Resources

Outsmart the Ordinary in UX & Service Design

Unconventional insights, tools and resources to fuel your craft and leadership — built by fellow UX practitioners with hard-earned experience in changemaking and digital transformation.

Proto Persona Meaning, Template & Example

A proto persona is a great design tool that your team and stakeholders can use to better understand your organization’s users or customers, and to inform smart and timely feature, product, or service decisions. Read more and access proto persona templates/examples in this latest blog post!

Human-Centered Design (HCD): Process, Steps & Diagram

What is the HCD (human-centered design) process? What steps and stages does it involve, and how can you apply human-centered design in your organization? Click to read as we cover what you need to know and what resources (including diagrams) will help you on your way.

“How Might We” Statement Examples for Design Thinking

It’s easy to start a statement with “How might we…” but framing it properly can make the difference between a groundbreaking brainstorm and a list of half-baked solutions. Read on as we explore “How Might We” statement examples to inspire your design thinking and co-design workshops.

Focus Group vs Workshop: There’s No Competition

To focus group or not to focus group? We explore why focus groups are susceptible to a number of human biases and behaviours, making them less effective than other human-centered design research methods.

How to Make Your COTS Solution Successful

Are you struggling with your COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) software solution? This post helps uncover the root cause of failing COTS solutions and contains tips for making sure your COTS solution will be as successful as possible.

AI for UX Design: Fundamentals and Best Practices

With AI advancing quickly, keeping up can be challenging. This blog post, inspired by our recent webinar with Micaela Dixon, explores the basics of AI, its role in UX design, and strategies for maintaining a people-centered approach when designing for AI.

Convincing Executives of the Value of Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey maps are a highly valuable design tool, but convincing executives to invest in the research required to create them can be challenging. This blog post will teach you how to sell the value of journey mapping to stakeholders so you can transform your organization.

Service Design in Action: Demystifying, Defining, and Practical Applications

Welcome to the ultimate guide to understanding service design! We’re going back to the basics, explaining what service design is, how it shows up in your day-to-day life, the tiers of design, and five must-have skills for service designers. Plus, read all the way through for a helpful service design blueprint example!

Values-Based Leadership in UX and Service Design

Leaders are usually being pulled in a million directions on a day-to-day basis, and that’s true now more than ever. So what’s the key to effectively steering teams toward success in this fast-paced and constantly changing climate? More and more leaders are turning to values-based leadership approaches to drive results and inspire innovation. Read all about values-based leadership in this post.

CanUX Recap 2023: Our Team’s Top Takeaways and Highlights

Eight of us Outwitly team members were lucky enough to attend 2023’s CanUX conference, where we learned about all the latest trends and hot topics in the world of UX. We’re sharing 12 key takeaways from our favourite parts of the event, and what they mean to us. Plus, we’re including a free download link to our CEO’s CanUX presentation slides.

Unblocking Creativity in UX and Service Design

Any practitioner who works in UX, UI or service design has drawn a blank at some point in their career. Feeling creatively blocked is completely normal, but it can still cause a lot of stress, especially when deadlines are looming. Read along as we discuss the 4 most common cases where UXers and designers get stuck, how to get unstuck and how to get into a creative “flow” state.

Digital Service Design in Government 201: 10 Tips for Success in the Public Sector

In Part Two of our series on digital service design in government, we’re laying down our 10 best tips for leading successful service design projects in the public sector. Guiding your government team toward innovation is possible through great communication, problem-solving and priority sorting. Read on for our practical pointers.