People-centered Design

UX strategy or Design Strategy?

WHAT IS AN EXPERIENCE DESIGN STRATEGY FOR?

Brand strategy and design strategy seem to be well understood terms, but the idea of an experience strategy seems to be a step too far for many (is it not just the same as one these other two?).

The compelling touchscreen – who benefits?

Touchscreens and touch interfaces are all the rage – but is this a people-centred movement? Arguably the strongest push for the use of touchscreens is the updatability of them – with a firmware update the UI can be changed significantly. But there are also strong marketing pressures as it is a common belief that touchscreens make a product feel more modern and innovative. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the car, where touchscreens increasingly dominate despite very good reasons to doubt their value to the driver.

Don’t write interview guides

If you are going to meet with users and do some qualitative research then I expect (hope, even) that you have had it drilled in to you to carefully construct an interview guide. Now, I ask you to remember that lesson, but throw away the interview guide! The very reason we take the time to go and meet with our users is to learn from them and to discover new insights about their behaviours, needs and desires. The very concept of an interview guide implies that you are taking the lead and guiding them. Which, in turn, implies that you know what needs to be talked about ... so what is the real chance of uncovering new discoveries here?

Maps are Selective

Journey maps, user mapping, and many other methods all aim to produce a map of some facet of the user experience. In this context it is useful to reflect on the fact that 2D representations of a 3D world are always inaccurate – even while being phenomenally useful.

A map of whose journey?

Journey maps, experience roadmaps, customer experience journeys are all common tools nowadays, but a key question that needs to be asked is "whose journey are we mapping?" and is that the right person?

Usability considered harmful …?

Not necessarily the same as gathering input from users, ‘usability’ often implies a rigorous testing of a product or interface (in A-B testing or similar). But such rigorous, data-driven processes can arguably be quite detrimental to successful product or service design.

THE HAZARDS OF USER DATA AND FEEDBACK …

It seems almost sacrilegious to say it, but I think it is really important to maintain significant caution around data obtained from user feedback, testing or group discussions. Too often I hear people proudly say that all their design decisions are based on feedback from users, or one hears leadership asking that all the design decisions be based on documented data from user feedback. These attitudes are, of course, well-founded, but at the same time they are seriously misguided – and for a number of different reasons …

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The Compelling Touchscreen

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