The most successful products tell a compelling story
Products are not just a list of features in a use case catalog. They connect with users like a good story bringing them on a journey.
Role of UX design in the product development process
Match user needs with product functionality. Build products that are desirable to the end user. It needs to solve real problems for them. Does it save them time, effort, and money? Does it make them feel like a pro, making something complicated feel easy or time consuming feel effortless?
Help simplify complicated tasks. Part of the goal is to make products intuitive by matching the way it behaves with user expectations. The user interface is a means to an end, not the end goal.
Designers act as arbitrators of good taste. They are constantly in the search to discover and share the latest trends, finding inspiration from many domains from architecture to fashion to film.
Creating a product requires commitment from everyone
Design within a company
serves as a nexus bringing together disparate organizations internally within a company.
Design Organization
Design Process
Designers are both artists and problem solvers
First understand problems users are trying to solve.
Understanding of user needs can come from many different sources
Personal Experience is one source but then you need to understand if this extends beyond just yourself. Is this marketable? Are there enough customers to make this a profitable project to pursue?
More formal techniques to uncover customer needs like ethnographic research. Ethnographic research helps to uncover unmet, unarticulated needs because you are observing them in their natural environments.
Are there products already in the market that do similar things? How is the product that you created differentiated from theirs. What advantage does it offer to the user. Is it lower cost, aesthetic quality, features, ease of use, lifestyle differentiation?
Come up with a great idea and then iterate.
Good design and great ideas are hard to come by and requires creativity and intense effort.
Collaboration is key. Diverse thinking creates unique experiences. But it’s not design by committee. If you hire the best, the best ideas become part of the product.
Need to understand technical limitations. Designing something that will take 5 years to come to market is self-defeating.
Build prototypes and get feedback from customers as quickly as possible. Make sure the sampling is accurate. Asking opinion from someone who wouldn’t use it doesn’t make the product better.
How do you know when a product is successful?
What metrics defines a product's success?
Growth (Number of users)
Profit Margins
Customer Retention - customer satisfaction and loyalty (Net Promoter Scores)
Social media feedback including comments and ratings
What factors drive user engagement and satisfaction?
Not all factors need to be met to be a great product. It depends on the initial product charter and expectations from stakeholders. Take for example, Craigslist. What drives user engagement isn’t the design or feature set but simply the price. Free is hard to beat even if it involves some inconvenience.
Happiness
Convenience
Reliability
Dependability
Economical
Excitement