One of the key tracks at SXSW Interactive is on UX or user experience design. Lilia Manguy presented this topic on how she works with her team to work through the UX process to create deliverables. Since conveying a user experience is challenging at the onset of a project it often works best to look at similar projects and how users feel, perceive, and interact with those projects and then work on providing a comparative analysis with what you are about to create. Here are my notes from this presentation.
The need for a process and specifics on UX Design deliverables comes from a lack of standards, deciding on a process, and disagreements on the best path forward. First a definition, UX Design deliverables (a) communicate the results; (b) document what is to be created (i.e. artifacts); and (c) convey understanding on importance, users, and actions.

If you are going to go through the process of defining a user experience and creating deliverables you must first know what it is you are trying to accomplish. You must choose whether a project is meant to sell, seduce, change minds, or validate an assumption. The goal for instance may be to sell a new model for design. Once you have a general goal you need to take a look at the details first on the big picture and the various aspects, such is this a new project or a different approach to a current project. Second, you need to understand your audience, to whom are you presenting these ideas. How do they understand the world (e.g. analytically, relationships). How do you explain things to them.

Once you have understanding of what is you are trying to accomplish and how to best convey the results, you need to setup the process. This starts with research into the issue. Then goes through synthesis, design, and validation (through surveys and testing). In other words you start with a perceived understanding of how the users will interact with the system, research options for a solution, design the solution, and validate the solution by querying your client and possible end users. You can do this visually with galleries or orbs or analytically with spreadsheets and charts. You can the design the process using scenarios, flows, sitemaps, or even wireframes.

Once you have gone through the process you need to obviously present the results. A successful presentation should include these sections: user experience, key points, next steps, conclusion, and a thank you. It can be done in a horizontal or vertical layout and should include a title, annotations, client logo, your logo, project name, copyright, wireframes, and a file name. You can use various tools to help with creating the report including: Omnigraffle, Visio, or InDesign. It is best to reuse templates and shapes and to find programs that support these features.

When working with UX design deliverables these resources can be helpful:

View Slide Presentation

My UX Deliverables notes

My UX Deliverables notes