interact with the organisation to avail of the
products and services, do what has to be done

November 1, 2017 67
Multiple Overlapping Interrelated Programmes
Enterprise Digital
Architecture Customer Digital
Strategy Operations
Strategy

Processes
Business Solution
Strategy Architecture
and Usability People
Strategy
Customer
Digital
Experience Tools Digital Strategy
Strategy And Technical
Systems Strategy

November 1, 2017 68
Multiple Overlapping Programmes

• There may already be multiple overlapping programmes within

the organisation that already relate to solution architecture
and usability
− Business Strategy
− Enterprise Architecture
− Solution Architecture and Usability Strategy
− Digital Strategy
− Digital Technical Strategy
− Digital Customer Strategy
− Digital Operations Strategy
− Customer Experience Strategy
− Tools And Systems
− Processes
− People
• Do not let the complexity stop usability initiative

November 1, 2017 69
Multiple Overlapping Programmes

• Are there other initiatives relating to solution architecture

and usability?
• Do you have full visibility of all usability-related activities?
• Are you optimising the benefits and avoiding replicated
costs across solution usability and experience initiatives?
• Does the structure of your approach to usability mimic
organisational silos?
• Do you know which interfaces, touchpoint and
applications have the greatest impact on usability?

November 1, 2017 70
Solution Design And Usability Gulfs
This Is What This Is The Journey And Experience I Want I Have Done
I Want What I Wanted
Gulf Gulf
of of
Execution Evaluation
This Is The
Journey And
Experience I
Get

November 1, 2017 71
Look For The Solution Design And Operation Gulfs

• Gulf of Execution – gap between the desired/required goal

and the activities and steps required to achieve goal
− Execution gulfs can correspond to the multiple steps needed
within an application or the need to use multiple applications
− Execution gulfs can be caused by organisational silos and the need
for handoffs and a lack of an end-to-end cross-functional
application that delivers the associated cross-functional process
• Gulf of Evaluation – gap between solution outcome and
the user’s interpretation of or ability to interpret and
understand that outcome
− How easy it is to understand/interpret/evaluate what has
happened
− Have I got the right information?
− Did it work?
November 1, 2017 72
Third Solution Design Gulf – Gulf Of Experience And
Expectation
Experience Gulf
Between Usability
Customer And Customer And
Employee Of Consumer And Employee
Experience Of Corporate Experience Of
External Corporate
Consumer And
Applications Applications
Social Media
Applications

November 1, 2017 73
Gulf Of Experience And Expectation

• Corporate organisations tend to be poor at solution

usability and design
• They also tend to be poor at recognising the existence of
this gap
− Lack of awareness and appreciation
− Lack of understanding of cost
• Consumer-oriented applications tend to be viewed with
suspicion that create risks and costs that must be managed
and controlled
• Bridging the experience and expectation gulf requires
changes throughout the solution design and delivery
function
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Solution Usability Pyramid
Common, Shared
And Integrated,
Guiding, Predicting

Flexible And Adaptable

Greater
Solution
Usability Intuitive And Easy To Use And
Understand, Searchable, Navigable,
Learnable

Efficient, Consistent, Available, Dependable And

Reliable, Error Detection And Correction, Error
Tolerance And Handling

Basic, Serviceable And Functional, Limited Attention To Usability

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User Experience Ownership

• Creating a separate user experience and usability

ownership replicates organisational silos
− Skills and experience must be available across all solution designs
• Solution usability – both internal and external – is cultural
and may need cultural change within the organisation
• Process needs to ensure that ownership devolves to the
solution and is supported by tools and techniques to
enable this
• Difficult to separate user experience from the underlying
organisation structures that drive solution requirements
and design
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Good System Usability And Associated Experience
Drives …
• Operational efficiencies through
− Greater self-service
− Reduced errors and rework
− Reduced direct support
− Reduced peer support
− Improved customer and employee satisfaction
− Greater throughput for the same resources
− Reduced sales and marketing costs

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Experience Management Is Greater Than Solution
Usability
• User/customer-centred processes and associated solutions
• Consistent experience across all solutions that comprise
the implementation of cross-functional processes
• Consistent experience across all interface channels
• Trans-solution data and process view to enable cross
solution
• Data analytics across solutions

