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Praise for UX on the Go: A Flexible
Guide to User Experience Design

“UX on the Go: A Flexible Guide to User Experience Design is a pedagogical

gift to our field. In sixteen carefully scaffolded chapters, Mara and contribu-
tors provide students and faculty alike with the practical and theoretical
tools necessary to understand, manage, and demystify complex project cy-
cles, user-driven decisions, and action-first paradigms. The creative chal-
lenges and UX examples in this book will define how rapidly-adjusted project
cycles, user-driven decisions, and action-first paradigms are taught in our
classrooms for years to come.”
—Jim Ridolfo, University of Kentucky
Author of Rhetoric and Digital Humanities,
Digital Samaritans: Rhetorical Delivery and Engagement
in the Digital Humanities, and Rhet Ops:
Rhetoric and Information Warfare

“UX on the Go stands out as a textbook with its emphasis on getting out in
the field and meeting users—the people all the work is about. From beginning
to end, Andrew Mara identifies the role of UX research and practical ways to
include users in the entire process, engaging them and embedding their stories
in the product.”
—Whitney Quesenbery, Center for Civic Design
Author of Storytelling for User Experience,
Global UX, and A Web for Everyone

“In UX on the Go: A Flexible Guide to User Experience Design, Andrew Mara
gives us a very clear and practical exploration of UX design. I very much ap-
preciated his step-by-step approach to designing with the users’ needs and ex-
periences in mind.”
—Richard Johnson-Sheehan, Purdue University
Author of Writing Today, Technical Communication Today,
and Writing Proposals
UX on the Go

Designed with flexibility and readers’ needs in mind, this purpose driven book
offers new UX practitioners succinct and complete instructions on how to con-
duct user research and rapidly design interfaces and products in the classroom
or the office.
With 16 challenges to learn from, this comprehensive guide outlines the
process of a User Experience project cycle from assembling a team to research-
ing user needs to creating and verifying a prototype. Practice developing a
prototype in as little as a week or build your skills in two-, four-, eight-, or
sixteen-week stretches. Gain insight into individual motivations, connections,
and interactions; learn the three guiding principles of the design system; and
discover how to shape a user’s experience to achieve goals and improve overall
immediate experience, satisfaction, and well-being.
Written for professionals looking to learn or expand their skills in user ex-
perience design and students studying technical communication, information
technology, web and product design, business, or engineering alike, this acces-
sible book provides a foundational knowledge of this diverse and evolving field.
A companion website includes examples of contemporary UX projects, ma-
terial to illustrate key techniques, and other resources for students and instruc-
tors. Access the material at uxonthego.com.

Andrew Mara is an Associate Professor and Faculty Head of Interdisciplinary

Humanities and Communication in the College of Integrative Arts and Hu-
manities at Arizona State University. He has been teaching user experience,
innovation rhetoric, and technical writing for 16 years. In addition, he has cre-
ated an interactive arts app, built a digital dissertation studio, edited a special
issue of Technical Communication Quarterly, performed a social media game-
show, and published over 20 journal articles, book chapters, and conference
proceedings on writing innovation and communities of practice.
UX on the Go
A Flexible Guide to User
Experience Design

Andrew Mara
First published 2021
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
The right of Andrew Mara to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him/her/them in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mara, Andrew (Associate Professor), author.
Title: UX on the go: a flexible guide to user experience design /
Andrew Mara.
Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020011694 (print) | LCCN 2020011695 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367228545 (hbk) | ISBN 9780367228620 (pbk) |
ISBN 9780429277238 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Consumer satisfaction. | User interfaces
(Computer systems)—Design.
Classification: LCC HF5415.335 .M36 2020 (print) |
LCC HF5415.335 (ebook) | DDC 658.8/343—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020011694
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020011695

ISBN: 978-0-367-22854-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-22862-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-27723-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Goudy
by codeMantra
Visit the companion website: uxonthego.com
For Miriam
Contents

List of Figures xv
Acknowledgments xviii

I
Welcome to User Experience on the Go 1
Defining User Experience 2
Three Principles 2
First Principle 3
Second Principle 4
Third Principle 5
Good News 6
Bad News 6
Filling in the Gaps 6
A Week in the Life of a UX Professional 8
When to Observe and Interview 10
A Note about Face-to-Face vs. Virtual Teams 11
Using This Book 11
The Stretch 13
Challenges 17

1 Take an Active User Experience Stance 18

Do, Observe, Think 18
Just Temperate Brave Action 20
UX Team Justice Manifesto 21
UX Project Plan 21
Preliminary Fieldwork 24
UX Scavenger Hunt 27
Challenge #1: Finding Your Future Network 29
UX Story: Iterating an Orphaned Girls’ School in South Sudan 30
Conclusion 32
x Contents
2 Build Your Temporary Team 33
Team Assembly 34
Design Studio 36
Role Card 39
Standup 40
Project Profile 41
Team Meetup 42
Challenge #2: Build a UX Lair 43
Conclusion 45

3 Map Your Best UX Cycle 46

UX Inventory 46
Connect the Dots 46
Building Additional Team Support 48
Opportunity Workshop 49
Project Précis 52
Requirements 54
Challenge #3: Plant a UX Garden 54
Conclusion 56

4 Find and Understand Your Users 57

What Can Be Measured or Characterized 59
Meeting and Engaging with Users 63
Agile Ethnography 63
Direct Participant Recruiting 65
Participant Consent Form 67
Remote Participant Recruiting 67
When You Can’t Meet with Users 69
Bodystorming 69
Heuristic Audit 71
Usability Heuristic Audit 72
Gestalt Principles 75
Strategize Your User Research 75
Research Plan 76
Effort vs. Value Diagram 78
Challenge #4: Create a Listening Practice 80

5 Ask, Observe, and Involve Users 82

Contextual Observation 82
Setting 83
Structure of the Observation 84
 Contents xi
Observational Notes 86
Interviews 88
Setting 88
Demeanor 89
Structuring the Interview 89
User Diaries 92
Unlocking the Potential of Diary Studies 92
Camera Studies 95
Task Analysis 98
Scope 98
Conducting a Task Analysis 98
Value 99
Challenge #5: Conduct a Five-Second Test 100

6 Design with Users 101

User Swarms 101
Co-Designing 103
UX Story: Designing a Social Robot for Teens: Starting
from Scratch 106
Challenge #6: Write a Story about Co-Evolving
Your Interface and Society 110

7 Test and Begin to Sift through the Data 111

Affinity Wall Sprint 112
Benchmark Test 115
A/B Test 115
Sentiment Study 116
Card Sort 117
Hosting a Card Sort 117
Variations in Card Sorting 119
Online or Digital Card Sorts 119
Challenge #6: Create a Data Dashboard 120
Challenge #7: Host a User Trivia Contest 120

8 Collect and Analyze the Data 122

Validity 122
Qualitative Data Analysis 123
Transcript Analysis 125
Coding Transcripts 126
Diary Study Analysis 128
Quantitative Research Analysis 128
xii Contents
Benchmarking 129
A/B Test Analysis 129
Sentiment Study Data 130
Eye tracking Study Data 130
Tree Test Data 131
Card Sort Data 132
Conclusion 132
Challenge #8: Host a Data Analysis Party 132

9 Find the Story in Your Data 134

Stories Are Time Machines 134
Concept Stories and Usage Stories 135
Where to Start Your Story 135
Concept Stories 136
Usage Story 138
Guided Discovery Map 139
Challenge #9: Perform Your User Story 140
Conclusion 140

Mode of Presentation 142

Case Study 143
Findings Report 143
PechaKucha 145
Insight Blog 148
Challenge #10: Create a Data Cartoon 148
Conclusion 149

Proto-Persona 150
Persona 152
UX Story: Personas at Mayo Clinic 153
Challenge #11: Create a Persona Village 156
Conclusion 156

From Scribbles to Sketches 157

Sketching 159
Sketch Sprint 161
Variation: Sketch with Clients and Stakeholders 162
Sketchboard 163
 Contents xiii
Infographics 165
Nest the Data in a Story 165
Craft an Overall Image Scheme 166
Simplify the Image 167
Make It as Small as Possible 167
Storyboards 168
Challenge #12: Sketch Your Team’s Work Week 169
Conclusion 170

Wireframes 172
Mockups 176
Combine and Transform 177
UX Story: Wireframing an Educational Flow 180
Challenge #13: Create an Interface Documentary 180
Conclusion 182

Prototype 184
UX Story: Prototyping a Food Locker 185
Minimum Viable Product 189
Usability Test Report 190
UX Story: Creating an App MVP for a Community
Arts Challenge 193
Challenge #14: Take Your MVP or Mockup on Tour 196
Conclusion 197

Capture the Lessons of the Cycle 198

Procedures 198
Task Board Cleanup 201
Retrospective 202
Project Autopsy 204
Team Reflection 206
Challenge #15: Hold a Reverse Ice-Breaker 207
Conclusion 207

UX Brown Bag Meeting 209

Interface Pageant 209
Pop-Up UX 210
xiv Contents
User Safari 211
User Ecology Blueprint 213
Challenge #16: Apply One UX Research Technique
to Your Workplace 215

Index 217
Figures

0.1 Double-diamond design process 3

1.2 A University Charter is a type of Justice Manifesto 22

1.4 Wildlife differentiates education user conditions in South

Sudan from what the Researchers knew 31
1.5 Equatorial sun, and no power grid also differentiate education
user conditions in South Sudan from what the Researchers knew 31

2.2 Individual and group work is critical in creating a Next Step

Solution 38
2.3 You can use task boards (or SCRUM boards) to help you
track team accomplishments during standups 41

4.1 The User-Product Graph 58

xvi Figures

7.2 A/B Tests can help a UX Team narrowly tailor interface choices 116

9.1 Concept Story 137

9.2 Usage Story 138
10.1 PechaKucha presentations can help you distill presentations
into vivid stories with key takeaways 146
11.1 Once you create Proto-Personas, you should share them with
the Team 152
11.2 Mayo Clinic Persona Template 154
12.1 Just a few pencils and a sketch book can get you started on
improving your sketching 158
12.2 Surround yourself with places to sketch and tools to sketch
with so that you take advantage of opportunities
to hone your skills 160
12.3 Choo-Choo-Choose Your License 167
12.4 If you want inspiration for making comprehensive sketches,
you can watch animated TED Talks with professional sketch
artists for ideas 170
13.1 Mockups should evoke the feeling and scale of what they
will eventually become 178
13.2 Teacher and student workflows 181
14.1 Food Locker Sketch 187
14.2 Food Locker Storyboard 187
14.3 Early Food Locker Prototype 188
14.4 University of Washington, Tacoma Prototyping Team 188
Figures xvii
Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge and thank Emma J. Rose, Elin Björling, Adam
Copeland, Deepika Thamizhvanan, Erin Schoch, Anna Maria Choi, Harrison
Lee, and Sequoia Connor for sharing their UX Stories with me and the larger
UX family. Emma has been an indefatigable in locating these stories, generous
in sharing her deep UX expertise and bringing me in contact with her net-
work, and inspirational in wanting to expand this book to its fuller potential.
Here is hoping for later editions so that we can make this two-author effort.
A special thanks to Darren Zufelt for adding his unique illustrations to this
textbook. The time you spent illustrating our class discussions on the white
board revealed this talent to all of us, and I’m glad you took the chance to
share it here.
I would like to acknowledge the communities of Albuquerque, New Mexico;
Fargo-Moorhead, North Dakota/Minnesota; Mesa, Phoenix, and Tempe,
Arizona; Bowling Green, Ohio; and Duk Payuel, South Sudan for nurturing
my nascent User Experience knowledge, and providing endless opportunities
to work on improving how we conduct our lives.
Thanks to the reviewers who have made this book better, and who will no
doubt continue to challenge me to make this book more useful, accessible, and
representative of the work that UX professionals and advocates do around the
world.
Thanks to the academic colleagues who have encouraged me to develop
innovative approaches to teaching and researching, even as our universities
are being increasingly exposed to the violent economic and political forces.
Special thanks to my students who have allowed me to hold the title of
“teacher,” even as I learn my craft alongside of them. Your willing suspension
of disbelief in our projects has made the journey possible.
My deepest and humblest gratitude to lovely Miriam, whose endless con-
versation and cheerful companionship blurs our work and fun into one-long
adventure of discovery. I can’t wait to see where this all takes us next.
Introduction

