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Collaborative Design | Ross Brisco | TEDxUniversityofStrathclyde

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Interaction Design Foundation: 7 Key Questions to Help You Define the Scope of Your Design Project

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Interaction Design Foundation: 7 Key Questions to Help You Define the Scope of Your Design Project

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Enthusiasm can be the death of us. Being a great designer isn't enough to keep your projects on track and in budget; it's vital that at some point early in the project - that you define the scope of that project. This is useful for many reasons including: your clients will know when you have delivered what you said you would, you will know when you have finished a project, it prevents " scope creep ", etc.

So how do you define the scope of a project? It depends but there are some simple questions that can help you work towards a scope:

What kind of site/product/application do you need me to design?

It sounds incredibly basic but you'd be shocked at the number of projects that start with no clear idea of the eventual output. If you can't agree on this; your project can never succeed.

What's the deadline date for delivery?

There's only so much you can do in a finite amount of time. Knowing the time constraints helps you explain what can and what can't be achieved.

What's the budget for delivery?

If your client wants you to build them a rocket to take them to Saturn but has a budget of $25; there's a huge disconnect between their expectations and what they can afford. Quite often budget will define what can and can't be done within the scope of a project more easily than any other aspect of the scope.

What does your target audience look like?

UX pros know that without getting to know the user all design projects fail. If you don't get the target audience down as part of the scope then you deserve to walk into a room with your client to find a group of angry pensioners complaining about the tiny font sizes you used when you deliver.

What should the project achieve for your business?

What does the client need the project to do? Sell more stuff? Educate clients? Reduce helpdesk calls? All of the above and more? This is perhaps the most important part of your project scope - if you can't work out what it had to achieve - how will you or your client know if it is successful?

What content will be used within the project and where will it come from?

Products may need external content, they may need a lot of content created, where will that content come from? You may need to create it and that may change the scope dramatically from your perspective.

Of similar products out there - what do you like/dislike about them?

Get your clients to show you what they love and what they hate. It doesn't matter if the end users love a project if the client thinks it stinks. Colours, design trends, etc. can often seal the deal.

One More Thing...

These questions are a starting point and not an end point to defining scope of a project. You should continue to ask as many questions as you need to in order to get the job done.

Don't forget to write out your scope. Don't be afraid to point out what won't be done in a scope document either (e.g. "the client and I discussed doing XYZ but decided not to because it would be too time consuming/expensive") as this can also help prevent recriminations at the delivery stage.

Scoping is part of a much larger discipline of Requirements Engineering. Alistair Sutcliffe has made his Requirements Engineering text book available online for everyone to read - check it out if you have time.
Header Image: Author/Copyright holder: Red Pill UX. Copyright terms and licence: All rights reserved. Img

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7 Key Questions to Help You Define the Scope of Your Design Project

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Enthusiasm can be the death of us. Being a great designer isn't enough to keep your projects on track and in budget; it's vital that at some point early in the...

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Interaction Design Foundation: What is A/B Testing?

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Interaction Design Foundation: What is A/B Testing?

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Optimize your designs with A/B testing. Learn how to make data-driven decisions for better UX.

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Meeting customers' specific needs and solving their pain points are two goals virtually all companies share. People buy your products and services because they fulfill a need. User testing allows you to learn how your products perform.

Do your products meet customers' needs and fulfill their expectations before putting them on the market? Learning this can save you time, money, and resources while helping you create an excellent product for your target audience.

In this guide, we'll discuss the definition of user testing, methods you can use to test your products, and ways to implement user testing at your company.

Let's get started.

Why is user testing valuable?

User testing is a simple way to gauge the point of view of your customers because it allows you to watch, hear, and review their interactions with your design.

While your employees, designers, and other people involved in creating your product, feature, or prototype might find it easy to use, your target customers may not. User testing allows you to see where your product falls short for your intended audience. It tells you where they get confused or frustrated.

Since user testing takes place before releasing your product, you can use this information to iterate on the product until you've created a user experience (UX) that you're proud to stand behind.

You might be wondering how to perform user testing on your product. Well, every product, prototype, and feature is unique - as is every company - so you can employ various ways of user testing.

User Testing Methods

We've compiled this list of five commonly used user testing methods to help kickstart your product testing.

1. Usability Testing

Usability testing is when you provide a real customer or member of your target audience with a product, prototype, or feature so they can assess and test its usability. Usability refers to a product's ease of operation, usefulness, and utility. Usability testing allows you to determine how intuitive your product, prototype, or feature is in the eyes of your actual customers.

You might think usability testing sounds like the definition of user testing we covered earlier, but it's not. . Some people use the terms interchangeably. However, for the sake of this piece, we're going to differentiate them and continue with the notion that usability testing is a method of user testing. Here's why:

User Testing vs. Usability Testing

User testing covers the entire range of user experiences a customer has with your product, prototype, or feature. This includes all their perceptions, emotions, preferences, responses, and behaviors in response to that item, from when they obtain it to when they stop using it

Usability testing focuses on how and to what extent a customer uses your product to accomplish a specific goal. This plays a part in the user experience but is not the entire experience.

Here's a visual to help differentiate between user testing and usability testing.
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If usability testing sounds interesting to you and your team, consider another factor: whether you'll run a moderated or unmoderated usability test.

Moderated vs. Unmoderated Usability Testing

Moderated usability testing involves one of your employees sitting down with a real user, explaining what they want that user to do, and then listening to their feedback during and/or after their product use.

Unmoderated usability testing doesn't involve any communication or interaction with the user. Instead, you'll likely have a video recording of the user working with your product, prototype, or feature and then another video with a review of their interactions and their assessment of the item.

Moderated usability testing is great if you want to watch customers use the item in real-time to ensure you're getting the information you need and want to obtain. On the other hand, unmoderated usability testing is a good option if you want to test a large group of real customers from several different areas simultaneously.

When to Use Usability Testing

Usability testing is ideal during the early to mid-design phase of a product, prototype, or feature's life. That's because you can ensure each aspect of your design works appropriately for your customers during development and before investing more time in its construction.

2. Surveys

Surveys are a great form of user testing if you want to obtain accurate, quantitative data from your customers about your product. For example, you might ask them to complete a survey about your new product or your latest update to an existing product. And since you create and ask the questions, you can be as broad or granular as you want.

Additionally, surveys are a simple way to obtain feedback because your participants can complete and submit them from anywhere, via any device. They're also easy to send out to large groups of participants and pull data from once submitted.

When to Use Survey Testing

Surveys are ideal if you want to receive a wide range of responses regarding your product in a short amount of time. Surveys also make it easy to dive deep into details about specific features because you can ask your test subjects tailored questions of your choice. They can also help you quickly obtain, organize, and analyze quantitative and qualitative results to improve your product for your customers.

3. A/B Testing

A/B testing occurs when you split your test subjects into groups and test different product versions to determine their preferences. This way, you can understand which version best meets your customers' needs and provides them with a better user experience.

A/B testing allows you to share different product versions with your customers and learn what works for them rather than guessing based on your buyer personas or information about your target audience. Just because you may think you know your customers well doesn't mean your test subjects won't surprise you in an A/B user test scenario.

When to Use A/B Testing

A/B testing is ideal if you want to get feedback about which version of a product is most popular among your target audience. For example, you might conduct an A/B test for a CTA button on one of your landing pages with slightly different wording. This way, you can learn which option gets you more clicks and conversions.

4. Focus Groups

Focus groups are where you sit down with a small group of real users (usually 10-12 people total) to discuss various attributes of your product, prototype, or feature. The group discussion is generally led by one of your designers, researchers, or other employees to ensure you're receiving your desired type of feedback. A focus group discussion will typically last an hour or two and cover the test subjects' concerns about a specific aspect of a product that the focus group facilitator brings up.

For example, suppose your company is testing a part of your new or updated software. In that case, you might have one of your web designers or engineers facilitate the discussion to ensure your test subjects provide you with details about their interactions with that specific aspect of the product. In addition, your focus group leader can ask questions about the updated portion of the software with your participants. Again, this cuts out all unnecessary fluff and makes for a straightforward and impactful discussion.

When to Use Focus Group Testing

Focus groups are a flexible form of user testing because you can discuss any point in your product lifecycle. They're ideal for understanding what customers want and hope to get out of your product through a guided discussion.

For example, suppose you hold a focus group discussion. It's recommended that you hold multiple focus groups, so you only chat with a small group of customers during a focus group discussion.

5. Beta Testing

Beta testing happens during the last stages of your product, prototype, or feature design. It's when you provide your customers and target audience with the item you've created in a state that closely resembles what it'll look like upon distribution. Beta testing is a great way to get a final thumbs up on your product from customers before going to market.

When to Use Beta Testing

Beta testing is ideal if you've pretty much finalized your product's design and want to conduct one last review of it before distribution. This way, you can make any last-minute changes to enhance its UX if necessary and ensure it's ready for your customers.

Before a beta test, other user tests should occur throughout your design process. That's because this is only used for final and critical updates to the product - so you'll want to get your customers' opinions before the final stage of design. This way, once you reach the time for beta testing, you'll likely only have minor changes that need to be made (if any).

Now that you understand the various user testing methods, let's talk about how it works so you can begin testing your products, prototypes, and features.

1. Create a product, prototype, or feature.

The first step in user testing is pretty obvious - you'll need a product, prototype, or feature to test. You may try a brand new product, a new product version, a sample, or a part you're considering adding to an existing product.

2. Decide on a method of testing.

Once you've designed your product, prototype, or feature, it's time to determine which user testing method you want to implement. To do this, consider which test method best suits the type of information you want and how quickly you're looking to receive that feedback. This way, you can get the desired results that make sense for your company and the product being tested.

Once you've decided on your testing method, you can dive a little deeper. Consider which factors you'll be looking at and testing for so you can ensure you have the type of feedback you want and need from customers. Here are some examples of things you can look for and incorporate during testing, no matter the method you've chosen:

Problem Discovery

Problem discovery is a process in which your customers and test subjects surface various issues regarding the usability of a product, prototype, or feature. You may have them do this while they complete a given set of tasks with the item. Additionally, you might use the system usability scale, a click test, or a heuristic evaluation to get more profound answers and results related to the problem customers have discovered.

Learnability

Learnability is when you observe how difficult it is for a test subject to complete a task with or within the given product. You can watch test subjects work through a specific task as often as they need to complete it. If the learning curve is shallow, they may only need to work through a task once. However, if the product has a more significant learning curve, they might need to do this in multiple attempts.

Competitive

Comparing two similar products, prototypes, or features can help you determine whether or not you're building a better version of a product for your customers. The products being compared can be created by your company, or they can compare one of your company's products to a similar one made by a competitor.

For example, you wouldn't have test subjects compare new, high-tech running shoes to photo editing software - this wouldn't be helpful for anyone involved. Instead, you'd have testers compare your photo editing software to the older version you initially sold them or that of a competitor, like Adobe Lightroom. This allows you to get honest feedback and context around enhancing your software's user experience and improving its capabilities.

Benchmark

You can have a group of your test subjects provide you with a benchmark to build off of and improve your product from. Subjects will use your product, prototype, or feature and advise you on how to enhance it. Once you make those modifications, you have the subjects re-test to see how well you improved the item.

Eye Tracking

When you use video to watch a test subject's eye movements throughout their use of your product, you're using the testing technique of eye tracking. This is common for businesses testing software because you can easily see where that person's line of sight goes on a screen.

3. Recruit people to complete the test.

Next, you'll need to find and recruit people to complete your user test. No matter your chosen testing method, user testing calls for real customers, real members of your target audience, and individuals who fit your buyer personas and empathy maps to complete the test.

This allows you to get accurate data and results from the people who matter most - the ones who will be buying, using, and promoting your products. (We'll go over how and where to recruit test subjects if you don't already have a group.)

Learn about the power of using buyer personas and how to create one for your business.

4. Determine a location to conduct the test.

Once you have your product, method of test, and test subjects, you'll need to determine the time and location of your test. Common areas for user tests to be conducted include the following:

Community space

Your office

Outdoors

Test subjects' homes

This decision depends on your product, prototype, or feature, what it's used for, and what its capabilities are. When choosing your test location, be sure to consider all of your subjects' surroundings and any possible distractions they might encounter.

For example, if Airbnb was having users test their new, online vacation rental sign-up process, they might have their test subjects do this from the comfort of their own homes. This is most likely where their customers would be working through these forms in real life. Also, with the ability to watch users work through the form via webcam and a screen sharing software like Zoom, companies don't need to ask test subjects to come into a community space, sit down with their computers, and work through the vacation rental sign-up process.

However, if Nike were conducting a user test for the newest version of their Metcon weightlifting shoes, they may conduct the test in a gym with equipment subjects can use to lift, squat, and box jump.

5. Decide how long the test will take to complete.

Have you ever been asked to complete a task you know fairly little about? Of course, one of the first questions you might have is, "How long is this going to take?"

That's most likely going to be something your test subjects are wondering about your test, too. After all, they're taking time out of their day to complete tasks you're asking them to work through.

Different user tests will take different amounts of time. Try to stick around 30-60 minutes per test, per participant if possible. Longer tests seem to cause a drop-off in the quality of responses and feedback received from test subjects due to fatigue, boredom, and lack of interest.

If your test has multiple parts or requires participants to go back in and work through a test more than once, be sure you allow for sufficient time to do this - whether that means conducting a few short tests repeatedly or allowing your subjects to take breaks between tests. Either way, just be sure to communicate with your test subjects so they feel informed and cared for. Remember, these are members of your real target audience, so you want to leave a great impression on them.

6. Distribute the test.

Now it's time to distribute your test. First, be sure your subjects have all the test instructions they need, including directions on how they are to provide you with their feedback and analysis.

Depending on your product, company, industry, and test method, the various directions and information you'll communicate to your test subjects before and/or during the test will differ. However, let's review some points that companies commonly examine before and upon distribution of the test:

Make sure they know what you're trying to achieve with the user test so they can focus on specific aspects of your product and/ or can understand why you're testing the product.

Ensure they know how long the test will most likely take to complete, so they're aware of the schedule and what's expected of them.

Ask if they have any last-minute questions before taking the test.

Make sure they have all the necessary equipment. For example, does their laptop have a webcam, and is screen share software downloaded?

Ask if the participants need any unnecessary distractions removed from the area.

Ensure the participants understand how you expect them to provide feedback and analysis after the test (verbal, written, or through a form).

7. Analyze the test results.

The final step is the most important: analyze your results. These results are what you conducted your user testing experiment for in the first place - to obtain critical feedback from real customers to improve your product and enhance its UX.

Consider everything your test subjects have to say, look at what the majority of them have concluded, and don't be afraid to go back to the drawing board with minor or drastic modifications, if necessary.

Here are some standard user testing metrics that are reviewed upon the completion of a user test:

User Testing Metrics

Task Completion

Task completion is when a test subject indicates they've completed the test or its end goal.

Critical Errors

Critical errors prevent your test subjects from having the ability to complete your test.

Non-Critical Errors

Non-critical errors are made by the test subject yet don't impact their overall ability to complete the test successfully. These errors typically mean a part of your product, prototype, or feature caused the test subject to be less efficient at a point in time.

Error-Free Rate

This is the percentage of test participants who can complete the test without errors, whether or not they made errors along the way.

Time On Task

Time on task is how long it takes your test subject to complete your test.

Subjective Measures

These are the opinions of your test subjects, such as their likes and dislikes, recommendations, personal feeling of satisfaction upon completion of the test, and simply their level of enjoyment while using your product.

Once you have your results and have associated them with the metrics listed above, you can analyze them in depth, look for patterns, and find trends among your participants.

You should also consider reporting the severity of the problems that surfaced throughout your tests. This will help you determine how imperative it is to rectify specific issues and decide how to prioritize them(if there are multiple).

Here's a scale to help you determine this:

From here, you can compile your findings and recommendations and turn them into actionable takeaways to help you improve your product. Finally, you should organize these findings to share them with your team members, designers, and anyone involved in the product's creation and development.

Some information to include in your list include:

The number of people who completed the test successfully.

The average amount of time it took test subjects to complete the test.

Helpful participant comments, opinions, and recommendations.

Specific details about the average point in time when most test subjects ran into issues.

Positive things about your product - although user testing is used to identify issues with a product, it's essential to highlight the great things about it, what your test subjects enjoyed, and what they liked about it.

How to Recruit Users to Test Your Products

How do you recruit test subjects representing your buyer personas and target audience to complete your user testing? Here are three main ways to do this:

1. Recruit existing customers.

A great way to recruit for user testing is by searching your current customer database for contacts willing to help. You can also check your email subscription list or look for customers who've left you reviews and ratings on sites like Google and Facebook.

2. Recruit through your network.

You can also recruit test subjects through social platforms like Twitter and Instagram and ask for referrals from your fellow employees and people within your professional network.

3. Recruit through user testing services.

If you're working on a large-scale project and your business has the resources, you might sign up for a user testing service. These third-party sites connect your business with suitable test subjects for your specific situation. Here are a few popular user testing service sites to consider:

Usertesting.com connects you with real customers, allows you to watch and hear them interact with your products in real-time, get their direct feedback, and share your results with your team.

UXtweak.com allows you to conduct user testing using several methods and then efficiently recruit users straight within the platform. You can target specific user personas. The panel is global with strong coverage of countries.

Validately.com offers recruiting services to help you find your ideal test subjects. It includes a dedicated testing platform to ensure obtaining results is simple and has automated reporting so you can analyze, manage, and organize your feedback.

Verifyapp.com allows you to send out tests to gain real-time insight into your customer reviews to achieve actionable results.

Begin User Testing

User testing is a powerful tactic for all businesses because it provides you with real, actionable data that comes directly from your customers and members of your target audience. In addition, it allows you to ensure the design, UX, and all other aspects of your product, prototype, or feature, are ideal for customers before selling it.

So, prepare your new product, determine which testing method works for your specific situation, and recruit real customers to help you improve the UX of your offerings.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Implement user testing at your company to test your products and improve the user experience. Learn about different methods and how and what metrics to track.

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Mural.co: Testing | The 5th Stage in Design Thinking

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Mural.co: Testing | The 5th Stage in Design Thinking

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You wouldn't purchase a car without test-driving it first - even if you know exactly what car you want. The same is true for design thinking. To understand usability, you've got to test your design and get end-user feedback before you shift the project into high gear (see what we did there?).

As an approach to problem-solving, design thinking balances real human needs with the development limitations of modern technology. It puts the focus on empathizing with your audience to define pain points and brainstorm solutions.

Since consumer needs remain a central focus throughout every phase of design thinking, it's easy to assume that the concept you come up with will be a guaranteed success. But that isn't always the case, especially since consumer needs are always changing and you still have to manage other competing priorities from stakeholders.

In this deep-dive on the testing stage of design thinking, we'll cover:

The importance of the testing stage

A walkthrough on how to conduct testing

5 tips to get the most out of the testing phase

Templates to get real-time or asynchronous feedback on solutions

The importance of testing in design thinking

The testing stage of the design thinking process helps product, design, and development teams evaluate their concepts and prototypes for a solution. It's an experimental - and often repeated - stage that creates opportunities to see how customers interact with solutions in real life. That way, you know if products fit customer needs or solve real problems - before you invest further.

Remember: Design thinking is an iterative process. You may find your team conducting several iterations of testing.

Testing usually comes near the end of the design thinking process, after a concept or prototype has been developed. But even if you're confident you know what your customers want, the end product will still be based on your presumptions. And that means there's no way to know for sure how your target audience will respond until you show them what you've come up with.

Take Dove as an example. The hygiene brand built its image around inclusivity and body positivity. So, when it redesigned packaging to reflect different body shapes, Dove assumed its customers would be excited to see their figures represented on the shelf.

Instead, Dove faced backlash for comparing women's bodies to plastic bottles, and the brand was forced to invest in damage control. This is a good example of a fundamental misalignment between user needs and the proposed solution.

