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OOUX changed my life, for real.

The most common reaction when I talk about Object-Oriented UX (OOUX) to someone is a puzzled look.

I get these looks most often from fellow UX and product designers, which still surprises me.

By the excited way I talk about OOUX, they may even think that I am part of some cult.

I’ve been a designer for so long and you might wonder why I am so committed to using OOUX with every client I have. After all, OOUX is the foundation of my business. So I wanted to share a bit about how I discovered OOUX and why it impacted me so much.

I am committed to making OOUX a pillar of my process because when I first learned it, I knew instinctively that it was a smoother and more efficient way to work. I’ve been a designer for long enough that I have seen all types of frameworks and processes. All of those frameworks and processes have one thing in common: none of them address the main issue I see in the UX and product design process, which is a lack of quality communication.

Every UX and product journey I had been on until that time was fraught with conflict. I’ve been in so many meetings that ended up in shouting matches. Not even co-collaboration and design thinking workshops prevented squabbles.

I was a lead designer among a group of 15 UX designers, each one embedded on separate agile teams, all responsible for a multiyear digital transformation at a financial company you all know. It was very difficult to get 15 separate teams aligned on anything. All 15 UX designers would meet for critique sessions once a week. Critique sessions with such a large group of opinionated people got very draining after a while. It seemed to me that bickering was a part of the process, if not all-out brawling. Right before I learned about OOUX, I was exhausted to the point of burnout. The pandemic didn’t help, of course.

Right before Christmas 2020, I had the good fortune of participating in an OOUX workshop led by Sophia Prater, who created the ORCA framework (Objects, Relationships, Calls-to-Action, and Attributes) based on object-oriented practices that have been around in some form since the 1990s. I’ve been around since the 90s too, but I had never heard of object-oriented UX before. Programming, sure, but an object-oriented approach to design? I was intrigued.

What I learned in a relatively short amount of time was that OOUX can serve as a communication tool to get everyone on an agile team - designers, engineers, stakeholders, everyone - on the same page quickly. The ORCA process presents complex concepts and explains systems in a visual way that helps everyone understand what is going on with these crazy, complex systems that they are all responsible for building.

And these concepts are not just theoretical: I have used this framework for many types of clients since I became a certified OOUX strategist three years ago. I have used this process with big companies and small companies to create new and existing digital products. By using OOUX to start my discovery processes and to document my results, I have been able to get from idea to prototype in weeks, not months. It’s visual and it has the necessary level of detail that promotes understanding and prevents re-work. This process is truly a game-changer!

This fall, I will get re-certified as an OOUX strategist as my original certification expires. I am just as excited now as I was then to learn new ways to get ideas out of people’s heads and onto roadmaps and launched products. Let’s chat if you are interested in learning more, too.