Welcome to User Experience on the Go

You may already be beginning a User Experience project (or need to get go-
ing on one), but don’t have a strong background in user or product research.
Maybe you haven’t yet had deep philosophical discussions about User Experi-
ence beyond quick definitions in order to get you learning through practice.
That’s OK—this book is designed to walk with you through that practice
so that you will be more ready to formulate your own understanding of this
diverse and quickly changing field. This book will take you through the pro-
cess for one User Experience (UX) project cycle: assembling a team, recruit-
ing participants, building authentic user trust, observation and interviewing,
capturing and verifying data, analyzing the results, creating sketches, build-
ing wireframes and prototypes, and verifying your prototype. Finally, this
book will help you fold the process into the next cycle. By the end of the first
cycle of your UX project, you should have gained insight into three things:
individual motivations, connections, and interactions. You will collect data
on why people participate in particular activities and communities; you will
also collect data on where these connections are made; most importantly,
you will have data on how interactions occur between different people in
their preferred networks.
User Experience places the humans who buy, use, and modify products and
services back into the center of the design process. Through meeting, talking
to, and observing real people, UX Researchers adjust their ideas about what
different people want and need from products and where that product fits into
the user’s world. UX reaches beyond audience awareness because humans are
more than passive observers of the world. UX also widens the design concerns
beyond ideals and principles held by designers to include evidence of what us-
ers really do, feel, and believe. The evidence, analysis, and artifacts that emerge
from learning what users do, think, and want can push forward the design
process past imitations of other designs or data-poor intuitions and gambles.
Going through the trouble (and fun) of interacting with users, listening to,
and observing their interactions with their environment and your prototypes
and Mockups will put you on the path to helping, and perhaps even delighting
the users you are designing for.
2 Introduction
Defining User Experience
There are a number of definitions of User Experience floating out there.
Some definitions solidify around the notion of a brand—UX is what an end-
user thinks, feels, and associates with a product and the brand it represents.
Other definitions hinge on how UX Design facilitates users accomplishing
their goals. Still, other definitions focus upon the process of design—UX is
what a Design Team does to improve a user’s experience with a product. All
of these definitions legitimately inform the range of practices that make up
the UX universe, but the core of UX is about helping users perform tasks
to accomplish goals. Customer Experience (CX) is more interested in the
brand consistency, and Service Design (SD) focuses upon how organizations
and customers connect in broader ways. UX aims to deliver good experi-
ences so that users can effectively accomplish goals that matter to them.
The differences between users and even with users in different contexts
make interaction with users critical. The interaction between UX Teams,
products, and users changes everyone in the process. UX ultimately aligns
Design Team activity and user intentions—everyone is changed for the bet-
ter when a UX Cycle is effectively and ethically constructed, conducted,
and implemented. The brand improves in the minds of the user; the user
has something new to help her or him accomplish their daily tasks; and the
UX Team knows more about the user, the product, and the brand than they
did when they started.

Three Principles
UX on the Go proposes three principles in Design Cycle to ensure the team
designs better products. Three adjustments to your work process can help you
create a more useful, beloved, and enduring product. Rapidly adjusted proj-
ect cycles, user-driven decisions, and an action-first paradigm can all help
you more rapidly meet your potential users, and help you gather the data to
iterate your idea responsively and ethically. These adjustments bundle into a
double-diamond process that helps address difficulties endemic to designing
in digital environments—greater front-end resource Requirements, more am-
biguously defined user groups, and an interaction environment that gives the
users more choices for their time and attention (Figure 0.1).
By using principles that User Experience professionals have honed to make
their work more responsive, and then by focusing upon where your design
might leverage user motivation, you can start working quickly on the parts
of your UX projects that may make the most positive and enduring impact.
Rapid, user-driven, and action-oriented design processes will help you reshape
the products and interfaces into models and prototypes that others can see so
that members of your Design Team, research participants, and decision makers
can work with your project data and interfaces in ways that will make the
world better for users.
 Introduction 3

Figure 0.1 Double-diamond design process.1

First Principle
In order to maximize the benefit and minimize the time and effort you ex-
pend on your UX project, you need to create a tight turnaround for project
development and management. UX projects take a different range of people
and skillsets to implement than projects that depend upon either large bu-
reaucracies or one-person shops that make decisions by intuition and luck.
You likely don’t have the time to use more traditionally phased project man-
agement techniques; such techniques are sometimes called Waterfall Project
Management for the way that project management documents depict discrete
stages of projects with the visual style of a cascading, descending set of tasks
on a GANTT chart (Figure 0.2).
If you have a big budget, unlimited time, and a dedicated IT team, a rapid
and iterative approach may not be as worthwhile. If, however, you do not have
a lot of resources, a big team, and a large amount of time to turn your quality
data and good idea into a useful prototype, a rapid project cycle can help. Rapid
project cycles force the team to build prototypes early, which, in turn, helps
you gather data from the participants who can begin to interact with your
prototype. When users start to interact with the prototypes and Mockups, you
can better see how, where, and why your users interact with the interface you
are redesigning. Getting to those three core ideas is the key to successfully
improving a product for your user. We’ll introduce you to several processes that
help you locate and engage active groups of users in Chapters One to Four.
Chapter One will help you quickly cultivate an action-first mindset and help
you prepare to capture the insights as they happen. Chapter Two will help you
assemble a team that best sets you up for immediate success. Chapter Three
4 Introduction

Figure 0.2 GANTT chart.

will guide you as you map out the rest of your project cycle. Finally, Chapter
Four will help you locate your users and begin to collaborate with them.

Second Principle
The second principle pushes a UX Team to find potential users they hope to
engage as quickly as possible and to enlist their help in the design process. In
order to most fully take advantage of the benefits of rapid iteration, UX Pro-
fessionals need to go beyond distant analysis and user-centered approaches and
create a user-driven process. Quickly locating user groups, observing repeated
activities and tasks, and isolating key interactions can grant insight into the
potential of your product; inviting members of these groups to participate in
building your solution will help you analyze the data you have collected, ques-
tion your own biases, and design the most effective interfaces with the great-
est impact. We’ll introduce you to several processes that help you locate and
engage active groups of users in Chapters Four to Six. Chapter Four will help
you find your users, whether online or in person. Chapter Five will help you
strategize about how to involve your participants in ways that give you the
best access to their interactions and hidden insights so that you can maximize
project’s chance of success. Chapter Six will give you ideas about how you
can collaboratively begin to design with users. Many of these processes and
document genres have been taken from Contextual Inquiry, Ethnography, and
other social science methods. Don’t worry—you don’t have to know anything
about this practice beyond what they can do to help you understand your users
 Introduction 5
and how users prefer to interact with other people through these interfaces
and products. We’ll get you going down the path, which will hopefully whet
your appetite to learn more.

Third Principle
The final adjustment to your work process is conceptualizing your project as
a succession of action-first phases. Instead of the usual research—invent—
revise—release order that schools often teach students when writing a term
paper or creating a class project, UX Teams precipitate small interactions with
users they hope to engage before they have finalized and perfected their re-
search methods or prototypes (Figure 0.3).
You will learn to observe the small perturbations and course corrections
that you and members of your user groups already take to intervene in their
lives. By privileging the activity of user self-intervention, and learning how
your users react to the changes in their routines and activities, you can more
ethically chart the course how your UX Team is going to alter the lives of your
users. To be sure, you will still research user preferences, activities, and habits,
but you will not do so from a distance. You will need to approach each step
of the Design Cycle ready to collect the insight that your users and artifacts
will give you as they push back against your assumptions. Chapters Five to

Figure 0.3 Sometimes the only way to understand your users is to meet them in
the wild.
6 Introduction
Eight will help you create action-first research, but all of the chapters take
this particular stance so that you can gather insight quickly and tighten your
Design Cycle.

Good News
User Experience research can quickly provide a designer or a Design Team
with user feedback. Designers and researchers often work on projects without
the benefit of overly formal structures that connect specialists through regu-
larized genres and processes. Design, especially practices like software and web
design, has always had some designers embracing a philosophy rooted in quick
revision. Software and web interfaces are constantly changing, and designers
intuitively know that they have to work at the speed of their medium. Lean
and agile design, team programming, MVPs (Minimally Viable Products) and
other means of increasing the speed and responsibility of team members put
each team member more fully in charge of the design process. Team members
don’t have to wait until the team in front of them finishes their work. Instead,
the team breaks down individual pieces of a larger project, and can begin to
get a sense of the interface potential right away. This product ownership from
the entire team can allow the team to learn lessons and address problems as
they crop up.

Bad News
Rapid design practices have changed more quickly than the institutional ability
or willingness to support those practices. The institutional structures that can
foster rapid iteration—schools, professional societies, presses, and companies—
are still largely run on the schedule of the quarter, the semester, and the year.
Universities, nonprofit organizations, companies, and professional societies are
beginning to adjust their structures and assumptions to better facilitate rapid
design, but there is still a long way to go. All of these organizations typically
expect employees or students to measure their success by the quarter, the se-
mester, or the year, so it will often be up to the team and the individual to track
successes, and to help educate their organization about the benefit of quick
work to the user, the team, the organization, and the individual. This work
of institutional education makes the final tasks in a project of documenting
lessons and successes, and folding that into the next project cycle a critical one.
You will be the change that needs to happen in your world, and it is critical that
you document your successes and share them with your larger circles.