Related: 4 pitfalls to avoid in the design thinking process

Testing throughout the design process (instead of after a hefty investment) will inform every stage of design thinking and provide continuous insights that help your team make better decisions.

During the testing phase, you show customers concept designs or offer access to a functional prototype. It's the first opportunity for someone outside of the development team to offer unbiased feedback - and it helps assess product:

Desirability. The solution you come up with needs to be something consumers really want, not just something you think would be cool to offer.

Viability. A niche audience with an interest in your concept won't support a successful business, so you need to ensure there's a market (but not one that's oversaturated with competition).

Feasibility. Product concepts will only work if you have all of the resources you need for development and the current technology actually exists.

Ease of use. When testers interact with prototypes, it's easy to identify the challenges they face and brainstorm solutions that improve the user experience.

For example, L'Occitane used testing to assess its in-store soap refill station. It rolled out the concept to a few of its brick-and-mortar stores in 2020 to gauge customer interest, see if shoppers understood how to use the station, and see how profitable the idea really was. And it's clear the usability test was successful because L'Occitane launched the sustainable soap concept at an international level in 2021. L'Occitane demonstrates how testing solutions with the end-users in mind can lead to better outcomes.

Pro-tip: Map out your assumptions to improve the feasibility, viability, and desirability of your solutions.

How to conduct testing

The sooner and more often you test solutions that address your initial problem statement, the more likely your final product is to succeed. To complete the testing stage, you need to design your test parameters, then plan user interactions, and finally execute your testing plan.

Define test parameters

Because of the work completed in the previous stages of design thinking, you'll already have an idea of who your end users are - this is who should participate in testing.

Next, specify what you want to test. At the concept stage, that might mean presenting product designs and polling your audience. But if you already have a prototype, you'll want to run more targeted tests, like tracking the number of support tickets submitted by an app's beta users.

For example, when LEGO decided it was done targeting only boys with its products, it wanted to expand its offerings with a new product line targeted to girls aged 5 and up. That meant designing and testing various characters before deciding which to include in the final product line. The company's design thinkers even identified five "main characters."

Plan user interactions

When you converge with your team and stakeholders to start the testing process, you'll need a plan for segmenting, notifying, and gathering participants. For some design teams, this is as easy as setting up a sign-up form online. Your goal, however is to get as close to real users as possible to test the solution.

Pro-tip: To better understand how users will encounter and engage with your solution, try creating a customer journey map.

Execute your testing plan

Once you've created a plan for what (and how) you'll test, assign responsibilities to internal stakeholders to ensure the tests are conducted efficiently. Roles you might consider include:

A project manager to ensure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities

A facilitator to administer tests and offer context for test takers

An analyst role to understand the testing goals and can create a report explaining the test results

Once roles are assigned, establish a timeframe for when the test sessions will take place. Ensure everyone is aware of what tasks they need to complete and their deadlines - then roll out testing.

5 tips to improve testing and user research

The key to effective user testing is honest and unbiased feedback. Following the tips we've outlined below will help you avoid common missteps that could taint the test results, like asking leading questions or ignoring negative feedback.

1. Show, don't tell

It's important to provide context for test participants so they understand what the product is and how to use it. But be careful to avoid over-explaining, and don't talk about what you're hoping to learn from the test. This kind of information could influence how test participants interact with the product and, consequently, the test results.

One way to approach this (and still get the targeted information you need) is with low-fidelity prototypes like A/B testing mockups, two web page wireframes with different color schemes. That way, test takers can compare different potential solutions and offer feedback on the differences they see, rather than relying on facilitators to give them guidance on what kind of feedback they're looking for.

2. Engage test group participants

Think-aloud testing encourages participants to verbalize their thoughts continuously while they interact with a product. It allows you to collect real-time feedback and makes it easier to identify pain points as they arise. And according to the Luma Institute, this kind of testing can help uncover 80% of design flaws.

Get started for free with the Think-Aloud Testing template.

Talking to participants is easy enough when you conduct in-person tests. But for remote testing, test facilitators should use a digital solution that supports virtual interactions.

3. Be an unbiased observer

Watching participants interact with a prototype in real time helps you understand how the average consumer will experience the product once it launches. But this is true only if the facilitator remains unbiased and is careful to limit how they influence testers. Be sure to replicate the environment an end-user will be in if the solution were to be rolled out already.

4. Schedule a follow-up

After you've collected feedback, you'll go back to the definition and ideation phases to make improvements based on what you learned from testing.

But once you've made revisions, it's a good idea to test the new prototype to ensure the changes you made actually improve the product. Establishing a follow-up test or saving prior participant's' contact information means you won't have to start from scratch every time you want to conduct a new round of testing. In this next iteration, a high-fidelity prototype may be better to test with users to understand how the changes affect the user's experience.

5. Lead with empathy

A critical element of effective design thinking and human-centered design is empathy for the people experiencing the core problem you're trying to solve. When you empathize with your customer, you gain a deeper understanding of the core user's problem and how it affects them.

Remember, test participants are always right. The purpose of the testing phase is to check your work to make sure all of the ideation, design, and prototyping you went through will lead to a successful product launch. But if you're defensive about the product, try to hide potential pitfalls, or ignore criticism from participants, you won't get an accurate picture of the real customer experience. And your product could fail.

To get the most out of testing, work to empathize with participants during the process. As they verbalize their experience, ask follow-up questions to dig deeper and encourage them to elaborate so that you truly understand their pain points and can work to address them in the next prototype.

Use our think-aloud test template to guide you through testing

Ensuring test participants feel comfortable enough to talk freely and honestly about their experience requires careful test planning and empathetic moderation. Digital whiteboard and collaboration platforms like Mural help teams plan and run tests by offering a framework that makes it easy to set goals and offering talking points to guide test moderation.

Get started with the Think-aloud Testing template from Mural to kick off the testing phase of your next design thinking process.

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Testing: A Guide to the 5th Stage of Design Thinking | Mural

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Get tips, tricks, and templates for testing and prototyping solutions with design thinking.

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Testing is the fifth stage in the Design Thinking process -and a crucial component of product development. In this guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about testing your prototypes and gathering real user feedback.

We'll start with a quick refresher on what Design Thinking is, and the steps that precede the testing phase. If you're already familiar with Design Thinking, just use the clickable menu below to skip ahead.

In this complete guide to testing, we'll explore the following:

1. What is Design Thinking-and where does testing come into it?

2. What is user testing and why is it so important?

3. User testing methods

4. How to conduct user testing: A step-by-step guide

Ready to complete the fifth step in the Design Thinking process? Let's go!

1. What is Design Thinking, and where does testing come into it?

Design Thinking is a solution-based approach to solving complex problems. It is both an ideology and a process that can be divided into five stages:

1. Empathize: Get to know your target users, understand their needs, goals and pain-points in relation to the product, and build empathy.

2. Define a meaningful problem statement; what is your design challenge? What user problem are you trying to solve?

3. Conduct ideation sessions to generate as many ideas as possible. Ideation in Design Thinking is all about challenging assumptions and thinking outside the box.

4. Create a scaled-down version of your product to be tested on real users. Prototypes are a quick, cost-effective way of testing your idea before developing it into a fully-fledged product.

5. Test: Put your prototype in front of real users and see how it fares! The testing phase gives you the feedback and insight you need to iterate on your prototype and make improvements.

Design Thinking fosters innovation and creativity. It encourages us to remove our blinkers and consider alternative solutions beyond the realm of the tried-and-tested. It is also highly user-centric-just like user experience (UX) design.

While Design Thinking does consist of five distinct, seemingly logical phases, it's important to note that it is not a linear process. With each step, you'll uncover new insights which may challenge or redefine what you've done before. The five phases often overlap and feed into each other, so be prepared to loop back and forth in constant iteration. During the testing phase, for example, you'll once again find yourself empathizing with your users. This might lead you to reconsider your problem statement (as set out in phase two: define) and to revisit the ideation stage-and so on.

You can learn more in this complete beginner's guide to Design Thinking. For now, though, let's focus on step five: testing!

2. What exactly is user testing and why is it so important?

Testing is, quite simply, the process of testing your prototype on real users. During the test phase, you'll see how your target users interact with your prototype, and gather valuable feedback. You'll learn where your prototype succeeds and where it needs to be improved. The insights gathered during the testing phase will enable you to iterate on your prototype.

Why conduct user testing?

Together, prototyping and testing add huge value to the design process. Not only does user testing help you to remain user-centric; it also makes good business sense. By testing your ideas early and often, you are able to identify design flaws and usability issues before you take the product to market. This has countless benefits for you, the user, and the business!

So why conduct user testing?

User testing saves time and money: By catching errors and usability issues early on, you ensure that the product you eventually launch is the most bug-free, user-friendly product it can be. What happens if you skip the testing phase in favor of getting the product developed as soon as possible? You'll spend considerable time and money correcting the product post-launch. Not only is this frustrating-it's also bad for the bottom line.

User testing reveals unexpected insights: No matter how thorough your initial user research was, or how convinced you are that you've designed the optimal solution to your user's problem, there are always new insights to be uncovered. Seeing real users interact with an early version of your product will highlight issues that you would not have anticipated otherwise.

User testing improves user satisfaction: Design Thinking is all about putting the user first. By gathering first-hand user feedback, you can make informed design decisions-improving user satisfaction in the long run. As a designer, prototyping and testing will keep you focused on the user at all times. Of course, satisfied customers are good for business, too!

As you can see, prototyping and testing makes sense for everyone involved! Now let's consider when might be the best time to conduct user tests.

When should you carry out user testing?

You'd be forgiven for thinking that user testing belongs right at the end of the design process, just before you're getting ready to launch. However, user testing should actually be incorporated throughout. Be sure to test early and often!

In the early stages of the process, testing will help you to get feedback on your initial ideas. At this point, you'll use low-fidelity prototypes-such as a very basic paper model-to test out a concept.

As your design starts to take shape, you'll move onto digital prototypes. Low and mid-fidelity clickable prototypes can be used to test things like layout and information architecture, without distracting the user with too many visuals.

Towards the end of the process, you'll seek to fine-tune the details of your design. You'll test the overall usability of the product with high-fidelity, fully functional digital prototypes that look and behave just like the real thing.

Now we've covered the what, why, and when of user testing, let's consider the how.

3. User testing methods

There are different methods and techniques you can use to test your prototypes. User tests can be conducted in-person or remote, and they may be moderated or unmoderated. Before we delve into specific user testing methods, let's consider these differences.

Remote vs. in-person user testing

During in-person testing, you'll be in the same room as the user while they test your prototype. This has several advantages. Not only are you able to control the testing environment and keep distractions to a minimum; you can also directly observe the user. You are privy to facial expressions, body language, and any verbal commentary the user makes as they interact with the product-giving you valuable, first-hand insight into their experience. However, in-person testing can be expensive and time-consuming.

Remote user testing offers a less expensive, more convenient alternative, but you'll have little to no control over the user's testing environment. If you're testing a digital prototype, you can conduct moderated or unmoderated remote user tests. Let's explore each of these options now.

Moderated vs. unmoderated user testing

Moderated remote user testing is a good middle ground between in-person tests and completely unmoderated remote tests. Live remote testing allows you to observe your users over a video call, for example. You can use a screen recording app to capture the test, and certain programs will also track and highlight where the user clicks in your digital prototype.

Unmoderated tests can be conducted via user testing platforms such as UserZoom, loop11, and usertesting.com. If you're short on time, such tools make it easy to conduct user tests quickly and with minimal effort. However, you won't have the opportunity to observe the users or ask them questions.

Whether you choose to conduct in-person or remote user tests all depends on your budget, time constraints, and the prototype you're testing. Paper prototypes are best tested in person, while digital prototypes can be tested both remotely and in-person.

What are some of the most common user testing methods used in Design Thinking?

So what methods can you use to test your prototypes?

Here are five of the most popular user testing techniques used by UX designers and design thinkers!

1. Concept testing

In the very early stages of the design process, you'll want to test out your initial concepts before actually designing them. Low-fidelity prototypes-a simple sketch, or even static images-can be used to communicate your idea to your target users. You'll then interview your users to gauge how they feel about the concept. Is it a product or feature they'd be interested in using? Does it have the potential to solve the user's problem? You can learn more about the value of concept testing in UX design here.

2. A/B testing

A/B testing is used to compare two different versions of a design. This method can be used at any stage of the design process, whether you have paper prototypes or fully clickable digital ones. In A/B testing, you'll create two different prototypes and test each version on a different set of users. You might test two different layouts, for example, or different copy for a certain CTA button on a certain screen. It's important to only A/B test one variable at a time so as not to skew the results. You'll find a complete guide to A/B testing on prototypes here.

3. Usability testing

A crucial user testing method that should be used repeatedly throughout the design process, usability testing shows you how easy your design is to use. Usability testing is usually an observational exercise: you'll ask your users to complete certain tasks, and observe them as they do so. Throughout the test, you'll see which aspects of the design caused problems for the user, as well as which aspects appear to be user-friendly. In doing so, you'll identify usability issues which you'll seek to fix in the next iteration of your prototype. You can learn more about how to conduct usability testing in this step-by-step guide.

4. First-click testing

When designing an app or a website, you want to make sure that the user takes the intended action whenever they land on a certain page or screen. First-click testing shows you what your users first steps are when they encounter an interface; in other words, where do they click first? This helps you to determine which visual elements and content should take priority, where buttons, icons, and menu items should be located, as well as the kind of language you should use for buttons and labels. First-click testing can be conducted using both low and high-fidelity prototypes. You'll find a comprehensive guide to first-click testing here.

5. Tree testing

Once you've come up with the information architecture of your digital product, you can use tree testing to see how user-friendly it really is. You'll present the user with a "tree" of information-representative of how your site menus would be laid out-and ask them to find specific items. If users struggle to locate certain information, you'll need to rethink your information architecture. Tree testing is often conducted as a remote, unmoderated study, but it can also be done in person using paper prototypes. The Nielsen Norman Group has put together an extensive guide to tree testing here.

4. How to conduct user testing: A step-by-step guide

Now you're familiar with some common user testing methods, let's get down to the logistics. When it comes to running user tests, there are certain steps you need to follow-regardless of your chosen method:

1. Set an objective: The very first thing you'll need to do is set a clear objective. What do you want to learn from your user tests? What question do you hope to answer? Setting a clear objective will help you to build the right kind of prototype and choose the most appropriate user testing method. For example: If you're designing an ecommerce app, your objective might be to test how easy it is for your users to add an item to their wishlist.

2. Build your prototype: You know what you want to test; now it's time to build your prototype. If you're in the very early stages of testing an idea, you'll stick to low-fidelity prototypes. Once you've decided on a concept, you'll want to test the finer details, such as information architecture or microcopy, using mid and high-fidelity prototypes.

3. Create a plan: For the sake of consistency, it's important to create a plan for your user testing session. Your plan should include your objective or question; the method you intend to use to test your prototype; the number of users you'll test on; a list of all the equipment you'll need; and how you'll document and measure your findings. Depending on your chosen method, you may also want to create a script in order to keep the session focused.

4. Recruit participants: Another crucial aspect of user testing is recruiting the right participants. You want to test on users who represent your target audience, so spend a bit of time identifying some key criteria. If you're designing an over-50s dating app, for example, it wouldn't make sense to run user tests with a group of 18 year-olds.

5. Gather all the necessary equipment: Having recruited your participants, you're ready to get the session underway. Refer back to your plan and make sure you've got everything you need to conduct the tests: screen recording software if you're conducting remote testing, pens and paper for taking notes, and, of course, your prototype!

6. Document your findings: Throughout each user test, be sure to document your findings. You'll need a thorough record of each test in order to analyze your observations and compare the results of each session.

5. What next?

You've conducted several user tests and have documented your findings. What happens now?

After a round of user tests, you'll need to spend some time analyzing the results. You'll look for patterns in what you've observed and the feedback you received. Your tests will either validate that something works well, or highlight issues that need to be fixed. Either way, the insights you gather from user testing will inform your next steps. Do you need to reiterate on the current design in order to fix a usability issue? Did your initial concept completely fail in front of your users, sending you back to the ideation phase? Perhaps your test users confirmed that your information architecture is extremely user friendly, meaning you're ready to start refining the design.

Design Thinking is all about iterating and reiterating until your product is ready for launch-but it doesn't stop there! Even once your product is on the market, you'll continue to run tests and add new features or make improvements.

Prototyping and testing are absolutely key to creating user-friendly products, so remember to test early and often!

If you'd like to learn more about user-centric design, check out the following guides:

And if you'd like to learn how you can run your own Design Thinking workshop at your company, read this step-by-step guide.

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User Testing: A Guide To Step 5 Of The Design Thinking Process

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Testing is the fifth stage in the Design Thinking process -and a crucial component of product development. In this guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about testing your prototypes and gathering real user feedback. We'll start with a quick refresher on what Design Thinking is, and the steps that precede the testing phase.

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Interaction Design Foundation: How to Gather Feedback (Test Your Prototypes)

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Interaction Design Foundation: How to Gather Feedback (Test Your Prototypes)

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Once you've built your prototypes, it's time to gather feedback from your users. It's essential for you to optimize how you gather feedback, because you not only save time and resources but also learn more from your prototypes and test sessions. So, to help you maximize what you can learn from your tests, we'll share six best practice tips on how to gather feedback, as well as three methods (with downloadable templates!) on how you can organize your feedback.
Six Best Practice Tips for Gathering Feedback on Your Prototypes

Gathering feedback is a crucial element in the design thinking process as well as all other human-centered design processes. To maximize the benefits of gathering feedback, however, you need to be purposeful about it. Here are some pointers to take note of when you gather feedback from your users.

1. Think of How to Solicit Feedback

How you solicit feedback from your users (or team-mates, if you are doing preliminary tests within your team) depends largely on what type of prototype you have built. For instance, if your prototype is a paper interface, you'll need to conduct in-person tests with people and guide them through the process of using the prototype to gather feedback. Nevertheless, there are some general rules of thumb you can rely on to solicit better feedback.

First, consider testing several versions of your prototype. This helps to solicit critical feedback, because people tend to hold back on overtly criticizing prototypes. When you present people with alternatives, you allow them to compare the various prototypes and tell you what they liked and disliked about each version, so you will get more honest feedback.

You can also use the "I Like, I Wish, What If" method to solicit honest feedback in test sessions. This method helps your participants to voice their opinions in a critical but positive manner. We will cover more on this method, and provide a downloadable template for it, further down.

2. Test Your Prototypes on the Right People

To get the best results, you need to test on the right people. If you are in the early stages of your design project and just want some simple and rough feedback, it's good enough to test on your team-mates. However, towards the end of your project, when you create more detailed prototypes, you should test on a representative sample of users to get the most relevant feedback.

On top of regular users, you can also test on extreme users. This helps you uncover problems that affect regular users, because extreme users tend to be more vocal about their love (or hate) of doing things related to your prototype. To find extreme users, you need to define a dimension relevant to your prototype. If you're working on an idea related to supermarkets, for example, your extreme users could be parents with 8 children in tow who shop at the supermarket every day, and (on the other end of the scale) remote farmers who might do monthly orders, but only appear in-person at supermarkets perhaps once or twice a year.

When you test on extreme users, you might gain insightful feedback.

If your product or service serves an international audience, you should also test your prototypes across regions and countries. Different cultures and customs might affect how people use your prototype.

You should also get feedback on your prototypes at various stages from stakeholders other than your users. Internal stakeholders, manufacturers, retailers and distributors each have their own criteria for building, making or shipping your product, and can have an impact on your solution's success. When you gather feedback from these stakeholders, you'll prevent your team from receiving a nasty shock when you realize that you can't implement the product as feasibly as you had believed.

3. Ask the Right Questions

Each prototype that you test should answer a few core questions. Before you test your prototypes, you should therefore figure out what exactly you want to test. For example, if you want to assess your product's usability, then you should create tasks for participants to complete to test how easy your solution is to use. Subsequently, in a post-testing interview with each participant, you should focus on positive and negative feedback relating to usability.

