יום ראשון, 15 בנובמבר 2020

Lessons learned about user experience and product development in the last decade

Working with superb developers and designers in all kinds and shapes taught me a lot. I would like to share a few key mindset changes great developers go through in order to design better products. This article is written from different aspects of the product dev cycle: design, plan, prototype, develop, user testing and QA.

1- YOU DON'T NEED ALL OPTIONS ON SCREEN AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT.

Even when you make a complicated system dashboard, the user has different tasks or questions they wish to find out at any given moment. Make sure you place only the information the user really needs at that specific situation or state.
" Place only the information the user really needs at a specific situation

Think of the product as you think about code: each section should be simplified to do one functionality as simple as possible. When you have parts of the product that can stand for themselves, consider dividing them apart.

Lets take for example an online mobile shopping app that offers taking a picture of a product's bar-code and gives back more details. That functionality is not something to be embedded inside the dashboard, rather it is a separate part of the product, presented in a separate screen.

An overly complicated screen and sayings like "my users must have this" or "we must have this with easy access" is the easiest identifier that you have a problem in your product's UX.

How to get better?
You would need to know who your users are, what they wish to do, what is their problem and how they solve it nowadays with other solutions. And that's where our second principle comes into place.

2- LET YOUR USER FEEL AWESOME ABOUT THEMSELVES.

We humans want our pains to go away. We want to enjoy our time here. And we don't need extra trouble, because we already have enough...  Now, app developers and entrepreneurs might think that what they are building is the best thing humanity has seen. But let me break some news to us all - people don't really care...

The only thing the user will care about is solving their problem efficiently and as fast as possible. If you can do this they would be thankful. If you could do this and let them enjoy from the way, that would be much appreciated. But this is the only way you can make the user care about you. 
"Do everything you can to solve the user's problem as fast and efficiently as you can

A happy and satisfied user is a talking user. Word-of-mouth is the best marketing strategy you can wish for, and that should be the only explanation why you should strive to satisfy your audience. 
But marketing agents usually take this idea one step too far. Because satisfying your user doesn't mean that you have to do what the user asks you to, rather do what they need you to. That is where user research comes into place.

Alan Cooper, the inventor of the Personas, once said that if you can do all that while letting your user believe that they worked that magic themselves- you will become even greater. In Instagram for example, the user believes that they are the ones working all the magic. No one cares or thinks about the effort that was placed into designing such a wonderful technology. But the most important thing happen, it went viral very fast.

How to get better?
Get to know your users by interviewing them on a coffee. Find out their real issues and struggles with existing solutions or shortcuts they found to overcome. Design the interaction flow that would solve their problems better.  

3- DESIGN FOR THE USER FLOWS AND TASKS.

Once you know the tasks the user wishes to perform with your tech, design the steps.

Design one task at a time. Separate the tasks. Make sure steps are well defined.

Offer checklists, breadcrumbs, or other measures to educate the user about the process of execution they are required for.

4- great products don't have a tutorial

if you need a tutorial (or a manual, or documentation) to start using the product, it is a sign of complexity. If you feel your product doesn't work with explanations, and believe that tutorials or step by step instructions will solve this issue, you are addressing this the wrong way.

Even though you might be right, and some sort of instructions will help the user achieve their goal, this will slow them down, and they will not be happy about the fact that they needed help.

Often the need for tutorials identifies a flaw in the product itself. Maybe the process or flow is now defined in the rightful order; perhaps the language used in the UI is not understandable by the user.

Remove the need for explanations will simplify the use and fasten the results.

The way to do that is get to know your user's vocabulary and right track of doing things.

5- watch user testing sessions

You can let others do the user testing for you, but don't give up on watching the tapes. If you can keep quiet, go watch it live. You can give the facilitator notes during the session (if it's really important) or feedback them between each sessions.

Doing this will equip you with the powerful feedback of how users approach the product. In the first time, you would think "this user is stupid", or "they are not the right audience". But after 5 or 10 people you would realize that the truth is that something is not working properly , and we did something that caused that.

6- don't waterfall your agile methodology

The purpose of agile method is to allow easier and faster change. If you know something must change and you will get to it in only 4 or 5 sprints ahead, "just one more release , and then we could handle this issue"- that's not good.

7- talking to designers


8- when do you need more testing?

