10 truths to great product experiences
TRANSCRIPT
10 truths to great Product Experiences agile / user experience / research / methods / business value / product fit
@jeremyjohnson
WORKED FOR
WORKED WITH
“Uncover user needs, Design great solutions,
and build out solutions to launch.”
10 truths to great Product Experiences
Quick note around User Experience
The Elements of User ExperienceA basic duality: The Web was originally conceived as a hypertextual information space;but the development of increasingly sophisticated front- and back-end technologies hasfostered its use as a remote software interface. This dual nature has led to much confusion,as user experience practitioners have attempted to adapt their terminology to cases beyondthe scope of its original application. The goal of this document is to define some of theseterms within their appropriate contexts, and to clarify the underlying relationships amongthese various elements.
Jesse James [email protected]
Visual Design: graphic treatment of interfaceelements (the "look" in "look-and-feel")
Information Architecture: structural designof the information space to facilitateintuitive access to content
Interaction Design: development ofapplication flows to facilitate user tasks,defining how the user interacts withsite functionality
Navigation Design: design of interfaceelements to facilitate the user's movementthrough the information architectureInformation Design: in the Tuftean sense:designing the presentation of informationto facilitate understanding
Functional Specifications: "feature set":detailed descriptions of functionality the sitemust include in order to meet user needs
User Needs: externally derived goalsfor the site; identified through user research,ethno/techno/psychographics, etc.Site Objectives: business, creative, or otherinternally derived goals for the site
Content Requirements: definition ofcontent elements required in the sitein order to meet user needs
Interface Design: as in traditional HCI:design of interface elements to facilitateuser interaction with functionalityInformation Design: in the Tuftean sense:designing the presentation of informationto facilitate understanding
Web as software interface Web as hypertext system
Visual Design: visual treatment of text,graphic page elements and navigationalcomponents
Concrete
Abstract
time
Conception
Completion
FunctionalSpecifications
ContentRequirements
InteractionDesign
InformationArchitecture
Visual Design
Information DesignInterface Design Navigation Design
Site ObjectivesUser Needs
User Needs: externally derived goalsfor the site; identified through user research,ethno/techno/psychographics, etc.Site Objectives: business, creative, or otherinternally derived goals for the site
This picture is incomplete: The model outlined here does not account for secondary considerations (such as those arising during technical or content development)that may influence decisions during user experience development. Also, this model does not describe a development process, nor does it define roles within auser experience development team. Rather, it seeks to define the key considerations that go into the development of user experience on the Web today.
task-oriented information-oriented
30 March 2000
© 2000 Jesse James Garrett http://www.jjg.net/ia/Use
r Exp
erie
nce
101
User-centered design can be characterized as a multi-stage problem solving process that not only requires designers to analyze and foresee how users are likely to use a product, but also to test the validity of their assumptions with regard to user behavior in real world tests with actual users. Such testing is necessary as it is often very difficult for the designers of a product to understand intuitively what a first-time user of their design experiences, and what each user's learning curve may look like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-centered_designUse
r Exp
erie
nce
101
User-Centered Design
Use
r Exp
erie
nce
101
http://atiqurrehman.com/understanding-user-expectations/
Use
r Exp
erie
nce
101
Use
r Exp
erie
nce
101
10 questions to great Product Experiences
Companies that invest in Design perform better than those that don’t.
True / False
#1
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/04/design-can-drive-exceptional-returns-for-shareholders/
https://twitter.com/DesignUXUI/statuses/563738777596608513
“At Nike, a large and well-resourced design function reports directly to CEO, Mark Parker, who early in his
tenure was a designer himself.”
“Using human-centered design methods, inspiration for the company’s signature products is drawn directly from its cadre of famous and not-so-
famous practicing athletes, with whom the designers directly interact to devise authentic
performance innovations and style updates.”