Filling in the Gaps

In order to address some of the missing institutional pieces, your team will
have to create a process for failing quickly and softly in order to get to success
quickly. UX Professionals must create new versions of their project quickly,
 Introduction 7
work with users who validate and improve the concept, and sustain your
projects through institutional support. Fortunately, industries that have been
working on digital projects for a longer period of time can offer strong possi-
bilities for how to successfully conduct and manage a UX process. UX on the
Go combines the three touchstones of how project management occurs in
high-stakes business environments, and borrows the techniques that work the
best in these environments.
Agile programming, which grew out of the needs of software programmers
to efficiently create useful and compelling software,2 substitutes waterfall proj-
ect management’s emphasis on discrete, sequential project segments. These
project segments depend upon multiple teams—each with their own docu-
ments, and artifacts to negotiate and mediate transitions to other phases. The
agile approach uses a more flexible team-based, multiple-pass project approach.
The switch to quick project cycles is one of the ways that the UX on the Go
can save your time and effort. Instead of spending time getting permission for
each large project section, and knitting several project phases together using
elaborate documentation, the emphasis is on using documents to drive the UX
Design Team toward a prototype to provide next steps. An agile approach fo-
cuses the team on getting to an initial, workable product that can be improved
and adjusted to meet project goals. Less paperwork for documentation to fill
gaps in between phases helps the team use writing and oral communication to
focus effort on getting to a useful model.
The second way that UX Design provides safety through speed happens
when you combine the quick iterations of agile project management with a
user-driven research. User-driven research became a key component of proj-
ect management in digital production both because of the competition for
attention of end users and the fluidity of audience member identities. Prod-
ucts have to fight for user attention, and if they do not help users to perform
meaningful interactions, companies and products will be quickly abandoned.
Additionally, the fact that users don’t congregate around particular and stable
identities makes it even more important for interface designers to get to know
who potential users are and what motivates them to spend time interacting
with particular products and services. The more quickly you can understand
your users, and the faster you can get everyone involved in improving your
project, the less time you will waste creating interfaces that don’t get used, and
the greater chance for you to go live with a project that people want to use.
The final way that agile and user-driven approaches can cushion a UX Team
is by foregrounding the consequences of interaction and activity. The interac-
tions that every UX practitioner creates during a project cycle will be folded
into the project positively. Negative responses are noted, analyzed, and rem-
edied rapidly; quick failure (and failure is the only option for improvement)
saves the team time by eliminating blind alleys and pointing toward a better
project path. Giving yourself enough project cycles, participant data, and un-
derstanding of compelling activities takes time on the front end of the project,
but ultimately saves you and your team time and trauma.
8 Introduction
A Week in the Life of a UX Professional
A focus on rapid iteration necessitates a task environment and a work culture
designed for repeated bursts of activity. In a UX project cycle, spots for rest and
contemplation are interspersed with user work, maker work, and data work;
data is represented in genres in the center of activity where they are accessible
to the team and most easily understood; meetings are short, summative, col-
laborative, and held where nobody sits unless they need to; team roles revolve
around skillsets and not job titles (Figure 0.4).
Lindsay Ratcliffe and Marc McNeill describe this kind of week in their book
Agile Experience Design:

The week is tapped and tailed by a workshop that sets the week’s direction
and then showcases and reflects on the week’s output, respectively. Use
of a formal retrospective (an opportunity for the entire team, including
senior stakeholders, to reflect and feedback on the process itself) is invalu-
able in continuing to adjust the process both in terms of content and the
practicalities themselves and often immediately follows the showcase….
During the week, all (or some) of the team may go out to spend time
with the customers. Typically, this happens in the mornings. Insights they
capture on these field trips are brought back and synthesized on the wall
in the afternoon…. The daily stand-up is a dedicated reflection point for
the day. It provides an opportunity for the team to review the progress
made and issues arising, and to set or tweak the agenda for the coming
day (much as the formal retrospective at the end of the week does for the
weekly cycle).3

Like Agile projects, UX Design Team schedules often occur in rotations rather
than distinct activities that happen only during particular long phases. Each
week can include book-end meetings as ways of driving the iteration cycle
forward. Reflection is built into group interactions, rather than singled out
for later, and data sharing is done as publicly as possible. At the heart of the
UX Design Team week is a trip to the field to gather interview and observa-
tion data from potential users. The contextual observation data and interview
transcripts provide the main material from which key decisions are made.
There are trade-offs when you are trying to iterate a project, but in UX,
the thing that does not get short shrift is observational detail. Direct ob-
servation and captured data in the form of transcripts, notes, photographs,
video, and artifacts provide the Design Team with the raw material. With
this raw material, the team will quickly map the social interactions that the
UX project might potentially provide for users to create their own successes.
In order to maximize detail and minimize time and effort, UX on the Go fea-
tures process documents and events to foreground shared understanding and
draw team-member attention to specific tasks that define social interaction.
Changes in documentation, process, and task conceptualization and execution
 Introduction
9

Figure 0.4 Sample schedule for a UX Design Team work week.

10 Introduction
are designed to direct attention at the most important activities and issues
attracting your target public to a related website and the critical issues that
might prevent them from being able to use your product.
Instead of fixing team roles from the beginning, Agile approaches allow
the UX Design Team members to use a wider range of expertise because roles
aren’t assigned until tasks emerge. The flexibility of Agile approaches runs
through team roles, work spaces, process steps, and documentation genres. UX
Design processes and documentation genres are aimed at helping the UX de-
signer build a team while s/he builds a body of insight. The UX Design Cycle
not only helps the team create immersive insight and team expertise, the ap-
proach allows UX Teams to conduct user research, create prototypes, deploy
usability tests, and distribute insights in tandem. UX Design Teams wait for
nobody.

When to Observe and Interview

Even in its Agile form, conducting a reasonable UX Design Cycle takes fo-
cus, time, and effort. As Steve Portigal notes in his book Interviewing Users,
immersing yourself in the world of your potential users makes the most sense
at the front end of a project.4 If you are already well down the pathway to a
product, a Design Team can still benefit from interacting with potential users,
and there many other ways that a UX Researcher can iterate their product,
including contextual inquiry, user swarms, A/B testing, and usability test-
ing. However, if the UX project has not yet created a Minimum Viable Prod-
uct (MVP)5—the first functional version of a digital tool, interface, and/or
experience—then the UX Researcher, and entire project team, can benefit
from going out and interacting with people who inhabit and make meaning
out of analogous products or services. Finding out what motivates people to
interact with their tools to accomplish goals, and then discovering the kinds
of small activities that compose these tasks can reveal key information. Not
only will you can learn what people might expect from an interface, you can
learn what kinds of activities sustain your users. Even the most valuable data
and most innovative and visually pleasing interface can fall completely flat if
the people who might use them cannot perform the small interactions that
they want and expect. UX on the Go is designed to help you get from the more
amorphous phase of the project where you have data and a nascent idea about
how to present that data to the place where you are able to better test a more
complete version of your project. Not only will UX on the Go help you define
your project in a way that starts to build a public for your product, it will also
help you drill down to the meaningful small interactions that will eventually
define your product.
Some of the most important observations are the ones that your observant
participants will make themselves. “Often the things we are most interested
in happens in a series of smaller interactions over a course of days and weeks.
In that case, give your participants homework assignment.”6 Through the use
 Introduction 11
of additional genres like user diaries and storyboards, you will work with users
to sketch out their lived experiences and collaboratively graft their vision of
a more ideal life into your vision of a good product or service interface. The
end goal is to create a thriving culture where the people who would most
benefit from your product or service can use what you are creating easily and
thoughtfully. In turn, you will be expanding the world that your users care
about. By aligning your interests with the interests of the active users you are
researching, you collaboratively increase the odds that everyone wins, grows,
and thrives. In order to help you test drive your own observation-driven pro-
cess, we will walk you through team building, project definition, ethics and
consent, research design, fieldwork preparation, data capture and evaluation,
insight development and capture, prototype buildouts, and project wind-down
and reset. Once you try this process, feel free to tweak, hack, and share your
results with us, if you want to be part of our conversation—we have a website!

A Note about Face-to-Face vs. Virtual Teams

UX on the Go does not assume that you are going to be doing all, or even any,
of your UX teamwork as a face-to-face team. Although you will likely have to
interact with users that way at some points, much of the work that you do will
necessarily involve remote team members. Many UX Teams in large compa-
nies have some or all of their team members report remotely. There are both
advantages and disadvantages to working in person and remotely, but virtual
teaming is a necessity, so this book will offer different approaches because you
might need to do any activity either way. The only approaches that we will
formulate as an either/or proposition will be labeled that way. Fieldwork for
example is a face-to-face activity, but we will provide virtual possibilities for
interacting with users and data gathering that can be done online. We’ll name
and describe online and face-to-face tools that can help you finish your UX
task and successfully achieve your UX Team goals. You will likely need to go
beyond what is offered in any of these activities, whether in face-to-face groups
or virtual teams—but UX on the Go should get you started down the road to
better interfaces.

Using This Book

In order to get the most out of UX on the Go, you are going to have to use this
book. Fortunately, this book was designed to be used in many different ways,
depending upon what kinds of work you need to do. You can use this book for
a single facet of a project, or you can use this book in one-week, two-week,
four-week, eight-week, or sixteen-week stretches. The book is purpose built
to be used in what Jake Knapp calls “design sprints”7 (although a sixteen-week
period feels more like a marathon). If you have a team, a clear calendar, and a
plan, you can get to a prototype in as little as a week—the method that Jake
Knapp has perfected. For your purposes, thought, you might want to take a bit
12 Introduction
longer than a week to address a thornier design problem, or even take a month
or an entire semester to learn how to do this work in the midst of your busy
life. This book was designed to be flexible and to fit your needs. The two core
recommendations that hold when you are using this book are to (1) try the
three principles that are outlined in the recommendation (tight turnarounds,
user-driven design, and action first), and (2) keep the process centered on the
user’s experience. If you aren’t working on something that a person uses, and
aren’t basing those decisions on something other than how the user experi-
ences that thing, there are a number of related-but-distinct fields that will help
you become a better designer and researcher. Customer Experience (CX), Ser-
vice Design, Web Design, Technical Communication, and any number of other
practices can help you become a better team member and more responsive re-
searcher and designer; however, this book will more narrowly focus on how you
can shape a product or service user’s experience to help them achieve goals and
improve overall immediate experience, satisfaction, and well-being.
UX on the Go assumes that you will be working in a UX Team. Although
this Team may only consist of one core person at times, the assumption is
that you will be pulling people into your orbit to create as many members of
your UX Team as is necessary. This will necessitate you talking to people,
helping them understand what their role is, and trying to figure out how to
reward them for their contributions. Hopefully, the people that you bring
into your orbit will have their own motivations for wanting to be a part of
your team. The camaraderie and shared purpose of these activities should
provide a chance to learn and have fun. If this isn’t enough, the Examples
should help you see how these teams have worked in real situations. If that
doesn’t give your ideas, you can use Challenges to help you create an at-
mosphere that helps you understand the benefits of User Experience, or to
create an atmosphere where your coworkers will see the benefit of being a
part of a UX Team.
UX Teams, no matter their composition, need to work on five core UX ca-
pacities to keep improving their quality of their work. If you want to be seen as
a hero on a UX Team, practice these micro-hero skills all the time. These are
the basic moves that you will use for almost any phase of your project. Once
you get really good at these smaller techniques, you will likely become indis-
pensable for other projects.