רעיון מנחה שיכול לעזור להחליט מתי כדאי להפסיק לחשוב על רעיון לפיצ'ר חדש ומתי אפשר להמשיך לפתח את המוצר.
אם הבנת שיש בעיה במוצר או בתהליך או בהבנה של המשתמש את התהליך, (קודם כל תרשום אותה ביחד עם שאר הבעיות).
אבל עכשיו עלה לך רעיון איך לפתור את זה. ואז אתה בא להתחיל לכתוב את הקוד ופתאום יש לך עוד רעיון לדרך נוספת. ברגע שיש לך יותר מרעיון אחד כיצד לפתור משהו (ואתה צריך להתאמץ כדי לנסות למצוא כאלה לפני שאתה כותב), תחשוב מה יותר טוב בראי המשתמש. אם אתה לא מצליח להחליט לבד בצורה ברורה ומשכנעת, זה אומר שחייבים לעשות בדיקה על הסוגיה הזו.




Design recommendations
. When people see your product and start consulting or suggesting features, the product probably works. 
If they stay silent, or don't respond - it is probably because they don't understand something, and therefore the design did t work well.


. Design at least 2 solutions for the same problem. That would help you better evaluate both solutions without being attached to one in particular


How Google decides about new features? a design principles, methodology and rubric

article lecture list


Design principles

These design principles were developed by and for the Android User Experience Team to keep users' best interests in mind. Consider them as you apply your own creativity and design thinking. Deviate with purpose.

Enchant Me

Delight me in surprising ways

A beautiful surface, a carefully-placed animation, or a well-timed sound effect is a joy to experience. Subtle effects contribute to a feeling of effortlessness and a sense that a powerful force is at hand.

Real objects are more fun than buttons and menus

Allow people to directly touch and manipulate objects in your app. It reduces the cognitive effort needed to perform a task while making it more emotionally satisfying.

Let me make it mine

People love to add personal touches because it helps them feel at home and in control. Provide sensible, beautiful defaults, but also consider fun, optional customizations that don't hinder primary tasks.

Get to know me

Learn peoples' preferences over time. Rather than asking them to make the same choices over and over, place previous choices within easy reach.




Simplify My Life

Keep it brief

Use short phrases with simple words. People are likely to skip sentences if they're long.

Pictures are faster than words

Consider using pictures to explain ideas. They get people's attention and can be much more efficient than words.

Decide for me but let me have the final say

Take your best guess and act rather than asking first. Too many choices and decisions make people unhappy. Just in case you get it wrong, allow for 'undo'.

Only show what I need when I need it

People get overwhelmed when they see too much at once. Break tasks and information into small, digestible chunks. Hide options that aren't essential at the moment, and teach people as they go.

I should always know where I am

Give people confidence that they know their way around. Make places in your app look distinct and use transitions to show relationships among screens. Provide feedback on tasks in progress.

Never lose my stuff

Save what people took time to create and let them access it from anywhere. Remember settings, personal touches, and creations across phones, tablets, and computers. It makes upgrading the easiest thing in the world.

If it looks the same, it should act the same

Help people discern functional differences by making them visually distinct rather than subtle. Avoid modes, which are places that look similar but act differently on the same input.

Only interrupt me if it's important

Like a good personal assistant, shield people from unimportant minutiae. People want to stay focused, and unless it's critical and time-sensitive, an interruption can be taxing and frustrating.


Make Me Amazing

Give me tricks that work everywhere

People feel great when they figure things out for themselves. Make your app easier to learn by leveraging visual patterns and muscle memory from other Android apps. For example, the swipe gesture may be a good navigational shortcut.


It's not my fault

Be gentle in how you prompt people to make corrections. They want to feel smart when they use your app. If something goes wrong, give clear recovery instructions but spare them the technical details. If you can fix it behind the scenes, even better.

Sprinkle encouragement

Break complex tasks into smaller steps that can be easily accomplished. Give feedback on actions, even if it's just a subtle glow.

Do the heavy lifting for me

Make novices feel like experts by enabling them to do things they never thought they could. For example, shortcuts that combine multiple photo effects can make amateur photographs look amazing in only a few steps.

Make important things fast

Not all actions are equal. Decide what's most important in your app and make it easy to find and fast to use, like the shutter button in a camera, or the pause button in a music player.


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