At the same time, keep an open mind when you test your prototypes, even though you have a few questions you want to answer. Many times, test sessions can reveal key points on issues that your team did not even know to focus on. After testing, you should evaluate the feedback and decide if there are new questions that you should ask during future test sessions.

4. Be Neutral When You Present Your Ideas

When you present your prototypes to your participants, be as objective as you can. Refrain from trying to sell your idea. Remember that the goal of prototyping and testing is to find ways to improve your idea. When you over-sell your idea, you're likely to reduce the likelihood of receiving accurate feedback.

Refrain from defending your prototype when your participants voice negative feedback. Instead, probe them further to find out what exactly is wrong with your solution. Don't get too attached to your idea, and always be ready to dismantle, change or even abandon it when you need to. Remember, this stage is like a rehearsal, not the real "show"; you're not being cut to pieces in the marketplace-in fact, when you make careful corrections that stem from negative feedback, you'll greatly help your chances of success later on.

5. Adapt While You Test

Adopt a flexible mindset when you test your prototypes. For instance, if you realize that participants keep getting distracted by a nonessential part of your prototype, you can remove it to bring the focus back to the key elements of your prototype. Also, if you think your script for the test session does not work well, feel free to deviate from it to get the best feedback from your participants.

Even though you should adapt while you test, be aware that you shouldn't change things up with every test session. Be flexible- within reason. After all, you need to perform the same test on multiple participants to get an accurate picture of how well your prototype works with the average participant. If you change things up in every test-for example, if you change your prototype or your script in each test-you'll find it difficult to compare the results of different test sessions.

6. Let Your Participants Contribute Ideas

During your test session, allow your participants to contribute ideas to improve your prototype. You can ask your participants how the product or service could be improved, for example. Doing so would encourage participants to provide useful critiques as well as help improve your solution.

You can also turn some questions that your participants ask during the tests around-and ask them what they think. For example, if your participant asks you how to charge an electronic device, turn it around to ask them what they think would be the best charging method for the product. Even if you don't adopt their ideas, you'll get some insight about their key areas of concern.

You can download our guidelines in this template: "Six Best Practice Tips for Gathering Feedback on Your Prototypes"!

3 Methods to Maximize What You Learn from Tests

Usability tests are an art as much as they are a science. After all, most people are not familiar with how to provide feedback in the best way. Thankfully, you can use a few methods to give some structure and organization to your feedback-gathering process.

1. Feedback Capture Grid

A feedback capture grid allows you to organize feedback in a structured way. You can use it during the test to capture feedback from your participants systematically, or after the test to organize the feedback you've gathered.

To get started, divide a sheet of paper into four quadrants. Label the top-left quadrant "Likes"-this is where you'll note down positive feedback. The top-right quadrant is "Criticisms", where you'll capture negative feedback and criticisms. On the bottom-left quadrant is "Questions", where you'll write down questions that the participants have asked as well as new questions the test session raised. Lastly, the bottom-right quadrant is "Ideas", where you'll take down ideas that the test session had sparked.

Make sure each quadrant has at least a few notes. When you use the grid during a test session, for instance, you can steer the conversation towards quadrants that don't have enough input.

To get help you get started, we've created a template on how to use the feedback capture grid method:

2. I Like, I Wish, What If

"I Like, I Wish, What If" helps you gather feedback in a structured way. This is useful when your participants don't have much experience with giving constructive critique. Quite simply, the "I Like, I Wish, What If" method invites the participant (or your team-mates, during a discussion session) to provide open feedback by coming up with three kinds of statements:

In " I Like... " statements, encourage your participants to convey aspects that they liked about the prototype. This provides you with positive feedback about your prototype.

In " I Wish... " statements, prompt participants to share ideas of how the prototype can be changed or improved to address their concerns. This is an avenue to collect negative feedback and constructive criticism.

Lastly, in " What If... " statements, ask participants to express new suggestions that might not have a direct link to the prototype. This opens up possibilities for new ideas that your team can then explore in future iterations of prototypes.

One key advantage of this method is that it frames participants' feedback in a constructive and positive manner. This lets you openly discuss and absorb their feedback. Rather than prompt participants to say, "This feature sucks! Why did you design it like that?", you help them say something more constructive, like "I wish you would change this part to..." and "What if you moved this...and added...".

Please feel free to download and print our template for the "I Like, I Wish, What If" method:

3. Sharing Inspiring Stories

Stories are powerful tools that you can use to inspire yourself and your team. After you've done a round of tests with your prototypes, get together with your team and share inspiring stories with one another. When you capture what resonates with you and your team-mates, you'll help identify ideas and feelings that your team can work on when they think of new solutions.

Here's how you can build on the power of stories to help you absorb and organize your tests. One by one, you and your team-mates share a couple of interesting and inspiring stories you have observed while testing the prototype. Be as detailed as possible, and take down notes and observations about the stories on Post-its. Put up all the Post-it notes on a wall. You can then examine the stories you've shared and look for common threads and possible insights about your users and translate the inspiring stories into actionable next steps for the project.

To help you and your team get started, you can download our template for " Sharing Inspiring Stories ".

Build, Gather Feedback, Iterate

It's useless to absorb feedback if you don't put the new information into use in the next iterations of your prototypes. Given that, you need to develop a habit with your team to actively integrate what you have learnt back into your process, and consciously develop new iterations of your solutions as you move forward.

You can conduct a post-feedback discussion with your team to achieve this.

First, use the "Feedback Capture Grid", "I Like, I Wish, What If" or "Sharing Inspiring Stories" method to gather and share the lessons you have learned with your team.

Next, discuss how to synthesize the feedback you have received. You can, for example, start a brainstorming session to generate ideas to integrate the feedback collected into your prototypes.

Finally, go out there and create your next prototypes. Have a bias towards action! Keep iterating your prototypes by constantly testing and integrating your findings, and eventually you will reach an optimal solution that addresses most of the key areas of your user needs.

The Take Away

It's exciting to gather feedback on your prototype. To get the most out of your test sessions, you should optimize the way you gather. We've covered six tips for gathering feedback on your prototype:

1. Think of how to solicit feedback.

2. Test your prototypes on the right people.

3. Ask the right questions.

4. Be neutral when you present your ideas.

5. Adapt while you test.

6. Let your participants contribute ideas.

We've also introduced three methods for getting honest feedback: "Feedback Capture Grid", "I Like, I Wish, What If" and "Sharing Inspiring Stories". That way, you can maximize how much you learn from testing your prototypes. Lastly, make it a habit to use the feedback you have gathered to build new and improved prototypes-and keep working on that iterative process to move towards your final product or service.

References & Where to Learn More

IDEO, Human-Centered Design Toolkit, 2009

d.school, Bootcamp Bootleg, 2013

IDEO, Integrate Feedback and Iterate

IDEO, Share Inspiring Stories

Images

Hero Image: © Teo Yu Siang and the Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

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Test Your Prototypes: How to Gather Feedback and Maximize Learning

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Learn tips to gather and organize feedback such as choosing the right people, asking adequate questions and avoiding bias, and methods such as the feedback capture grid.

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Ilya Dmitruk - Eleken SaaS Design Agency

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Why Iterative Design Process Brings the Finest Results

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Cantina.co: Understaning Design Fidelity for Creating a Great Product Experience

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Cantina.co: Understaning Design Fidelity for Creating a Great Product Experience

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Building great product experiences requires having an effective design process. Now, with the variety of UI/UX tools and methods available, it's important for designers to understand what processes to use at any range of fidelity. Timing is also critical here, as each one of these methods is used at different stages of a project.

Defining Fidelity

Design fidelity refers to the level of details and functionality built into a prototype. There are three levels of fidelity: low, mid and high.

Low fidelity prototypes consist of sticky notes and sketches, which is great for high-level brainstorming and collaboration.

Mid fidelity prototypes are often called wireframes.

High fidelity prototypes almost represent the finished product.

Low Fidelity - Sketching

We'll start with the lowest fidelity in the design process, which is sketching. All you need is a pen, some sticky notes and lots of paper. It's good to start at a macro level and get all your high-level ideas on paper, then collaborate with the project team. This will help you communicate with stakeholders, get initial feedback and then refine your thinking. Start filling in more and more details, which helps the direction evolve. The goal is to generate a bunch of idea that ultimately sets the groundwork for the next phase, which is creating wireframes.

Mid Fidelity - Wireframes

Wireframes are a digitally structured version of your notes and sketches that are meant to be semi-functional, but not include any design aesthetics or graphics. These are produced using applications like Photoshop, Balsamiq or other similar tools.

At this stage of the process, you've already generated a wide range of ideas and began the reduction phase. This means the removal of any ideas that didn't work, and refining the best ones on your list. Remember, this is a process that will be repeated throughout design phase. Now it's time to create something tangible to actualize the UX work put together during the sketching phase, this is called wireframing.

Creating wireframes means implementing your ideas into a clean formatted version of a sketch. Wireframes give us the ability to create pixel-based layouts that resembles the product structure, but with limited functionality and little to no styling. This let's us determine what elements work within our layout, and which ones cause constraints that can impact the user experience. Wireframes are not meant to look beautiful or resemble any particular style guide, and should remain within the low-to-mid fidelity range.

High Fidelity - Prototypes

Most of the necessary design assets and components have been developed and integrated by the time you're building a prototype, which usually consists of HTML/CSS and JavaScript. Comps are excellent for conveying the look and feel of a product, but they can't interact with the user, which is why prototyping is so important.

It's critical to collect as much usability data as possible, in order to evaluate what works and what needs more fine-tuning. Build your prototype with HTML/CSS and use JavaScript for any behavioral components. Prototypes should include the details and aesthetics of your visual and UX designs, and have been refined and tested many times. The level of fidelity is usually very close to final product.

What's the most important fidelity range?

Focusing on the low-to-mid range fidelity seem to be most effective approach. This allows for an iterative design process to evolve over time, but without getting in the way of conducting any user testing. Limiting the level of creative details and nuances involved in visual design at this stage prevents the client from focusing on colors, fonts, images or layout aesthetics when you're trying to refine the functional aspects of the product.

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Understanding Design Fidelity for Creating a Great Product Experience - Cantina

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Building great product experiences requires having an effective design process. Now, with the variety of UI/UX tools and methods available, it's important for designers to understand what processes to use at any range of fidelity. Timing is also critical here, as each one of these methods is used at different stages of a project.

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As part of the user experience design series at MOBGEN, we have recently covered the benefits of low-fidelity prototyping within design process of digital products. Additional to low-fi prototypes, designers can also make use of high-fidelity prototyping in their process to communicate or validate concepts.
What is high-fidelity prototyping?
With the recent announcement of Origami studio by Facebook, and the Framer's upgrade - some of the tools used in the industry for creating high-fidelity interactive prototypes - the timing for this post could not have been better.

The fidelity of the prototype refers to the level of details and functionality built into a prototype. In this sense, a high-fidelity (sometimes referred as high-fi or hi-fi) prototype is a computer-based interactive representation of the product in its closest resemblance to the final design in terms of details and functionality. The "high" in high-fidelity refers to the level of comprehensiveness that allows you to examine usability questions in detail and make conclusions about the user behaviour.

The hi-fi prototypes cover not only the user interface (UI) of the product in terms of visuals and aesthetics, but also the user experience (UX) aspects in terms of interactions, user flow and behaviour.

You might be thinking, lo-fi, hi-fi, (do these, by chance, have anything to do with wi-fi?) - what is the need for another technique and how is this better than lo-fi?
When?
Now, it is not a question of which usability testing technique is better, and perhaps you may even need a combination of the two (+ other prototyping methods) in your design process, but it is the matter of when to use which method, and why? Extensive research has been done in literature proving that both methods are basically equivalent in finding usability issues (Walker et al 2002). At MOBGEN, we broadly use both techniques depending on the stage of the design process and the maturity level of our designs. In fact, often designers make various prototypes using more than one technique, moving towards the final production methods as the designs mature towards completion (Newman & Landay, 2000).

When you have visual designs of your product

When you have an idea about interactive elements, such as navigational schemas from a screen to another; animations; and mini-interactions, and are able to prototype them

When you want to test the details of your products in terms of UI elements, colour schemes or copy

When you want to test the transitions, animations, and effects of them on the user and user behaviour

When you want to know how your target users feel about your product and you want to get their opinions on your designs.

Why?
So, when is the right time to use hi-fi prototypes?

The main purpose of interactive prototypes is their use in the usability testing of the product have target users validate it. It is important to test your product before launching it in the market to foresee any issues or failures. Getting the most out of the feedback can be done with a prototype that is closest to the final product in its detail and functionality.

In addition to validating designs, interactive prototypes can be used for presentations and pitches. When you want to communicate the designs and functionalities of your product to your team members, clients or other stakeholders in the project, and when the functional build of the software is not developed, a high-fidelity prototype does the job very well.

Interactive prototypes are made as close to the true graphical representation of the products as they can to allow thorough testing on all the detailed aspects, including UI components, colours, layouts, the information hierarchy, mental load of the screens on users, and other interactions.

They provide a good base in terms of project management for making estimates on how much time is needed for implementation and quality assurance testing

The availability of interactive prototypes can improve the collaboration with developers as they will have a clearer idea on how the application should behave

Most importantly, by allowing you to test your product, the prototypes can save the company the cost in terms of time and money on building something that would have had little success in the market.

There are multiple benefits of using high-fidelity prototypes in product design:

Hi-fi prototypes are costly in terms of time and resources to produce compared to their low-fidelity cousins.

Because it is more time-consuming to change the designs, it is harder to make on-the-go fixes in between users during a usability testing if you want to update your prototype quickly to get better feedback.

As hi-fi prototypes have a finished look, participants in usability testings may not feel comfortable making critiques or pointing out flaws in the designs.

How? Materials and methods.
As with everything, there is always the other side of the coin, and so are there drawbacks in using high-fidelity prototypes in your design process:

In order to create an interactive prototype, you need to get all your ingredients ready. First of all, prepare your visuals and set your user flows. Identify all the transitions and animations you want to create between different objects or screens. Finally, choose the right tool according to your needs. There is a growing list of prototyping tools available for designers.

Some of the top mobile and web software prototyping tools currently in the industry are:

Aesthetics of the produced prototype, in terms of visuals and interactions giving a native feeling; how fluid the animations are, and so on.

The availability of established interaction models in the software that you can use to drag and drop in order to create your prototypes quickly

Handling of assets, in terms of syncing with popular cloud-based platforms, ease of storing and searching assets in the software, and ease of updating all instances when changing the source asset.

Compatibility with Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch or any of your favourite tools to generate visuals

Ability to preview your prototypes across different-sized devices and platforms

Playback speed

Publishing capabilities to enable sharing with your clients and other stakeholders

Availability of library with common UI elements to aid creating quick screens

Collaboration, in terms of allowing colleagues or others to comment or feedback on features

The web has enough information on comparing pros and cons of each tool that we do not want to repeat again here. Although, what is important to mention here is that when choosing your most optimal prototyping tool, you need to base your decisions on practical considerations:
Practical tips from MOBGEN:
As all design projects have different needs and teams have different standards or goals, you can make your decisions accordingly. We at MOBGEN have used Invision, Pixate, and Principle in the past and have currently opted for Proto.io. We prefer Proto.io for its simplicity and how fast you can create things with it. It has a library with standard interface elements that you can use to create your screens quickly without having to switch to Photoshop for simple elements. It is web-based and keeps your projects on the 'cloud' - meaning that if you switch devices, you can access it from anywhere (the mobile app even has an offline mode to access your prototypes without internet). It is suitable for both beginner and advanced users; you get a hold of the app quickly thanks to the simplicity of established triggers and interactions, while the advanced users can enjoy the vast amount of capabilities enabling customised codes.

Inform the users that it is the prototype that is being tested, and not the user or their capabilities. It is important for users to know that this is only a prototype; it is an early product idea and that there may be areas that are not functioning. They should also not see this as a finished product and should feel comfortable pointing out flaws in the design.

If time permits, allow yourself a window in between users, in case you need to make improvements before the next user. This way you maximise the amount of improvements you can make during the testing session.

While formal usability testing sessions are useful, it can also be time-consuming. Use your interactive prototypes to show and get quick feedback anywhere anytime. Ask a colleague (who is not familiar with the project), a friend, or even your mum to use the app and tell you what they think about it.

Generally, the results of testing with hi-fi prototyping are used to revise your user interface. Even before the test, be clear about what you want to achieve through the usability testing and how you will approach the results. In terms of project management, make it clear to your team how you will be implementing the improvements that you have achieved from your findings.

When testing a prototype of an app with a long flow, we have found that when something goes wrong and the app crashes, the user will have to start the whole flow from the beginning, to both the tester and user's annoyance. A practical solution we have come up with to solve this is creating several milestones in the flow (Section 1 - sign up, Section 2 - onboarding, section 3 - personal profile, etc..., for example) and create a starting page in the prototype with shortcuts to each of these milestones. This way, if the app crashes you can pick up from where you were instead of having to start from the beginning.

From our experience with creating interactive prototypes and using them in usability testings, we have learned a lot in how to achieve the best results. To save you some time and many lessons to learn, we wanted to share some practical tips:

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High-fidelity prototyping: What, When, Why and How?

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As part of the user experience design series at MOBGEN, we have recently covered the benefits of low-fidelity prototyping within design process of digital products. Additional to low-fi prototypes...

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Whether you're a UX designer exploring mobile app concepts or a digital product owner kicking off a feature design sprint, low-fidelity prototypes are the keys you need to unlock creativity. With these simple mockups, you can quickly test and validate your design concepts.

Read on to learn more about:

What is low-fidelity prototyping

How your team can use low-fidelity prototyping to design stronger final products

How to make a low-fidelity prototype in four simple steps with Figma

A low-fidelity prototype is a simple diagram of an early-stage design concept. UX design teams use them to quickly test an idea, identify gaps and pitfalls, and discard product designs that don't resonate with users. An important step in the design thinking process, low-fidelity prototyping drives ideation and innovation for basic page layout, content organization, and user flow.

Designers use two types of low-fidelity prototypes: paper prototypes and wireframes.

Paper prototyping involves sketching basic user interfaces onto a piece of paper or a whiteboard. Designers and key stakeholders use these low-fi prototyping tools to rapidly capture ideas for a new or redesigned user experience. While offline prototypes can generate useful internal feedback with small teams, online whiteboards facilitate prototyping with larger, hybrid teams.

Wireframing uses simple blueprints of digital screens to capture basic layouts and content hierarchy. Wireframes can also show user interactions in a user flow, which can be helpful for usability testing. Pro tip: Figma's wireframing tool helps you build low-fidelity assets you can easily sync with your design system components.

Lo-fi prototyping can have a big impact on the overall user experience. When used effectively, a low-fi prototype can help you:

Collect relevant user feedback quickly. Users feel more comfortable critiquing works in progress (i.e., rough sketches or wireframes) than near-final designs. Prototypes with more features or a higher level of detail take more time to assess.

Reduce product development risk by addressing user interface issues in the early stages of design and development.

Streamline workflows by helping product team members avoid costly, time-consuming revisions later in the design and development process.

Make changes on the fly in an agile design process that allows for quick and easy fixes.

Collaborate with different teams. Strategists, developers, and project managers can build low-fi prototypes-especially online prototypes which don't require design expertise.

Low-fidelity prototypes capture design ideas in rough whiteboard sketches or simple wireframes. Hi-fi prototypes have the look and feel of a finished product, with interaction designs that are practically pixel-perfect-they may include animations and clickable screens.

Both types of prototypes play key roles in product development. Low-fidelity prototyping takes place in the early stages of design, to model and test concepts before investing build time. High-fidelity prototyping happens at later stages, when you're ready to stress-test design functionality with robust user testing.