1 Project oversight—Design Cycles are used to corral creativity and keep

team members from spinning out of control during the madness of the
creative act. Keeping the Team on-task and focused on the goal will help
everyone tap their creative potential in useful ways at the right time. Cre-
ating a strong UX Plan or composing an informative Findings Report
can help the team narrow their creative energies to the parts of the cycle
that need the most attention.
2 Written communication—writing is one of the most underrated skills by
people going into UX jobs. A lot of the fireworks are taken up by visuals
 Introduction 13
and analysis. The ability to break down complex activities into smaller
pieces and to communicate them clearly can save Teams a lot of time and
headaches. Learn how to record a good Observational Note, write a solid
Procedure, and create a solid Project Précis and you will not only impress
supervisors and clients—you will also endear yourself to team members
who find writing to be mysterious and somewhat scary.
3 Drawing—a lot UX Design embeds complicated activities into simple-
looking interfaces. Visual affordances and metaphors allow the UX Team
to organize a lot of information into simple and elegant interfaces without
overwhelming the user. If you can draw well, you will be able to help users,
your Team, and other stakeholders understand the potential of any inter-
face. By working on your Sketching, you will be working on how to pack
more important stuff into the interface and to communicate more import-
ant stuff to your Team as you are trying to iterate and help your users.
4 Verbal communication—you will need to work at keeping everyone in
the Team motivated and on-task. Much of the work that happens in a
UX Team can be invisible, so it is easy for team members to trip over each
other and step on each other’s toes. Practicing good verbal communica-
tion can help the team working toward the same goals. This book has a
lot of useful techniques to do just that, but learning how to hold a good
Standup and Retrospective early on can help the Team accelerate their
efforts and accomplish early wins to motivate the team.
5 Research—if no members of your Team are coming into contact with
Users to collect data to gain insight, your team is not really doing UX.
Even if you are already working on data that was collected by others (an
important part of UX research), it is important to learn how to conduct
research yourself so that you can understand the analytic value and lim-
itations of the research you are working with. Knowing how to conduct
a Contextual Observation, Interview, Usability Test, or Card Sort can
help you contribute to the decision-making capacity of your Team.

Every member of a UX Team should work on all five UX capacities to get a

deeper empathy for the user and a set of connections with their team. By being
able to speak, write, draw, research, and oversee, each Team member will be
able to contribute to most activities during the UX Cycle. Of course, Team
members should go well beyond these smaller tasks, but if there is a place that
each Team member should return to, it’s these five capacities.

The Stretch
This book is designed to be used by UX Professionals in training, whether they
are in school or not. Although this is not an exhaustive book, it does have a
lot of ideas that you can use to create your best UX Design Cycle. In order to
do that, it breaks down the cycle into activity sequences, and activities into
sequences of tasks. The larger sequence of the cycle, the stretch, comes in a
14 Introduction
lot of forms. Depending upon the research needs and the UX Team resources,
these Stretches will contain activities to help you assemble a team, locate your
users, interact with and research with your users, collect and analyze the data,
communicate the analysis, iterate the interface design, and document and pre-
pare for the next sequence.

One-Week Stretch
This is the most intense way to get through a single Design Cycle, and requires
that members of the team be willing to clear their entire work schedule to ac-
complish their goals. In this short work period, you are going to designate team
roles, gather what you know, define the problem, sketch, pick a winner, create
a quick Wireframe/Mockup, and do an initial Usability Test. This pattern can
be stacked and varied to create a larger project cycle, if you want to rapidly
iterate an interface.

Day 1: Team Assembly (Chapter Two), Design Studio (Chapter Two)

Day 2: Standup (Chapter Two), Sketching (Twelve)
Day 3: Standup (Chapter Two), Wireframe or Mockup (Chapters Thirteen and
Fourteen)
Day 4: Standup (Chapter Two), Wireframe or Mockup (Chapters Thirteen and
Fourteen)
Day 5: Usability Test Report (Chapter Fourteen), Retrospective (Chapter
Fifteen)

Two-Week Stretch
Many workplaces use this kind of work sprint to hit their deadlines. This is
probably the shortest amount of time you can conduct a Design Cycle and
collect any new user data during the process. You are going to spend a bit more
time assembling your UX Team and conducting some initial research that you
will be able to user test later. The advantage of this cycle is that you can keep
fresh while building a depth of insight.

Day 1: UX Project Plan (Chapter One)

Day 2: Standup (Chapter One), UX Inventory (Chapter Two), Next Step Solu-
tion (Chapter Three)
Day 3: Standup (Chapter Two), Contextual Observation (Chapter Five)
Day 4: Standup (Chapter Two), Contextual Observation (Chapter Five)
Day 5: Affinity Wall Sprint (Chapter Seven)
Day 6: Standup (Chapter Two), Card Sort (Chapter Seven)
Day 7: Standup (Chapter Two), Sketching (Chapter Twelve)
Day 8: Standup (Chapter Two), Prototype (Chapter Thirteen)
Day 9: Standup (Chapter Two), Prototype (Chapter Fourteen)
Day 10: Usability Test Report (Chapter Fifteen), Retrospective (Chapter Fifteen)
 Introduction 15
Four-Week Stretch
This kind of sprint is popular because it lasts for about one calendar month,
which means you can perform this process three times in a fiscal quarter, or
three or four times during a semester. You can plan to get more user data in in-
teraction with this kind of sprint. It is easier to capture what you have learned
for later cycles, and to involve company members outside of your team. If you
are using this book in a class, you may want to spread this four-week stretch
into an eight-week stretch (assuming that you are taking one more class and
that you have other things besides classes).

Day 1: UX Project Plan (Chapter One)

Day 2: Standup (Chapter Two), Team Assembly (Chapter Two), UX Inventory
(Chapter Two)
Day 3: Standup (Chapter Two), Research Plan
Day 4: Standup (Chapter Two), Contextual Observation (Chapter Five)
Day 5: Standup (Chapter Two), Contextual Observation (Chapter Five), Inter-
views (Chapter Five)
Day 6: Standup (Chapter Two), Contextual Observation (Chapter Five), Inter-
views (Chapter Five)
Day 7: Standup (Chapter Two), Affinity Wall Sprint (Chapter Seven)
Day 8: Standup (Chapter Two), Qualitative Data Analysis (Chapter Eight)
Day 9: Standup (Chapter Two), Qualitative Data Analysis, Coding Transcripts
(Chapter Eight)
Day 10: Standup (Chapter Two), Findings Report (Chapter Ten), Usage Story
(Chapter Eight)
Day 11: Standup (Chapter Two), Sketchboard (Chapter Twelve)
Day 12: Standup (Chapter Two), Wireframes (Chapter Thirteen)
Day 13: Standup (Chapter Two), Wireframes (Chapter Thirteen)
Day 14: Standup (Chapter Two), A/B Test (Chapter Seven), A/B Test Analysis
(Chapter Eight)
Day 15: Standup (Chapter Two), Findings Report (Chapter Ten)
Day 16: Standup (Chapter Two), Minimum Viable Product (Chapter Fourteen)
Day 17: Standup (Chapter Two), Minimum Viable Product (Chapter Fourteen)
Day 18: Standup (Chapter Two), Minimum Viable Product (Chapter Fourteen)
Day 19: Task Board Cleanup (Chapter Fifteen), Retrospective (Chapter Fifteen)
Day 20: UX Brown Bag Meeting (Chapter Sixteen)

Eight-Week Stretch
This is a really deep dive for a design project. The eight-week Design Cycle
is a good idea if you are working on a key interface. You will likely need to
recruit users for a project and will have time to conduct different kinds of
testing along the way. You will also have some time to formalize what you have
learned to iterate your organizational team culture.
16 Introduction
Week 1: UX Project Plan (Chapter Two), Team Assembly (Chapter Two), Role
Card (Chapter One), Preliminary Fieldwork (Chapter One), Standup
(Chapter Two)
Week 2: UX Inventory (Chapter Two), Research Plan (Chapter Four), Direct
Participant Recruitment, (Chapter Four), Diary Study (Chapter Five),
Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 3: Interviews (Chapter Five), Card Sort (Chapter Seven), Standup
(Chapter Two)
Week 4: Coding Transcripts (Chapter Eight), Transcript Analysis (Chapter
Eight), Findings Report (Chapter Ten), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 5: Sketching (Chapter Twelve), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 6: Wireframes (Chapter Thirteen), Standup (Chapter Two), Standup
(Chapter Two)
Week 7: Prototype (Chapter Fourteen), Usability Test Report (Chapter Four-
teen), Retrospective (Chapter Fifteen),
Week 8: Project Autopsy (Chapter Fifteen), Interface Pageant (Week Sixteen)

Sixteen-Week Stretch
This long walk involves many of the approaches and techniques in this book.
You probably don’t need to use this length of a sprint unless you are investing
a great deal of time and care in a product that must succeed. If this is a flagship
company product, or if your organization wants to invest in the capacities of
the UX Team, this ultra-marathon “sprint” can help everyone really get to
know the product/service and each other. You will have time to take multiple
passes at interacting with and conducting research with multiple user groups.
You will also have a lot more time to build the UX culture in your organiza-
tion. Such a long research period should encourage you and your Team to take
on one more Challenges at the end of each chapter.

Week 1: UX Project Plan (Chapter Two), Team Assembly (Chapter Two), Role
Card (Chapter One), Preliminary Fieldwork (Chapter One), Standup
(Chapter Two)
Week 2: UX Inventory (Chapter Two), Research Plan (Preliminary Fieldwork
(Chapter One), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 3: Research Plan, Diary Study (Chapter Five), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 4: Agile Ethnography (Chapter Four), Standup (Chapter Two)
Data Book
Week 5: Agile Ethnography (Chapter Four), Card Sort (Chapter Seven),
Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 6: Qualitative Data Analysis (Chapter Eight), Card Sort Data Analysis
(Chapter Eight), Findings Report (Chapter Ten), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 7: Concept and Usage Story (Chapter Nine), Persona (Chapter Nine),
PechaKucha (Chapter Ten), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 8: Sketching (Chapter Twelve), Standup (Chapter Two)
 Introduction 17
Week 9: Sketchboard (Chapter Twelve), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 10: Wireframes (Chapter Thirteen), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 11: Prototype (Chapter Fourteen), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 12: Benchmark Test (Chapter Eight), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 13: Usability Test Report (Chapter Fourteen), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 14: Minimum Viable Product (Chapter Fourteen), Standup (Chapter Two)
Week 15: Team Reflection (Chapter Fifteen), User Ecology Blueprint (Chapter
Sixteen)
Week 16: User Safari (Chapter Sixteen)

Challenges
As a UX Professional in training, there are a number of practices that you can
undertake that do not fit neatly into a UX Design Cycle. The book provides
16 challenges for you and your team to build and flex your UX muscles. If you
have time during the cycle to build these muscles (maybe while waiting for
your users or marketing folks to get back to you), take on one of these chal-
lenges and try to build your UX acumen. Write a Justice Manifesto, create a
Listening Practice, go on a User Safari, build a UX Library, or hold a Reverse
Ice-Breaker. These Challenges are designed to help you think differently about
your UX work, your Team, and your relationship to Users.

Notes
1 Take an Active User
Experience Stance

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing
them, for example, men become builders by building and lyre players by play-
ing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing tem-
perate acts, brave by doing brave acts. Aristotle, Book II, Nicomachean Ethics.