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/04/design-can-drive-exceptional-returns-for-shareholders/
•Increase Sales
•Reduce Support Calls
•Increase Customer Adoption
•Increase Customer Satisfaction
http://www.humanfactors.com/coolstuff/roi.asp
145k views
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O94kYyzqvTc
"The datacenter has not yet had it’s ‘iPhone moment’, but it will soon. The user interface on the iPhone transformed how we interact with mobile devices. As a company, we’re going to
make that happen in the datacenter."https://mesosphere.com/2014/12/03/mesosphere-acquires-h1-studios/
http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/02/adaptive-path-acquired-by-capital-one/
https://www.capitalonelabs.com/#/news
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/morning_call/2014/11/apple-cofounder-applauds-capital-ones-new.html
http://www.ibm.com/design/?lnk=msdDS-daib-usen
http://www.ibm.com/design/?lnk=msdDS-daib-usen
“IBM Design emerges as the new standard-setter for user experience. Hundreds of designers and interface
developers start to transform the development process through deeper understanding of the people who use
IBM products and how they use them.”
http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/innovation_explanations/article/phil_gilbert.html
IBM Design Thinking
Companies that invest in Design perform better than those that don’t.
True / False
#1
Product decisions should be based on evidence. True / False
#2
http://www.mindtheproduct.com/2014/11/leisa-reichelt-changing-organisations-to-improve-products/
“…highlights the importance of reducing the distance between the people designing the product and making decisions about them and the people who use them, through increased research and team participation in that research.”
DATA
https://strategyzer.com/value-proposition-design
- How do you decide which product opportunities to pursue?
- How do you get evidence that the product you are going to ask your engineering team to build will be successful?
- How do you identify the minimal possible product that will be successful
http://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Love/dp/0981690408/
“Rather than focus on artifacts, we focus on prototypes and validating those prototypes in Discovery, with the added benefit that the prototype serves as the spec for Delivery.”
http://www.svproduct.com/dual-track-scrum/
Qualitative & Quantitative
Evidence?
Institutional Knowledge and gut
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-without-user-research/
User experience cannot exist without users. Creating user interfaces involves intricate and complex decisions. User research is a tool that can help you achieve your goals.
Even the most well thought out designs are assumptions until they are tested by real users. Different types of research can answer different types of questions. Know the tools and apply them accordingly. Leaving the user out is not an option.
UX - U = X
http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2014/02/19/braden-kowitz-why-you-should-listen-to-the-customer/
“Investing in user research is just about the only way to consistently generate a rich stream of data about customer needs and behaviors. As a designer, I can’t live without it. And as data about customers flows through your team, it informs product managers, engineers, and just about everyone else. It forms the foundation of intuitive designs, indispensable products, and successful companies. So what are you waiting for? Go listen to your customers!”
http://www.gv.com/sprint/
Why 4-5 Participants?
Number of Test Users
Usab
ility
Pro
blem
s Fo
und
0 3 6 9 12 15
0%
25%
50%
75%
100% “Elaborate usability tests are a waste of resources. The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.” - JAKOB NIELSEN
N (1-(1- L ) n )Where N is the total number of usability problems in the design and L is the proportion of usability problems discovered while testing a single user. The typical value of L is 31%, averaged across a large number of projects we studied. Plotting the curve for L = 31% gives the result above.
Even with Qualitative…
The Wizard Of Oz Techniques For Social Prototyping – You don’t need to build everything at first. You can be the man behind the curtain. Krieger says him and Systrom tested an early version of a feature which would notify you when friends joined the service. Instead of building it out, they manually sent people notifications “like a human bot” saying ‘your friend has joined.’ It turned out not to be useful. “We wrote zero lines of Python, so we had zero lines to throw away.”
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/30/instagram-co-founder-mike-kriegers-8-principles-for-building-products-people-want/
- Mike Krieger, Instagram’s founder
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/airbnbs-new-head-design-believes-design-led-companies-dont-work
“Thus, every project team at Airbnb now has a project manager whose explicit role is to represent the user, not a particular functional group like engineering or design. “Conflict is a huge and important part of innovation,” says Schleifer. “This structure creates points where different points of view meet, and are either aligned or not.”
Product decisions should be based on evidence.
True / False
#2
Software never ends. And once launched should be analyzed, and driven by metrics.
