UXSTRAT SPEAKER INTERVIEW - PHIL OHME
Below is an interview with Phil Ohme, Design Strategist and Design Lead for Mobile for TurboTax, a UX STRAT 2015 speaker (http://uxstrat.com/usa).
Paul: Tell us a little about yourself.
Phil: I have 2 engineering degrees but became a UX Designer. How? Specializing in Human Factors, minoring in Psychology. I’ve designed everything from the first ever in-car mp3 player for Ford, to 2-line bezel display firmware for HP all-in-one printers. Now I focus on mobile apps for TurboTax and have been designing for mobile since before the App Store was born in 2008.
Paul: What will you be speaking about at UX STRAT USA?
Phil: How TurboTax took decades-old code and made it into a pure native app for Android and iOS in 6 months. Not an easy feat for a product that has over 44,000 screens (the income tax code in the USA is complex)! And why folks want to do their taxes on their phone. How that and customer expectations drove the UX.
Paul: Can you tell us a little more about your presentation?
Phil: Most of us have legacy code from the desktop (if you were mobile-first from the beginning, I wish I were you). How do you take that successful product and make it mobile, without shoehorning or wrapping a responsive web experience into a native app? And why would you want to?
Paul: What can you tell us about your recent work, particularly as it pertains to strategy?
Phil: TurboTax had invented the ‘take a picture of your W-2, we do the rest’ category with SnapTax and it was a 5-star app for 5 years straight. But what happens when that is not enough, when growth stalls for several years because you can only serve a small segment of the population? You reinvent yourself to support the masses.
Paul: What do you see on the horizon for UX / CX / Product / Service design strategy?
Phil: We are coming to an age were the winners are determined by the simplest, most delightfully designed experience. Gone are the days of ‘just build it and they will come.’ We need to cater to specific needs and really care about the experience if we are to help anyone do what they want to do.
Paul: Anything else that people considering attending should know?
Phil: If you have ever wanted a concrete case study of a complex product that went mobile, this is the session for you. Learn the details that matter when planning and executing on a mobile UX strategy. :)