Product manager and interactive designer dialogue: how demand becomes a prototype product

In an Internet company's workflow, product managers (mainly those who deviate from the product design staff) and interaction designers are the starting point and the most ambiguous link in this pipeline. To say that ambiguous, because in many Internet companies, these two areas do have a coincidence, which means that they may also be the most closely the entire process of the two links.

In contrast, the product manager is more concerned with the product's internal logic, operational processes, strategies, etc .; and interactive designers are more concerned about the product's ease of use, fluency and operational experience. Overall, it seems that the product manager is from a more macro perspective to design products, and interactive designers, it is from more details to enhance the user experience. These two different perspectives determine that only the product manager and interaction designer work closely with each other to achieve the most efficient and reasonable conversion of product strategy to product prototype, thus providing an accurate reference for the later stages of the assembly line.

Below to Renren advertising platform for some products and interactive details, for example, use the form of dialogue to share some of my personal experience in interactive design process and ideas. Entry-level articles, experts please bypass.

One of the delivery systems in the ad platform has a product requirement that is targeted for advertising based on where the ad's audience is located. This means that you can control where your ad is shown only to people in a fixed area. This means that you need to design a "region selector" for users to select regions. The original demand of the product manager is this:

Product Manager: "Our launch system needs to design a zone selector that allows users to choose the area targeted by the ad, accurate to the city, multiple choice, and the 'area' as a limiting factor for advertising, If the user does not select any option, that means the user ignores the condition, and the ad will be countrywide. "

Interact Designer: "Oh."

Product Manager: "Well, I can think of a prototype of this stuff that offers two drop-down boxes for users to select provinces and cities, respectively. When the user selects a province in the first drop-down box, the second drop-down box It will show the prefecture-level cities below the province. I made a simple block diagram for everyone to look at. "

Product Manager: "This is probably what it looks like. For each city selected, click the Add button below to add the city to the list below. Also, if you click the" Delete "link after the city name you added Erase the city from the selected list. "

Interaction designer: "Wait a minute, I have a problem .According to the product strategy, if the user does not choose a city, then it will default to the country.But this concept is difficult to express to the user, for example, if the" regional choice Next to the device, it is estimated that not many people will notice. "

Product Manager: "If you do not choose one, it means you ignore the conditions, because these are the restrictions."

Interaction designer: "The problem is that it is hard for users to realize that this is the case. In the Chinese concept, everyone thinks that what we choose is what I want, but there is no such thing as" no election means equal to all " habit. "

Interaction designer: "I think so. We put two radio buttons on the current" area selector. " One is called "Nation" and the other is called "Designation." When you open the page, the default is Country, and the Region Selector is hidden. The area selector appears only when the user selects the "Assigned" item. It is clear that you are not "national" or "designated." "

Product Manager: "Oh ~ Sounds good. Try it."

So got the following prototype version of this version:

Interaction designer: "Well, I think this version has basically solved the problem of nationwide delivery from the interface level now. I think that users should not get stuck here because they do not know how to choose."

Interaction designer: "As I look at the next step, I need to make some visual design of some of the key elements to help guide user actions, such as the Add button, which should be more obvious. I think UI designers can ask a simple version of the UI. "

Product Manager: "Wait a minute, I think we still discuss the details and then go find the UI some more clearly, for example, the color of the word ah what are not sure yet, and I think the selected area, each city name Followed by a delete link, very strange. "

Interaction designer: "Well, indeed, my idea is that the color of the word should be black or darker gray, though from a visual design point of view, 10243.html"> Visual Designer Slight gray feel more seductive, may be too black 'grab.' But our system, after all, is for human use, gray, it may be mistaken for these options is not operable. what do you think? "

Product Manager: "Agree."

Interaction designer: "About the list of regions that have been selected. I think it is possible to change the" delete "link to x, in fact, the user is more sensitive to characters than x. You see, no matter you are using Windows or Mac, when the window is closed ×, already used to it. In addition, to make the selected city name appear to be a whole, and the other city name distinction. I think, you can give each city with a background color, each city a color, so it is also clear at a glance. "

Product Manager: "Color?"

