What is User Experience Design (UXD)?
The process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and a product.
This process seeks to strike a balance between what the user needs and the business needs. It's a group effort and we all play an active part in it. Their are 3 main sections: Define, Design & Refine.
1) Define
Brand Attributes
Write down words the describe the following topics:
Culture - How would your customers and employees describe your company?
Customer - How would you describe your ideal customer?
Voice - If your brand was a person, how would they sound to others?
Benefit - After interacting with your product, how does someone feel?
Value - What tangible results or quantifiable outcome can you provide?
X-Factor - What makes this product or service unique?
User Personas
A fictional character created with the end user and their story in mind:
Demographics - Age, Relationship Status, Job, Family, Location & Income
Customer Back Story - Daily Activities, Education & Motivations
Customers Needs & Why - Challenges, Feelings & Aspirations
How do you exceed their needs - Solutions, Attention & Rewarded
User Journey
A series of steps which map out how a user might interact with the a product or service you are designing. This is a high level view of the stages and scenarios a user might be in. With existing products or services, map out how a user currently interacts with a product or service. Then map out how a user could interact with a product or service.
Context - Where is the user? What’s going on around them?
Sequence - What are the steps of the process to achieve their goal(s)?
Functionality - What functionality is required for each of the steps?
Devices and technology - What devices are they using?
Priorities
Write down all the customer needs and score 1- 10:
Desireability - How many and how loudly are customers asking for it?
Doability - How difficult it to make and/or fix?
Size - What is the scope of work? Small, Medium or Large?
Total up the score and choose the highest score with the smallest scope first. Small wins for the team keeps everyone engaged and allows more time for research on larger unknown solutions.
2) Design
Site map
The site map is a model of the overall content of the app or website designed to help both the developers and business understand the scope of the project.
Flow Charts
The flowchart shows the steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order by connecting the boxes with arrows. This diagrammatic representation illustrates a solution model to a given problem. A flowchart is a type of workflow or process.
Wireframes
The wireframes are a visual representation of a user interface, stripped of any visual design or branding elements. It is used to define the heirachy of items on a screen and communicate what the items on that page should be based on user needs.
3) Refine
Style Guide
A branding style guide is a document that contains all of a company's visual design elements (logo, color, typography, iconography, etc.). A branding style guide provides rules of thumb and context notes to help designers and developers achieve brand consistency when creating assets.
Prototypes
The goal of a prototype is to test products (and product ideas) before sinking lots of time and money into the final product. Prototyping is essential for resolving usability issues before launch. Precision — The fidelity of the prototype, meaning its level of detail, polish, and realism. For example, most web prototypes can be made with plugins for sketch like Craft or using tools on InVision. My method for high fidelity on a mobile device, i use ProtoPie. This allows the user to be completely contained within the prototype while leveraging the device native features and transitions.
Links to online prototypes we tested with real user prior to launch: (Use Chrome or use the ProtoPie app for the full experience.)
User Testing
Evaluate a product, feature or prototype with real users. Testing can be in person or remote with online services like UserTesting.com. In order to get usable results…
1) The users must be representative of the actual user base of the product or service.
2) The test must be impartial so that a user’s actions are not influenced in ways that lead to a bias result.
3) The sessions are documented or recorded for later review.
Afterwards, reviewing notes and records for any extra insights. Present findings in the appropriate form for the business like a presentation deck or PDF document. Video highlights or audio clips help drive engagement stakeholders.