Who is responsible for the user experience? -How enterprises without a UED Department plan User Experience

1. clarify some concepts related to user experience

1. Do not abuse "User Experience"
The word "User Experience" is already a bit bad, but we do not know what is going on.

Everyone has their own understanding of the user experience, and they also think that they understand the user experience. In this case, many people will want to get in touch with others, no one is willing to give up the theory that he thinks is correct, whether it is development or product design or sales. There is always an idea in his mind that his idea represents the idea of a certain number of users, I also feel that my ideas will be supported by users, but is that true?

2. Do not confuse the "UCD" concept if you are not a user
The concept of "UCD" (user-centered design) is also the same as that of user experience. But how many UCD methods are there? How many people know how to use the method? Enterprises that truly apply user research can hardly say that they do not. Most of the research on users is done by large enterprises, but not all of them will do user research. This is also the reason why the poor products are overwhelming. For example, if you try to find a download link on a website many times, you cannot find a download link on a full page, after searching, you need to set up an advertisement or log on to download it? How many times have you seen labels and links that you don't understand? (design your own users )?

Why do we need to make so much trouble for users? The root cause is that you think you know users well and you are a user. But obviously, I guess it's wrong! You are not a user!

 

2. Who should be responsible for the user experience?

1. What is the responsibility of PM for user experience?
PM is responsible for the user experience. I think this is the idea of most people. This is a very good idea. PM is responsible for the project and naturally includes the user experience, so many people think that the product is not doing well, that is, the responsibility of the silly x pm. He leads these silly x designs.

The product user experience is poor, and PM certainly has no responsibility, especially for small companies, because in small companies, managers have a one-vote veto right, which leads to PM for projects, the impact on products is too great (the PM experience is relatively scattered, and the main work and capabilities are still in management). In addition, the PM's understanding and opinions on design are often quite superficial, it is only from the visual and inherent aesthetic to analyze the problem, so as long as the manager's idea has a slight deviation, it will cause a great deviation between the product and the market.

Since PM is responsible for the success or failure of user experience, should PM be responsible for user experience?

The person in charge of PM is obviously evading responsibility. As mentioned above, the main task of PM is to manage and promote team communication. Therefore, do not direct the responsibility to PM.

2. What is the responsibility of the product manager for user experience?
In addition to PM, the person responsible for the user experience can think of the product manager. After all, the product itself is designed by the product manager. In enterprises without Interaction designers, interaction design is also designed by the product manager, which is why we require the product manager to be responsible for the product user experience. This is a good and reasonable reason, but not all. If the product manager is able to determine the appearance and behavior of the product, it is naturally good, but in many enterprises, the product manager is often not so powerful, it is often rejected by PM or a larger manager, and sometimes it is required to select N schemes from PM.

3. What is the responsibility of developers for user experience?
In foreign countries, the user experience concept was first dominated by developers. The product design is also implemented by developers at the end. Naturally, this becomes the reason why developers are responsible for user experience. In any case, designers cannot fully consider every detail, many small interactions are actually directly designed and implemented by developers. Therefore, developers must have users in mind, even though developers focus on technology, however, this technology serves users. However, it seems that developers are reluctant to take full responsibility for the product user experience.

4. All users are responsible for the user experience!
As we know from the above analysis that almost every role has a responsibility, you can also guess that the user experience is not taken care of by someone. The user experience follows the product life cycle, at that stage, people are responsible for user experience, and PM, product manager, and developer are all responsible. It is best to achieve the entire process. Everyone in the project team attaches great importance to the user experience, so as to bring a happy user experience and maximize profits to the Enterprise.

 

3. How to Implement User Experience
 

Since enterprises do not have a UED department, that is, they do not have a dedicated user experience design department, how can we design the user experience of products?

2.1 pre-project User Experience
How should we plan the user experience in the early stage? Bring everyone together, closed-door brainstorming? Brainstorming has a fixed benefit, but it must be based on user research results. The product manager is responsible for the user experience planning in the early stage, and the PM keeps an eye on the progress at any time.

2.1.1 is a potential user who needs to find the product.

This step is very important. Only potential users can find real users. Please do not say "Anyone may be a user". At the beginning, we wanted to design for everyone, in the end, it will only make anyone dissatisfied. Why is Apple's reputation so good? Do everyone really like apple? No. Apple satisfies the needs of its core users and eventually makes users a loyal fan. It is also the role of these fans that drives the Apple brand.

Who are potential users? For example, if we want to design a website for selling tableware, who are our users? Is it sold to a grandmother who often cooks? Some people are reluctant to buy tableware, but they obviously do not choose to buy it online. That is to say, we have to find people who may shop online and need higher-grade tableware to visit our website. So what kind of people will pay online? You can use a small survey to investigate the problem or consult relevant materials. If you feel that the Survey is troublesome, ask your loved ones and friends for help, but try to be as close as possible to potential users, do not investigate for investigation.