Do, Observe, Think

The most critical shift for conducting UX research on the go is an attention
shift from words to action. A working assumption in conducting UX research
is that people are engaged in meaningful activity, even if the people you are
observing and conversing with aren’t aware of what that activity explicitly
means to others. Many human subjects researchers believe that cognition,
cogitation, and meaning are the most important things to collect human data
about, but UX researchers need to challenge these assumptions and to take
an action-first approach so that whatever data presents itself is considered and
collected before researchers or user participants interfere with their own pre-
scriptive thoughts about what should happen. To put action first, UX research-
ers should immediately look for ways to invite users into the research, and pay
particular attention to the way that users act and react to their environment.
In order to get to user actions quickly, we are going to borrow Dave Gray’s
3D (Do, Discover, Design) method,1 and turn it into our heuristic to uncover
patterns of user interactions. Rather than wait for an ideal scenario to interact
with users, UX designers either precipitate action with willing users or find
where users are already interacting in public spaces (or willingly and conspicu-
ously sharing their interactions in semipublic spaces) (Figure 1.1).
UX Researchers shouldn’t wait for a grand invitation from their employers
or the convening of a user research convention. Instead, you are going to earn
your own UX Research Merit Badge by venturing out and finding where your
users are already willing to share insights to make their interactions better,
or communicate with users who want to share their insights to make their
interfaces and world better. From these user and researcher interactions, we
can then observe the shifts that occur. When people respond (or don’t), UX re-
searchers carefully note and document even seemingly insignificant changes.
The interact-and-learn method necessitates careful intervention, alertness
 Take an Active User Experience Stance 19

Figure 1.1 Do, Observe, Think.

after the initial activity, and a commitment to quick and action-oriented doc-
umentation to plan out your next move—documentation is really just a form
of reflection and preparation for the next action.
Fortunately, User Experience (UX) Researchers and Designers have a wide
range of design and documentation forms—like heuristic markups, personas,
and findings reports—to capture what is happening and to plan next steps.
Furthermore, UX Researchers and Designers have workarounds to simplify
complex user research practices through contextual observation, research
hunts, and usability testing in order to rapidly sharpen the focus of the re-
search team and bring definition to what can initially seem very vague. The
wide range of UX documentation genres and research practices can help UX
Teams immerse themselves in the social practices that might bridge data to
people who can do something with that data. At the core of UX is observation
of patterns, and UX can lend a hand in quickly capturing what emerges from
the provocations. Once the researcher captures a set of interactions that were
either initiated or affected by our participation, the UX team can think about
what has happened, and make more advised future actions. From the first cycle
of Doing/Observing/Thinking, the researcher scan continue to clarify where
in the larger insights the UX project might be most effectively built into po-
tential interfaces. The researchers will participate in, observe, and document
several cycles of activity to create a more intuitive, felt sense of what kind of
user groups might coalesce around, and better craft a project interface (or set
of interfaces) that will help the users accomplish goals that matter to them.
20 Take an Active User Experience Stance
Just Temperate Brave Action
Aristotle’s statement in Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics about becoming
“just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing
brave acts” can help you plot your UX Design Cycle. An action-first plan ne-
cessitates that each action forward be steeped in right action. As you design
a better world one interface at a time, you need to understand both the good
and the harm that each action can precipitate, and to take precautions to
ensure that each action contributes to the good and minimizes the harm. You
are not designing to solve a static problem for everyone and for all time, but
are instead trying to help particular users in particular contexts. As a con-
sequence, each time you formulate a next action, the community and context
should help dictate what you decide. For UX professionals, it can seem like
a contradiction to base your action on shifting notions of justice, temper-
ance, and bravery; however, because each interface you design has the po-
tential to magnify actions by many multiples over time, the actions that lead
up to these interfaces should be saturated with a just, temperate, and brave
approach. The courage you show in approaching user communities with an
openness will result in truer responses from users. The temperance you act
with in gaining and maintaining consent from the individuals and commu-
nities you seek to interact with will magnify the needs and thoughts of those
who will ultimately implement the solutions that emerge. The justice you
enact in your interactions and interfaces will help your users build the better
world that we all live in.
How can you enact these broad and sometimes difficult-to-define concepts
of justice, temperance, and courage? Karla Holloway provides three additional
measures of these in her book Private Bodies, Public Texts: Race,2 Gender, and
a Cultural Bioethics to locate a beginning of justice.

• Beneficence—benefitting those you are interacting with

• Nonmaleficence—doing no harm to those who are participating
• Autonomy—recognizing the independent right of users and others partic-
ipants to exercise control over their choices

A UX action-first approach demands recognition that the research and design

be based on benefit of those it involves, avoiding harm to those same people,
and interactions that recognize the rights of all participants. Justice comes
from the recognition of these, and gets layered into the context that you are
trying to change with your design. Justice goes beyond these three concepts,
which focus largely on the individual—to recognize that the context you and
your Team are operating in has its own history of inequality and injustice.
Fortunately, you are in the business of making things better, so center yourself
in the immediate context of what you are doing to those around you, and learn
the history of the groups and communities you will be impacting as you go
through the UX Cycle.
 Take an Active User Experience Stance 21
UX Team Justice Manifesto
One of the exercises that you can use to make sure your Team’s approach to UX
does more than merely avoid evil is to create your own Justice Manifesto. As you
get ready to build your UX Team, it is important to investigate ways of articulat-
ing what you believe and will do to make the world a better place for others. A
good place to start would be to investigate what your company or organization
already believes and declares as their set of values. If you are at a school, do they
have a charter or set of guiding principles? Is there an Institutional Research
Board that reviews all research protocols? Where do these policies or values
come from? It is likely that some of the principals that you find emerged from
the Belmont Report,3 which was published in 1979 to codify the principles of re-
spect for persons, beneficence, and justice. This report helped shine a spotlight
on some of the harmful research that was carried out on vulnerable populations
like minors, prisoners, and communities of color. Withholding beneficial medi-
cine from patients with painful diseases without their knowledge and inflicting
psychological and physical harm upon unsuspecting individuals were among
the studies that were approved by respected industrial, governmental, medi-
cal, and educational institutions. These practices—which can more easily be
carried out today with the use of DIY DNA testing, mail-order inexpensive lab
equipment, and the fast pace of innovation—make it all the more important
that you create your own Justice map and compass. Take some time on the front
end to articulate what you will do to ensure that your work makes the world
more just. Point to other statements that articulate what you believe make up
the constituent parts of this manifesto. Are there passages in sacred texts? Are
there organizations that embody these principles? Do characters from fiction or
history best articulate these principles? Write these down, boil them down, and
post them where you can always see them at work (Figure 1.2).

UX Project Plan
Every journey can benefit from a map. Before you can map your user’s journey,
it’s important for you to create a map for you and your team to meet users, learn
from their actions and thoughts, get to know their history and perspective,
and to collaborate with them as a way of improving their experience with
products. While it may be tempting to just start on the journey and see where
it takes you, it’s important to prepare yourself for the time care it will take to
meet your users, get to understand their history and community, to carefully
observe them, and to work with your team to ascertain potential interface
improvements. A UX Project Plan is a written record of where you plan to
go, who is going on the journey with you, and what you believe will happen
on that journey. The plan is necessarily speculative, but shouldn’t be a wild
fantasy. You are going to take best guesses, while trying to be as pessimistic as
possible about the amount of effort and time it will take. It is much easier to get
permission on the front end to take time and care (and ask for resources) than
22 Take an Active User Experience Stance

Figure 1.2 A University Charter is a type of Justice Manifesto.

it is to go back to your supervisor and ask for more time and money over and
over. It is typical for people to frame plans around best-case scenarios, so don’t
be surprised when it takes twice or three times as long to perform particular
activities. Even Nobel-winning psychologist and behavioral economist Daniel
Kahneman wildly underestimated the time it would take to create projects
(and he was one of the researchers who uncovered just how often we do this).
For this reason, it is extra important to be the adult in the room and build
contingencies and slip dates into your plans.
In order to host a UX Project Plan, you will need something to write on and
with, and some time to think about contingencies. Involve as many members
of the team as you feel comfortable with, but don’t feel like you have to have
anyone beyond the core of people you trust (or yourself). This is a map for the
process, and it should be useful to everyone who is participating.
Participants: One–four people (can be more)
Time: 90+ synchronous minutes
Materials:
• Something to individually write with (word processing software, or an
online sketch tool like Google Jamboard, Sketchpad, or mural.co)
• Something to write on (word processing software)

Group Roles: Group Scribe, Group Leader, Group Sketcher

 Take an Active User Experience Stance 23
Step 1: Write Down the Goals of the Project (Five Minutes)
Before you can map out the project, take five minutes to articulate the goal(s)
for the project. These goals should be user-focused. Be as specific as practicable.
If you are going to improve an online restaurant menu, focus on what specifi-
cally the improvement is supposed to accomplish—for example, you might be
redesigning the online menu to improve order accuracy and order times for
the user. These goals can be very broad. You might just want to learn who the
major users are for a particular product or service, so make sure that you are not
creating specificity where it does not exist.

Step 2: Block Out the Major Phases of the User Research Project
(30 Minutes)
This can be as concrete or as abstract as is useful. The essence of this step is
honesty, so take your best guesses as to what the steps of the process will be. If
you genuinely don’t know what steps of the project might be, go back and look
at the Introduction to see what a UX professional’s time might be. We have
provided a sketch here of what a possible project might consist of. In multi-
million-dollar film production, teams block out major chunks of the story in
order to uncover what will be required. Although your project won’t likely re-
quire soundstage and multiple shooting locations, it’s important to guess what
is going to need to happen so that you can have the conversations you need
to. Block out the major chunks of the project and give each of these phases an
action-first name (e.g., interview users, test prototype, write report, etc.). Make
sure that you are including roughly a third of your time getting to know your
users, a third of the time creating the interface, and a third of the time testing
and documenting what you have come up with.

Step 3: Reverse Engineer a Timeline, and Mark Relationships

(20 Minutes)
Once you have mapped out the major blocks of the project, give the team
time to carry out the tasks. At this part of the process, it is better to give team
members more time to complete tasks. Keep in mind that each of these chunks
might overlap with other chunks on the timeline, and that they may be recur-
rent activities. The sample timeline that we have provided here illustrates how
several of these tasks overlap, and are dependent upon one another. For exam-
ple, the meetings that will need to occur can only happen after the user data
has been collected and analyzed. Adjusting the names of the phases and ac-
tivities to reflect the actions that need to occur can help the team stay focused
on the task. For example, if you are going to have a standup to share user data,
you can name it a “User-data Sharing Standup.” This document should help
everyone stay clear on the primary purpose of each phase, and these action-first
labels should help everyone in the team have productive discussions.
24 Take an Active User Experience Stance
Step 4: Add in Time for Learning and for Teaching
(10–30 Minutes)
Part of the job of every UX team is building user research skills and helping
the rest of the organization learn how to best prioritize users. That may mean
having meetings between users and other members of the design team. At the
beginning point of any UX project, it might not be clear what these activities
will be. You can take a few minutes looking over Chapter Four (Finding and
Understanding Your Users) to see what this might look like, but it is often
enough to block off time for you and team members to learn more about UX
practices, and to schedule meetings with individuals who might not appreciate
the work that goes into user research.

