Over my 15+ years in the world of design, I’ve seen a lot of projects. Some tend toward a gigantic mess. They progress slowly, experience constant rework, expectations are misaligned, etc. But every once in a while, you get a project that just hums along. Things move fast. Teams are in sync. Decisions come easily. Everyone knows what they’re doing and why. When it happens, it’s usually by accident. But what if we could encourage it to happen more often? What if it wasn’t up to the muse?
We had one of those smooth projects recently. But it wasn’t up to luck. It was structure. More specifically, it was the result of years of increasing our practice of Object Oriented UX (OOUX). It provided a foundation of shared structure, and it made all the difference.
If design exploration and creativity is the muscle, then structure is the skeleton. Muscle doesn’t work without a structure to pull against. Muscles without bones are just a blob. No meaningful movement or power. Structure gives our creative work the tension to create power. Our design strength isn’t weakened by structure, it’s empowered by it.
The Pitfalls of Unstructured Design
It’s way too easy for teams to jump straight into flows and interface mockups. Stakeholders ask for features. Project deadlines get established. Agile backlogs are screaming. Designers…they respond with screens. It’s the most concrete thing they can show, and makes all the team members feel like they understand where things are headed.
But without clear organization, things are unnecessarily murky.
It’s like trying to flex muscles without a skeleton. The muscles tighten up, but there’s nothing to flex against. What happens? Misalignment, rework, and weak solutions. People are moving, but not together and not effectively.
So, the question is…how do we prevent this?
Structural Thinking That Changed Everything
I came across Object Oriented UX over three years ago. A coworker introduced me to it, and as someone who’s spent time as a developer with Object Oriented Programming, the thinking just clicked. I was hooked.
While I didn’t dive deep early on, I started working with the basics: identifying core objects, naming attributes, and mapping relationships. Immediately, I began to see clarity emerge. It was easier to spot gaps, drive conversation with stakeholders, and lead design activities with more confidence. While I had a personal love for OOUX, it wasn’t broadly used as an approach across the organization.
That is…until recently. In the last few months, a couple of people on the team picked up OOUX thinking and started running with it on a recent project. I was elated that someone else saw the value of structural thinking!
This project was fast-moving. But someone on the team had the foresight to slow down early in the project to inventory and map the objects and relationships. They used a home-grown tool based on object-oriented thinking. In just a few sessions, it gave us a clear foundation on what would be surfaced to the user, how those elements related, and what structure held them together. It created the skeletal structure for the team to rally around. And, that brief slow down paid off incredibly.
I saw three huge benefits:
- That clarity unlocked stronger partnerships. Everyone on the project quickly agreed on a clear object model. That meant we were all pulling in the same direction. We didn’t waste time reinterpreting vague requirements or untangling miscommunications. Product leaders, engineers, architects, and designers all understood what we were designing and how things connected.
- Teams could independently run in parallel. That clarity meant death to waterfall design handoff. It increased the trust between teams and disciplines, all founded on a strong shared understanding. The teams could run independently in parallel because they knew the general structure to keep their work in harmony.
- It doubled the speed of design work. The designers didn’t have to waste exploration to get clear on what information the user would see and the relationships of those items. Instead of what to show, they could focus on how to show it. Their design energy was focused on the best methods of arranging the objects to the user.
While there are other benefits, these three were high on my list as a design leader. Because we had the bones in place, the creative work (the muscle) could do its job. The solid structure provided an anchor point to leverage the strength of creativity. The designers moved quickly, confidently, and with purpose. And best of all, they did it in harmony with the teams around them.
Getting Started with OOUX
Now, you may be wondering how you can see these same results? Well, your mileage may vary depending upon your project and culture. But, in my personal experience using OOUX and watching my teams rely on it…I highly recommend this toolset.
You don’t need to overhaul your entire process to start benefiting from OOUX. Please don’t do that. It’s another tool in your tool bag for making sense of design problems.
You can start small and grow into it over time:
- Identify the core objects your users will interact with. Some people refer to these as the “nouns” of your experience. They are the “objects” that you have to account for in your project. If you are building a fruit experience, one object might be an apple. It’s a thing, concrete and definable. Not eating the apple, but the apple itself. You can start asking: what are the “things” that exist in the real world that have to be represented in the digital experience? What “things” are created and managed? This thinking will give you a solid starting point for what comes next.
- Define the attributes of each object. Each “thing” (or object) has defining qualities. Just like an apple has a color like green, red, or yellow. An apple also has ripeness. These are the defining characteristics of objects that are represented in the system, making each object unique and distinguishable. What characteristics define the objects in the system? Which things can be changed or not changed? (titles, descriptions, colors, statuses, dates, etc.) These attributes quickly provide the details that frame people’s interactions with these objects.
- Map the relationships between them. This is one of the next critical steps. Objects (or the “things” in the system) don’t live in isolation. They interact with other objects. An apple has a relationship with a tree, and the crate it gets shipped in, and the display at the grocery store that sells it. Mapping how these objects relate to each other provides clarity in how a user could make sense of them. Are there parent-child relationships? Does one object require another? Are there any hidden objects? These relationships provide clarity on how the bones are arranged and bound together.
Even simple exercises like these bring clarity fast. And they scale beautifully. They provide the starting point for clarity. No, they’re not a full representation of the OOUX toolset, but they are the beginning of object-oriented thinking that you can get comfortable with and start using today.
If you want to go further, you can check out the ORCA process from Sophia Prater at OOUX.com. And if you want to dive even deeper, you can join the OOUX community and take some official training. These tools give you the structure to support more ambitious design work—without guessing.
(Important disclaimer: Despite what you may be thinking…there are no affiliate links or kickbacks here. It’s just my passion for sharing useful resources to help designers be more effective.)
Structure is an Asset
Let’s revisit our human skeleton analogy. Without an organized skeleton of bone, muscles cannot create human mobility. We can’t lift or move objects. Humans need both muscle and bone. Those bones must be organized. Whenever a bone breaks, it reduces the ability for muscle to exert force.
Plus, there are a variety of bones in the human body. The femur is extremely strong. The inner ear bones are small and sensitive. You can rely on the femur to direct the power of strong leg muscles…not so much with the inner ear bones. Organizing these bones, understanding their attributes, and arranging their relationships provides the context for muscle to be effective.
It’s the same way with design. Organization provides the structural clarity for you to apply the power of creative muscle. It makes your design power effective. Just think about the incredible strength of Olympic power lifters. It’s all made possible by a healthy skeletal structure.
When projects are murky and ill-defined, ask yourself if you briefly slow down to get organized.
How can you take a design exploration approach to understanding the objects of your project? How can you partner with the teams in your space to align on this kind of map?
The rigidity of structure should be an asset, not a detractor. Especially when it’s used as a supportive element. It’s what allows creative thinking to provide momentum, rather than wasteful effort. Because the best muscles in the world are useless without something to pull against.
OOUX thinking gave our team the bones to move with purpose. And every time we use it, we’re reminded: structure isn’t a barrier to creativity…it’s what maximizes its power.