True / False
#3
http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/sxsw-lean-startup-for-big-brands.html
SXSW: Lean Startup for Big Brands
“…In actuality, there is never a guarantee that customers are going to get excited when a new product is brought to market.
In our work, we employ a number of tools to eliminate that uncertainty as much as possible, often through consumer
research or validation testing…”
“…while a startup has nowhere to go but up, known companies risk brand erosion with the release of a substandard product to
the market. We encourage clients to distill innovations to the most valuable, tangible, and deliverable attributes for initial launch but not to compromise on the intended experience…
…Overtime, the company can add features and functionality, but the overall experience begins and
remains excellent.”http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/sxsw-lean-startup-for-big-brands.html
“I can launch this app in three
months”
“This solution will launch in 12 months”
http://www.slideshare.net/jysimon/product-tankparis-jysimon16may2013
Sign-up Abandonment
Getting First Task
Repeat Usage
Duration in App
Conversion
Traffic
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-10/how-ihops-new-menu-design-gets-customers-to-spend-more
Pivot?
Systrom, Intuit founder Scott Cook, and Lean Startup author Eric Ries talked about the changes that have swept through product development in both big and small organizations. Many companies have moved from what's called "waterfall development" -- a method that relies on large engineering executing a carefully mapped-out plan -- to "lean" development, where creators move quickly to push out products and revise them on the fly.
"We thought about what we could do to iterate more quickly," Systrom said of Burbn's pivot. "People loved posting pictures on Burbn" -- so that's where they took the venture, jettisoning other planned features. Burbn now lives on only as an abandoned Twitter feed.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/13/technology/startups/instagram_burbn/
http://pando.com/2014/04/05/third-life-flickr-co-founder-pulls-unlikely-success-out-of-gaming-failure-again/
Software never ends. And once launched should be analyzed, and driven by metrics.
True / False
#3
Agile is the preferred development methodology. True / False
#4
http://www.meta5.us/2014/07/10/677/
“…methodologies like Scrum — have no mechanism for determining if they’re building the right feature and whether that implementation is designed well and/or
worth improving.”
http://www.jeffgothelf.com/blog/agile-doesnt-have-a-brain/
http://www.jeffgothelf.com/blog/agile-doesnt-have-a-brain/
“Agile methods like Scrum and XP both rely on a close and collaborative relationship and continual interaction with the customer – the people who are paying for the software and who are going to use the system.”
http://swreflections.blogspot.com/2012/02/agiles-customer-problem.html
http://scaledagileframework.com/ux
http://scaledagileframework.com/ux
http://scaledagileframework.com/ux
“…a small, centralized UX design team who provides the basic design standards and
preliminary mock-ups for each UI, but the teams have team-based UX implementation experts for
the implementation.”
Agile is the preferred development methodology.
True / False
#4
Small, multidisciplinary teams are better. True / False
#5
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/17/heres-how-spotify-scales-up-and-stays-agile-it-runs-squads-like-lean-startups/
A throwback to their days with Jeff Bezos at Amazon, projects are assigned to "two pizza teams," groups of engineers small enough for them to be fed on two large pies. "We want the team to be flat and allow everyone to communicate with each other," Rajaraman says.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1811934/walmartlabs-brings-two-pizza-team-startup-culture-walmart-empire
Designers Developers
Product Owner
Project Manager
Co-Located, autonomous, metrics driven
Shipping Software Based on Priority
To the Right Customers
To Meet their Goals.
Shipping Software Based on Priority
To the Right Customers
To Meet their Goals.
Research what to
build…
Learn from
Shipping…
Designers Developers
Product Owner
Project Manager
Co-Located, autonomous, metrics driven
Small, multidisciplinary teams are better.
True / False
#5
You should launch with only the features that matter. (MVP)
True / False
#6
What tools do you use to determine “this”?
“MVP should be a polished slice of your experience, that meets the basic
needs of your customers.
