User Experience Quarter

Stakeholder Arrangements Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is the third of four lectures of Social Quadrivium (hereinafter, the Quadrivium):

• The Quarter is designed to introduce its learners to enterprise discovery, or, in other words, to concepts related to obtaining data needed to administer the enterprise effort; and
• The Quadrivium examines concepts of administering various types of enterprises known as enterprise administration as a whole.

The Quadrivium is the first of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi, which is a course designed to introduce its learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

The predecessor lecture is Social Rationale Quarter.

Concepts

1. Stakeholder arrangement.
   • Affective events theory. A model that suggests that workplace events cause emotional reactions on the part of employees, which then influence workplace attitudes and behaviors.
2. Public relations.
   • Newsletter.
   • Press release.
3. Visual design. Also called communication design. A discipline which combines design and information development in order to develop and communicate a media message to a target audience.
4. Informational architecture (IA). The art and science of organising and labeling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability.
   • Usability. The ease of use and learnability of an object, such as a book, software application, website, machine, tool or any object that a human interacts with.
   • Usability engineering. The practice of assessing and making recommendations to improve the usability of a product.
   • Industrial design. The application art and science to a product, in order to improve its aesthetics, ergonomics, functionality, and usability.
   • Information scent. An important concept in information foraging theory referring to the extent to which users can predict what they will find if they pursue a certain path through a website. As animals rely on scents to indicate the chances of finding food, so do humans rely on various cues in the information environment to achieve their goals.
   • User journey. The step by step journey that a user takes to reach their goal.
5. User interface (UI). The way in which a software user is able to interact with a computer system.
   • Interface. A shared boundary between any two persons and/or systems through which information is communicated.
   • Dialog hierarchy. An analysis model that shows user interface dialogs arranged as hierarchies.
   • Dialog map. An analysis model that illustrates the architecture of the system's user interface.
   • Interaction design (IxD). Sometimes referred to as IxD, interaction design strives to create meaningful relationships between people and the products and services that they use.
6. UX design.
   • User experience. The overall experience of an individual using a given product, often discussed in terms of the easiness or difficulties with this experience.
   • Adaptive design. Like Responsive web design it is an approach to web design aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing and interaction experience on different screen and devices. The difference is that adaptive design is less fluid then RWD, and ‘serves’ few fixed width versions of the design depending on viewport size. It can utilize server side techniques to ‘detect’ viewport size prior to rendering html. The advantage for designer is that it gives more control over images and typography, and hence is easier approach to ‘retrofit’ fixed width websitest to work on mobile devices.
   • Responsive design. A design approach that responds to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. The practice consists of a mix of flexible grids and layouts, images and an intelligent use of CSS media queries.
   • User-centered design (UCD). A design process during which the needs of the user is considered at all times. Designers consider how a user is likely to use the product, and they then test the validity of their assumptions in real world tests with actual users.
7. Website.
   • Sitemap. A complete list of all the pages available on a website.
   • Red route. The frequent and critical activities that users will perform on your site. They are complete activities, not single tasks, and will probably require several pages to execute. Defining the red routes for your site means that you’ll be able to identify and eliminate any usability obstacles on the key user journeys. (Important roads in London are known as ‘red routes’ and Transport for London do everything in their power to make sure passenger journeys on these routes are completed as smoothly and quickly as possible.)
8. Branding. The process of creating and marketing a consistent idea or image of a product, so that it is recognizable by the public.
   • Elevator pitch. “An elevator pitch is a concise, carefully planned, and well-practiced description about your company that your mother should be able to understand in the time it would take to ride up an elevator.” (Source: Business Know How) Being able to pitch your idea is crucial for entrepreneurs and valuable in any formal or informal networking situation. It allows you to quickly describe your concept to anyone in a short period of time, including potential partners or investors.
9. Enterprise justice. An overall perception of what is fair in the workplace, composed of distributive, procedural, informational, and interpersonal justice.
   • Distributive justice. Perceived fairness of the amount and allocation of rewards among individuals.
   • Informational justice. The degree to which employees are provided truthful explanations for decisions.
   • Procedural justice. The perceived fairness of the process used to determine the distribution of rewards.
   • Interpersonal justice. The degree to which employees are treated with dignity and respect.
10. Information distribution. Making needed information available to those stakeholders who are selected to obtain information in a timely manner.
    • Stakeholder dashboard.
    • FYI message.
11. Organizational climate. The shared perceptions organizational members have about their organization and work environment.
    • Mission. The purpose of an organization.
    • Organizational process. One of the ways that organizational work is done.
    • Ritual. A repetitive sequence of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization, which goals are most important, which people are important, and which are expendable.
    • Small business. An organization that is independently owned, operated, and financed; has fewer than 100 employees; doesn't necessarily engage in any new or innovative practices; and has relatively little impact on its industry.
    • Workspace.
    • Workplace.
    • Organizational demography. The degree to which members of a work unit share a common demographic attribute, such as age, sex, race, educational level, or length of service in an organization, and the impact of this attribute on turnover.
    • Open-book management. A motivational approach in which an organization's financial statements (the "books") are shared with all employees.
12. Value-based management. The organization's values guide employees in the way they do their jobs.
    • Organizational value. The primary or dominant value that is accepted throughout the organization.
    • Rule. An explicit statement that tells managers what can or cannot be done.
13. Organizational citizenship. Actions that contribute to the psychological environment of the organization, such as helping others when not required.
    • Utilitarianism. A system in which decisions are made to provide the greatest good for the greatest number.
    • Positive diversity climate. In an organization, an environment of inclusiveness and an acceptance of diversity.
    • Organizational citizenship behavior. Discretionary behavior that contributes to the psychological and social environment of the workspace, while not being part of employee's formal job requirements.
14. Social responsibility. A business' intention, beyond its legal and economic obligations, to do the right things and act in ways that are good for society.
    • Corporate social responsibility. An organization's self-regulated actions to benefit society or the environment beyond what is required by law.
    • Affirmative action. Organizational programs that enhance the status of members of protected groups.
    • Glass ceiling. The invisible barrier that separates women and minorities from top management positions.
15. Ethical work climate. The shared concept of right and wrong behavior in the workplace that reflects the true values of the organization and shapes the ethical decision making of its members.
    • Code of ethics. A formal statement of an organization's primary values and the ethical rules it expects its employees to follow.
16. Stakeholder engagement. An individual's involvement with, satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for the enterprise he or she works for or is involved with.
    • Perceived organizational support. The degree to which employees believe an organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being.
    • Organizational commitment. The degree to which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in that organization.
    • Psychological empowerment. Employee's belief in the degree to which they affect their work environment, their competence, the meaningfulness of their job, and their perceived autonomy in their work.
    • Workplace spirituality. The recognition that people have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place in the context of community.
    • Sexual harassment. Any unwanted action or activity of a sexual nature that explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, performance, or work environment.
17. Stakeholder participation. A participative process that uses the input of stakeholders to increase their commitment to enterprise success.
    • Representative participation. A system in which workers participate in organizational decision making through a small group of representative employees.
    • Participative management. A process in which subordinates share a significant degree of decision-making power with their immediate superiors.