Any team can use lo-fi prototypes to sketch out compelling user experiences-no design experience necessary. Just follow these four steps to master lo-fi prototyping.
Step 1: Outline the problem you want to solve.
What design concept do you want to test to meet user needs or challenges? Work with your business and UX research teams to capture design goals in a clear problem statement.
Step 2: Outline core functionality.
What design elements and interactions are essential? Sketch out your basic design concept, capturing its structure and sequence with a simple storyboard or user flow.
Step 3: Develop your design.
Start outlining the screens in your flow. You could use paper or an online whiteboard-or apply readymade screen layouts with FigJam's prototyping template. Keep each screen simple and high-level, with limited interactions, transitions, and visual design. Stay focused on the problem you're solving.
Step 4: Test and iterate your ideas.
Share your prototype(s) with internal teams to align on a design direction. Then use the prototype of the selected design to conduct user testing, so that you can refine your design. Pro tip: Add notes or comments to your prototype to help team members and users understand where to focus their attention, and explain how key features may work.

When you're ready to brainstorm design concepts with your team, hop on FigJam's online collaborative whiteboard. Or jump right into FigJam's prototype template, and start sketching low-fidelity prototypes-no design experience necessary. For a refresher on the prototyping process, check out " What is prototyping " in the Figma resource library.

Pro tip: Check out low-fi wireframe kits shared by the Figma community for tools and inspiration. Over 20,000 designers have used Method's paper wireframe kit, which was a Figma Community Awards finalist.

Ready to create and test your best design concepts yet?

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Low-Fidelity Prototyping: What Is It and How Can It Help? | Figma

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Low-fidelity prototyping lets you quickly test and validate early-stage design concepts. Learn how to create low-fidelity prototypes with Figma.

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Learn everything you need to know in the prototyping stage of the design thinking process. Get tips, templates, and more to help your teams succeed.

Companies using design thinking methodology can build prototypes quickly and affordably because they can create more thoughtful iterations with input from many different stakeholders - all without ignoring how the end user will engage with the final product.

However, those new to prototyping may have questions about how teams can be more collaborative, efficient, and responsive to feedback. One way is to get a better understanding of the different methods of prototyping and what tools exist to make it a more enjoyable and productive process.

What is the prototyping phase of design thinking?

Prototyping is the stage of design thinking where teams create a tangible representation of an idea or solution that they can test.

At this stage, you've gone through three other stages of the design thinking process:

Empathize: where you understand your users and their needs

Define: where you agree on the core problem you need to solve

Ideate: where you come up with lots of different ideas on how to solve the problem

Now, you want to explore those ideas in more detail before testing them with potential customers or end users. You want to get a feel for how viable they are without investing a lot of time or resources into doing so. Prototypes are how you start bringing your ideas to life, ready for testing.

A new prototype is created with each iteration of an idea until the final prototype closely resembles what the final product will become. Prototypes can be physical or virtual.

Why teams should use prototypes

Teams use prototypes to mockup solutions, validate their ideas, gather feedback from stakeholders and users on a solution's usability, and make informed design decisions based on real-world interactions.

Reduced risk

Prototypes reduce risk by allowing big ideas to be tested and evaluated by users well before they are ready for development or production. Working out the kinks before a physical product exists can save time and reduce development costs.

Deliberate testing, feedback, and iteration

Prototypes don't often consider other business decisions that may affect the design, such as the location of a factory or time to market. Instead, prototypes are mainly focused on solving the problem statement defined earlier in the design thinking process, and getting feedback on potential solutions.

The user-focused nature of this stage plays an important role in an end product's overall adoption and success.

Improved buy-in and engagement with stakeholders

By presenting a physical or digital representation of your solution, you can communicate your vision more effectively and involve stakeholders in the decision-making process. This active engagement fosters a sense of ownership and increases the likelihood of successful implementation.

The common forms of prototypes

Different types of prototyping serve different purposes, enabling teams to explore and iterate on their ideas. Here are three common types of prototypes:

Low-fidelity prototypes

These prototypes are quick and easy to create, often using simple materials like paper, cardboard, digital platforms, or even Lego blocks. Low-fidelity prototypes focus on capturing the basic functionalities and interactions of a design concept without much detail. They're used for early-stage exploration, testing ideas, and gathering feedback.

High-fidelity prototypes

High-fidelity prototypes are more detailed and closely resemble the final product in terms of appearance and functionality. They can be created using advanced prototyping tools, digital software, or even physical materials. High-fidelity prototypes are used to simulate the user experience more accurately, test specific features, and validate design decisions before moving into the development phase.

Digital prototypes

Digital prototypes are interactive prototypes created using specialized software or prototyping tools. These prototypes can simulate complex interactions, animations, and transitions. Digital prototypes allow for a more realistic user experience and are particularly useful when designing digital products, websites, or mobile applications. They can be tested on various devices and screen sizes to ensure a seamless user experience across platforms.

Protoyping methods and templates

Prototyping looks different for different products and teams, but it often follows one of the accepted methods below.

Schematic diagramming

This type of prototyping involves drawing an outline or diagram to show each step in a process or a part of a product. Schematic diagrams can be as simple as a few lines, text, and arrows that act as a blueprint for how the design will work.

An example would be a schematic diagram of how an innovative new water delivery system may push water through a building. You could mock this up by showing the beginning and end of the system, and then using shapes along the way for each step, decision, or feature.

The schematic diagramming template works well when minimal color is used. Focus on the infrastructure at this point in prototyping and avoid distracting details. You can add these in for a high-fidelity version of the prototype.

Appearance modeling

In appearance modeling, you'll brainstorm and plan out the emotional and visual traits of your final design. You'll want it to look as much like the real thing as possible, with details on the emotional connection you want end users to have with the design. Because this prototyping practice focuses on aesthetics and feeling, it's a good fit for human-centric design thinking principles.

An example of this would be the prototype of a relaxation retreat website. By establishing visual details through an appearance model, you can test font, color, and other design elements just as they would appear to the visitor on an actual website. The appearance modeling template takes away the guesswork on how to track and test the various factors of each iteration of your prototype.

Rough and ready prototyping

Rough prototyping is a low-fidelity prototype sketch where you can create a number of quick, cheap visual representations for discussion, testing, and feedback. Its main purpose is to get ideas vetted right away before moving on to a more refined and realistic-looking prototype.

An example of this might be a rudimentary sketch of a new board game, drawn quickly to show how it will look, what pieces it'll include, and how to play the game.

While the concept is simple enough, it can be difficult to get started, especially with larger teams. The rough and ready prototyping template gives you the framework to start drawing your ideas and collecting feedback faster.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a technique used to demonstrate an idea with a series of new or transitional elements. Storyboarding in design thinking works much like it does in TV and movies - one page or sketch for every scene, feature, or lesson.

This prototyping technique is a perfect fit for any design that involves a story or sequence, like an idea for a new commercial. It's also ideal for demonstrating how a user may interact with your design: Creating a sketch for each moment in a user's product experience can help designers anticipate problems or even create opportunities for more thoughtful moments with your finished work.

Storyboarding works with the understanding that user experience isn't a single moment in time. Getting started may be easier with the storyboarding template, so you can focus on the story you have to tell.

How to get started with prototyping in design thinking

Prototyping isn't the first thing you'll focus on when creating a new design, but it is an essential part of the process. Which strategy you settle on depends on your goals, team needs, and time to market.

Consider these words from our experts on the LUMA System™:

"Imagine a world in which hundreds of millions of people have mastered basic design skills so they can frame problems, deeply understand people and situations, pull insights from a complex sea of data, generate unconventional ideas, sketch, build prototypes, test assumptions, and iterate quickly - the hallmarks of good designers."

Design thinking is centered on the human experience, and the best strategies are those that put people front and center. Fortunately, the prototyping stage is really about testing what we think people will want against what they truly think and feel.

Put your new prototyping knowledge into practice with Mural and the LUMA System ™. Your teams will be equipped to tackle complex problems, imagine new possibilities, and design solutions that keep people at the center.

Once you've created your prototypes, learn how to use the testing stage of design thinking to gather feedback for the "finished product."

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Prototyping: a guide to the 4th stage of design thinking | Mural

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Learn everything you need to know in the Prototyping stage of the Design Thinking process. Get tips, templates, and more to help your teams succeed.

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CareerFoundry: What is Ideation? 2023 Guide to the Design Thinking Phase

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CareerFoundry: What is Ideation? 2023 Guide to the Design Thinking Phase

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What Is Ideation? 2023 Guide To The Design Thinking Phase

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Ideation is the process of creating and communicating new ideas. Learn about its techniques and how to prepare an ideation session with this step-by-step guide.

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Interaction Design Foundation: Intro to Essential Ideation Techniques

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Interaction Design Foundation: Intro to Essential Ideation Techniques

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Ideation is at the heart of the Design Thinking process. There are literally hundreds of ideation techniques, for example brainstorming, sketching, SCAMPER, and prototyping. Some techniques are merely renamed or slightly adapted versions of more foundational techniques. Here you'll get an overview of the best techniques as well as when and why to use them.

"Ideation is the mode of the design process in which you concentrate on idea generation. Mentally it represents a process of "going wide" in terms of concepts and outcomes. Ideation provides both the fuel and also the source material for building prototypes and getting innovative solutions into the hands of your users."
- d.school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE

How to Ideate

You ideate by combining your conscious and unconscious mind. You combine your rational thoughts with your imagination. The following techniques are the most essential techniques, which can help you and your team ideate:

The Most Essential Ideation Techniques: Which Ideation Techniques Should You Choose?

Due to the nature of ideation, it is extremely important to make use of techniques that match the type of ideas you're trying to generate. The techniques you choose will also need to match the needs of the ideation team, their states of creative productivity and their experience in ideation sessions.Here is an overview of the most essential ideation techniques:

Brainstorm

During a Brainstorm session, you leverage the synergy of the group to reach new ideas by building on others' ideas. Ideas are blended to create one good idea as indicated by the slogan "1+1=3". Participants should be able to discuss their ideas freely without fear of criticism. You should create an environment where all participants embrace wild ideas and misunderstanding, and which will allow you to reach further than you could by simply thinking logically about a problem.

Braindump

Braindump is very similar to Brainstorm, however it's done individually. The participants write down their ideas on post-it notes and share their ideas later with the group.

Brainwrite

Brainwriting is also very similar to a Brainstorm session. However, the participants write down their ideas on paper and, after a few minutes, they pass on their own piece of paper to another participant who'll then elaborate on the first person's ideas and so forth. Another few minutes later, the individual participants will again pass their papers on to someone else and so the process continues. After about 15 minutes, you will collect the papers and post them for instant discussion.
Author/Copyright holder: Marco Arment. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY 2.0
Brainwriting is very similar to a Brainstorm session. However, the participants write down their ideas and then after a few minutes they pass on their own paper to another participant who'll then elaborate on the first person's ideas and so forth.

Brainwalk

Brainwalk is similar to Brainwriting. However, instead of passing around the paper, the participants walk around in the room and continuously find new "ideation stations" where they can elaborate on other participants' ideas.

Worst Possible Idea

Worst Possible Idea is a highly effective method that you can use to get the creative juices flowing and help those who are not so confident in expressing themselves by flipping the brainstorm on its head. It's a lot of fun too. Instead of going for good ideas and putting the pressure on, call for the worst possible ideas your team can come up with. Doing this relieves any anxiety and self-confidence issues and allows people to be more playful and adventurous, as they know their ideas are most certainly not going to be scrutinised for missing the mark. It's way easier to say, "hey, no that's not bad enough" than the opposite. A great variation of this called the bad ideas method encourages you to generate a large quantity of bad ideas.

Challenge Assumptions

Take a step back from the challenge you're tackling and ask some important questions about the assumptions you have about the product, service, or situation where you're trying to innovate. It is particularly effective to challenge assumptions when you are stuck in current thinking paradigms or have run out of ideas. Therefore, it is good for re-booting a flagging session. Are the characteristics we take for granted about these things really crucial aspects, or are they just so because we've all become accustomed to them?

Mindmap

Mindmapping is a graphical technique in which participants build a web of relationships. To get started with the simplest form of mindmapping, the participants write a problem statement or key phrase in the middle of the page. Then, they write solutions and ideas that comes to their mind on the very same page. After that, participants connect their solutions and ideas by curves or lines to its minor or major (previous or following) fact or idea.

Sketch or Sketchstorm

Throughout ideation sessions, a valuable exercise is to express ideas and potential solutions in the form of diagrams and rough sketches instead of merely in words. Visuals have a way of provoking further ideas and providing a wider lens of thinking. The idea with sketching out ideas is not to develop beautiful drawings worthy of framing and mounting on the wall. The sketches should be as simple and rough as possible with just enough detail to convey meaning. This also helps preventing people from becoming attached to their little works of art.

You can rely on sketching, a proven design tool, to help you explore your design space more fully, and avoid the pitfalls of focusing on suboptimal design choices ahead of time. More particularly, sketches can assist you in the design process by helping you to think more openly and creatively about your ideas. They can help you create abundant ideas without worrying about their quality. Sketches will help you invent and explore concepts by being able to record ideas quickly. Sketches will make it easier for you to discuss, critique, and share your ideas with others. That's why sketches are a great tool to help you and your team to choose which ideas are worth pursuing.
Author/Copyright holder: Jen Gallardo. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Sketches should be as simple and rough as possible with just enough detail to convey meaning.
Storyboard

Stories are a key medium for communication, learning, and exploring. Storyboarding is all about developing a visual story relating to the problem, design, or solution which you want to explain or explore. Storyboarding can help you bring a situation to life, it can show what happens over time, and explore the dynamics of a situation. You can use storyboarding after having empathised with people in order to better understand their lives. You can draw out their stories. Storyboards can help you represent information you gain during research. Create scenarios consisting of pictures and quotes from users. If you are developing ideas, you may then seek to play with different scenarios to see where they go. Develop a coherent storyline with actors and a plot. Try to build tension and include unexpected surprises in your story. Evoke emotions and show struggle and by the end learning and solving the tensions and leaving the user satisfied.

When you're creating your storyboard you can seek inspiration in the method called "Aristotle's seven elements of good storytelling" which you can download, print and use as your guide.

Bodystorm

Bodystorming is a technique in which participants physically act out situations they are trying to innovate within. It may involve expressing solutions to ideas through physical activity, or enacting some of the problem scenarios that we are attempting to solve. Physically acting out processes, scenarios and events helps get the ideation team physically involved instead of theorising about the problems. It combines aspects of empathy, brainstorming, and prototyping into one exercise with increased energy and movement, which helps stimulate higher energy and more meaningful experiences.

Bodystorming may include setting up the entire ideation space with props and artifacts, to recreate some semblance of the real environment in order to test out various scenarios and see how this may change the situation. The process may also include setting up various steps in a customer's journey.

Analogies

Storytellers, journalists, artists, leaders and all kinds of other creative professions have relied on creating analogies as a powerful tool for communicating and sparking ideas. An analogy is a comparison between two things for instance a comparison of a heart and a pump. We communicate using analogies all the time as they allow us to express our idea or to explain complex matters in an understandable and motivating way.

Provocation

Provocation is a lateral thinking technique, which challenges the status quo and allows you to explore new realities to extreme degrees. Lateral thinking distances itself from the classic method for problem solving where we work out the solution step-by-step from the given data.

Creativity is all about journeying through stimuli with a possibly abstract or unseen destination in mind. The route of the journey is unknown and most often requires you to explore multiple paths in order to arrive at the unknown destination. Provocations provide this mechanism for injecting the unconventional into the thinking patterns and exploration process. Provocations do not themselves lead directly to a final solution in most cases, although they do provide the material from which the new idea may be formed.

SCAMPER

SCAMPER is a lateral ideation technique that utilises action verbs as stimuli. It helps us ask seven kinds of questions to come up with ideas either for improvements of existing products or for making a new product.

Movement

The movement technique will also help you if you're blocked in your idea generation. You can use this technique to step around the roadblocks in your thinking. As the Provocation technique Movement will help you force your team to question the status quo, shock yourself and your team into a new reality. This is the perfect "what if?" tool. Lateral thinking techniques do not always immediately result in concrete or usable ideas, but create a wide array of thinking stimuli, which you can leverage for piecing together practical ideas. To make use of the stimuli generated, it requires movement, or what some refer to as insight or principle mining. This tool will help you spot themes, principles, useful attributes or trends in your thinking, which you can use to build up a more viable and realistic ideas.

Gamestorming

Gamestorming is a set of ideation and problem-solving methods that are purposely gamified in order to dramatically increase levels of engagement, energy, and collaboration during group sessions. It involves some of the methods we've already mentioned, while adding gamification.

A few examples of gamified ideation sessions include:

Fishbowl: An ideation session in which participants sit in two circles, one smaller and one larger surrounding the smaller one. Participants in the inner circle discuss their ideas and brainstorm while participants in the outer circle listen, observe, and document the ideas and conversation points without saying anything. This forces some to listen and others to engage in brainstorming.

The Anti-Problem: The idea is based on flipping the problem. In the Anti-Problem is the opposite of the real problem that needs to be solved. In this session you seek to solve the anti-problem. This may provide inspiration that you could not have gotten access to by focusing purely on the real challenge, though it may generate ideas which are still related to the problem space. The ideas you generate can then be re-flipped to bring them back into the realm of the real problem.

Cover Story: This involves using a template that forces participants to create a cover story, including main image, headline, quotes, and sidebars with associated facts etc. It is a good method for vision generation sessions and helps create a cohesive picture of a broad subject area using the primary characteristics.

Author/Copyright holder: Ewan McIntosh. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC 2.0
Cheatstorm

Cheatstorming is less about coming up with new ideas and more of an early ideation technique for taking existing pools of ideas and leveraging them as input or stimulus. Unlike other ideation methods where the bulk of ideas generated are discarded, cheatstorming is a bit like cognitive sustainability, reusing and not wasting previously ideated material.

Crowdstorm

Another storm to consider involves the target audience to generate or comment and approve generated ideas. Customer or user feedback is important at every stage of the process and involving them to pick and evaluate ideas can lead to identifying possible winners or losers, which the team might have missed due to blind spots. Social media, customer surveys, focus groups and co-design workshops are all methods of getting the crowd to share their thoughts on the generated ideas. This process may not provide an ultimate winner but it will reveal valuable insights that can assist in the daunting decision relating to which ideas to proceed with.

Co-Creation Workshops
Author/Copyright holder: Swanny Mouton. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC 2.0 There are times when combining customer or user empathy research, ideation, and prototyping might prove useful when rapidly combined.
There are times when combining customer or user empathy research, ideation and prototyping might prove useful when rapidly combined. Co-creation or Co-design workshops combine a number of Design Thinking methods over the course of a few hours to days or even weeks. They can be condensed into full day workshops and conducted a number of times at different locations in order to expedite findings and ideas from the target community. These sessions, if used as one-off workshops, usually follow a sequence that includes:

Prototype

Prototyping itself can be an ideation technique. When you create a physical object you need to make decisions and this encourages the generation of new ideas. You build to think.

Creative Pause

An important step in any ideation process or session is what Edward De Bono refers to in his book, Serious Creativity as the creative pause. When our neurons are firing away against a seemingly impenetrable brick wall challenge, we can easily get stuck into unconstructive thinking patterns. We become anchored to an early idea or stream of thought, or get caught up in negative thoughts surrounding the process. A creative pause gives us time to take a step back, reflect, extract ourselves from the traps we've cognitively set for ourselves, and re-approach the challenge with renewed freshness of the mind. We want proactive thinking to lead the way - not reactive thinking, which often has a negative orientated spin to it.
Author/Copyright holder: tsaiproject. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY 2.0
Creative pauses help us to not get anchored to an early idea or stream of thought or get caught up in negative thoughts surrounding the process. A creative pause gives us time to take a step back, reflect, extract ourselves from the traps we've cognitively set for ourselves, and re-approach the challenge with renewed freshness of the mind.

