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.

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.

Finding Inspiration for More Creative UX Teams

In Part 2 of our series on unblocking creativity, we’re discussing creative ways to inspire your UX teams when collaboration falters and new ideas are few and far between. And, as a bonus, our Outwitly Team has gotten together to share their top techniques for finding inspiration in their specific types of work.

Managing Expectations: The Key to Great Customer Experience

Great customer experience (CX) is only possible when a customer’s expectations are met or exceeded. In a world of rapidly advancing technology, those expectations can be high, and products and services can easily fall short. Thankfully, there are ways to bridge this gap. Read on to learn more about expectation gaps and get how-to steps for improving your CX through expectation management.

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.

Upgrading your UX or Service Design Portfolio

Your design portfolio should do much more than list your accomplishments: it should show off your growing skillset as your career develops. Check out our tips for building amazing portfolios at every stage of your career in UX, service design or design research.

Sprint Retrospectives for UX and Service Design, Part 2: Agile Facilitation

Leading fruitful discussions between grueling Agile sprints is no easy feat, but it’s an important skill for any UX or service design practitioner. In Part 2 of our series on sprint retrospectives, we walk through 6 tried and tested strategies for effective Agile facilitation, and we provide a bonus list of further resources for facilitator training.

Sprint Retrospectives for UX and Service Design, Part 1: Introduction and Methods

At Outwitly, we know the value of reflection and solution-driven thinking when it comes to team projects. That’s why we’re dedicating two posts to sprint retrospectives! In Part 1, learn about our favourite retrospective methods and how these essential meetings differ from your standard post-mortem.

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.

Digital Service Design in Government 101: Myth-Busting and Resources

In the first of our series on Digital Service Design in Government, we bust three common myths around design projects in government and provide you with a resource library.

7 Steps to Better Customer Experience (CX)

This post details how you can improve your customer experience (CX) in 7 easy-to-follow steps.

How to Build a Stand-Out UX Design Portfolio

This post will walk you through how to build a UX design portfolio, what kind of content to include, real-life examples to draw inspiration from, and our best tips.

8 Key Elements of Effective UX and Service Design Teams

Written by Kristin Swan, Outwitly’s Director of Strategic Design, this post covers the importance of clarity, communication, and collaboration in UX and service design teams, and the five cultural components teams need to thrive.