Step 5: Create Objectives for Each Phase (Ten Minutes)

At this point, you should have goals, phases, a timeline, and some room for
UX teaching and learning. For each phase, articulate an objective. This objec-
tive should capture the results of each action. If you are analyzing data, there
should be a final form that the data takes. If you are creating a prototype, then
you should have an online, paper, or concrete prototype.
The UX Plan isn’t the same thing as a product or project plan (which a
product manager or project manager will create), but it can describe a project,
or even a set of projects as part of its scope. This plan integrates the larger
scope of cultivating healthy UX culture in your organization—even in a class-
room. You are responsible for thinking about how you are not only going to get
through the project but also how you are going to cultivate a UX mindset with
your Team and your organization. Part of this mindset paradoxically involves
going out to meet your users without this kind of map. Investigative Fieldwork
can help you get out of your head, and to start to think of your projects in
terms that will ultimately benefit your users. As Jakob Nielsen astutely tells us
in Usability Engineering,4 best guesses are not good enough, designers are not
users, and Vice Presidents are not users. You’ll need to get out of the office and
to meet users without the pressures of a project to actually learn about how
they interact with products, other people, and their environment.

Step 6: Polish the Plan and Get Out There

The UX Plan is a guide, so you should spend enough time and care to com-
municate how important this is without taking up precious research time. UX
Plans should be portable and lay out a desired plan of action, so emphasize
clarity over comprehensiveness. Post the plan as publicly as possible for your
UX Team so that you can all get to work as quickly as possible.

Preliminary Fieldwork
Getting out of the office and classroom to meet users is probably the most
important step you can take as a UX professional. Understanding how users
 Take an Active User Experience Stance 25
interact with others and their world will help you understand better how to
research and design interfaces for and with them. If you are going into the field
to learn about your users, it is best to either go alone or go with a friend.
Participants: One–two people.
Time: Variable (around an hour of prep work, but at least one hour total of
prep and analysis, and two hours in the field at a time).
Materials:
• Something to individually take notes on (a notepad, notebook, or laptop—
preferably as small as possible), and to take notes with. A camera, and a
microphone to record audio.

Group Roles: Investigator

This activity is the base for everything you do as a UX professional. Discov-
ering who your users are, going out to where they are, meeting them, and
finding ways to learn from them is the key to becoming a really great UX
professional. You’ll need to do some prep work to get decent data, but once
you are able to do this, you should be prepared to learn. This kind of field-
work will provide a better base for you to create field studies, diary studies,
and journey maps.

Step 1: Formulate Who Your Users Are (15 Minutes)

There are a number of ways you can do this. You can ask the most experienced
people in the organization (this can be a teacher in a class, but take advan-
tage of people in organizations who regularly interact with your users—talk to
marketing, managers, or just that person who seems to know these users better
than anyone else). There is very little chance that you are going to get this
right before you go out, so don’t spend too much time worrying about getting
this exactly right. In fact, one of the benefits of this is confronting what you
don’t know about your users. The value of investing in UX capacity lies in
replacing our own user prejudices with user-driven insight.

Step 2: List Characteristic Guesstimates about Your Users

(25 Minutes)
Take a few minutes to list your assumptions about your users. Who are they?
What are the ways that they would describe themselves? What do they do?
What are their interests? Don’t confuse these characteristics with demographic
information. It’s natural to want to slice and dice users into convenient age/
race/class categories, but users are real people who see themselves as more than
members of different groups. It’s also natural to see users as people who are ei-
ther entirely like or unlike you, depending upon the nature of the activity you
are investigating. It’s OK to note that these groups might help define places to
start meeting people, but it’s crucial to start thinking about users are people
who have specific hopes, dreams, and goals that you are helping them achieve.
26 Take an Active User Experience Stance
It’s also critical to be open to the possibility that users might not adhere to
lines that you personally draw about your own activities.

Step 3: Create Research Questions

Once you have a thumbnail portrait of your users, you can start to formulate
research questions that you are investigating. These questions should all help
you get a better understanding of who your users are, and what they do. You
might have uncovered a lack of understanding about your users during the
last step. That’s OK. If you REALLY don’t understand what your users’ hopes,
dreams, and goals are, you can get out there and start to investigate. You will
not be directly asking your users about these questions (it’s not a question-
naire), but will instead use these questions to help you search for key interac-
tions that reveal what users want out of their environments. Take special note
of where users might most likely interact with their goals.

Step 4: Get Out There! (Two Hours)

Now that you have a thumbnail sketch of your users, their characteristics,
their goals, and locations that they might interact to realize their goals, you
should go to where these interactions happen. Of course, you should prioritize
the safety of everyone involved. If you are investigating minors or a group of
traditionally marginalized people, you need to spend time getting the proper
consent, and building transparency, trust, and reciprocity. Not only will you
have to work with your organizational/institutional research board, you will
also need to get to know the members of the community who can protect the
interests of the people you are designing for. This can be a lot of work, but it’s
definitely worth the effort. Once you have established the proper consent and
safe environment, get to know your users. Introduce yourself; ask about who
they are, what they are doing, and how they do what they do. In the course of
these exchanges, you will learn more from watching them interact with their
environment. Ask permission to take any photos, and respect their right to
say no. Take notes and listen to how your users talk about both what they are
doing and how they are doing it.

Step 5: Summarize What You Saw/Heard/Learned

(30 Minutes Per Outing)
Once you have observed your users and have taken detailed notes about
their behaviors and interactions, take a few minutes to summarize what you
have observed. You have taken the trouble of going out, meeting, and ob-
serving users interacting in their preferred environments, so it’s worth the
few extra minutes to summarize what you saw. Return to your first formu-
lations about who your users are and compare what you saw with what you
learned. Summarize what you saw with different users individually, since
Another random document with
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minute) and respirations (6 per minute) in connection with a mild
peritonitis, intestinal catarrh, colicy pains and diarrhœa. The
conjunctiva is pale, the pulse compressible, the respirations unequal
and accompanied by a moan, and the appetite impaired or lost.
If confined to mere spots on the liver, a restoration to apparently
vigorous health may take place, but if extensive it may lead to
compression and obstruction of the portal vein or bile duct, or to
compression and atrophy of the liver, with corresponding symptoms.
Treatment. As in other congestions of the liver, the use of salines
to deplete the portal system, and of alkaline diuretics are especially
indicated, to be followed by bitters and mineral acids. Sinapisms and
other counter-irritants to the region of the liver are of great service.
If not complicated with abscess, or microbian infection, cases of this
kind will often do well.
 CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER. FIBROID
DEGENERATION.

Definition. Increase of connective tissue, decrease of gland parenchyma. Causes:

in man, alcoholism; in animals, chronic heart disease, chronic recurrent
perihepatitis, biliary obstruction, toxins. In horses: age, emphysema, unwholesome
fodders, vegetable alkaloids, infection. Symptoms: prostration, hebetude, impaired
appetite, colics, constipation, later diarrhœa, unthriftiness, emaciation, dropsy,
icterus, ascites, intestinal catarrh, tender hypochondrium, early fatigue. Lesions:
increase of connective tissue, compression and absorption of parenchymatous
tissue, greatest around portal vessels, thickening of fibrous stroma between
capillaries of acini, shrunken, granular, pigmented liver cells. Treatment: salines,
Glauber salts, diuretics, sodium carbonate, or iodide, or salicylate, derivatives,
mineral acids, bitters, open air, laxative food, pure water. In cattle: obstruction to
circulation or the flow of bile; advances from the vessels, causes absorption,
caseated foci, adhesions, enlarged liver. Symptoms: jaundice, yellow, red,
albuminous urine, chronic indigestion, tends to fatal though slow advance.
Treatment: green food, open air life, saline laxatives, alkalies. In dog: common
following heart disease, parasites, bacteria. Lesions: Congested brownish red liver,
fibroid increase from Glisson’s capsule, compression of acini, their elevation above
surface, fatty and pigmentary degeneration of hepatic cells, increasing sclerosis.
Symptoms: as in parenchymatous hepatitis with slower advance, in time tender
loins, brownish or reddish urine, ascites, intestinal catarrh, it may be icterus.
Treatment: Correct cardiac troubles, digitalis, strophanthus, and intestinal, careful
diet, mineral acids, bitters, pure water, saline laxatives, antiseptics, alkaline
diuretics. Potassium iodide. Derivatives. Draw off liquid. Laxative non-stimulating
diet.

Definition. An interstitial inflammation of the liver characterized

by a great increase of the connective tissue and compression, atrophy
and degeneration of the glandular elements.
The same final result may undoubtedly originate in various
different primary morbid processes.
 In man cirrhosis is looked upon as almost always the result of
abuse of alcohol. In animals this cannot be the case, apart from a few
kept in connection with breweries or distilleries.
In heart disease a long continued mechanical congestion of the
liver causes compression and degeneration of the secreting cells in
the centre of the acini (around the intralobular veins), while the
peripheral portions undergo cell proliferation and increase of
connective tissue.
In chronic or recurrent perihepatitis, a whole lobe may be
compressed by the hyperplasia of the investing connective tissue,
and the hepatic cells are degenerated and absorbed.
Overdistension of the biliary ducts from obstruction to the flow of
bile (gall stone, catarrhal inflammation, constipation), leads to
proliferation and hyperplasia in the walls of the biliary radicals
throughout the entire liver.
The presence in the liver of toxic agents, ingested, or generated
from microbian fermentation in the intestinal canal or liver is
another recognized cause of connective tissue hyperplasia.
 CIRRHOSIS IN THE HORSE.
Cirrhosis of venous origin has been observed mainly in old horses,
while hypertrophic cirrhosis from biliary obstruction occurs rather in
the young (Cadeac). Bruckmüller records a case of the first kind in a
horse with extreme pulmonary emphysema. Walley gives a bad
condition of fodders as the main cause, virtually implying, in many
cases, infective catarrh and obstruction of the biliary ducts.
A form of the disease prevails at Schweinsberg in Hesse, and has
been variously attributed to spoiled fodders (Nicklas), to vegetable
alkaloids and other poisons in the food (Friedberger and Fröhner), to
clover, to telluric poisons (Redner), to infection (Meminger), and to
heredity (Neidhardt). It is a suggestive fact that it is confined to the
valleys of the Ohm, Glon, and Zusam where the land is peaty or
swampy and subject to inundations, while it is unknown on the dry
table lands (Friedberger and Fröhner). This strongly suggests
intoxication with microbes or their deleterious products. The gastric
catarrh that frequently attends the disease may point in the same
direction.
Symptoms. These are too often general rather than diagnostic.
Dullness, prostration, hebetude, yawning, hot, sticky mouth, lost,
irregular or depraved appetite, colics, constipation or diarrhœa, dry,
harsh coat, emaciation, weakness, œdema of the limbs, vertigo and
drowsiness may be among the symptoms. More characteristic are
icterus, abdominal distension from ascites, or congestion of the liver,
yellow or high colored urine, intestinal catarrh, indigestion, and
tenderness in the region of the liver. The mucosæ are usually pale at
first and not always icteric later. On exertion the horse shows early
fatigue, tumultuous heart beats and oppressed breathing.
The Schweinsberg disease often lasts for months, with alternate
improvements and exacerbations, but almost invariably ends in
death, and sometimes completely depopulates a stable.
Lesions. These consist primarily in the great increase of the
connective tissue and the relative decrease of the hepatic tissue. This
is usually mostly around the divisions of the portal vein and the
periphery of the acini, but also in the end around the hepatic veins as
well. When it has formed around the biliary canals there is a great
increase of the liver (often doubled) and its edges have become
rounded. Within the acini the increase of the fibrous stroma is seen
between the radiating capillaries, and the hepatic cells are
contracted, granular, pigmented, and comparatively destitute of
protoplasm around the still persistent nucleus.
Treatment. Glauber salts to clear the bowels of offensive matter,
and deplete from liver and portal vein, bicarbonate of soda or iodide
of potassium to eliminate the poisons through the kidneys and to
lessen the induration, and finally salicylate of soda as a liver
stimulant and intestinal antiseptic are suggestive of the line of
treatment that may be pursued. The saline laxatives and diuretics,
and antiseptics may be changed for others according to special
indications, and bitters and mineral acids may be resorted to.
Counter-irritants to the right hypochondrium should not be
neglected in case of local tenderness. In the otherwise fatal
Schweinsberg disease, Imminger, Künke and Stenert had a
remarkable success from the free use of potassium iodide, which
suggests a cryptogamic origin, as this agent is so valuable in polyuria
which results from musty fodder. In all cases, gentle exercise in the
open air and a moderate ration of laxative food (green) are of great
value. Above all the old suspected diet should be carefully avoided,
also any impure water supply.
 CIRRHOSIS IN CATTLE.

This has been recorded by different observers and usually as the

result of some obstacle to the circulation, or of catarrh and
obstruction of the biliary passages. Morot saw it in young calves,
which showed greatly enlarged liver (in one case 24 lbs.) and
kidneys, the former containing numerous cysts and marked sclerous
thickening around the vessels. This advancing thickening of the
connective tissue, causes increasing firmness of the liver and
absorption, distortion and diminution of the lobules. Albrecht
describes a chronic interstitial hepatitis with caseated centres
(nontuberculous) many of them an inch in diameter. The liver is
brown or grayish with whiter callosities which extend into its
substance and make points of attachment to the diaphragm or other
adjacent organ. The contrast between the fibrous layers and the
hepatic tissue has been likened to a checker board (Höhmann). The
enlarged liver may weigh 30 lbs.; in one remarkable case it weighed
300 lbs. (Adam). The bile is of a light color and mixed with mucus.
Symptoms. The symptoms are indefinite: a gradually increasing
jaundice, the passage of yellowish red urine becoming more and
more red and albuminous, and finally coagulating on the walls of the
urethra or on the litter, chronic indigestion, salivation (Schäffer),
weakness, breathlessness and more or less fever may give indications
of the disorder. Höhmann failed to find tenderness of the right
hypochondrium. The disease is liable to go on to a fatal issue, so that
it is often sought to prepare the animal for the butcher.
Treatment will follow the same line as in the horse. Green food,
pasturage, open air life, saline laxatives, and alkalies with a free use
of potassium iodide to check the sclerosis will be indicated.
 CIRRHOSIS IN THE DOG.

