An intensive workshop for Startup Institute from March 2015.
Aimed at teaching high-level concepts and approaches to user experience design. The workshop serves as an introduction to:
* Lean UX
* Collaborative & Iterative design
* User-centered design
* Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)
* Design Sprints
10. Design thinking takes a solution-focused
approach to problem solving, working
collaboratively to iterate an endless,
shifting path toward perfection.
It works toward product goals via specific
ideation, prototyping, implementation,
and learning steps to bring the appropriate
solution to light.
11. Lean UX is the practice of bringing the true
nature of a product to light faster, in a
collaborative, cross-functional way that
reduces the emphasis on thorough
documentation while increasing the focus
on building a shared understanding of the
actual product experience being designed.
17. Assumptions
I believe my customers have a
need to _______.
I will make money by _______.
Who is the user?
What problems are we solving?
18. Problem Statement
[Our product] was designed to achieve [these
goals]. We have observed that the product isn’t
meeting [these goals], which is causing [this
adverse effect] to our business. How might we
improve [product] so that our customers are
more successful based on [these measurable
criteria]?
20. Hypotheses
We believe [this statement is true]. We will
know we’re [right/ wrong] when we see the
following feedback from the market:
[qualitative feedback] and/or [quantitative
feedback] and/or [key performance indicator
change].
38. Causality + anxieties + motivations
Hiring a product for a job
Purchasing decision factors
39.
40. “Create a solution that embraces and
satisfies constraints & desires. It must be
simultaneous. One cannot ignore the
other.”
41. “The problems people encounter in their
lives rarely change from generation to
generation”
42. “The enchanted objects that will succeed will be
the ones that carry on the traditions and
promises of the objects of our age-old
fantasies, the ones that connect with and
satisfy our fundamental human desires. They
will be cars that transport us as safely and as
delightfully as flying carpets, writing
instruments that remember, rings that connect
us, tools with as much utility, familiarity, and
character as my family’s barometer”
53. Pitfalls to avoid in UX.
How do I create awesome web
applications?
Do you create your own templates for
different design styles?
54. I’m more curious about exploring elements
of the design process from general idea to a
first prototype.
What is the entire process of design/UX
from start to finish?
What do I want to do with my life?
Editor's Notes
11:15
Digital agency in Fort Point (down the street).
Work with clients of all sizes (startups > major financial)
Conceive - Design - Deliver
www.newegg.com
2 things you agree with, 2 things you would change (post its on the screen)
What would you prioritize?
To answer questions early. Important to remember as you build.
Quick to iterate
Come back to the questions in a bit
A ton of answers out there. Here are a few that stand out to me
Design hierarchy of needs - Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
[11:30-11:45] Plan out login feature
Topics: Checkout as guest? What do we capture? When do they need to login? Password format? 3rd party login?
Now you, too, can be just like this stock photo!
Meeting didn’t accomplish much
Go in circles, anecdotal arguments, trumping with authority
Need to put the users back in user experience.
Who shops online? Social media? Understand what works and doesn’t? Experts? UX: petition for users. Process facilitators
Remove waste from UX process (e.g. deliverables)
Harmonize team - everyone joins in on design
Experimentation & learning
Design thinking: Holistic approach from IDEO
Enough of the big blocks of text
Prevent waterfall handoffs
Encourage communication and shared understanding
Easier to keep on track. Fewer meetings, more conversations
Meaningful way of changing the product
Design based on why, not what
Frequent opportunities to validate ideas
The success or failure of your product isn’t the team’s decision — it’s the customers’.
Tie back to the meeting
Lean Startup Cycle
Lean Startup Cycle
Starting a project, explicitly call out your assumptions
Assumptions come more easily after defining a problem statement
Hypotheses and sub-hypotheses
Break them into small, testable
[12:15-12:20]
Write outcomes. Vote on most desired outcome
[12:20-12:25]
Form a problem statement, based on the outcome
[12:25-12:35]
List assumptions
Biz v. user assumptions
Assess on risk/known scale
[12:35-12:45]
Form hypothesis and sub-hypotheses
Aim for isolated, testable hypotheses
[12:45-12:50]
Could be prototype (paper, low/high fi, code)
Could be interview or survey
Could be sign up form
Many options
12:50
Now you test, rinse, and repeat
Always be iterating on this!
Key principle of lean ux - always be learning
This should continue through the life of a product
[1:00]
Hypotheses and sub-hypotheses
Break them into small, testable
[2:00]
This is great design!
We’ve covered Lean UX - Used to uncover how to develop a product and its features
Now it’s time to pull the users into the fold
Name
Behavioral demographic info
Bottom two pieces are more important
For a product made to improve parental involvement in student education
[2:15-2:30]
Groups of 3 - Develop personas - Develop user stories
OR (time saver): Pick a persona for them, go around the room, they say one user story each
Problem with user stories (source: job story vs user story)
Too many assumptions
Causation is not causality (Doesn’t acknowledge causality)
Persona is irrelevant - Half the time, it’s “as a user”
Job story is based on motivation, rather than implementation
Gives context
Can still include roles when necessary (e.g. customer, seller)
[2:45-3:00]
Convert user stories from previous activity to job stories
Add motivation
JTBD is an emerging framework for approaching product design, but it has quickly gained traction.
Keep an eye out for it, especially where it can solve some of the gaps left by user-centered design
Used to identify why people switch to a new product
Plugs into the outcomes vs outputs
Broaden your horizon from personas
Don’t box yourself into solving problems for particular people
Design for everyone
From Intercom
Best products keep solving the same problems in new ways (e.g. dropbox solving storage)
Enchanted Objects
Sourcing fairy-tales and age-old stories for timeless, fundamental human desires
6 human drives
Come up in stories all throughout history
[3:15-3:25]
Quick activity: Identify timeless problems
What are some problems that cut across generations?
How have they been solved?
Used to work with startups
Design problem solving
Purpose-built for tackling big problems
Day 1: Understand
Dig into the design problem through research, competitive review, and strategy exercises.
Day 2: Diverge
Rapidly develop as many solutions as possible.
Day 3: Decide
Choose the best ideas and hammer out a user story.
Day 4: Prototype
Build something quick and dirty that can be shown to users.
Day 5: Validate
Show the prototype to real humans (in other words, people outside your company) and learn what works and what doesn’t work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvdO0G4uQgc#t=34
[3:35-3:50]
Use big timeless problem: “Umbrellas are terrible”
Individual: Based on job stories, pick a piece and write down a bunch of approach ideas (5 min)
Group: Write them on the board
Group: Mind map (5 min)
If time: Storyboard
If time: Critique
If time: Super vote
You’re armed with tools for different parts of the UX process
Play around. Make things!
Read more. This is just the tip of the iceberg
Just a selection of the frameworks out there to help through the job of product and UX design
Don’t be afraid of having multiple tools at your disposal. Find the ones better suited to different situations