Five things that excellent user experience designers should do well

[Editor's note] This article is translated from Usability Counts, translator @ C7210. Original author Patrick Neeman is a user experience designer and works as a social recruitment company, Jobvite, as the Director of user experience.

In this article, the author puts forward that "real user experience designers know how to continuously improve" people "," business ", and" technology ". By fully understanding these three factors, make it organically integrated in the "product" to make the product more and more better"

No one will draw a line chart. When my friends (author of the original English) Talk about their product idea, I encourage them to pick up paper and pen and use sketch to exchange ideas. They think this is a great practice and can help them put their ideas into practice.

Real user experience designers are not created by the ability to draw line diagrams. More importantly, they know how to handle feedback information, how to verify ideas, and how to do research and iteration. They know that sketch and wiremap prototype are only a small part of the design process. They are the conclusions of the research work and the information carrier used for communication; they may be placed in demonstration documents for communication between product, design, technical development, and other related personnel. They may also be used for usability testing in the form of high fidelity or paper prototypes.

Recommended reading: "Ten ways to make your wiremap prototype more communicative" and "Early prototype design and user testing"

Real user experience designers know how to gradually improve products through a set of continuous improvement processes. This process, or the method framework, is intertwined with "people", "business", and "technology, our job is to fully understand these factors so that they can be organically combined in the "product" collection.

　Master more direct and efficient communication methods

I have seen a lot of Interaction designers go straight to the wiremap prototype in the early stage of the project, save it as an image or PDF, and send it to the demand side. Then I began to complain: "Why don't they understand it ?"

The wiremap prototype is only one of the tools used by the designer to communicate with each other. More importantly, it describes the solution and the communication capability of relevant bases to the other party during actual communication with the demand side or developers.

Compared with the wiremap prototype created using software tools, paper, pen, and whiteboard are often more effective tools. Especially in the early stage of the product and the iteration process, these tools can help us to clarify our ideas and implement our ideas faster, and the communication and cooperation between multiple departments will become more direct and efficient.

As designers, we should understand that the process of communication and cooperation with users, product teams, and technical development is an important way to help us accumulate practical experience in design.

Recommended: Sketch Art-practical sketch prototype skills

　　

 

　Research and Verification

Have you visited any customers? Have you organized a focus group? Have you ever performed Context Query (contextual inquiry? Or are you just designing for yourself?

Many designers, including ourselves, may be working on products we don't have the opportunity or need to use. I am currently designing a candidate Tracking Management System for many customer companies. This is something I will not use in my real life and work. This means that I have to spend a lot of time communicating with the target users of the product.

If you are not the target user of this product, what is the reason for us to build a car behind closed doors as a designer?

There will always be time for user research, because prototype-like work should only occupy a small part of all the design processes. Even if you just draw a sketch, you can do it after discussing the actual requirements with a small number of target users. There is no visually visible prototype, which is not a problem, you can obtain the information you want by observing the user's use of competitors' products.

Only by understanding the needs and objectives of users in real use cases and use cases can we start product design.

　　

 

Show more design solutions earlier

Have you printed the prototype scheme of each stage on the wall and discussed it with everyone? Have you used a paper or high fidelity prototype for usability testing?

It is a very important task to verify your assumptions. "I think" is the most dangerous word in the world. People don't want us to design for ourselves.

Usability testing is not a highly sophisticated rocket science. Even under the toughest conditions, you can demonstrate product prototypes to colleagues or family and friends, observe their trial use, and record their feelings. Most people like to do this, and they will feel that their opinions have been paid attention.

A designer recently told me that the easiest usability test in his project was completed in the cafe. Look for a few people, give a couple of donuts, show them the prototype of the product, and ask a few questions. That's simple. The feedback you get will often exceed your expectation.

　　

 

Control the process

How did you proceed with the actual design work? Are there clear steps and stage goals? Do you know how to cooperate with relevant departments in this process? Will you use project management software like Basecamp or Asana to track work processes?

The user experience designer should be knowledgeable about the product design and development process, and understand how to cooperate with upstream and downstream departments at each stage, including product managers, front-end developers, and even customer service departments, what kind of support can we get from them.

Some of the most typical stages of the product design and development process include: user survey, role design, requirement analysis, sketch, prototype, availability testing, development and launch. In particular, the last three steps usually need to be repeated during the product iteration process.

Make full planning and control of such a process, and work closely with relevant personnel in every step-this should be the habit and instinct of the user experience designer.

Even the best writers won't sit down and start writing. They will first come up with the framework of the story. The same is true for us.

Continuous Improvement

Do you think that once the product is released and launched, everything will be fine? Is there a desire and opportunity to continuously improve the product?

A designer once asked me, "When do you think the product is actually completed ?"

I personally think the answer should be "the product will never be completed ".

The term "Kaizen" in Japanese indicates "continuous improvement ". The improvements mentioned here also include improvements to the iterative process of "continuously improving products" and related methods. This will not only promote faster and better optimization of existing products, but also benefit from future product design and R & D work.

Review the projects you have done and the workflow behind them to see which aspects are great or lacking. Consider which aspects can be improved or verified in the following projects. Try to implement and verify new things in every step of each iteration cycle, review and summarize them, make adjustments in the next cycle, and continue to try again.

　　

 

Via: usabilitycounts

Source: five things a good user experience designer should do well

Original article: http://beforweb.com/node/116