In the dog, cirrhosis is much more common than in the larger

animals, in connection with idle pampered habits, the frequency of
diseased heart and consequent disturbance of the circulation, and
the presence of parasites in the liver or biliary ducts. Bacteria
intoxication and infection are also common.
Lesions. The liver is at first tumefied, with hard consistency and
rounded edges, and a deep brownish red color, but this is modified
by the grayish fibroid hyperplasia which is especially abundant in
and around the vaginal sheaths of the capsule of Glisson. In cases
arising from diseased right heart or lungs the induration is rather
concentrated around the hepatic veins. The contraction and
shrinking of the fibroid hyperplasia as the disease advances causes
the projection of the hepatic tissue in minute rounded elevations
which give a peculiar uneven appearance to the surface of the organ.
The fibroid growth gives a remarkable hardness to the liver which
resists even the edge of a knife. The hepatic cells are the seat of fatty
and pigmentary degeneration. Inflammation and tumefaction of the
kidneys, and ascites are common features of the malady.
Symptoms. The general symptoms are as in parenchymatous
hepatitis with a more tardy development. There are impaired or
irregular appetite, dullness, sluggishness, in an obese animal short-
windedness or palpitations on slight exertion, symptoms of disease
of the heart, lungs or digestive organs, a spasmodic cough,
constipation followed by relaxation of the bowels, nausea and
vomiting. As the disease advances tenderness of the loins, the
passage of brownish or reddish, albuminous urine, the formation of
ascites and of gastro-intestinal catarrh may be noticed. Icterus may
be entirely absent, but, with a flaccid abdomen, enlarged liver and
spleen may be detected.
 Treatment. The indications are to first combat the causes.
Irregularities in the heart’s action may be met by digitalis or
strophanthus; gastro-intestinal catarrh by a carefully regulated diet,
with mineral acids and bitters; portal congestion by a free use of
water and other diluents and by saline laxatives; intestinal
fermentations by antiferments (salol, naphthol) and toxic matters in
the blood by alkaline diuretics. For the liver hyperplasia, potassium
iodide may be freely used. Blisters to the right side will occasionally
prove useful. The ascitic fluid must be drawn off when it
accumulates. A diet of milk, bread and milk, buttermilk and mush, or
one in which albuminoid elements are in minimum amount and the
action of which is laxative is to be preferred. Out door exercise is
desirable.
 CHRONIC ATROPHY OF THE LIVER.
Chronic Atrophy: In old horses: in right and spigelian lobes; others show
hypertrophy. In ruminants, omnivora and carnivora: in areas compressed by
tumors or parasites. Perihepatitis. Sclerosis. Remedy causes if possible. Fatty
Degeneration: Oil globules in liver cells, pathological when they destroy the
protoplasm. In ducks and geese on forced feeding. Causes: poisoning by
phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, lead, phenol, iodoform, alcohol; excess of fat in
food, spoiled fodders, colchicum autumnale, yellow lupins, bacteria, hemorrhages,
inflammations, tumors, parasites; improved meat producing breeds, old animals,
hot stables. Lesions: liver enlarged, pale, yellow, bloodless, knife in cutting is
smeared with fat, oily stain on paper, liver cells enlarged, protoplasm replaced by
fat or oil; may be circumscribed. Symptoms: obesity, over-fed in fats and starches,
of fattening breed, kept in confinement, in hot moist environment, if fed certain
poisons, with costiveness and indigestion, no endurance, short winded, slight
icterus, scanty urine, little urea, later, emaciation, palpation of enlarged liver.
Treatment: send to butcher, pampered horses, cows from swill stable, a run at
grass, with shade trees, a poor pasture, salines, cholagogues, mineral acids, bitters,
iron with alkalies, currying, massage, douches.
Acute yellow atrophy has been referred to under parenchymatous
hepatitis but a chronic atrophy is also met with in all domestic
animals.
In old horses it affects, by preference the right and spigelian lobes,
the portal circulation of which is less direct because of the veins of
supply leaving the parent trunk at right angles (Leblanc), and
because these lobes are more exposed to compression by solid
accumulations in the double colon (Kitt). In such cases a
compensatory hypertrophy of the left and middle lobes is often
observed.
In ruminants the lesion is often circumscribed to the areas that
have undergone compression by tumors or parasites (echinococcus,
actinomycosis), and there may be compensatory increase elsewhere
in the organ.
In swine, dogs and cats the same conditions are operative. In all
alike perihepatitis may be a causative factor, and sclerosis (cirrhosis),
with contraction of the fibrous hyperplasia may also operate.
 Symptoms are very obscure and treatment unsatisfactory unless
the active causes can be recognized and arrested.
HEPATIC STEATOSIS. FATTY LIVER. FATTY
DEGENERATION.
The presence of oil globules in the liver cells is normal and
physiological, the liver acting to a certain extent as a store-house for
fat. This is always a marked feature, in healthy animals on high
rations, and taking little or no work, but so long as the protoplasm
and nuclei of the cells retain the normal characters and functions the
condition is not a morbid one. It may, however, become excessive,
with great enlargement of the liver, and with the substitution of fatty
granules for the protoplasm of the cells as in ducks and geese
subjected to forced feeding, and the condition becomes a distinctly
pathological one.
In true fatty degeneration the protoplasm of the hepatic cells is
destroyed and replaced by fatty granules, the resulting condition
being a permanent destruction of the cell for physiological uses.
Causes. The liver cells undergo fatty degeneration under the action
of certain poisons like phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, lead, phenol,
iodoform and alcohol. According to Neyraud oxide of antimony is
given daily to fattening geese to hasten the development of fatty liver.
An excess of fatty elements in the food leads to the same result as
shown first by Majendie in dogs, in which not only did the liver
undergo this degeneration but the sebaceous glands of the skin
secreted an excess of volatile fatty acids.
The cryptogams and their products on musty fodders determine a
gastro-enteritis in herbivora, accompanied by fatty degeneration of
the liver.
Colchicum Autumnale, and poisonous yellow lupin both determine
this degeneration.
The products of a number of pathogenic bacteria have a similar
effect. This has been noticed in the cat with bacillus pyocyaneus
(Charrin), the cholera spirillum, pyæmic and septicæmic infection,
contagious pneumonia of the horse, strangles, and ulcerative
endocarditis. It has been long noticed to be a complication of
pulmonary tuberculosis, the result in this as in other affections of the
lungs having been attributed to lessened oxidation in the tissues. It
occurs also in hæmorrhages, ruptures and inflammations of the liver
and in passive congestions of the organ, the impairment of the
normal functions (in the altered conditions of nutrition, or under the
influence of poisons,) proving an important factor in the process. The
same remark may apply to the fatty degeneration which complicates
most other liver diseases, cirrhosis, catarrh of the bile ducts,
distomatosis, echinococcus, carcinoma, and epithelioma.
Certain other factors must be taken into account. The inherited
disposition to the production of fat which characterizes the improved
breeds of butcher animals, and particular individuals of all breeds,
mature age which predisposes to the deposit of fat in internal organs,
old age which lessens the vitality of the cells, and hot, damp climates
or stables, all operate more or less in determining the fatty change.
Lesions. In fatty degeneration the liver is enlarged, pale, bloodless,
yellowish, its cut surface exudes an oily fluid which smears the knife,
and it is so light that it floats on water. If scraped and the material
drawn across a sheet of paper it forms a transparent oily stain. Under
the microscope the liver cells are seen to be enlarged and to have
their protoplasm and nuclei replaced by fat or oil. If due to
obstruction in the heart or lungs the degeneration is greatest toward
the centre of the acinus, if due to an infectious disease it is usually
greatest towards its periphery. In infectious diseases too the liver is
not pale yellow, but usually of a deep brownish or yellowish red. The
degeneration may be local or general. McFadyean found a
circumscribed lesion in an ox’s liver, of a bright ochreous color, and
the cells completely transformed into fat cells, while the rest of the
liver was sound. In the dog fatty areas, up to an inch in diameter, are
not uncommon. The swollen cells pressing on the adjacent vessels,
account for the bloodless condition, and favor the degenerative
process.
Neyraud records a fatty liver of 28 ℔s. weight from the horse, and
Kitt one of 10 ℔s. from the pig.
Symptoms. Like as in most chronic liver diseases the indications
are uncertain. The conditions may, however, suggest fatty
degeneration; if the patient is very obese; if it has had an abundant
food, rich in hydrocarbons and carbohydrates, and little exercise; if it
has received in food or water continuous doses of phosphorus,
arsenic or antimony; if it has lived in a hot moist climate or stable; if
there has been a tendency to costiveness and indigestion; if the
patient is weak, easily fatigued and short-winded; if there is a slightly
yellowish red tinge of the conjunctiva and if the urine is scanty and
contains little urea. If the disease is more advanced and the animal
emaciated, it may be possible in the smaller animals at least to
manipulate the liver to make out its increase, its smooth surface, and
its absence of tenderness.
Treatment. When met with in meat producing animals the best
resort is to turn these over to the butcher. When in an animal which
is mainly valuable for breeding purposes, or in horses or carnivora,
something may be done to check the progress of the malady, and
maintain at least the present condition. The value of this will of
course depend on how far the disease has already progressed. Cows
that have spent a winter in a hot swill stable are of little use
afterward for breeding or dairy uses and advanced cases of fatty
degeneration in the horse or dog hold out little hope of a satisfactory
issue. For cases in the earlier stages, nothing can be better than a run
at grass, where there is opportunity for shelter from the noonday
sun. If the pasture is short and the animal has to exercise to secure a
living, so much the better. If kept indoors the patient should have a
clean, roomy airy box stall, with a moderate allowance of easily
digested food, and laxatives and cholagogues daily such as Glauber
salts, aloes, calomel, podophyllin or cream of tartar. Mineral acids,
especially nitro-muriatic acid, and bitters may also be given. The
preparations of iron are sometimes useful in maintaining the tone of
the digestive organs and counteracting anæmia but they must be
conjoined with diuretic doses of bicarbonate of soda.
There is great advantage in stimulating the skin, and active
brushing, currying, hand-rubbing, and even cold douches may be
resorted to.
 AMYLOID DEGENERATION OF THE LIVER.
Degeneration of basement substance of connective tissue, swollen, transparent,
homogeneous, colored mahogany brown by iodide. In wasting diseases, tubercle,
cancer, malaria, dysentery, leukæmia, suppuration, ulceration, pleurisy,
pericarditis, peritonitis, chronic catarrh, broncho-pneumonia, orchitis, biliary
calculi, nephritis. Chronic. Lesions: Affected part swollen, sinks in water,
bloodless, clear, smooth, homogeneous, yellowish or reddish gray, under
compound solution of iodine becomes mahogany brown, under sulphuric acid dark
violet. Extends from vessel walls to adjacent connective tissue. Symptoms: Of
wasting diseases, but not diagnostic. Treatment: Unsatisfactory, directed to
causative disease.
This is a condition in which the basement substance of the
connective tissue, and especially of the walls of the vessels, becomes
swollen and composed of a transparent, homogeneous substance,
albuminous in character, and which stains of a deep mahogany
brown on the application of a solution of iodine. The degeneration is
usually associated with severe wasting diseases, in the human being
with tuberculosis, syphilis, malignant tumors, malarial infection,
dysentery, leukæmia, and chronic suppuration or ulceration,
especially of the bones.
In the lower animals (horse, dog, ox, sheep, rabbit, poultry) it has
been seen to attend or follow on similar cachectic conditions. In the
horse it has been seen in connection with the effusions of pleurisy,
pericarditis and peritonitis (Rabe), in chronic bronchial catarrh
(Fischkin), in chronic broncho-pneumonia, and dilated right heart
(Trasbot), in orchitis, phlebitis and cachectic states (Caparini), and
in calculous obstruction of the biliary duct (Burgoin). In cattle it has
accompanied chronic nephritis (Brückmüller), tuberculosis,
leukæmia, etc. In lambs kept in confined stables, though well feed on
oats (Werner). In long standing suppurations and in animals fed on
distillery swill it has been observed.
It may last for months or years, and predispose to other disorders,
functional and structural. It does not, however, interrupt secretion as
bile continues to be formed.
 Lesions. The affected part of the liver is enlarged, the entire organ
in the horse may amount to 32 lbs. It is smooth and even, though
thick and rounded at its inferior border, yet occasionally on the
posterior aspect there may be hyperplasia and a rough irregular
surface. The diseased liver is heavy and sinks in water, unlike the
fatty liver. In the horse it is soft and friable or even pasty whereas in
man it is firm and resistant. The cut surface is bloodless, smooth,
clear, homogeneous and grayish, yellowish or reddish gray. When
treated with a solution of iodine and potassium iodide it changes to a
deep mahogany brown; if dilute sulphuric acid is then used it
changes to a deep violet, almost black color. If the iodine solution is
brushed over the smooth cut surface the mahogany color of the
amyloid stands out in marked contrast with the bright yellow of the
healthy hepatic tissue. The amyloid commences in the walls of the
smallest arteries, in the media and intermediary layers of the intima,
and thickens the walls so as to obstruct their lumen more or less
completely and render the part comparatively exsanguine. It may
extend to the connective tissue of the organ, but it is not certain that
the hepatic cells are involved in the process. The cells are, however,
pressed upon by the diseased vessels and stroma and undergo
consequent fatty degeneration. The amyloid may be confined to but a
small part of the liver or to its smaller blood-vessels or it may extend
to the whole. In fowls it is always in multiple centres (Leisering). It
may be found in other important organs, kidneys, spleen, lymphatic
glands, intestinal mucosa, etc.
Symptoms are not diagnostic. If with an old standing, exhausting
disease, paresis, weakness, emaciation and unfitness for work, there
is loss of appetite, dryness of the mouth, congestion of the rectal
mucosa, yellowish, whitish, or dark tarry fæces, and a slightly
brownish or yellowish tinge of the visible mucous membranes
(Rexante) it may be suspected. In fowls Leisering noticed, weakness,
lameness, ruffling of the feathers and attacks of vertigo. Icterus,
ascites and tenderness over the region of the liver may all be absent.
In the absence of ascites, tympany, or an excess of fat in the smaller
animals, manipulation may detect the considerable enlargement of
the liver, and the characteristic smoothness, of its surface. In other
cases some indication may, at times, be had from the increased area
of dullness on percussion.
 Treatment is essentially unsatisfactory even if a correct diagnosis
can be made. The most hopeful course would be to correct the
debilitating disease in which the amyloid seems to have originated.
Diseased bones, ulcers, chronic suppurations, and catarrhs may be
done away with, and at least any further advance of the degeneration
arrested. Open air exercise and a green or otherwise laxative diet
would be indicated. The amyloid in lambs fed on oats was corrected
by a change of diet (Werner). As medication the alteratives,
potassium iodide and potassium arseniate have been mainly resorted
to. Bitters and iron may also be of use to build up the strength. The
latter should be given with potassium bicarbonate.
 BLACK PIGMENTATION OF THE HEPATIC
CELLS. BROWN ATROPHY.
In horse. With melanoma and atrophy, or without, pigment granules fill hepatic
cells, liver becomes brown or black. In calves. In sheep. Apart from melanosis, the
real cause unknown.
The accumulation of granules of black pigment in the hepatic cells
has been noticed in old and worn out horses (Louis Blanc, Cadeac,
Bruckmüller), in calves (Degive, Cadeac), and in sheep
(Siedamgrotzky, Barrier). In horses it has been found in connection
with atrophy, or in other cases, with melanotic tumors in other parts.
In atrophic cases the liver is small, puckered, brown and dull, with a
leathery appearance on section, and with the hepatic cells charged
with pigment granules so that each acinus has a stellate appearance
from the radiating lines of cells. This constitutes brown atrophy.
The second form which may be called melanotic liver, is not
associated with atrophy, but is characterized by the crowding of the
hepatic cells with black pigment granules, which fill up the
protoplasm and crowd the still pale nucleus to one side. The affected
portions become of a deep black.
In calves the pigmentation may be confined to the superficial
portion of the liver (Degive).
In sheep pigmentation may be in the peripheral cells only of the
acinus (Cadeac) but is about equally distributed on the surface, and
throughout the interior of the liver, and may extend to the stroma of
the gland (Siedamgrotzky).
Apart from the general causes of melanosis, benignant or
malignant, no definite reason for this pigmentation has been
assigned. The development of melanæmia and tissue pigmentation in
man from malarious microörganisms suggests that other germs and
their products may have a similar effect in the lower animals but
nothing certain is known as to the true cause.
Apart from melanosis, it is not known that this pigmentation of the
hepatic cells is of any essential pathological importance. It is
important however for the veterinarian to be acquainted with the
condition, that he may intelligently deal with such lesions whether
seen in ordinary post mortem examinations, or in the course of meat
inspection.
 DILATATION OF THE GALL BLADDER AND
BILE DUCTS.
Causes: obstruction of common bile duct, distoma, round worms, tæmiæ, gall
stones, encrustations, inflammations, tumors, cicatrices, hydatids. Congenital
absence. Ducts stand out on liver. Symptoms of colic, icterus, bile poisoning,
marasmus. Treat the causative conditions.
This may occur in all our domestic animals except solipeds in
which latter there is no gall bladder.
Causes. Any serious obstruction to the discharge of the bile into
the duodenum may cause it. The presence of trematodes, nematodes,
or even tæniæ in the ducts, gall stones, incrustations, occlusion of the
ducts by inflammatory swelling, tumors of the liver or adjacent parts,
echinococcus, cysticercus, or cicatrices may be cited. Cadeac
mentions a case of congenital atresia of the bile duct in the calf.
Vigney records a case in the cow in which the greatly dilated gall
bladder formed a hernial mass in the epigastric region which was,
however, easily reduced by manipulation.
In all such cases the distended bile ducts stand out as white
branching lines on the back of the liver converging toward the portal
fissure. The walls of the ducts may be attenuated or thickened and it
is alleged calcified. They are usually lined by a deposit of cretaceous
consistency precipitated from the retained bile. The contents of the
distended ducts and bladder are variable. They may have the color
(yellow, green) and consistency of bile; they may be thick, dense and
albuminous; they may be thin and serous from inflammatory or
dropsical exudation; they may be granular, or purulent.
Though there is no gall bladder, in the soliped, a similar condition
of the biliary ducts may be produced in the same way.
According to the degree of obstruction there may be more or less
acute symptoms of biliary colic, icterus, marasmus, poisoning by bile
acids, etc.
Treatment must be directed toward the removal of the special
cause of dilatation.
 DOUBLE GALL-BLADDER.
As a congenital formation the gall bladder is sometimes divided
into two at its fundus, and in other cases the division extends
throughout, forming two complete sacs. This has been found in the
sheep, cat, ox (Gurlt, Goubaux) and pig (Goubaux). Such a
redundancy does not interfere with normal functions.