Roles

1. Architect. There is no architect role in Agile methodology, instead all Agile team members are responsible for emerging the architecture.
   • Informational architect.
   • UX designer.
   • Graphic designer.
2. Stakeholder. Anyone in the enterprise environment that is, can be, or perceives him-, her-, or itself to be affected by an enterprise's decisions and actions. In Agile methodology, a stakeholder is anyone outside the team who has an interest in the product that the team is producing. Stakeholders can include, but are not limited to direct managers, subject matter experts, account managers, salespeople, and legal officers.
3. Regulator. A stakeholder with legal or governance authority over the solution or the process used to develop it.

Methods

1. Card sorting. A technique using either actual cards or software, whereby users generate an information hierarchy that can then form the basis of an information architecture or navigation menu.
2. Progressive disclosure. An interactive design technique that helps maintain the focus of a user’s attention by reducing clutter, confusion, and cognitive workload. It improves usability by presenting only the minimum data required for the task at hand. The principle is also used in journalism’s ‘inverted pyramid’ style, learning’s ‘spiral approach’, and the game ‘twenty questions’.
3. Iterative design. A methodology based on a cyclic process of prototyping, testing, analysing, and refining a product or process. Based on the results of testing the most recent iteration of a design, changes are made. This process is intended to ultimately improve the quality and functionality of a design.
4. Collaborative design. Inviting input from users, stakeholders and other project members.
5. Action design. A change process based on systematic collection of data and then selection of a change action based on what the analyzed data indicate.
6. AIDA technique.
7. User feedback loop. Ideas are put in front of users, who provide their feedback, which is used to refine the design, and then the process repeats.

Instruments

1. Performance report. A report that contains enterprise performance information and is distributed to selected stakeholders. Usually, this report includes key status updates, progress measurements, and estimates.
2. Exception report. A document that includes major variations from plan (not all variations) and is distributed to selected stakeholders.
3. Relationship map. A business model that shows the organizational context in terms of the relationships that exist among the organization, external customers, and providers.
   • Relationship. A defined association between concepts, classes or entities. Relationships are usually named and include the cardinality of the association.
4. Entity-relationship diagram. An entity-relationship diagram is a graphical representation of the entities relevant to a chosen problem domain, the relationships between them, and their attributes.

Practices

The successor lecture is Social Leadership Quarter.