The Take Away

Ideation is at the heart of the Design Thinking process. There are literally hundreds of ideation techniques. Here we've provided you with an overview of the best techniques as well as when and why to use them. Due to the nature of ideation, it is extremely important to make use of techniques that match the type of ideas you're trying to generate. The techniques you choose will also need to match those of the ideation team members, their states of creative productivity, and their experience with ideation sessions.

References and Where to Learn More

Hero Image: Author/Copyright holder: Braden Kowitz. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-SA 2.0

Edward De Bono. Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas, 1993

Gabriela Goldschmidt. Chapter 9 Visual Analogy- a Strategy for Design Reasoning and Learning

Dave Gray. Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers, 2010

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Introduction to the Essential Ideation Techniques which are the Heart of Design Thinking

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Ideation is at the heart of the Design Thinking process. There are literally hundreds of ideation techniques.

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Forbes: What is Stakeholder Analysis? Everything You Need to Know 

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Forbes: What is Stakeholder Analysis? Everything You Need to Know 

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What Is A Stakeholder Analysis? Everything You Need To Know

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A stakeholder analysis is a project management tool used to identify the project’s stakeholders, issues they care about and how they will be impacted by the project. Creating a stakeholder analysis will outline the essential people you need to communicate with about the progress and scope of the pro

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Cardsmith: How to Use Concept Mapping to Solve Complex Problems

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Cardsmith: How to Use Concept Mapping to Solve Complex Problems

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How to Use Concept Mapping to Solve Complex Problems | Cardsmith

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LogRocket: How to Write a Problem Statement (Template)

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LogRocket: How to Write a Problem Statement (Template)

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In your time as a product manager, it is likely that you and your team will face many different customer pain points, needs, and opportunities. Problems (and the reasons why they occur) always seem to be never ending - whether it's customers complaining about your product's poor user experience, its high cost, or other issues that seem innocuous to you but serious to your customers.

There are a number of different problems for your team to solve, and these problems can also be poorly defined from a customer perspective. This implies that it's difficult to figure out what you and your team need to do to remedy the vague or little known pain point.

As a product manager, it is your responsibility to help define the problem, to scope and set boundaries over it, and to point to a definition of success for resolving that problem. This helps your team understand the issues that your customers are facing, ideate potential solutions, and make necessary trade-offs.

The description, definition, and scope of the problem can be succinctly described as part of a problem statement. In this article, we will walk through what a problem statement in product management is, the advantages of having a well-defined problem statement, key frameworks to use when defining your problem statement, and elements of an effective problem statement.

What is a problem statement?

As mentioned in the name, a problem statement is a written statement about the customer problem - usually expressed as a pain point, need, or opportunity - that you and your team are trying to resolve. You can do this by either coming up with a technical solution ( like an initiative that becomes epics and user stories) or consulting about it with another function of the organization. For example, if the pain point relates to pricing, it's best to consult with your revenue and account management team.

Although it sounds simple in theory, it can be a difficult and frustrating exercise in practice. Firstly, problems can be ill-defined by the customer in the first place - meaning that it doesn't necessarily have the shape and structure to enable your team to find a well-scoped solution. Furthermore, there may be a number of different hidden problems masking the "real reason" the issue occurred in the first place.

As such, time needs to be invested to figure out if the problem presented by the customer at first instance is the real and only problem, or if there are layers underneath that need to be explored to determine if there is a deeper, systemic issue instead.

It helps to have a well-structured, evidence-based problem statement that allows your team to dial into the actual problem. A focused solution can then be implemented to resolve the real or foundational customer need, pain point, or opportunity presented by the problem statement.

The advantages of having a well-defined problem statement

There are a number of advantages to having a well-defined problem statement. We'll go over them in detail below.

Helps see the problem from the customer's perspective

Problem statements are usually written from the customer's point of view. That is, it usually considers the types of problems that the customer faces because of the "life role" they are currently using your product for. Whether your product is a web or mobile application, whether it's for consumer or business consumption, or whether it's a SaaS product, chances are that your customer is facing the problem with your product based on what they are at that moment.

For example, a customer of a social media application will have different problems, pain points, needs, or opportunities compared to a customer of a stock trading platform application. They are trying to do different things on each individual app, and due to this, they will run into different problems that only they will experience as the bespoke customers of your application.

Creates an understanding of the job that the customer is trying to do with your product

Further along to the first point, by seeing the role that your customer is playing at the moment of using your product, you also get the chance to understand the job that they are trying to complete by using your product.

A job in this sense is different from what you might think about traditionally - this is the thing that they are trying to complete at that point in time. The only way that they can complete the thing is by using the functions and features from your product.

By understanding the job that your customer is trying to achieve with the product, along with the "life role" they are playing when using your product, your team will have a unique understanding of the problems that they are facing and the reasons why those problems are serious. They are preventing the customer from getting the job done.

Say you are a social media user. A possible job that you want to get done is to post a picture on the internet for your friends to see. To do that, you need to have a function or feature on the app that allows you to choose a picture from your camera roll and possibly have a chance to edit or tweak the photo before posting it online. However, if the upload button is not working, you can't post your pictures on the internet and, as a result, can't get your job done.

Keeps the team focused on delivering a real solution to solve a real problem

As we wrap up to the above two points, by understanding both the role and job that the customer is trying to achieve, your team focuses on the actual pain point and translates this focus into a viable solution.

This helps the team avoid the build trap, e.g., building functions and features for the sake of building. Instead, a well-written problem statement should help them really understand the "why" and "what" they are building, as well as the connection that the solution has to the pain point, issue, or opportunity.

Frameworks to use when defining a problem statement

In structuring a proper problem statement, it can help to fall back on several tried and tested frameworks, methods, and theories.

Writing from a user persona perspective

A user persona is a fictional profile based on your real life user's traits, which should be a reflection of your product's typical customer. By having a well-developed user persona, a product manager is capable of understanding the key traits, goals, and responsibilities of their typical customer. This enables them to translate that understanding into problem discovery and focus from a customer's perspective.

In the context of developing a problem statement, a user persona is useful to assist you in understanding the exact job that they want to complete on your application or product. By understanding the job that they want to get done based on the goals and traits of their user persona, you will gain deeper insight into the real reasons why they are experiencing the problem and how best you can solve it.

The Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) Framework

Based on Anthony Ulwick's book What Customers Want, the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework stems from the idea that customers buy products and services to get the job done. In using your product, a customer will decide whether or not they will purchase or continue using your product based on how well it delivers on the outcomes that they are looking for, e.g. the job that they want to get done by using your product.

Using the JTBD framework together with a well crafted user persona provides you a holistic view of the customer, what they want to do with your product, why they want to do that particular job using your product, and the current problems preventing them from getting said job done using your product.

In this way, you help narrow your problem statement down to issues that, if resolved, will help with the resumption or increased frequency of the customer getting the job done using your product.

Problem statement template

Using the frameworks above, a typical problem statement sounds something like this:

As a [USER];

I'm trying to [MOTIVATION];

So I can [EXPECTED OUTCOME];

But [PROBLEM];

Which makes me feel [EMOTION].

You can use that as a template to write successful, actionable problem statements. You don't need anything super fancy, as long as you hit on these points to get a holistic view of the problem:

The following is a breakdown of how we write this:

[USER]

This is based on your customers persona, e.g., a portrait or makeup of what your typical customer looks like.

This can be their job (a manager, an engineer, etc.), their life stage (child, teenager, etc.), or any other trait that reflects who you are trying to sell your product to.

[MOTIVATION]

This will be informed by the job the user is trying to accomplish via the JTBD framework. It's usually something that your user is trying to do by using your product but can't because of the problem in your product.

[EXPECTED OUTCOME]

The outcome is the exact job that they are trying to accomplish, which comes from your JTBD framework.

For example, if you were an engineer and were using a laptop, your expected outcome would be that the laptop was performant enough to handle your workload. If the laptop is slow or crashes intermittently during the day, it is likely that this is blocking you from your expected outcome and, hence, is a problem or pain point to solve.

[PROBLEM]

It is as it says - this is the exact nature of the problem.

The problem here should ideally be simple to describe and doesn't require much context, as most of that context should've been completed in the user, motivation, and expected outcome phases of the problem statement.

[EMOTION]

Finally, the emotion is the mental state of the customer that is affected by not being able to achieve the expected outcome.

Although this might sound trivial, the emotional state of a customer can sometimes subtly influence how your customer perceives your product, whether positively or negatively, and dictates how often your customer can convince themselves to use your product to get the job done.

It is important to consider their frustration, anger, or disappointment. This not only informs you about the severity of the problem, but also, by bringing emotion into the equation, your team can feel exactly what the customer is feeling, motivating them to provide a solution that solves their problem.

Examples of realistic problem statements

Going off of the previous section where we looked at a problem statement template, let's now review some examples:

A TikTok user is unable to save their videos into a personal list of favorites

As a [TikTok user];

I'm trying to [save a video I just viewed];

So I can [watch the video in my own time or share it with friends and family];

But [I am not provided the option to save];

Which makes me feel [frustrated].

An iPhone user is unable to take good pictures at night

As an [iPhone user];

I'm trying to [take a picture at night];

So I can [capture a shot that only looks good in dim to no lighting];

But [the phone does not take good night shots];

Which makes me feel [sad].

A popular application you use does not have a native Slack integration

As a [Slack user];

I'm trying to [include Slack notifications when certain actions are triggered in the application];

So I can [be alerted when something wrong happens];

But [I am not able to connect my application to Slack];

Which makes me feel [stressed].

Conclusion

Follow the above tips and you'll be writing expertly crafted and well defined problem statements in no time. Thanks!
Featured image source: IconScout

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How to write a problem statement: Template and examples - LogRocket Blog

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In this article, we will discover what a problem statement is, how to write one using a simple template, and demonstrate realistic examples.

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HBR: Struggling to Solve a Problem? Try Reframing It. 

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HBR: Struggling to Solve a Problem? Try Reframing It. 

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Experts in problem solving emphasize the importance of deeply understanding the problem before implementing countermeasures. And many cite Charles Kettering's maxim that "A problem well-framed is a problem half-solved." But what, precisely, is a "well-framed" problem? I've written before about some of the obvious errors to avoid - couching a solution in the form of a problem, and relying on generalities instead of specifics.

However, if you're still struggling to generate effective solutions, you might change the way you've phrased it. Word choice matters. Specifically, you need to pay careful attention to how you phrase the subject of the problem statement, and the way you're measuring the problem.

Full disclosure: as a college English major and former high school English teacher, I'm predisposed to focus on the power of language. But this isn't just a matter of quibbling over semantics. These two considerations will set the trajectory of how you solve the problem. A small change in subject or measurement can lead you to an entirely different set of countermeasures, just as a small change in angle will send a satellite hurtling into outer space instead of useful orbit.

What's the subject?

The leaders at a company I've worked with have long been frustrated by their lack of progress in creating a culture of continuous improvement. Many employees participate in the company's Six Sigma green belt program and complete one project, but only about 1% of them do a second project for a yellow belt.

So how should the company's leaders frame the problem? Consider these three problem statements:

1. Only 1% of our green belts go on to do a second project.

2. Our managers don't nurture a culture of continuous improvement.

3. Our company only completes 10 yellow/black belt projects each year.

All three capture the same basic issue affecting the company - it's not getting as many improvement projects as the leadership team wants, but the phrasing of each makes an important difference in how you approach the problem.

The first problem statement puts the focus on the green belt employees. We look at their motivations and their choices. The second problem statement puts the focus on the managers. It causes us to look into how managers decide what needs to be done in their areas. The third considers on the company as a whole - what's assigned a high priority, how resources are allocated, and what kind of work is recognized and rewarded.

The shift in focus leads to different kinds of countermeasures. If you focus on the employees, for example, you might change the performance evaluation and compensation system to encourage them to take on more projects. If you focus on the managers, you might coach them on the need to provide time for their team to take on additional work not directly related to their core responsibilities. If you focus on the company, we'd likely get the CEO to reconsider how much time she expects employees to spend on improvement, develop a KPI to support project completion, and increase the visibility and esteem of successful project completion.

How do you measure the problem?

Let's say the problem you're dealing with is similar to the example above: your business isn't innovating enough. Here are three possible ways to state the problem:

1. We're not as innovative as our competitors.

2. We only bring one new product/service to market each year.

3. Only 5% of our revenue comes from products developed in the past three years.

The first problem statement is vague and poorly defined. Even so, it leads you to an inquiry into measurement. How do you measure innovation? How do your competitors measure it? Are you measuring the number of new products and services, or the value/revenue of those new products and services? If you only bring one new product to market each year, but it's always a home run, does it matter? Is quality more important than quantity? What metrics are your competitors using?

The second problem statement leads you to investigate the process by which innovations are brought to market as well as the culture around innovation. How many new ideas died in committee? What criteria are used to determine whether or not to bring something new to market? Are people afraid to fail, or do you have an environment that rewards risk-taking? Do people get credit for innovation (or attempted innovation), or do the highest-ranking people typically get the credit?

The third one leads you to consider the pricing, promotion, and placement of new products and services. Perhaps your innovation engine is purring smoothly, but the sales and marketing function lacks the skills and experience to leverage something new. The sales team at one company I worked with is uncomfortable bringing out new designs. They rely heavily on older items they're more comfortable selling, and as a result don't give the new products a fair chance to establish themselves in the market.

To be clear, there's nothing wrong with any of the frames for these problems. They all serve a purpose. However, it's important to recognize that the words you choose have a tremendous impact on both the trajectory of your problem-solving efforts and the countermeasures you land on. So next time you're faced with a problem, and perhaps you're struggling to find a solution, try rewriting the statement by either changing the subject or how you're measuring the problem You'll likely find that a small change of words can lead to a big change in your perspective.

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Struggling to Solve a Problem? Try Reframing It.

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Experts in problem solving emphasize the importance of deeply understanding the problem before implementing countermeasures. And many cite Charles Kettering's maxim that "A problem well-framed is a problem half-solved." But what, precisely, is a "well-framed" problem? I've written before about some of the obvious errors to avoid - couching a solution in the form of a problem, and relying on generalities instead of specifics.

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Interaction Design Foundation: How to Conduct User Observations

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Interaction Design Foundation: How to Conduct User Observations

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Observing users interacting with a product can be a great way to understand the usability of a product and to some extent the overall user experience. Conducting observations is relatively easy as it doesn't require a huge amount of training and it can be relatively fast - depending on the sample size of users you intend to observe.
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Observational studies have long been conducted in psychology and the techniques used for user research are very much the same as those used in psychology. They have their strengths and their weakness too. The two most common techniques used for observing users are controlled observations and naturalistic observations, we'll take a look at both of these techniques in a few moments.

Preparing for User Observations

Before we decide on a technique for our observations; it's important to do a few things first:

We need to decide what we expect to learn from our observational study - can this be structured (e.g. a checklist developed) or will it be unstructured (e.g. we expect the data to be qualitative rather than quantitative)?

We need to recruit participants for our research and ensure that we have selected a relevant sample size of our user base to make our results meaningful.

We need to recruit observers, ideally trained observers, and define how we will observe participants

We should be able to explain to participants what they will be doing and what they will be observed for

We should be able to explain to participants how their data and any data collected will be used and how it won't be used

These efforts are common to all forms of user research and can be better understood through further reading - some links are provided for this at the bottom of this article in the references section.

Types of User Observation

The good news is that we learn to observe from a very young age and it's something everyone can do. So let's take a look at the two most common forms of observation:

Controlled Observation
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Controlled observation tends to take place in a laboratory environment. It is focused on revealing quantitative data though it may also yield qualitative observations.

To carry out a controlled observation it's best to formulate a series of observations and have the observer carry these out at each step in the process. They can then record their observation quantitatively (e.g. yes/no or a rating scale out of 3 or 5) against each step. This doesn't preclude them from adding any additional observations freehand against each step - enabling the collection of additional qualitative data.

Controlled observations require that the researcher explain the purpose of the observation to the user and that the participants know they are being observed. It can help to use more than one observer for longer observations or to use video to record the event for further observational work after the fact. If you use video, you must obtain the participant's consent for this.

The advantages of this approach include:

Easy to reproduce. If you use a quantitative approach - it should be easy to get similar results by repeating the research. This may be important if the results are challenged at a high level in an organization.

Easy to analyze. Quantitative data requires less effort to analyze than qualitative data.

Quick to conduct. While recruitment may take a little time a lab conducted controlled observation is fairly fast to run.

There is a possible drawback to this approach too:

Naturalistic Observation

A naturalistic observation involves studying the user "in the wild" and tends to be less structured (though a structured approach is certainly possible to a "in the wild" observation - it's really just a repeat of a controlled observation but outside of the lab).
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This means spending time with a user or group of users and observing their behavior with the product as they use it in day-to-day life. The observer records their observations as they see fit. This is very much an approach which leads to qualitative outputs.

The advantages of this approach include:

More reliable. When people use a product in real life - they are much more likely to encounter the frustrations (and benefits) of real life use than they are in a lab following a set of instructions.

More useful for ideation. Qualitative research can generate lots of ideas for product improvement as it opens up possibilities that aren't found in quantitative research.

However, there are some disadvantages to using this method too:

It's difficult to include a representative sample. This kind of research is more expensive and time consuming to conduct than controlled observations and that limits the reach of the research. It's better to use this kind of research to create ideas and then test those ideas with other forms of research than to rely on the output of the research as gospel.

It's difficult to make them replicable. Because of the problem with sample sizes - you are going to find very different results if you repeat the research. This is doubly true if you use a different observer (as observers will see different things in even identical situations).

It's hard to manipulate external variables. For example, if it's raining when you observe your users working on a smartphone - their behavior is likely to be different to when it's sunny. You have no control over the weather "in the wild".

What to Look for During User Observation

It can help, when it comes to qualitative observation, to have some touch points to examine:
Author/Copyright holder: Pixabay. Copyright terms and licence: Free to Use

What are users actually doing? As opposed to what you expected they might do.

What routines do users have with the product? How are they integrating it into their lives?

Record details - adding granularity and specificity to an observation can make it much more meaningful

Ensure you're examining activities in their whole; look at how the product is used in context with their device and the flow of their lives and not just at the product itself.

Don't be afraid to get quantitative. If you see an example of behavior that you think may be repeated - make a note of it and look for it in future observations.

It's important that you don't spend time analyzing what is going on during a user observation - the key is to just watch and report on the details - analysis comes later. As Jiddu Krishnamurti says; "Observation without evaluation is the highest form of intelligence."

Reporting on Observations

It is fairly easy to report on controlled observations - the quantative aspects can be condensed into graphs or tables. Qualitative analysis should be treated more cautiously and data compiled and used as a signpost to further research rather than being accepted as absolute truth.

The Take Away

Observational research is easy. Sit, watch and record what you see and hear when a user interacts with a product. Of course, it's easy in theory - getting to the meatiest of observations takes practice and a keen interest in your subject. However, user observations are a great way to find out more about how a product is used (or indeed how an information visualization is used) and to identify any problems that they encounter.

It is also worth noting that often research will combine observations with a structured interview after the observation exercise has finished to gain further insight into what is happening and why.

References & Where to Learn More:

An in-depth guide to observations in research projects.
Hero Image: Author/Copyright holder: Dave. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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Observing users interacting with a product can be a great way to understand the usability of a product and to some extent the overall user experience.

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HubSpot: 9 Benefits of Customer Interviews & How to Conduct Them

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HubSpot: 9 Benefits of Customer Interviews & How to Conduct Them

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Of course, you should trust the expertise your marketing, sales, and product development teams have. But they shouldn't be the only ones you consult when making changes to your business. That's where customer interviews come into the picture.

Feedback collected through customer interviews can help you make brilliant decisions and predict how customers will react to a particular change or event. But in order to acquire this information, you must first figure out how to successfully conduct a customer interview.

I'm here to help walk you through what a customer interview is, its benefits, best practices, and tips you should know to conduct them at your organization.

What is a customer interview?

The world's most brilliant minds can develop new product and service ideas, but unless they understand your customers' needs, their ideas will miss the mark. Customer interviews prevent that from happening.

