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Articles

Kate Kaplan

Kate Kaplan is Insights Architect at Nielsen Norman Group. She specializes in the application of human-centered design and research practices to enterprise UX challenges.

Prior to joining NN/g, Kate was VP of Strategy at the digital marketing agency Centerline Digital, where she led a cross-disciplinary team of UX designers, content strategists and digital marketers in solving complex problems for high-technology B2B organizations, such as IBM, GE and National Instruments.

@katewkaplan

Articles and Videos

  • 4 Steps to Getting Started with DesignOps

    To launch a new design operations practice in a company, prioritize and aim for manageable and achievable first steps. Preferably measurable ones that can prove value and form the basis for subsequent steps.

  • Complex Apps 101

    3 tips for designing applications for experts or specialized user groups doing complex domain-specific tasks (often with nonlinear workflows).

  • ResearchOps 101

    The practice of Research Operations (ResearchOps) focuses on processes and measures that support researchers in planning, conducting, and applying quality research at scale.

  • Complex Application Design: A 5-Layer Framework

    Various contexts of complexity should be considered by UX designers and researchers designing complex applications, including complexities of integration, information, intention, environment, and institution.

  • How to Run a Journey-Mapping Workshop: A Step-by-Step Case Study

    How to design a journey-mapping workshop that leads participants through current-state assumption mapping, pain-point identification, and future-state visioning.

  • Journey-Mapping Approaches: 2 Critical Decisions To Make Before You Begin

    Before beginning any journey-mapping initiative, teams must decide between (1) a current-state or future-state map, and (2) an assumption-first or research-first approach. A hybrid approach for each decision works well for most teams.

  • DesignOps Maturity: Low in Most Organizations

    In a survey of 557 design and UX practitioners, organizations only did 22% of recommended DesignOps efforts, did not have DesignOps-dedicated roles, and had low DesignOps maturity overall.

  • DesignOps: What's the Point? How Practitioners Define DesignOps Value

    Practitioners define DesignOps based on the value it provides for their team or organization. Most practitioners think of DesignOps as a way to standardize and optimize processes, enable and support designers, or scale design.

  • Journey Mapping: 2 Decisions to Make Before You Begin

    Customer journey maps come in two flavors: current-state and future-state mapping. Mapping can be based on hypotheses or on real user data.

  • What Makes an Effective UX Leader?

    We asked a group of user experience professionals what makes for efficient UX leadership in their experience. Answers differed, but included a lot of soft skills.