The UX Level-Up 076 - Streamline Change Management using OOUX with Karen Hewell
Aug 11, 2025
Karen Hewell, an advanced OOUXer and content strategist at Anthrotech, shares her expertise in transforming government agency websites. She discusses the shift from chaotic page-based systems to intuitive object-based designs. Hewell emphasizes breaking down silos, fostering shared ownership, and managing content ecosystems more effectively. The conversation also touches on the importance of permissions management and co-creation, along with personal experiences of overcoming burnout through OOUX training—making content governance not just manageable, but user-friendly.
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Legacy Overload Causes Pre-Redesign Burnout
- Government sites are often decades behind and full of legacy content and processes that strain tiny teams.
- That legacy complexity creates exhaustion before redesigns even begin.
Section Ownership Mirrors Organizational Silos
- Splitting website ownership by site section mirrors organizational silos and breaks the user's view of connected tasks.
- This causes redundancy, conflicting information, and user distrust on government sites.
Co-create Objects Early To Teach The System
- Use OOUX to shift conversations from pages to nouns so teams see concepts instead of finished pages.
- Model objects live with stakeholders during design so they learn the system while co-creating it.