A customer interview lets you speak to the people who matter most - the folks who buy your product. It's a great way to uncover your customers' challenges, the solutions they're looking for, and how you fare compared to your competitors.

You can conduct customer interviews in two ways. The first is a planned interview. These interviews are scheduled in advance, and you ask customers various questions about their overall brand experience or an individual interaction with your business. These interviews will typically last longer than the second type of interview - which is ad hoc.

Ad hoc interviews are conducted one-on-one, either in person, on the phone, or through video software. While online surveys are convenient, ad hoc interviews let you have a real-time conversation with the customer so that you can ask about specific experiences and events.

How Customer Interviews Help Improve Customer Satisfaction and Product Development

So, how does conducting customer interviews actually benefit your brand? I'm glad you asked. I rounded up some insight from business leaders who have witnessed firsthand how transformative conducting customer interviews can be. Here's what they have to say.

"We tested their current ads versus language that came directly from customers," says Lewin. The outcome? Ad engagement rate jumped from 1.45% to 6.59%

Learnings from customer interviews have also helped Proofpoint develop new service offerings.

"We've struggled to get clients to post on LinkedIn. Through interviews, we learned the biggest challenges were knowing what to post and creating the content," says Lewin. "From those interviews, we developed a program to facilitate video content creation from our customers' sales teams."

Lewin says the program led to an enormous improvement in the quality and quantity of content coming from customers who use the new service offering.

Joseph adds that customer interviews have helped "highlight pain points and challenges that are difficult (if not impossible) to uncover without direct conversations with customers."

For instance, one customer once shared that she struggled to keep up "with all the timelines and tasks [Proofpoint] needed from her team." Proofpoint fixed this problem by creating "a dashboard for clients with current campaigns, timelines, and checklists for the client to use as an on-demand resource."

says the greatest benefit of customer interviews is the ability to discover customers' pain points and how MessageDesk solves them. MessageDesk values this insight above all else because it recognizes it only wins when its customers succeed.

"The more pain points we know we're solving or know how to solve, the more dollars we net in terms of new MRR or retained MRR," says Nebesky.

Also, insights from customer interviews are fundamental to MessageDesk's product development process.

Nebesky says, "Every time I talk with a customer, I walk away with new insights and a refined understanding of what success looks like for them. We always try to be solution and outcome-oriented for our customers, so getting their feedback is instrumental."

Also, customer interviews help MessageDesk achieve its goal of building a human connection with its clients. In Nebesky's words, "Our customers always walk away from these interviews with a greater connection to the MessageDesk product and its people."

In a 2020 interview, Canva's Global Head of Revenue, Dave Burson, shared that one of Canva's biggest growth wins in 2019 was a simple tweak in marketing copy for Canva Pro, Canva's paid product.

This update was inspired by the customer interviews they conducted with a few users. The interviews helped them realize their copy didn't reflect key reasons customers sign up for Canva Pro.

By interviewing a few users and updating the copy to reflect the users' language, Canva crafted a marketing copy that resonated better. "We saw a considerably large percentage increase in trial conversion off the back of that one copy," says Burson.

Customer interviews also helped Canva realize its users didn't understand the phrase "Upgrade to Canva Pro for magic resize," formerly included in the marketing for Canva Pro. By changing the words to "magically resize your design in just a few clicks," sign-ups for Canva Pro increased.

9 Benefits of Customer Interviews

1. You can assess customer demand.

2. You highlight customer pain points.

One common use case for customer interviews is understanding the pain points customers experience with your products and services. This helps you improve the pre and post-purchase experience and shows you value long-term customer success.

3. They help you understand customer needs.

4. You get inspiration for product development.

We've all done this at some point as customers. We think of a great idea to improve our favorite brand or product, and we wish we could talk face-to-face with a product developer to bring our idea to life.

Customer interviews present this opportunity for customers to share their ideas with your business. Even if their ideas are far-fetched or implausible, they reveal what customers want from your business and show what you can improve.

5. You'll empathize with your customers.

If you don't work in customer service, interviews are a great way to understand the roadblocks customers experience when interacting with your business. When you're familiar with their problems, it becomes much easier to empathize with them when they share feedback. Not only do you see how the problem impacts the customer, but you also see why it's important for your brand to fix it.

6. You can identify new target audiences.

Some businesses add new products and services that aren't targeted toward their usual consumers. For example, Nerf was originally a brand intended for kids but recently started selling products targeted towards pet owners.

To understand the opportunity in this market, Nerf likely interviewed potential customers to gauge their interest in buying Nerf-branded pet products.

You can do the same in your business to see who would buy your new product, service, or feature. If the response is negative, you can either change your offer or eliminate it altogether to avoid making a costly mistake.

7. They help you learn your customers' vocabulary.

People who work in a customer-facing role usually know their customers' lingo. If you don't, then you might not be as familiar with the language and vocabulary your customers are using.

If you use business jargon or highly technical language, your customers might not understand what you're talking about. Customer interviews are a great chance to learn how your customers speak so you can communicate with them more effectively.

8. They develop trust with your customers.

Customer interviews are useful even if you don't get the most valuable information from the conversation. Regardless of the outcome, conducting customer interviews demonstrates that you value the experience customers have, and you're committed to improving it for them.

9. Customer feedback helps you make successful business decisions.

Now that I've laid out the benefits of customer interviews, I'll teach you how to conduct them with your customers.

How to Conduct Customer Interviews

1. Understand your goal.

2. Identify ideal customers.

3. Approach interviews with an open mind.

It can be very easy to hear negative comments about your product or service and slip into a defensive mode. While you may feel justified in shooting down this feedback, the fact is that customers are sharing how they experienced your company and its products - and you can't dispute how they feel.

When you're going into these interviews, realize you may hear some comments or feedback you disagree with. Rather than shutting them down and wasting everyone's time, hear them out. You'll always have a few outliers with odd feedback, and those are not the comments you need to be concerned with.

4. Ask pertinent questions.

As you prepare for interviews, create a list of questions that will help you achieve your overarching goal. Open-ended questions are better than "yes or no" questions because they allow the interviewee to express themselves fully and explore topics you didn't consider discussing. Also, use follow-up questions to clarify important points - especially when something is unclear or confusing.

5. Provide the option to follow up in the future.

Before you finish the interview, thank the customer for their time and ask if you can contact them in the future with more questions. This keeps the door open to get more information or possibly conduct another interview if needed.

6. Analyze the results.

Once you've completed your interviews, the next step is to look for commonalities in your customer feedback. Prioritize the most popular problems first since these impact the most customers at your business.

Customer Interview Best Practices

Nuance matters. So, besides what we've discussed, consider following these best practices to conduct successful customer interviews.

Consider doing a mix of one-on-one interviews and focus groups.

Marketing experts like Mark Ritson strongly advocate for focus groups , and for good reason. "They're a quick and cheap route to useful insights," says Ritson. However, Ritson also states that they have flaws.

One major flaw is they're prone to bias. Interviewees might say certain things just to look smarter than others. Some interviewees might also say little or stay quiet. Consequently, the opinions of a few people dominate the conversation and distort the result.

The bottom line? If you can, mix and match focus groups and one-on-one interviews. If you have to choose, go with one-on-one.

Ask these five questions.

1. What's the trigger? What first caused you to look for this solution?

2. What's the pain? What's the main barrier to achieving your goal? What did you hate?

3. What's the journey they took? What alternatives did you look for?

4. What can you do now that you couldn't do before?

That last question is beneficial because, according to Grenier, few people ask it. Consequently, the responses you receive can help shape your differentiation and positioning strategy.

Don't ask about the future.

As established earlier, no doctor fills out a prescription without first diagnosing the patient. However, no doctor expects patients to write their own prescriptions either.

The point? It's not your customers' job to know the solution to their problems. It's yours. This clarification is essential because, as Nebesky says, "Customers may say they want one thing, but that may not be what they actually NEED to solve their problem."

Understand that the purpose of the interview isn't to ask what customers want. It's to diagnose their needs using probing questions. So, if customers request a specific feature or product, probe deeper to uncover the underlying reason for their request. That way, you can provide the appropriate solution. But don't expect them to supply it - that's your job.

Treat feature/product requests as opportunities for interviews.

If your team is small, you might think you don't have time to fit customer interviews into your schedule, even if you understand the value of it.

In such cases, Michele Hansen, author of Deploy Empathy, recommends you "integrate it into what you're already doing." Feature requests give you an opportunity to do this because the customers are already coming to you. So you don't have to proactively recruit customers for interviews.

When you get feature requests, turn them into a customer interview by asking questions like, "What leads you to want that?" And "What are you currently using to get that done?" These questions help you dive into how the customer thinks and gauge how valuable the request is to them.

Do your homework.

"Learn everything your company knows about the customer before going into your interview," says Jim Lein, a marketing expert with 20+ years of experience at Oracle. Study them on LinkedIn, too.

This helps build rapport at the beginning of the conversation, ensures your interviewees are comfortable, and makes the interview a friendly conversation rather than an interrogation.

Learn more ways to survey customers with these strategies to obtain customer feedback.

Getting Started with Customer Interviews

As Close.com CEO Steli Efti aptly summarizes, "Whoever understands the customer best wins." We know you want to win. But to do that, you need to know what your customers want and how they think. Customer interviews are the perfect tool you can use to fill in the gaps and build rapport with the people who matter most: Your customers.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in December 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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9 Benefits of Customer Interviews & How to Conduct Them

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Discover what customer interviews are, and why learning how to conduct customer interviews is key to unlocking knowledge about what your customers want.

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It’s easy to tell when someone’s not paying attention, but it can be surprisingly tricky to know what good listening looks like. Good listening is one of the most important things we can do to improve our relationships, develop our worldview, and potentially change people’s minds. So what can we do to become better listeners? Dig into different strategies that can improve your listening skills. [Directed by Maryna Buchynska, and action agency, narrated by Jack Cutmore-Scott, music by Salil Bhayani, cAMP Studio].

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Active listening requires mastering many skills, including reading body language and tone of voice, maintaining your attention, and being aware of and controlling your emotional response. In this article, the author explains what active listening is and how to improve this essential communication skill.

Are you a good listener at work? You might think you are because you put away distractions, stay quiet, and nod your head when someone is talking to you. You might even repeat back your conversation partner's main points to demonstrate that you've heard and absorbed them. These are all smart things to do, but they can still leave the speaker feeling unheard or even dismissed.

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Active listening requires mastering many skills, including reading body language and tone of voice, maintaining your attention, and being aware of and controlling your emotional response. In this article, the author explains what active listening is and how to improve this essential communication skill.

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A Beginners Guide to Design Thinking Podcast

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A Beginners Guide to Design Thinking Podcast

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Listen to Beginners Guide to Design Thinking on Spotify. Aimed at design thinking newbies, and those who are curious about how they can use design thinking to boost their business and improve their lives.

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The Design Thinking Process - An Introduction

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Interaction Design: The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process

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Interaction Design: The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process

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Design thinking is a methodology which provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It's extremely useful when used to tackle complex problems that are ill-defined or unknown-because it serves to understand the human needs involved, reframe the problem in human-centric ways, create numerous ideas in brainstorming sessions and adopt a hands-on approach to prototyping and testing. Learning about the five stages of design thinking will empower you and allow you to apply the methodology to your work and solve complex problems that occur in our companies, our countries, and across the world.
Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that can have anywhere from three to seven phases, depending on whom you talk to. We focus on the five-stage design thinking model proposed by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the d.school) because they are world-renowned for the way they teach and apply design thinking.

What are the 5 Stages of the Design Thinking Process

The five stages of design thinking, according to the d.school, are:

Let's dive into each stage of the design thinking process.

Stage 1: Empathize-Research Your Users' Needs

Empathize: the first phase of design thinking, where you gain real insight into users and their needs.

The first stage of the design thinking process focuses on user-centric research. You want to gain an empathic understanding of the problem you are trying to solve. Consult experts to find out more about the area of concern and conduct observations to engage and empathize with your users. You may also want to immerse yourself in your users' physical environment to gain a deeper, personal understanding of the issues involved-as well as their experiences and motivations. Empathy is crucial to problem solving and a human-centered design process as it allows design thinkers to set aside their own assumptions about the world and gain real insight into users and their needs.

Depending on time constraints, you will gather a substantial amount of information to use during the next stage. The main aim of the Empathize stage is to develop the best possible understanding of your users, their needs and the problems that underlie the development of the product or service you want to create.

Stage 2: Define-State Your Users' Needs and Problems

Define: the second phase of design thinking, where you define the problem statement in a human-centered manner.

In the Define stage, you will organize the information you have gathered during the Empathize stage. You'll analyze your observations to define the core problems you and your team have identified up to this point. Defining the problem and problem statement must be done in a human-centered manner.

For example, you should not define the problem as your own wish or need of the company: "We need to increase our food-product market share among young teenage girls by 5%."

You should pitch the problem statement from your perception of the users' needs: "Teenage girls need to eat nutritious food in order to thrive, be healthy and grow."

The Define stage will help the design team collect great ideas to establish features, functions and other elements to solve the problem at hand-or, at the very least, allow real users to resolve issues themselves with minimal difficulty. In this stage, you will start to progress to the third stage, the ideation phase, where you ask questions to help you look for solutions: " How might we encourage teenage girls to perform an action that benefits them and also involves your company's food-related product or service?" for instance.

Stage 3: Ideate-Challenge Assumptions and Create Ideas

Ideate: the third phase of design thinking, where you identify innovative solutions to the problem statement you've created.

During the third stage of the design thinking process, designers are ready to generate ideas. You've grown to understand your users and their needs in the Empathize stage, and you've analyzed your observations in the Define stage to create a user centric problem statement. With this solid background, you and your team members can start to look at the problem from different perspectives and ideate innovative solutions to your problem statement.

There are hundreds of ideation techniques you can use-such as Brainstorm, Brainwrite, Worst Possible Idea and SCAMPER. Brainstorm and Worst Possible Idea techniques are typically used at the start of the ideation stage to stimulate free thinking and expand the problem space. This allows you to generate as many ideas as possible at the start of ideation. You should pick other ideation techniques towards the end of this stage to help you investigate and test your ideas, and choose the best ones to move forward with-either because they seem to solve the problem or provide the elements required to circumvent it.

Stage 4: Prototype-Start to Create Solutions

Prototype: the fourth phase of design thinking, where you identify the best possible solution.

The design team will now produce a number of inexpensive, scaled down versions of the product (or specific features found within the product) to investigate the key solutions generated in the ideation phase. These prototypes can be shared and tested within the team itself, in other departments or on a small group of people outside the design team.

This is an experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the problems identified during the first three stages. The solutions are implemented within the prototypes and, one by one, they are investigated and then accepted, improved or rejected based on the users' experiences.

By the end of the Prototype stage, the design team will have a better idea of the product's limitations and the problems it faces. They'll also have a clearer view of how real users would behave, think and feel when they interact with the end product.

Stage 5: Test-Try Your Solutions Out

Test: the fifth and final phase of the design thinking process, where you test solutions to derive a deep understanding of the product and its users.

Designers or evaluators rigorously test the complete product using the best solutions identified in the Prototype stage. This is the final stage of the five-stage model; however, in an iterative process such as design thinking, the results generated are often used to redefine one or more further problems. This increased level of understanding may help you investigate the conditions of use and how people think, behave and feel towards the product, and even lead you to loop back to a previous stage in the design thinking process. You can then proceed with further iterations and make alterations and refinements to rule out alternative solutions. The ultimate goal is to get as deep an understanding of the product and its users as possible.

Did You Know Design Thinking is a Non-Linear Process?

We've outlined a direct and linear design thinking process here, in which one stage seemingly leads to the next with a logical conclusion at user testing. However, in practice, the process is carried out in a more flexible and non-linear fashion. For example, different groups within the design team may conduct more than one stage concurrently, or designers may collect information and prototype throughout each stage of the project to bring their ideas to life and visualize the problem solutions as they go. What's more, results from the Test stage may reveal new insights about users which lead to another brainstorming session (Ideate) or the development of new prototypes (Prototype).

It is important to note the five stages of design thinking are not always sequential. They do not have to follow a specific order, and they can often occur in parallel or be repeated iteratively. The stages should be understood as different modes which contribute to the entire design project, rather than sequential steps.

The design thinking process should not be seen as a concrete and inflexible approach to design; the component stages identified should serve as a guide to the activities you carry out. The stages might be switched, conducted concurrently or repeated several times to gain the most informative insights about your users, expand the solution space and hone in on innovative solutions.

This is one of the main benefits of the five-stage model. Knowledge acquired in the latter stages of the process can inform repeats of earlier stages. Information is continually used to inform the understanding of the problem and solution spaces, and to redefine the problem itself. This creates a perpetual loop, in which the designers continue to gain new insights, develop new ways to view the product (or service) and its possible uses and develop a far more profound understanding of their real users and the problems they face.

The Take Away

Design thinking is an iterative, non-linear process which focuses on a collaboration between designers and users. It brings innovative solutions to life based on how real users think, feel and behave.

This human-centered design process consists of five core stages Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

It's important to note that these stages are a guide. The iterative, non-linear nature of design thinking means you and your design team can carry these stages out simultaneously, repeat them and even circle back to previous stages at any point in the design thinking process.

References & Where to Learn More

Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial (3rd Edition), 1996.

d.school, An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE, 2010.

Gerd Waloszek, Introduction to Design Thinking, 2012.

Images

Hero Image: © Daniel Skrok and the Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

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The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process

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The Design Thinking process is a human-centered, iterative methodology that designers use to solve problems. It has 5 steps-Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

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AllTimeDesign: A Complete Guide to User-Centered Design

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AllTimeDesign: A Complete Guide to User-Centered Design

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In today's customer-centric landscape, User-Centered Design (UCD) stands out as an approach that prioritizes the user's needs at every stage, employing an iterative process that keeps the user front and center. Widely embraced in product design, UCD empowers both designers and business leaders by integrating user insights right from the initial brainstorming to the ultimate product delivery. In this comprehensive guide, you will learn about the fundamentals of user-centered design, its benefits, and the holistic user-centered design process.

What is User-Centered Design?

User-centered design (UCD) refers to a design approach that prioritizes the needs, preferences, and behaviors of the end user throughout the entire design process. It involves understanding the users' perspectives, goals, and challenges and integrating this understanding into every stage of product development.

UCD process typically involves techniques such as user research, persona creation, prototyping, and usability testing to ensure that the final product meets the needs of its intended users effectively and efficiently. By focusing on the user experience, UCD aims to create products and services that are intuitive, enjoyable, and ultimately more successful in the marketplace.

Why Is User-Centered Design Important?

User-Centered Design (UCD) is crucial for several reasons:

1. Enhanced User Satisfaction and Loyalty:

UCD acknowledges that the ultimate success of a product hinges on how well it serves its users and target audience. By meticulously understanding their needs, desires, and pain points, UCD crafts experiences that resonate deeply with users. This intrinsic alignment fosters a sense of satisfaction and loyalty, as users feel genuinely understood and valued by the product or service provider.

2. Elevated Usability and Accessibility:

At the core of UCD lies a commitment to creating products that are not only functional but also intuitive and accessible to all users, regardless of their background, abilities, or technical proficiency. Through rigorous usability testing and iterative refinement, UCD ensures that interactions are seamless, tasks are easily accomplished, and barriers to entry are minimized. This dedication to inclusivity not only benefits users but also aligns with ethical imperatives and regulatory requirements.

3. Optimized Resource Allocation:

By incorporating user feedback early and often in the design process, UCD mitigates the risk of costly missteps and rework down the line. Investing in user research, prototyping, and usability testing upfront allows organizations to identify and address potential issues before they escalate, ultimately saving time, money, and valuable resources. Moreover, by prioritizing features and enhancements based on user needs and impact, UCD enables more efficient allocation of development resources, maximizing the return on investment.