By launching you’ll learn what they do with your product - and use that
learning to prioritize enhancements going forward”
You should launch with only the features that matter. (MVP)
True / False
#6
Launching and learning should be fast and frequent. True / False
#7
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663968/wanna-create-a-great-product-fail-early-fail-fast-fail-often
“fail fast” is actually better
framed as “experiment fast.” The most effective innovators
succeed through experimentation.
http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/fail-fast-fail-often-an-interview-with-victor-lombardi/
- Victor Lombardi
“Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster. However, as most companies grow, they slow down too much because they’re more afraid of
making mistakes than they are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly. We have a saying: “Move fast and break things.” The idea is that if you
never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough.”
http://blogs.ft.com/businessblog/2012/09/zuckerberg-if-youre-going-to-fail-fail-fast/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson FRS is an English American
theoretical physicist and mathematician, famous for
his work in quantum electrodynamics, solid-
state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering.
“Say something about failure in experiments or businesses
or anything else. What's the value of failure?”
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6.02/dyson.html?pg=7&topic=
1998
“You can't possibly get a good technology going without an
enormous number of failures. It's a universal rule. If you look at
bicycles, there were thousands of weird models built and tried before
they found the one that really worked. You could never design a bicycle theoretically. Even now,
after we've been building them for 100 years, it's very difficult to understand just why a bicycle works - it's even difficult to
formulate it as a mathematical problem. But just by trial and error,
we found out how to do it, and the error was essential. The same is
true of airplanes.”
“So you're saying just go ahead and try stuff and you'll sort out the
right way.”
“That's what nature did. And it's almost always true in technology. That's why computers never really took off
until they built them small.”
“Why is small good?”
“Because it's cheaper and faster, and you can make many more. Speed is the most important thing - to be able to try something out on a small scale quickly.”
“Fail fast.”
“Yes. These big projects are guaranteed to fail because you never have time to fix everything.”
1998
“The Adobe KickStart program empowers employees to create an idea and take it straight to the consumer for testing. “We say, ‘Don’t tell us the
idea — just go do it.’”http://blogs.adobe.com/adobelife/adobe-life-magazine/v1/innovation-revolution/
“The timing of long- range plans is screwed up too. You have the most information when you’re doing something, not before you’ve done it. Yet when do you write a plan? Usually it’s before you’ve even begun. That’s the worst time to make a big decision.”
http://37signals.com/rework
http://paulstamatiou.com/twitter-video/
Launching and learning should be fast and frequent.
True / False
#7
Having a dedicated designer on a development team is important.
True / False
#8
# of developers
# of UX designers
# of developers
# of UX designers
# of developers
# of UX designers
https://twitter.com/jjg/status/565613568314572801
Devs rather write good code.
Devs like Designers after they get their first taste.
http://www.brownwebdesign.com/blog/dont-be-in-a-rush-to-be-a-specialist
Designers Developers
Product Owner
Project Manager
Co-Located, autonomous, metrics driven
Developers
Product Owner
Project Manager
Developer Lead Design
Developers
Product Owner
Project Manager
Agency Design Lead
“Uh, I got 2 hours today, can I help with something?”
Having a dedicated designer on a development team is important.
True / False
#8
Having a deep understanding and empathy for your end users is key for user experience.
True / False
#9
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+homer+car&aq=f&oq=the+homer+car&aqs=chrome.0.57j0l3j62j64.3274j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
https://twitter.com/MarkusWeber/statuses/540880480569413633
“Beauty is wasted when our products don’t address real user
needs in a usable manner”http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/09/01/think-your-app-is-beautiful-not-without-user-experience-design/
““Before we deal with world domination, let’s back up.” I help people walk back up the ladder to get to: Who’s the user? What problem are you solving for the user? Does your proposed solution actually solve that problem—
and how can you answer that? Then, how can you answer that faster?”
http://how.co/the-right-questions-to-ask-before-you-build-software/
1. Determine a product-market fit by seeking signals from communities of users.
2. Identify behavioral insights by conducting ethnographic research.
3. Sketch a product strategy by synthesizing complex research data into simple insights.
4. Polish the product details using visual representations to simplify complex ideas.
http://www.ac4d.com/
“User Experience Design is not data-driven, it’s insight-driven.
