In today's episode, we dive deep into how UX professionals can effectively demonstrate their value within organizations, especially during challenging times when the shine has come off UX and attention has shifted to AI.

We kick off by exploring some exciting form analysis tools that can revolutionize how we optimize web forms. Tools like MouseFlow, Zuko, and EXATOM offer powerful insights into form performance, helping identify where users struggle and drop off.

Zuko particularly caught our attention with its focused approach and reasonable pricing, making it an attractive option for teams looking to improve their form conversion rates.

The main segment focuses on practical strategies for UX professionals to demonstrate their value within organizations. We explore several key approaches:

• Show, Don't Tell: Create tangible assets like prototypes and user journey visualizations rather than getting bogged down in documentation. This could include creating proofs of concept under the radar to excite senior stakeholders and help remove roadblocks.
• User Exposure: Get stakeholders in front of users through open usability sessions and compelling "horror videos" of user testing. Consider making session attendance mandatory for project stakeholders, like gov.uk does.
• Collaborative Workshops: Engage stakeholders through exercises like customer journey mapping and the "user attention points" exercise. The latter helps stakeholders understand the importance of prioritization by giving them limited "attention points" to allocate across page elements.
• Internal Education: Become an educator through newsletters, lunch-and-learn sessions, and guerrilla marketing tactics like creating mouse mats with personas or mugs with design principles.
• Data-Driven Approach: Establish meaningful KPIs and consistently encourage testing. Start by simply suggesting "Why don't we test that?" whenever there's disagreement in meetings - over time, this mindset can become part of the organizational culture.

From our Agency Academy discussion, we tackle the thorny issue of when and how to offer discounts as an agency or freelancer. We explore the importance of having clear policies around discounting and ensuring any discounts come with reciprocal benefits.

We wrap up with a look at a guide to efficient web design workflow, published on the Wix blog, which introduces an interesting approach to breaking down complex fixed-price projects into more manageable sub-projects.

To end on a lighter note, here's this week's joke (courtesy of Marcus):

A Roman soldier walks into a bar and holds two fingers up. He says "five beers, please."

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In this episode, we dive into the frustrating world of Invitations to Tender (ITTs), explore why Notion might be the only app you need, and discuss treating AI like your newest intern. We also share our thoughts on Adobe's latest AI innovations and why UX seems to have lost its shine.

Our main topic for this show is Invitations to Tenders (ITTs). We've spent years dealing with ITTs, and frankly, we're tired of a system that doesn't serve anyone well. For agencies, they're incredibly time-consuming and costly to complete, often with no guarantee of success. What's worse, sometimes you're just there to make up the numbers because procurement needs three quotes.

The limited information provided in ITTs makes accurate pricing challenging, and their rigid specifications leave little room for the flexibility digital projects need. When usability testing suggests a major change in direction, you're stuck navigating complex change control procedures instead of doing what's best for the project.

From the client perspective, you're inadvertently paying for every failed proposal agencies have ever written - those costs have to be recovered somehow. The focus on lowest price often leads to subpar outcomes, and the whole process tends to favor agencies that are good at writing proposals rather than delivering projects.

We believe there's a better way. Start by having meaningful conversations with potential agencies before writing anything down. Evaluate their track record and capabilities through discussion rather than form-filling exercises.

Consider breaking larger projects into smaller, more manageable phases. Begin with a paid discovery phase, using a small percentage of the overall budget to properly scope the work. This approach helps mitigate risk and allows for the flexibility digital projects need.

Invitations to Tender: A Flawed System in Need of Change

In this show Paul also obsesses over Notion. If he could only keep one app, it would be Notion. It's become his go-to tool for everything from client project management to content creation. With its recent addition of automation and form builders, it's becoming even more powerful.

For agencies, it's particularly valuable for managing client communication, tracking projects, and storing best practices. The built-in AI functionality, combining ChatGPT and Claude, makes it even more versatile.