4. Sustainable Competitive Advantage:

In today's crowded marketplace, where products and services often compete on parity features and pricing, the user experience emerges as a potent differentiator. UCD empowers organizations to stand out by delivering experiences that resonate deeply with users, fostering emotional connections, and engendering brand loyalty. By consistently surpassing user expectations and adapting to evolving needs and preferences, companies that embrace UCD forge enduring relationships with their customers, creating a formidable barrier to entry for competitors.

5. Market Success and Innovation:

Beyond merely meeting user needs, UCD catalyzes innovation and market disruption. By delving deeply into user behaviors, motivations, and aspirations, UCD uncovers latent needs and unarticulated desires, opening the door to transformative breakthroughs. Whether through incremental improvements or revolutionary leaps, UCD empowers organizations to deliver solutions that not only address existing pain points but also anticipate future needs, positioning them as leaders in their respective domains.

In essence, User-Centered Design transcends mere methodology; it embodies a profound commitment to empathy, excellence, and empowerment. By placing the user at the heart of the design process, UCD catalyzes the creation of experiences that are not only functional and usable but also delightful, meaningful, and enduring.

User-Centered Design vs. Human-Centered Design: What's the Difference?

User-Centered Design (UCD) and Human-Centered Design (HCD) are methodologies that prioritize the needs, preferences, and behaviors of individuals in the design process, but have distinct differences:

The user-centered design approach primarily revolves around understanding and catering to the specific needs and experiences of users who directly engage with a product or service. It emphasizes creating interfaces and systems that are intuitive, efficient, and effective, aiming to optimize usability and user satisfaction within a defined context.

In contrast, Human-Centered Design (HCD) takes a broader perspective, considering the wider human context in which designs exist. It encompasses a holistic understanding of human needs, behaviors, and societal dynamics, aiming to create solutions that align with broader human values such as inclusivity, sustainability, and social responsibility.

While UCD focuses on optimizing the immediate user experience within specific interfaces or systems, HCD extends its focus to address the broader implications and consequences of design decisions on individuals and society as a whole.

5 Essential Elements of User-Centered Design

User-centered design (UCD) is a holistic approach that encompasses several essential elements to ensure the creation of successful and user-friendly products. Here are five key components:

1. User Research and Understanding

At the core of UCD is a deep understanding of the target users and their needs, goals, preferences, and behaviors. This involves conducting comprehensive user research through techniques such as interviews, surveys, observation, and persona development. By gaining insights into the users' context, challenges, and aspirations, designers can make informed decisions that resonate with their audience.

2. Iterative Design Process

UCD embraces an iterative approach to design, wherein ideas are continuously refined and validated through feedback loops with users. Designers create prototypes of varying fidelity, ranging from low-fidelity sketches to high-fidelity interactive mockups, and gather user feedback through usability testing and user testing sessions. This iterative process allows for rapid experimentation, learning, and refinement, leading to incremental improvements and optimized solutions.

3. User-Centric Prototyping

Prototyping is a fundamental aspect of UCD, enabling designers to translate concepts into tangible artifacts that users can interact with and provide feedback on. Prototypes can take various forms, including paper prototypes, wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes. By involving users early in the prototyping process, designers can validate assumptions, test design hypotheses, and uncover usability issues before investing significant resources in development.

4. Usability Testing and Evaluation

Usability testing is a critical component of UCD, wherein prototypes or existing products are evaluated by representative users to assess their usability, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Through structured testing scenarios and qualitative feedback collection, designers can identify usability issues, usability barriers, and areas for improvement. Usability testing provides valuable insights into how users interact with the product, enabling designers to refine the design iteratively and enhance the overall user experience.

5. Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

UCD encourages collaboration and communication across multidisciplinary teams, including designers, researchers, developers, product managers, and stakeholders. By bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise, teams can leverage collective insights, challenge assumptions, and co-create solutions that address user needs holistically. Cross-disciplinary collaboration fosters a culture of empathy, creativity, and innovation, leading to more robust and user-centric design outcomes.

These five elements collectively form the foundation of User-Centered Design, guiding designers and teams in creating products and services that are intuitive, efficient, and delightful for users. By integrating these principles into the design process, organizations can cultivate a user-centric mindset and deliver experiences that truly resonate with their audience.

What are the Major Principles of User-Centered Design?

User-Centered Design (UCD) is guided by several overarching principles that shape its approach to creating products and services that prioritize user needs and experiences. Here are some of the major principles of UCD:

1. Focus on the User

Placing the user at the forefront means more than just acknowledging their existence; it entails a fundamental shift in perspective. Designers must immerse themselves in the users' world, understanding their motivations, aspirations, and pain points to create design solutions.

By empathizing with users, designers can move beyond surface-level requirements to uncover the underlying needs that drive user behavior. This deep understanding serves as a guiding light throughout the design process, ensuring that every decision made is rooted in the user's context and goals.

2. Empathy and Understanding

Empathy lies at the heart of User-Centered Design, driving designers to see the world through the eyes of the user. It involves actively listening to users, observing their behaviors, and seeking to understand the emotional and cognitive aspects of their experiences through structured interviews, focus groups, and observations.

By empathizing with users, designers can develop a genuine appreciation for their needs and challenges, fostering a sense of connection and trust. This empathetic understanding serves as a catalyst for innovation, as designers strive to create solutions that resonate deeply with users on a human level.

3. Iterative Design Process

The iterative nature of UCD acknowledges that designing for actual users is an ongoing journey rather than a one-time destination. Each iteration represents an opportunity to learn, adapt, and refine the design based on user feedback.

By embracing iteration, designers can uncover insights, validate assumptions, and iterate towards increasingly effective solutions. This iterative approach not only enhances the quality of the final product but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within the design team.

4. Holistic View of the User Experience

User experience encompasses more than just the interface; it encompasses the entire journey that users undertake when interacting with a product or service. This includes pre-purchase considerations, onboarding experiences, task completion, and post-interaction reflections.

Designers must take a holistic view of the user experience, considering all touchpoints and interactions that contribute to the overall user journey. By understanding the end-to-end user experience, designers can identify opportunities for improvement and create cohesive, seamless experiences that delight users at every step.

5. Early and Continuous User Involvement

User involvement is not a one-time event but a continuous process that begins at the earliest stages of design and continues throughout the product lifecycle. By involving users early and often, designers can gain valuable insights, validate assumptions, and ensure that the final product meets user needs and expectations.

This early and continuous involvement fosters a sense of ownership and buy-in among users, as they feel invested in the design process and empowered to shape the final outcome.

6. Usability and Accessibility

Usability and accessibility are foundational principles of the user-centered design and development process, ensuring that products are easy to use and accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities or technical proficiency. Designers must consider factors such as intuitive navigation, clear information hierarchy, and inclusive design practices to accommodate diverse user needs and preferences.

By prioritizing usability and accessibility, designers can create products that are not only functional but also enjoyable and inclusive for all users.

7. Flexibility and Adaptability

In a rapidly changing world, designs must be flexible and adaptable to accommodate evolving user and target audience needs and technological advancements. Designers must anticipate future trends and design solutions that can evolve over time, rather than becoming obsolete.

This flexibility enables designers to future-proof their designs and respond quickly to emerging opportunities and challenges, ensuring the longevity and relevance of the product in the marketplace.

8. Evidence-Based Design Decisions

Design decisions should be grounded in evidence rather than assumptions or personal preferences. By collecting and analyzing data, conducting user research, and gathering feedback from users, designers can make informed decisions that are based on real-world insights.

This evidence-based approach mitigates the risk of subjective biases and ensures that design choices are aligned with user needs and behaviors. Additionally, it provides a solid foundation for justifying design decisions to stakeholders and fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making within the organization.

By embracing these principles, designers can cultivate a user-centric mindset and create products and services that truly resonate with users, driving greater satisfaction, loyalty, and success in the marketplace.

User-Centered Design Process

The User-Centered Design (UCD) process is a systematic design approach to creating products, services, or systems that prioritize the needs, preferences, and behaviors of the end users. It encompasses a series of iterative stages that guide designers in understanding user requirements, conceptualizing design solutions, and refining those solutions based on user feedback. These include:

Step 1: User Research

This phase involves delving deeply into understanding the target users' demographics, behaviors, goals, and pain points. It's not just about knowing who the users are but understanding their context-where, when, and how they will interact with the product or service.

Techniques such as contextual inquiries, ethnographic studies, and user interviews provide rich qualitative data, while surveys and analytics may offer quantitative insights. Creating detailed user personas helps encapsulate user characteristics and needs, guiding design decisions throughout the process.

By synthesizing research findings, personas are crafted, representing archetypal users. These personas serve as guiding lights throughout the design process, enabling designers to create highly usable solutions tailored to real user needs. Ultimately, thorough user research fosters empathy, driving the creation of impactful and user-centric products and experiences.

Step 2: Define Requirements

Building upon the insights from user research, designers distill insights from user research into clear and actionable guidelines. By synthesizing user needs and business objectives, they define the scope and goals of the project. This involves creating user stories, journey maps, and feature lists that outline what the product must accomplish to meet user needs effectively. Collaborating with stakeholders, designers establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and success metrics to measure project outcomes.

This phase sets the foundation for the design process, ensuring alignment between user expectations and project goals. Clarity in requirements minimizes ambiguity, guiding the subsequent phases of design and development efficiently.

Step 3: Ideation and Conceptualization

With a solid understanding of user and task requirements, designers generate a myriad of creative solutions to address the defined requirements. Through brainstorming sessions, sketching, and prototyping, teams explore diverse possibilities to solve user challenges. This phase encourages experimentation and risk-taking, fostering an environment where novel ideas can flourish.

Designers prioritize innovation while considering feasibility and alignment with user needs. Iterative refinement hones concepts, integrating feedback from stakeholders and users. By fostering collaboration and embracing diverse perspectives, this stage cultivates a rich pool of ideas. Ultimately, it lays the groundwork for the development of impactful and user-centered design solutions.

Step 4: Prototyping

Prototyping is the pivotal stage where user-centered design takes an actual form. This is the stage where the design concepts materialize into tangible representations. Designers create low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes to simulate user interactions with the product. These prototypes range from paper sketches to interactive digital mock-ups, allowing for iterative testing and refinement.

Through rapid iteration, designers validate design assumptions, identify usability issues, and gather user feedback. Prototypes serve as a medium for communication among stakeholders, bridging the gap between ideas and implementation. By simulating the user experience early in the design process, this phase minimizes the risk of costly errors and ensures that the final product aligns closely with user needs and expectations.

Step 5: Usability Testing

Usability Testing is the critical phase where prototypes undergo rigorous evaluation through real-user interactions. Designers observe participants as they navigate the product, identifying usability challenges and gathering feedback on functionality, accessibility, and overall user experience. By employing various testing methodologies, such as moderated sessions or remote testing, designers uncover insights into user behavior and preferences.

Iterative testing cycles refine the design, addressing pain points and enhancing user satisfaction. Usability Testing validates design decisions, ensuring that the final product aligns seamlessly with user needs and expectations. This iterative process fosters continuous improvement, ultimately resulting in a more intuitive and user-friendly solution.

Step 6: Iteration

Iteration is the heartbeat of user-centered design, embodying the ethos of continuous improvement. Building upon insights from usability testing, designers refine and enhance the product through iterative cycles. This iterative process involves revisiting earlier stages, such as ideation and prototyping, to address identified issues and optimize user experience.

By incorporating feedback from users and stakeholders, designers fine-tune features, interfaces, and interactions, striving for perfection. Iteration fosters innovation and adaptability, allowing designers to respond to evolving user needs and market demands. Each cycle brings the product closer to its full potential, ensuring that it remains relevant, effective, and delightful to its users.

Step 7: Implementation

Implementation marks the transition from design to reality, where concepts evolve into functional products. Once the design has been finalized, it is translated into a fully functional product, service, or system through implementation and development.

Close communication and collaboration between designers and developers ensures fidelity to the original vision while addressing technical constraints. Rigorous testing validates functionality and performance, ironing out any remaining issues. Throughout the implementation phase, iteration continues, allowing for adjustments based on real-world constraints and user feedback.

Successful implementation hinges on effective project management, clear communication, and adherence to design principles. This stage culminates in the deployment of a robust, user-centered product ready for launch and iteration.

Step 8: Evaluation and Feedback

After the product or service has been launched, designers continue to gather feedback and evaluate its performance in the real world. Through various evaluation methods like user surveys, analytics analysis, and usability tests, designers gauge user satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. Feedback loops are established, encouraging ongoing communication with users and stakeholders to address evolving needs and preferences.

By measuring against predefined success metrics and KPIs, designers validate the effectiveness of design decisions and iterate accordingly. This continuous feedback loop fosters a culture of learning and adaptation, driving the refinement and evolution of the product over time.

By following a structured and iterative UCD process, designers can create products and services that are not only user-friendly and intuitive but also aligned with user needs and preferences, ultimately leading to greater user satisfaction and success in the marketplace.

Tips For Implementing User-Centered Design Principles

Implementing user-centered design principles is crucial for creating products and services that truly meet the needs and preferences of your users. Here are some tips to help you incorporate these principles effectively:

1. Understand Your Users

User research is the foundation of user-centered design. It involves gathering insights into the behaviors, needs, and motivations of your target audience. Conduct qualitative research methods such as interviews, surveys, and contextual inquiries to gain a deep understanding of your users. Quantitative methods like analytics and A/B testing can provide additional insights into user behavior patterns.

2. Create User Personas

User personas are fictional representations of your target users based on research data. They help humanize your target audience and guide design decisions by representing typical user archetypes.

When creating personas, include details such as demographics, goals, challenges, and behaviors. Personas serve as a reference point throughout the design process, ensuring that designs are tailored to the needs of specific user segments.

3. Empathy Mapping

Empathy mapping is a technique used to understand users' emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. Create empathy maps by visually mapping out what users see, hear, say, think, feel, and do. This exercise helps design teams develop empathy for users and gain insights into their experiences.

Empathy mapping can uncover unmet needs, pain points, and opportunities for improvement that might not be apparent through traditional research methods.

4. Iterative Design Process

The iterative design process involves repeatedly refining and improving designs based on feedback from users and stakeholders. Start with low-fidelity prototypes to quickly test and validate design concepts. Gather feedback from users through usability testing, interviews, and surveys.

Use this feedback to iterate on your designs, making incremental improvements with each iteration. The iterative approach allows you to incorporate user feedback early and often, leading to more user-friendly and effective designs.

5. Usability Testing

Usability testing is the process of observing real users as they interact with your product to identify usability issues and areas for improvement. Conduct usability tests regularly throughout the design process, starting with paper prototypes and progressing to clickable prototypes or fully functional prototypes.

Observe users as they perform tasks relevant to your product, and pay attention to their behavior, feedback, and pain points. Usability testing helps validate design decisions, prioritize improvements, and ensure that your product meets user needs and expectations.

6. Accessibility

Accessibility is about designing products and experiences that are usable by people of all abilities, including those with disabilities. Consider accessibility from the outset of the design process and incorporate inclusive design practices into your workflows.

Ensure that your product complies with accessibility standards such as WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and test for accessibility using assistive technologies like screen readers and keyboard navigation. By prioritizing accessibility, you can create products that are more usable and inclusive for everyone.

7. Clear Communication

Clear communication is essential for guiding users through your product and helping them achieve their goals. Use intuitive navigation, clear labels, and descriptive content to communicate effectively with users. Provide feedback in real time to acknowledge user actions and guide them toward successful interactions.

Error messages should be informative, concise, and actionable, helping users understand what went wrong and how to correct it. By communicating clearly with users, you can enhance their overall experience and reduce frustration.

8. Prototype Early and Often

Prototyping is a crucial part of the design process, allowing you to explore ideas, gather feedback, and refine your designs before final implementation. Start with low-fidelity prototypes such as sketches or wireframes to quickly explore different design concepts. As your designs evolve, create higher-fidelity prototypes that more closely resemble the final product.

Test prototypes with real users to identify usability issues and validate design decisions. By prototyping early and often, you can iterate rapidly and create designs that better meet user needs.

9. Collaborative Design

User-centered design is a collaborative process that involves multidisciplinary teams working together to create solutions that meet user needs. Collaborate closely with designers, developers, product managers, and stakeholders throughout the design process.

Encourage open communication, idea sharing, and constructive feedback among team members. By leveraging the diverse expertise of your team, you can generate innovative ideas, identify potential challenges, and develop more robust solutions.

10. Continuous Learning

User-centered design is an evolving field, and it's essential to stay informed about the latest trends, best practices, and emerging technologies. Invest in ongoing learning opportunities such as conferences, workshops, and online courses to expand your knowledge and skills.

Engage with online communities, forums, and social media platforms to connect with other designers and share insights and experiences. By continuously learning and staying up-to-date with industry developments, you can enhance your effectiveness as a designer and deliver better experiences for your users.

By incorporating these principles into your design process, you can create products that are not only functional and usable but also delightful and meaningful for your users.

User-Centered Design Examples

User-centered design is pervasive in many products and services we interact with daily. Here are some examples across various domains:

1. Apple iPhone

Apple's iPhone is a prime example of user-centered system design. From its intuitive touchscreen interface to its sleek and ergonomic hardware design, the iPhone prioritizes user experience. Features like Face ID, gesture-based navigation, and the App Store ecosystem are all designed with the user in mind, making the device easy and enjoyable to use.

2. Google Search

Google's search engine exemplifies user-centered design by delivering relevant and accurate search results quickly and efficiently. The simple and minimalist interface focuses on the user's primary goal: finding information. Features like autocomplete, predictive search suggestions, and personalized results enhance the user experience and make searching effortless.

3. Airbnb

Airbnb revolutionized the travel and accommodation industry with its user-centered design approach. The platform provides a seamless experience for both hosts and guests, with features like detailed listings, reviews, and instant booking. Airbnb's intuitive interface and personalized recommendations help users find unique accommodations that match their preferences and budget, enhancing the overall travel experience.

4. Tesla Model S

Tesla's Model S electric car showcases user-centered design principles in automotive engineering. The vehicle's touchscreen interface centralizes controls and information, simplifying the driving experience. Features like Autopilot and over-the-air software updates demonstrate Tesla's commitment to continuous improvement and user convenience, setting new standards for the automotive industry.

5. Netflix

Netflix offers a personalized streaming experience tailored to each user's preferences and viewing habits. The platform's recommendation algorithms analyze user behavior to suggest relevant movies and TV shows, helping users discover new content they're likely to enjoy. Netflix's user interface is also designed for ease of use, with intuitive navigation and seamless playback across devices.

6. Nike+ Run Club App

Nike's Run Club app is designed to enhance the running experience for users of all levels. The app provides personalized training plans, real-time feedback during runs, and social features for connecting with other runners. Nike's user-centered design approach focuses on motivating and empowering users to achieve their fitness goals while providing a seamless and intuitive app experience.

7. Amazon Echo

Amazon's Echo smart speaker and virtual assistant, Alexa, prioritize user convenience and accessibility. The hands-free voice interface allows users to control smart home devices, play music, set reminders, and access information using natural language commands. Alexa's capabilities continue to expand through software updates, demonstrating Amazon's commitment to providing valuable features based on user feedback and usage patterns.

8. Duolingo

Duolingo is a language-learning platform that gamifies the learning experience to make it engaging and enjoyable for users. The app offers bite-sized lessons, interactive exercises, and progress tracking to help users learn languages at their own pace. Duolingo's user-centered design approach focuses on making language learning accessible, fun, and effective for people of all ages and backgrounds.

These examples demonstrate how user-centered design principles can be applied across different industries to create products and services that prioritize the needs, preferences, and experiences of users.

Conclusion

Overall, user-centered design is not merely a methodology but a guiding philosophy that places the needs, preferences, and experiences of users at the forefront of product development. By empathizing with users, embracing iterative processes, and fostering collaboration, designers can create products and services that truly resonate with their audience.

