I’m the lead UX Engineer at John Deere, the largest agricultural equipment manufacturer in the world. Here, I’m working on the future experience of Deere.com, John Deere’s core customer facing application. I’m also working on reimagining the configurator and dealer locator experience. Both of which are also crucial touch points in the customer’s buying process. My work involves interfacing with multiple stakeholders across regions and roles to holistically understand the landscape and provide pragmatic solutions. My experience with both, design as well as development helps me create solutions that are delightful as well as feasible for development. In my free time I like travelling, photography and reading and cycling. I also like designing simple icons that convey complex concepts.
11
Years of Experience
UX
Designer
John Deere
Current Employer
Area of Expertise
My journey so far
How I got here
Process
How I do what I do
Any project is first broken down into independently working sections. Once broken down I then prioritize these sections based on business relevance and value adds. I then follow the below process for each component so I have a quality MVP to atleast start with.
I indulge with various stakeholders though kick off calls, contextual enquiries, interviews etc to understand the context better
Based on conversations in step 1, I define key business goals as well as the users' context, needs, challenges and goals
I design various low, medium and high wireframes to evaluate various possible solutions and design strategies
Whenever possible I engage with end users to evaluate solutions and test assumptions using functional prototypes
I refine and enhance the solutions based on user testing insights. Whenever possible I repeat with another round of user testing
Once everything is finalized, I share with the visual design team. Post this, I constantly review designed and developed versions
Approach
Personal set of principles I follow
I believe that anything on the interface must only be added if it serves a purpose. I reduce clutter by including just the bare essentials and often ask myself, "what else can be eliminated without impacting the user's experience?". I follow the same approach for content too. Keeping the language simple and jargon-free as much as possible. I also try to free the user by automating as many tasks as possible. For example, any data that can be pre-populated or inferred from existing data must be handled by the system.
People are unique. No matter how well you plan your personas, there will mostly be some outliers. I've observed this even in niche business contexts with a narrow set of user profiles. Hence, when designing, I consider these possible edge cases and explore ways of addressing them without complicating the UI. For example, I provide a simple, easy to understand help section. However, below the simple description, I also provide links to a more detailed version for users who want a technical and detailed description.
While assumptions are an inevitable part of the process, it is essential to validate them as frequently as possible. The only way to do this is through user testing. Hence, I push for frequent user testing as much as possible. User testing also helps remove any subconscious bias that may have influenced a design decision. It helps us discover any unforeseen scenarios as well. The relevance of these tests depends heavily on participant demography. Hence, I also push for users who are as close to the real end-users as possible.
I believe in backing every design decision with data and rationale rather than intuition and taste. From time taken to complete a task to Likert scales gauging emotional responses, there's a lot of data to inform our design decisions. I try to include as much data and objectivity as possible in my approach. This helps remove any unintentional bias from the application. It also acts as an effective tool to justify and defend designs during reviews. Likewise, it also comes in handy when demonstrating RoI.
Insights from user testing, reviews, and other tollgates are useless if one cannot act on them quickly. Changes are inevitable as design is an iterative process. The success of any project largely depends on how quickly it can implement these changes. One of the strongest determinants of this is the architecture of the application at various levels. I aim for modularity here. Irrespective of what software I use, I try to create "modules" that I can reuse and modify across the system quickly. I also urge developers to adopt a similar approach and create reusable components that could be modified without breaking the entire application.
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