Interaction designer: "Blue, Renren are blue style."

Product Manager: "ok"

So, with the UI designer, got the following interface:

Product Manager: "I think this place has basically been shaped. We have been discussing for a long time.

---- Time division line ----

Product Manager: "Hi, everybody, I collected a few comments on internal testing, and some users suggested that it's not clear how the two drop-down menus relate to the Add button. "

Interact Designer: "What do you mean?"

Product Manager: "That is to say, some people do not recognize the election finished the province, after the election of the city, have to point" add. " They think the election is over. "

Interaction Designer: "Halo."

Interaction designer: "It may be that the selected list box is too delicate when it is empty, and everyone does not realize it is used to hold things."

Interact Designer: "Well, I have two options: 1. Add a downward arrow above the" Add "button. Point to the selected list box. 2, when the selected list is empty, add a prompt, to prompt the user that he did not complete the area selection operation. "

Product Manager: "Prompt that, you mean, when the user added the city, will disappear automatically?"

Interaction Designer: "Yes."

Product Manager: "I feel like adding a hint, it feels a bit silly to put an arrow."

Interaction designer: "Well, and maybe you put an arrow, the user is still unintelligible."

Product Manager: "What do you mean by that prompt? You have not added any regions yet. After you have selected your city, click the" Add "button above and the city will be added to ..."

Interaction designer: "Stop! Too long, most people will not read it carefully."

Product Manager: "Indeed ..."

Interact Designer: "I can do it in one sentence." You have not added any region yet. "

Interaction Designer: "Look, the button at the back of the drop-down list is called Add. The prompt clearly conveys the state that has not been "added" yet. This shows both the box is used to put things, they can tell the user, this thing is to choose more than one. Because the concept of "add" is one by one put inside. If you can only put one, it should be called "choice." "

Product Manager: "Top."

Interaction Designer: "And, I think the original prototype of this control was well-designed, and, as long as the user did a successful operation, he could do it very efficiently later on. The learning and cognitive costs of this stuff were compared low."

Product Manager: "oh, yeah ~"

Well, the current UI is this:

Product Manager: "hey, yes, then, my initial strategy is that the user if you do not vote, the equivalent of all selected, to launch the country. You say if the user selected" designated ", but did not add a specific city , Submit the form directly, what should I do? The system should be set directly to the user's advertising national launch, or an error, to prevent users to continue? "

Interaction designer: "I see, incorrect report, because now both" nationwide "and" designated "have clearly separated the whole from the local. I think your strategy does not need to be applied, because now this has reached your initial purpose, but also easy to understand. What is more, our platform is related to money, is to allow users to spend money, if the user is unjust spent money wasted, had wanted to vote in Beijing voted the country, then we will be scolded by the user. Although the feeling of error will let the user frustration, but in this detail, or user interests should be placed first, the user experience, you can put a little back. "

Product Manager: "All right."

Interaction designer: "Oh, you see, this story tells us that we can not listen to everything about our products, and that our products are just requirements, but how to achieve them needs to be discussed from many angles."

Product Manager: "All right, then, tech niggaz, the following work will please you."

personal opinion:

1, product managers and interaction designers need close coordination at all times, in-depth communication.

2, sometimes product strategy and user experience will conflict, then you should consider and explore the final solution from a variety of angles, there should be no one who must be more important than that.

3, excellent product manager, equivalent to half an interaction. Similarly, good interaction designer, equivalent to half a product. Although the two positions are different, they should consider each other's work content to a certain extent.

4, the product is only proposed strategies and needs, not necessarily in accordance with the details described by product staff to design specific product details. Interaction designers, as well as all other members of the team, are obliged to have their own opinions and better designs for product requirements. There are different opinions can be discussed, but the final decision, it should still belong to the product manager.

5, the reason why product managers called managers, because they not only design products, but also need to grasp the entire process. For example, when the details are not discussed clearly, do not go find UI design.

Source: Network