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Usability And Experience Measurement Frameworks
and Methodologies
• Many old, out-of-date, partially developed and incomplete
solution usability models, methodologies and processes
• They tend to be software-oriented rather than focussing
on the completeness of the overall solution
• Many consist of basic maturity models without supporting
implementation and justification and lacking
implementation framework

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Sample Usability And Experience Measurement
Frameworks and Methodologies
• Agile and User Centred Design Integration (AUCDI)
• DATech Standard Usability Test
• HCD-PCM Visioning HCD-PCM-V
• Human Centred design (HCD) HCD-PCM Process
Capability Model Design PCM
• Human Factors Integration Process Risk
Assessment HFIPRA
• Humanware Process Improvement (HPI)
Framework
• ISO 18152 Ergonomics of human-system
interaction -- Specification for the process
assessment of human-system issues
• ISO 18529 - Ergonomics of human-system
interaction -- Human-centred lifecycle process
descriptions
• ISO 9241 Ergonomics of human-system interaction
• Kano model product development and customer
satisfaction
• KESSU UCD User-Centred Design) performance
assessment (UPA)
• Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF)
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• Nielsen Corporate Usability Maturity Model
• Open Source Usability Maturity Model (OS-UMM)
• Oracle Fusion Applications User Experience
Patterns and Guidelines
• Quality Attribute-oriented Software ARchitecture
design method (QASAR)
• SAAM: A Method for Analyzing the Properties of
Software Architectures
• SALUTA Scenario based Architecture Level
UsabiliTy Assessment
• Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Architecture
Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM)
• System Usability Scale (SUS)
• Trillium Model
• Usability Leadership Maturity Model ULMM
• Usability Maturity Model: Human-Centredness
Scale UMM-HCS
• Usability Maturity Model: Processes UMM-P
• User Centred Design Maturity UCDM
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Solution Usability Measurement Needs To Measure
Along All Dimensions Of Usability

Components
of Overall
Solution Functional
Components of
Solution

Quality
Properties

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Usability Measurement Approach

Solution Usability Measurement Framework

• Usability is subjective
• Define approach to measuring solution usage along the
inventory solution usage journeys and scenarios
• Measure functional use, quality attributes
• Measurement of scope of delivery of solution is more complex
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Characteristics Of Integrated Approach To Solution
Usability Within Solution Architecture
• Standardised approach to assessing user requirements
• Assessment of requirements used to develop a wider understanding of user needs
• Evaluation includes feedback on quality and delivery of user expectation
• Usability and experience evaluations collected and analysed centrally
• Multiple different approaches to evaluation used
• Assessments performed over wide user group
• Approach to assessment and evaluation updated by previous analyses and experience
• Assessment and evaluation information made available to all project teams
• Evaluations of needs identifies user technical and business capabilities and skills
• Evaluation feedback prioritised and used to define usability for not just current solution but
also potential future solutions
• Users are included in design team
• Design team include cognitive frameworks in the solution design process
• Prototyping techniques used widely including prototyping of conceptual and physical
design
• Prototyping techniques used to ensure complexity and issues around usability are identified
during solution design

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Summary

• Solution usability depends on functionality, quality and comprehensiveness of implementation

• Externally presented solutions and experiences tend replicate siloed internal organisation processes,
limitations, constraints and structures
• Solutions are the windows into the underlying business processes
• Solutions cannot, in themselves, resolve problems with underlying business processes without a
process redesign component
• Solution architecture needs to take account of user experience as part of the overall solution design
process
• People are always part of the operation and use of the solution
• Solution architects need to be aware of the people and experience aspects of solutions
• Solution usability contributes to the long-term success of a solution
• Users experience the complete operational solution across its entire scope and experience its
functional and quality properties
• Enterprise architecture needs to provide leadership in defining and implementing approach to
measuring solution usability
• Enterprise architecture needs to define standards and associated frameworks for overall experience
and solution usability
• Define approach to measuring solution usage along the inventory solution usage journeys and
scenarios
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More Information

Alan McSweeney
http://ie.linkedin.com/in/alanmcsweeney

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