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.
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.
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
