Ali four hands-on experience learned from a small user interview

The data is very poor function, can easily be offline? What is the extent of the demo when users of new products are studied? The user's perception of the product is completely different from ours. Today, this is a good article from Ali a formal professional user interview summed up the design experience, many views will definitely subvert your interview with the original impression, take a look.

"Is it my demand, or the user's needs?" This is one of the most recent questions I've asked myself.

When the real change to practitioners, I found myself gradually away from the user this group, usually do design more rely on the business, logic, data, as well as my own experience and judgments. Although at school time saw many such as "About Face" and other user experience design books, understand commonly used user research methods and means, sent a questionnaire also interviewed potential users, but when the user-oriented product prototype to the user to do face-to-face interviews, only to find that sometimes design thinking really took a detour.

Today is the first time in my career to participate in formal, professional user interviews, the theme is that we are designing an innovative product. In fact, before the user interview, I as an interactive designer and product manager, development students have also been many in-depth discussions. In the process, we first identified a number of product principles, and through the data to find some of the current product problems, and hope to broaden product thinking. Initially I by virtue of these principles, although with confusion, but also holding can be a test of the mood of the continuous output of several mixed design drafts. However, after the user interview, many of my ideas have been overturned.

Take this interview as the center, simply talk about my harvest:

　　Only a few interviews, can you get enough facts and as a product planning basis?

At first, I did not hold too much expectation for the interview with the research, and felt that even if we had reached a conclusion, we could not represent the demands of the public users. In fact, we can dig out a lot of valuable information from a small number of users by digging deeper and further through the research.

Because we always think about the same thing, it is very easy for us to fall into the mindset and be difficult to jump out of the existing circle. I would find that one of the things that seemed very intuitive to me was that all the people interviewed said they couldn't understand and couldn't anticipate, and I was amazed. Also is interviewed the user collective approval one thing and cannot be the public opinion, but if they all can not understand one thing, I am afraid really must ponder.

Not for glimpse, the user in the interview is the first contact with your project prototype, and they are the real product users out of the practitioner, from which we can get a lot of new ideas.

　　The data is very poor function, can easily be off-line?

May see this question you will not hesitate to answer "no", but when facing the new function on-line, the old page revision, we are very easy to make the judgment according to the data. A function of the same products in the worst data, click rate is not high, conversion rates are not high, customer unit price is also low, then we will naturally choose to put it offline. But through this interview and feedback from the study of the past cases I know, even if the data is very poor function hastily offline also often caused a large number of user complaints. In particular, a large volume of platform-type products, and then rotten function is also used, so transformation, innovation will be so difficult.

Of course, this is not to say that you are not allowed to challenge user habits or develop new ideas, but do product design must be very cautious. If your new features do not necessarily give users a clear benefit, then you can test them in a tactful way rather than simply taking out the other features (the barrel test is also a great tool).

　　New Product User research , demo to how far?

The answer is simple, to achieve the same level of detail as the real online product. This interview shows a few demo, there are product Manager-level of the true prototype manuscript, there are slightly for the design of the interactive manuscript, but also a carefully crafted visual manuscript. Although with the research students repeatedly stressed that please only focus on the content, frame and not too much in the accident in the visual, but I found that this is almost impossible-people just like beautiful things.

And note that every word, every picture, every button in the design is best to use real data. Arbitrary write any word will have a great deal of interference in user interviews, this time I met several times the user stared at a few of my random design point of entanglement. In addition, the design of the projection on the screen and put in the hands of real play is completely two kinds of experience, this time because of limited and finally did not do an interactive prototype to the user experience is my dereliction of duty and regret.

　　Huge individual differences.

The user is male is female, the year Fang geometry, the programmer or the designer, will have the huge influence to the interview result. In the eyes of many male users, Taobao cat should be changed into Baidu so only a search box, they are often difficult to endure mixed pages, the pursuit of minimalism and efficiency, while female users of the chaos of patience Chengdu is very high, more willing to "stroll" in the identity of the products in the product, the pursuit of richness and fun.

There are some differences we may have guessed before, such as men and women, like careers, but when I was really involved in user interviews, I understood how big the gap was. Everyone's understanding of the product is not the same, and the tolerance of litigation and the difference is very large, in which to extract the common attributes, it is really difficult.

　　The user's perception of the product is completely different from ours.

This is a very interesting point. Some of the things I think are deserved, the design that the populace all needs, the user does not care about even never discovered, some online product obviously does not have the function, the user in the interview will say, thinks oneself used before, even the point which our designer did not notice, the user but the memory is very deep.

Can imagine, in such a small scene interview to encounter this cognitive differences, extended to the entire platform, the user's eyes of the product is really the same as we understand it? We desperately emphasize, outstanding content, and really is the user care it? Really not.

In any case, I benefited from this interview. In addition to the product design itself, but also learned a lot of interviews to pay attention to problems (such as doing high-fidelity design manuscript, avoid misleading users). The future career, must be a lot of contact with users, understand users, "I want to" into "Users want", the demand also to the user itself, to eliminate the head, take for granted the design process.

In this way, can be regarded as a competent "user experience designer."

Please pay attention to the author's micro-Credit public number: