Identifying, Measuring, and Paying Down Design Debt

Design debt is the sum of all the imperfections of the user experience and design processes that appear over time due to innovation, growth, and lack of design refactoring. Accumulating Design Debt over time is natural and happens to every product. The key is to recognise, understand, and manage it properly. During this workshop, Alicja will break down the Design Debt definition, its types (UX, visual and operational), its causes, and its consequences.

• Introduction - why should we think about Design Debt and use it more consciously?
• Design Debt definition
• Design Debt symptoms: How to recognise that Design Debt is getting out of control in your organisation
• Types of Design Debt - UX, visual and operational
• Measuring Design Debt: qualitative and quantitative methods (brief overview)
• Paying off Design Debt:
• Step 1: Analyse and List
• Auditing Design Debt
• Overrecognising Design Debt
• Step 2: Prioritise and Plan
• Impact-effort matrix
• Incorporating Design Debt issues in the roadmap
• Step 3: Pay off and Track progress
• Using Design Debt strategically
• Maintaining a sustainable level of Design Debt
• POCs and MVPs - using Design Debt to test ideas
• Incorporating thinking about Technical and Design Debt into workflows
• The opportunity cost