From intuitive interfaces to personalized experiences, user-centered design transforms ideas into solutions that delight and empower users. In a world increasingly driven by technology, the importance of user-centered design cannot be overstated-it is the key to building meaningful connections, driving innovation, and ultimately, improving the lives of people around the globe.

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A Complete Guide To User-Centered Design Process - All Time Design

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In today's customer-centric landscape, User-Centered Design (UCD) stands out as an approach that prioritizes the user's needs at every stage, [...]

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Problem Framing in Design Thinking | UC Berkeley Executive Education

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Generating Learning paths using AI for any skill.

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What Is Ideation? 2023 Guide To The Design Thinking Phase

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Ideation is the process of creating and communicating new ideas. Learn about its techniques and how to prepare an ideation session with this step-by-step guide.

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Mural.co: Prototyping - A Guide to the 4th Stage of Design Thinking

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Mural.co: Prototyping - A Guide to the 4th Stage of Design Thinking

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Learn everything you need to know in the prototyping stage of the design thinking process. Get tips, templates, and more to help your teams succeed.

Companies using design thinking methodology can build prototypes quickly and affordably because they can create more thoughtful iterations with input from many different stakeholders - all without ignoring how the end user will engage with the final product.

However, those new to prototyping may have questions about how teams can be more collaborative, efficient, and responsive to feedback. One way is to get a better understanding of the different methods of prototyping and what tools exist to make it a more enjoyable and productive process.

What is the prototyping phase of design thinking?

Prototyping is the stage of design thinking where teams create a tangible representation of an idea or solution that they can test.

At this stage, you've gone through three other stages of the design thinking process:

Empathize: where you understand your users and their needs

Define: where you agree on the core problem you need to solve

Ideate: where you come up with lots of different ideas on how to solve the problem

Now, you want to explore those ideas in more detail before testing them with potential customers or end users. You want to get a feel for how viable they are without investing a lot of time or resources into doing so. Prototypes are how you start bringing your ideas to life, ready for testing.

A new prototype is created with each iteration of an idea until the final prototype closely resembles what the final product will become. Prototypes can be physical or virtual.

Why teams should use prototypes

Teams use prototypes to mockup solutions, validate their ideas, gather feedback from stakeholders and users on a solution's usability, and make informed design decisions based on real-world interactions.

Reduced risk

Prototypes reduce risk by allowing big ideas to be tested and evaluated by users well before they are ready for development or production. Working out the kinks before a physical product exists can save time and reduce development costs.

Deliberate testing, feedback, and iteration

Prototypes don't often consider other business decisions that may affect the design, such as the location of a factory or time to market. Instead, prototypes are mainly focused on solving the problem statement defined earlier in the design thinking process, and getting feedback on potential solutions.

The user-focused nature of this stage plays an important role in an end product's overall adoption and success.

Improved buy-in and engagement with stakeholders

By presenting a physical or digital representation of your solution, you can communicate your vision more effectively and involve stakeholders in the decision-making process. This active engagement fosters a sense of ownership and increases the likelihood of successful implementation.

The common forms of prototypes

Different types of prototyping serve different purposes, enabling teams to explore and iterate on their ideas. Here are three common types of prototypes:

Low-fidelity prototypes

These prototypes are quick and easy to create, often using simple materials like paper, cardboard, digital platforms, or even Lego blocks. Low-fidelity prototypes focus on capturing the basic functionalities and interactions of a design concept without much detail. They're used for early-stage exploration, testing ideas, and gathering feedback.

High-fidelity prototypes

High-fidelity prototypes are more detailed and closely resemble the final product in terms of appearance and functionality. They can be created using advanced prototyping tools, digital software, or even physical materials. High-fidelity prototypes are used to simulate the user experience more accurately, test specific features, and validate design decisions before moving into the development phase.

Digital prototypes

Digital prototypes are interactive prototypes created using specialized software or prototyping tools. These prototypes can simulate complex interactions, animations, and transitions. Digital prototypes allow for a more realistic user experience and are particularly useful when designing digital products, websites, or mobile applications. They can be tested on various devices and screen sizes to ensure a seamless user experience across platforms.

Protoyping methods and templates

Prototyping looks different for different products and teams, but it often follows one of the accepted methods below.

Schematic diagramming

This type of prototyping involves drawing an outline or diagram to show each step in a process or a part of a product. Schematic diagrams can be as simple as a few lines, text, and arrows that act as a blueprint for how the design will work.

An example would be a schematic diagram of how an innovative new water delivery system may push water through a building. You could mock this up by showing the beginning and end of the system, and then using shapes along the way for each step, decision, or feature.

The schematic diagramming template works well when minimal color is used. Focus on the infrastructure at this point in prototyping and avoid distracting details. You can add these in for a high-fidelity version of the prototype.

Appearance modeling

In appearance modeling, you'll brainstorm and plan out the emotional and visual traits of your final design. You'll want it to look as much like the real thing as possible, with details on the emotional connection you want end users to have with the design. Because this prototyping practice focuses on aesthetics and feeling, it's a good fit for human-centric design thinking principles.

An example of this would be the prototype of a relaxation retreat website. By establishing visual details through an appearance model, you can test font, color, and other design elements just as they would appear to the visitor on an actual website. The appearance modeling template takes away the guesswork on how to track and test the various factors of each iteration of your prototype.

Rough and ready prototyping

Rough prototyping is a low-fidelity prototype sketch where you can create a number of quick, cheap visual representations for discussion, testing, and feedback. Its main purpose is to get ideas vetted right away before moving on to a more refined and realistic-looking prototype.

An example of this might be a rudimentary sketch of a new board game, drawn quickly to show how it will look, what pieces it'll include, and how to play the game.

While the concept is simple enough, it can be difficult to get started, especially with larger teams. The rough and ready prototyping template gives you the framework to start drawing your ideas and collecting feedback faster.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a technique used to demonstrate an idea with a series of new or transitional elements. Storyboarding in design thinking works much like it does in TV and movies - one page or sketch for every scene, feature, or lesson.

This prototyping technique is a perfect fit for any design that involves a story or sequence, like an idea for a new commercial. It's also ideal for demonstrating how a user may interact with your design: Creating a sketch for each moment in a user's product experience can help designers anticipate problems or even create opportunities for more thoughtful moments with your finished work.

Storyboarding works with the understanding that user experience isn't a single moment in time. Getting started may be easier with the storyboarding template, so you can focus on the story you have to tell.

How to get started with prototyping in design thinking

Prototyping isn't the first thing you'll focus on when creating a new design, but it is an essential part of the process. Which strategy you settle on depends on your goals, team needs, and time to market.

Consider these words from our experts on the LUMA System™:

"Imagine a world in which hundreds of millions of people have mastered basic design skills so they can frame problems, deeply understand people and situations, pull insights from a complex sea of data, generate unconventional ideas, sketch, build prototypes, test assumptions, and iterate quickly - the hallmarks of good designers."

Design thinking is centered on the human experience, and the best strategies are those that put people front and center. Fortunately, the prototyping stage is really about testing what we think people will want against what they truly think and feel.

Put your new prototyping knowledge into practice with Mural and the LUMA System ™. Your teams will be equipped to tackle complex problems, imagine new possibilities, and design solutions that keep people at the center.

Once you've created your prototypes, learn how to use the testing stage of design thinking to gather feedback for the "finished product."

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Prototyping: a guide to the 4th stage of design thinking | Mural

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Learn everything you need to know in the Prototyping stage of the Design Thinking process. Get tips, templates, and more to help your teams succeed.

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Stanfore: dSchool An Intro to Design Thinking Process Guide

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Stanfore: dSchool An Intro to Design Thinking Process Guide

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An Intro to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE

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Our Design Thinking Course teaches you to leverage fundamental design thinking principles and innovative problem-solving tools to solve business challenges.

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McKinsey & Company: What is Design Thinking

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McKinsey & Company: What is Design Thinking

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Design and conquer: in years past, the word "design" might have conjured images of expensive handbags or glossy coffee table books. Now, your mind might go straight to business. Design and design thinking are buzzing in the business community more than ever. Until now, design has focused largely on how something looks; these days, it's a dynamic idea used to describe how organizations can adjust their problem-solving approaches to respond to rapidly changing environments-and create maximum impact and shareholder value. Design is a journey and a destination. Design thinking is a core way of starting the journey and arriving at the right destination at the right time.

Simply put, "design thinking is a methodology that we use to solve complex problems, and it's a way of using systemic reasoning and intuition to explore ideal future states," says McKinsey partner Jennifer Kilian. Design thinking, she continues, is "the single biggest competitive advantage that you can have, if your customers are loyal to you-because if you solve for their needs first, you'll always win."

And good design is good business. Kilian's claim is backed up with data: McKinsey Design's 2018 Business value of design report found that the best design performers increase their revenues and investor returns at nearly twice the rate of their industry competitors. What's more, over a ten-year period, design-led companies outperformed the S&P 500 by 219 percent.

As you may have guessed by now, design thinking goes way beyond just the way something looks. And incorporating design thinking into your business is more than just creating a design studio and hiring designers. Design thinking means fundamentally changing how you develop your products, services, and, indeed, your organization itself.

Read on for a deep dive into the theory and practice of design thinking.
Learn more about McKinsey's Design Practice, and check out McKinsey's latest Business value of design report here.
How do companies build a design-driven company culture?

There's more to succeeding in business than developing a great product or service that generates a financial return. Empathy and purpose are core business needs. Design thinking means putting customers, employees, and the planet at the center of problem solving.

McKinsey's Design Practice has learned that design-led organizations start with design-driven cultures. Here are four steps to building success through the power of design:

1. Understand your audience. Design-driven companies go beyond asking what customers and employees want, to truly understanding why they want it. Frequently, design-driven companies will turn to cultural anthropologists and ethnographers to drill down into how their customers use and experience products, including what motivates them and what turns them away.

Makeup retailer Sephora provides an example. When marketing leaders actually watched shoppers using the Sephora website, they realized customers would frequently go to YouTube to watch videos of people using products before making a purchase. Using this information, the cosmetics retailer developed its own line of demonstration videos, keeping shoppers on the site and therefore more likely to make a purchase.

2. Bring design to the executive table. This leader can be a chief design officer, a chief digital officer, or a chief marketing officer. Overall, this executive should be the best advocate for the company's customers and employees, bringing the point of view of the people, the planet, and the company's purpose into strategic business decisions. The design lead should also build bridges between multiple functions and stakeholders, bringing various groups into the design iteration process.

3. Design in real time. To understand how and why people-both customers and employees-use processes, products, or services, organizations should develop a three-pronged design-thinking model that combines design, business strategy, and technology. This approach allows business leaders to spot trends, cocreate using feedback and data, prototype, validate, and build governance models for ongoing investment.

4. Act quickly. Good design depends on agility. That means getting a product to users quickly, then iterating based on customer feedback. In a design-driven culture, companies aren't afraid to release products that aren't quite perfect. Designers know there is no end to the design process. The power of design, instead, lies in the ability to adopt and adapt as needs change. When designers are embedded within teams, they are uniquely positioned to gather and digest feedback, which can lead to unexpected revelations. Ultimately, this approach creates more impactful and profitable results than following a prescribed path.

Consider Instagram. Having launched an initial product in 2010, Instagram's founders paid attention to what the most popular features were: image sharing, commenting, and liking. They relaunched with a stripped-down version a few months later, resulting in 100,000 downloads in less than a week and over two million users in under two months -all without any strategic promotion.

Learn more about McKinsey's Design Practice.
What's the relationship between user-centered design and design thinking?

Both processes are design led. And they both emphasize listening to and deeply understanding users and continually gathering and implementing feedback to develop, refine, and improve a service.

Where they are different is scale. User-centered design focuses on improving a specific product or service. Design thinking takes a broader view as a way to creatively address complex problems-whether for a start-up, a large organization, or society as a whole.

User-centered design is great for developing a fantastic product or service. In the past, a company could coast on a superior process or product for years before competitors caught up. But now, as digitization drives more frequent and faster disruptions, users demand a dynamic mix of product and service. Emphasis has shifted firmly away from features and functions toward purpose, lifestyle, and simplicity of use.

McKinsey analysis has found that some industries-such as telecommunications, automotive, and consumer product companies- have already made strides toward combining product and service into a unified customer experience. Read on for concrete examples of how companies have applied design thinking to offer innovative-and lucrative-customer experiences.
Learn more about our Operations Practice.
What is the design-thinking process?

McKinsey analysis has shown that the design-thinking approach creates more value than conventional approaches. The right design at the right price point spurs sustainability and resilience in a demonstrable way-a key driver of growth.

According to McKinsey's Design Practice, there are two key steps to the design-thinking process:

1. Developing an understanding of behavior and needs that goes beyond what people are doing right now to what they will need in the future and how to deliver that. The best way to develop this understanding is to spend time with people.

2. "Concepting," iterating, and testing. First start with pen and paper, sketching out concepts. Then quickly put these into rough prototypes-with an emphasis on quickly. Get feedback, refine, and test again. As American chemist Linus Pauling said: "The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away."

What is D4VG versus DTV?

For more than a decade, manufacturers have used a design-to-value (DTV) model to design and release products that have the features needed to be competitive at a low cost. During this time, DTV efforts were groundbreaking because they were based on data rather than experience. They also reached across functions, in contrast to the typical value-engineering approach.

The principles of DTV have evolved into design for value and growth (D4VG), a new way of creating products that provide exceptional customer experiences while driving both value and growth. Done right, D4VG efforts generate products with the features, form, and functionality that turn users into loyal fans.

D4VG products can cost more to build, but they can ultimately raise margins by delivering on a clear understanding of a product's core brand attributes, insights into people's motivations, and design thinking.
Learn more about our Consumer Packaged Goods Practice.
What is design for sustainability?

As consumers, companies, and regulators shift toward increased sustainability, design processes are coming under even more scrutiny. The challenge is that carbon-efficient production processes tend to be more complex and can require more carbon-intensive materials. The good news is that an increased focus on design for sustainability (DFS), especially at the research and development stage, can help mitigate some of these inefficiencies and ultimately create even more sustainable products.

For example, the transition from internal-combustion engines to electric-propulsion vehicles has highlighted emissions-intensive automobile production processes. One study found that around 20 percent of the carbon generated by a diesel vehicle comes from its production. If the vehicle ran on only renewable energy, production emissions would account for 85 percent of the total. With more sustainable design, electric-vehicle (EV) manufacturers stand to reduce the lifetime emissions of their products significantly.

To achieve design for sustainability at scale, companies can address three interrelated elements at the R&D stage:

1. rethinking the way their products use resources, adapting them to changing regulations, adopting principles of circularity, and making use of customer insights

2. understanding and tracking emissions and cost impact of design decisions in support of sustainability goals

3. fostering the right mindsets and capabilities to integrate sustainability into every product and design decision

What is 'skinny design'?

Skinny design is a less theoretical aspect of design thinking. It's a method whereby consumer goods companies reassess the overall box size of products by reducing the total cubic volume of the package. According to McKinsey analysis, this can improve overall business performance in the following ways:

Top-line growth of 4 to 5 percent through improvements in shelf and warehouse holding power. The ability to fit more stock into warehouses ultimately translates to growth.

Bottom-line growth of more than 10 percent. Packing more product into containers and trucks creates the largest savings. Other cost reductions can come from designing packaging to minimize the labor required and facilitate automation.

Sustainability improvements associated with reductions in carbon emissions through less diesel fuel burned per unit. Material choices can also confer improvements to the overall footprint.

Read more about skinny design and how it can help maximize the volume of consumer products that make it onto shelves.
Learn more about McKinsey's Operations Practice.
How can a company become a top design performer?

The average person's standard for design is higher than ever. Good design is no longer just a nice-to-have for a company. Customers now have extremely high expectations for design, whether it's customer service, instant access to information, or clever products that are also aesthetically relevant in the current culture.

McKinsey tracked the design practices of 300 publicly listed companies over a five-year period in multiple countries. Advanced regression analysis of more than two million pieces of financial data and more than 100,000 design actions revealed 12 actions most correlated to improved financial performance. These were then clustered into the following four themes:

1. Analytical leadership. For the best financial performers, design is a top management issue, and design performance is assessed with the same rigor these companies use to approach revenue and cost. The companies with the top financial returns have combined design and business leadership through bold, design-centric visions. These include a commitment to maintain a baseline level of customer understanding among all executives. The CEO of one of the world's largest banks, for example, spends one day a month with the bank's clients and encourages all members of the company's C-suite to do the same.

2. Cross-functional talent. Top-performing companies make user-centric design everyone's responsibility, not a siloed function. Companies whose designers are embedded within cross-functional teams have better overall business performance. Further, the alignment of design metrics with functional business metrics (such as financial performance, user adoption rates, and satisfaction results) is also correlated to better business performance.

3. Design with people, not for people. Design flourishes best, according to our research, in environments that encourage learning, testing, and iterating with users. These practices increase the odds of creating breakthrough products and services, while at the same time reducing the risk of costly missteps.

4. User experience (UX). Top-quartile companies embrace the full user experience by taking a broad-based view of where design can make a difference. Design approaches like mapping customer journeys can lead to more inclusive and sustainable solutions.

Learn more about McKinsey's Design Practice.
What are some real-world examples of how design thinking can improve efficiency and user experience?

Understanding the theory of design thinking is one thing. Seeing it work in practice is something else. Here are some examples of how elegant design created value for customers, a company, and shareholders:

Stockholm's international airport, Arlanda, used design thinking to address its air-traffic-control problem. The goal was to create a system that would make air traffic safer and more effective. By understanding the tasks and challenges of the air-traffic controllers, then collaboratively working on prototypes and iterating based on feedback, a working group was able to design a new departure-sequencing tool that helped air-traffic controllers do their jobs better. The new system greatly reduced the amount of time planes spent between leaving the terminal and being in the air, which in turn helped reduce fuel consumption.

When Tesla creates its electric vehicles, the company closely considers not only aesthetics but also the overall driving experience.

The consumer electronics industry has a long history of dramatic evolutions lead by design thinking. Since Apple debuted the iPhone in 2007, for example, each new generation has seen additional features, new customers, and lower costs-all driven by design-led value creation.

Learn more about our Consumer Packaged Goods and Sustainability Practices. For a more in-depth exploration of these topics, see McKinsey's Articles referenced: Agile Organizations collection. Learn more about our Design Practice-and check out design-thinking-related job opportunities if you're interested in working at McKinsey.

"Skinny design: Smaller is better," April 26, 2022, Dave Fedewa, Daniel Swan, Warren Teichner, and Bill Wiseman

"Product sustainability: Back to the drawing board," February 7, 2022, Stephan Fuchs, Stephan Mohr, Malin Orebäck, and Jan Rys

"Emerging from COVID-19: Australians embrace their values," May 11, 2020, Lloyd Colling, Rod Farmer, Jenny Child, Dan Feldman, and Jean-Baptiste Coumau

"The business value of design," McKinsey Quarterly, October 25, 2018, Benedict Sheppard, Hugo Sarrazin, Garen Kouyoumjian, and Fabricio Dore

"More than a feeling: Ten design practices to deliver business value," December 8, 2017, Benedict Sheppard, John Edson, and Garen Kouyoumjian

"Creating value through sustainable design," July 25, 2017, Sara Andersson, David Crafoord, and Tomas Nauclér

"The expanding role of design in creating an end-to-end customer experience," June 6, 2017, Raffaele Breschi, Tjark Freundt, Malin Orebäck, and Kai Vollhardt

"Design for value and growth in a new world," April 13, 2017, Ankur Agrawal, Mark Dziersk, Dave Subburaj, and Kieran West

"The power of design thinking," March 1, 2016, Jennifer Kilian, Hugo Sarrazin, and Barr Seitz

"Building a design-driven culture," September 1, 2015, Jennifer Kilian, Hugo Sarrazin, and Hyo Yeon

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Design and conquer: in years past, the word "design" might have conjured images of expensive handbags or glossy coffee table books. Now, your mind might go straight to business. Design and design thinking are buzzing in the business community more than ever.