Data is just raw material for insight.”
http://www.inkblurt.com/2009/07/06/data-insight-ux/
https://twitter.com/userfocus/status/519437111540584449
http://michaelvhurley.com/2013/01/04/my-worthless-degree/
http://www.slideshare.net/jeremy/putting-the-user-back-in-user-experience-dallas-techfest-edition
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/what_every_executive_needs_to_know_about_design
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/what_every_executive_needs_to_know_about_design
“Meeting ever-increasing consumer expectations requires senior executives to place design at the center of business strategy.”
“What a user-centered approach enables companies to do is to take insights into the consumer decision journey and the marketplace and convert them into products and services customers actually want… In the new competitive marketplace, designing “usable” is just table stakes. Customers now expect products and services to be not only usable but also useful and desirable.”
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/what_every_executive_needs_to_know_about_design
“Users should be a part of the design process from the very beginning to help validate concepts and refine final direction. Your team needs to be open to experimenting and taking risks and then quickly learning and iterating…”
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/what_every_executive_needs_to_know_about_design
Having a deep understanding and empathy for your end users is key for user experience.
True / False
#9
User Experience is a profession that has a robust methodology.
True / False
#10
robust!
1. Drive: UX practitioners are part of the customer or product owner team
2. Research, model, and design up front - but only just enough
3. Chunk your design work
4. Use parallel track development to work ahead, and follow behind
5. Buy design time with complex engineering stories
6. Cultivate a user validation group for use for continuous user validation
7. Schedule continuous user research in a separate track from development
8. Leverage user time for multiple activities
9. Use RITE to iterate UI before development
10.Prototype in low fidelity
11.Treat prototype as specification
12.Become a design facilitator
http://agileproductdesign.com/blog/emerging_best_agile_ux_practice.html
- 2008
(not new)
Where does your organization stand?
• the pattern name • the user need • when to use the pattern • when not to use the pattern • how to use the pattern • guidelines and constraints • example screenshots • related patterns • a link to the code.
http://experoinc.com/business-benefits-of-ui-design-patterns/
http://www.inuse.se/blogg/ux-mognaden-i-sverige-2014-och-hur-du-tar-dig-till-nasta-niva-inuseful/
http://poetpainter.com/
http://poetpainter.com/
“EASY”
HARD
http://poetpainter.com/
“personal significance” “works like I think”
“Hey, I want you to go and understand our user’s needs, wants,
and desires.”
You get there by understanding
your users.
http://www.centercentre.com/
http://www.hcde.washington.edu/
http://designresearchcenter.unt.edu/
http://www.uxutd.com/
http://www.nngroup.com/ux-certification
User Experience is a profession that has a robust methodology.
True / False
#10
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Companies that invest in Design perform better than those that don’t. 2. Product decisions should be based on evidence. 3. Software never ends. And once launched should be analyzed, and driven by metrics. 4. Agile is the preferred development methodology. 5. Small, multidisciplinary teams are better. 6. You should launch with only the features that matter. (MVP) 7. Launching and learning should be fast and frequent. 8. Having a dedicated designer on a development team is important. 9. Having a deep understanding and empathy for your end users is key for user experience. 10. User Experience is a profession that has a robust methodology.
10 truths to great Product Experiences
“The software design and development
process has changed for the better”
“Getting everything right the first time, is hard.”
“Talking with one user is better than talking with
no users.”*
“UX is a robust methodology, while
relatively new, is tested with success”
“You don’t really know your
customers as well as you think you do…”
“User Experience has a large number of
methods to help create empty and data for
products teams”
“Empathy and understanding of users
is key in product success”
“If you’re launching twelve months from now, and are not involving your
customer, that’s a big gamble…”
“Software is always evolving, and a mix of qualitative research, market research, and
analytics are needed to improve and prioritize.”
“User Experience methods provide data to business teams to make
smart decisions”
Thanks! @jeremyjohnson
www.jeremyjohnsononline.com