2.1.2 analyze potential users and classify users.

Users can be classified into user groups based on demographic criteria: gender, age, education level, marital status, income, etc. People of the same age, location, or income often share the same value. It is also important to consider the computer usage level.

After dividing the user group, you will find it much easier to analyze user requirements.

2.1.3 perform user modeling.

After dividing the user group, user modeling is not that difficult. Just pick out one or two typical people from the user group to represent the user group. For example, if a user group of our product is a female aged 34-40 and earning 3000 RMB/month, find a person who meets this requirement as a representative, for example:

Name: James

Gender: Female

Age: 35 years old

Marriage: Married

Revenue: 3200/month

Hobbies: surfing the Internet, listening to songs, etc.

Internet Access time per day: 2 hours

Finally, make the information of this person into a card or paste it to the wall, so that everyone can see it and make sure that there is a clear object in mind when they think of users, instead of "thinking that users may like it" when designing features, you can guess that the product is outdated even when you are right.

2.1.4 analyze the interests of users.

Based on the user role created by the user model, analyze the interests and related objectives. Example:

1. User A is often on a business trip and hopes to be able to read it by mobile, no matter where it is.

2. User B hopes to learn more through our website.

3. User C can access our website at any time during work.

4. User D wants to read novels leisurely on our website in his spare time.

Now we get some specific goals. What is the purpose?

OK. Convert the target to a problem.

1. User A's question: Can I use a mobile phone to read a book? Do I need to install a program? Will downloading consume a lot of traffic? Do you provide the bookmarks function (mobile phone screen is relatively small and there is no bookmarks, it is difficult to flip pages )?

2. User B's question: is the knowledge point clear? Easy to understand? Is it easy to find? Are there all knowledge points? Are there authoritative books? Are there the latest cutting-edge books? Can I keep abreast of the latest book news?

3. User C's question: Is it convenient to find information? Are gadgets provided? Is the data category reasonable?

4. User D's question: Are there any popular novels? Is it appropriate to browse the page for a long time? Will there be a lot of visual pressure? Are Shortcut Keys provided for Quick Page flip? Can I quickly return to the directory for viewing?

2.2 user experience planning during product design
The product design phase is mainly the responsibility of the product manager. The PM monitors the progress at any time. The design process requires developers to be informed and developers are given the right to participate in the design. This will enhance the developer's ownership, it also gives developers a way of thinking from users, allowing developers to think more about users in future development, avoiding their self-righteous ideas.

2.2.1 design a prototype and recruit users for prototype availability Testing

The prototype can be used in the product design phase. If a high-fidelity prototype is possible, the designed prototype should be tested for the recruited users as soon as possible. This process can be completed through multiple iterations.

Some basic availability principles:

1. Consistency To avoid lost users. This principle mainly involves navigation.

2. Do not violate user habits and consider standards.

3. Set expectations and provide feedback (used to remind the user at which stage to let the user know the situation)

4. give users the right to explore security, that is, users can browse at will without worrying about errors.

5. Clear tag semantics. You can understand what it means without thinking.

6. Try to be concise. the user is really busy.

7. Reduce the user's memory burden.

8. In terms of error handling, we should try our best to prevent operation errors. A solution should be provided after an error occurs.

9. Multi-level help systems (Integrating help into every part of the system so that users can find it right away) are better than perfect help documents.

10. Designed for expert users to efficiently complete tasks.

 

2.3 user experience during project development
A single development stage does not mean that it is independent. In fact, development is inseparable from design and preliminary surveys. at the development stage, it is found that some functions cannot be implemented or are not feasible at all, you need to return to the design stage to set the preliminary investigation stage. Even if a version is developed, iteration is required for the development of the next version.

The user experience in the development stage is less important than the design, but it does not mean that you do not need to pay attention to it. In the development stage, every developer must have users in mind, think about problems and implement functions from the user's perspective. The specific operation method is to formulate some basic design principles so that developers can keep them in mind during development and often provide users with user experience training.

In addition, developers need to consider the design and implementation of statistical functions for page access and user behavior in the program, which is very important for user experience design, I have mentioned two things very well, because the Chinese are generally relatively implicit and do not like publicity. Therefore, during user surveys, you are likely to have a wrong requirement, however, the actions shown in the logs are real.

2.4 user experience during project operation
The final thing in the operation phase is the analysis of behavior logs, which can provide great help for the design, so we must make good use of this. In addition to this, you can also perform A/B testing (design two cases, which is better after going online ).

 

4. Six questions that need to be considered from time to time
PM, product manager, and development in the project team should always consider the following six questions:

1. What is this website?

2. On which page do I use?

3. What are the main topics of this website?

4. What options do I have at this level?

5. Where can I find the navigation system?

6. How can I search?

The question is a little big. Please wait for everyone to make a brick at any time.