We also discuss a Nielsen Norman Group's article that suggests thinking of AI as an intern - a perspective we find particularly helpful. Like an intern, AI needs clear instructions and its work needs to be double-checked, but it can handle many routine tasks effectively.

This mental model helps frame how to integrate AI into your workflow without over-relying on it or dismissing its capabilities entirely.

Meanwhile, Adobe's latest AI developments, showcased at Adobe Max, are remarkable. In Illustrator, AI can now redraw characters from different angles while preserving style and detail. In Photoshop, it automatically matches lighting across composite images.

Rather than creating standalone tools, Adobe integrates AI directly into existing products, transforming hours-long tasks into instant operations.

We wrap up with a discussion about why UX seems to have lost its shine. While some blame UX professionals for overselling its benefits, we see this as part of a broader pattern where organizations half-heartedly implement new approaches without fully committing to them.

Whether it's UX, digital transformation, or AI, success requires more than just hiring one person or implementing one tool - it needs genuine organizational commitment and understanding.

How We Designers Destroyed UX (and Why No One Talks About It Anymore)

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Hello and welcome to the Boagworld Show, the longest-running web design podcast where we look at user experience design, conversion optimization, and working in the web. This week, we've got quite the lineup for you.

We kick things off with a look at the recent controversy between WP Engine and WordPress. It's a bit of a mess, to be honest. WordPress.org has banned WP Engine from accessing its resources, including plugin and theme updates. This has left a lot of WP Engine-hosted sites in a bit of a pickle.

The whole debacle seems to stem from an attempt by WordPress to extract money from WP Engine. It's a stark reminder of the dangers of building your business on someone else's platform. We've seen this happen before with companies like Tweetbot and various Amazon sellers. It's a risk that many businesses take, often without fully considering the potential consequences.

While we hope this situation resolves quickly, it's a valuable lesson for all of us in the web industry. It's crucial to have a strategy that doesn't rely entirely on a single platform or service that you don't control.

Next up, we introduce our new concept: Strategic User-Driven Project Assessment, or SUPA for short. Now, Marcus isn't a fan of the acronym, but hear us out on this one.

SUPA is essentially a rebranding of the discovery phase, aimed at making it more appealing and understandable to senior management. Let's face it, "discovery phase" doesn't exactly set executives' hearts racing. But when you start talking about resource optimization, increased chances of success, and risk mitigation - well, now you're speaking their language.

The idea behind SUPA is to bring UX considerations to the table earlier in the project lifecycle. It's about validating ideas against real user needs and market demands before significant resources are invested. This approach can help prevent wasted time and money on projects that users won't embrace.

We dive into the key questions SUPA addresses, the activities involved, and how it differs from traditional market research. Whether you love or hate the acronym, we think this approach could be a game-changer for UX professionals looking to have a more strategic impact on projects.

You can learn more about SUPA here.

Our app of the week is Wevo Pulse, an AI tool that provides real-time feedback and analysis on websites, prototypes, and messaging. Paul's a bit conflicted about this one - it's impressive, but also a bit unsettling for those of us who do UX reviews for a living.

Wevo Pulse uses data from over a million user research participants to produce insights in minutes. It can analyze live websites, mobile apps, prototypes, and more. The tool provides a detailed assessment of what users are likely to like and dislike about a digital asset, and even generates a list of the most likely personas to gain value from the website or prototype being analyzed.

While it's not perfect and can't replace human expertise entirely, it's a powerful tool that could be particularly useful for quick initial assessments or as a way to convince management that changes are needed. It's definitely worth checking out, even if just to see how it evaluates your own website.

We wrap up the show with a bit of fun, debating some popular UX quotes. From "A problem well stated is a problem half solved" to "Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works," we give our honest opinions on these industry soundbites.

Spoiler alert: we don't agree with all of them! It's a great reminder that even widely accepted wisdom in our field should be questioned and critically examined.

That's all for this week's episode. We hope you found it informative and maybe even a bit entertaining.

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