In the previous article, we discussed the fundamental characteristics of UX (holistically analyzing behaviours, creating empathy and eliminating assumptions, and assuming a central role in the brand-customer relationship). In this second part, we will detail some of the activities and tools we use to define intentional and memorable experiences that also meet specific business objectives.
Identifying the right problem to solve – solving the problem in the right way
Often, we are challenged to find miraculous solutions for poorly defined problems. Without understanding users’ perspectives, we might be looking for a solution to a problem that, in reality, the users do not have. Paradoxically, we might be designing a rocket when the user only needs a bicycle…
The solution to a UX problem is to get a clear answer to the following questions:
- What is the problem? (Clearly define the problem.)
- Who has this problem? (For whom are we designing the experience?)
- What are the goals? (Business and users.)
- How to solve the problem (What strategy to use?)
- What features are required to achieve the goals? (Functional requirements.)
- How will the product work so that the goals are achieved? (Solution to the problem.)
To find the answers, the UX team uses various UX activities and tools that must adapt to the complexity of the problem at hand. Here are the most significant:
Discovery
A large part of the success of the product centers on identifying and defining the right problem to solve. The discovery phase is probably the one that varies the most between projects. The more complex will include significant activities of user and competitor research in the market, while smaller projects may skip some of these activities, maintaining informal interviews, surveys or field studies.
What activities do we carry out?
UX workshops for discovery, empathy and prioritization – UX workshops are used throughout the process to solve cross-functional ownership issues and achieve consensus, among other goals.
Strategy
The success of a digital product starts with a grounded strategy. Defining this strategy will shape the project’s objectives – what to do and what not to do, opportunities for innovation and where to focus resources, with the goal of gaining a competitive advantage. The UX strategy translates business vision into an experience concept and ensures a rationale for each decision.
What activities do we carry out?
- Discovery and ideation sessions.
- Research (market analysis, competition and digital approach).
- Identification and analysis of the target audience, creation of personas.
- Presentation of strategic value propositions.
- Creation of an experience concept aligned with three vectors: business objectives, user needs and implementation capability.
Analysis
The objective of the analysis phase is to extract concrete results from the data collected in the previous phase, moving from ‘what’ users want/think/need to ‘why’ they want/think/need it.
What activities do we carry out?
- Interpret data – We interpret data to explain and understand raw data. This interpretation summarizes the patterns found in the raw data or underlying concepts they reveal: Key Insights (persona, action, need, constraint), ‘job to be done’ (situation, motivation, expected outcome), and user stories (as a persona, action, outcome).
- Functional analysis – Functional analysts ensure that the focus is on the user, their goal and how they should perform tasks to achieve it.
- Mental models – The way people build their mental models is based on several factors, such as past experiences, knowledge level and cultural references. The structure of a mental model diagram is divided into two parts: the problem space and the solution space.
- Experience map – An experience map is an extended version of a mental model and is based on a universal structure: product life cycle stages, user experience emotions, collected data and ideation.
Projecting the experience
This phase of a UX project is collaborative and iterative. The premise is to present ideas to real users, get feedback, refine and iterate. These ideas can be represented by wireframes or functional prototypes, deliberately created in low fidelity to delay any discussion related to graphic identity, branding or visual details.
What activities do we carry out?
- Navigation flows – When designing a digital product, we need to know what actions we want users to take and what steps they need to follow. Navigation flow diagrams define the sequence of interactions users must undertake from a starting point to task completion. This tool helps us understand how users can complete journeys in different ways or from various entry points, informing how the product needs to be structured and defining the information architecture – our brain prefers order over chaos. Information architecture analyses the project contents and structures them to make sense for the consumer. Information architecture can be divided into the following parts:
- Identify: What content do we need to tell the brand’s story? What pieces are necessary to communicate what we want to convey?
- Classify: Categorize the content and design its distribution within the product’s organization and hierarchy.
- Map: Structure and organize, deciding how each concept or content block will lead to the next. Information architecture organizes content into manageable hierarchies. This structure establishes how people will assimilate the ideas presented in a logical sequence.
- Wireframes – creating wireframes provides a high-level plan for each flow. Typically, they are low-resolution with a sparse, minimal layout. Whether a simple map of boxes, lines and placeholders or a more sophisticated representation, wireframes provide a structure that serves another important function: communication. They are a powerful visual tool, allowing everyone, regardless of their role in their team, to see how the product will be structured.
Materialize
This is the phase where the high-fidelity UI is developed, and a first version of the product is validated with stakeholders and end users through usability testing sessions. The role of the UX team shifts from creating and validating ideas to collaborating with development teams to guide and defend the vision. Additionally, it is also their responsibility to ensure the final quality of the implementation through UX Quality Assurance processes.
What activities do we carry out?
- Prototyping – Prototypes function as a nearly complete version of a product.
Navigation, interactions and all the major visual features and content blocks will be in place. It is not necessary to have every single component, but rather everything the user needs to interact, and the experience should be integrated.
Prototypes allow for iterations and adjustments before finalizing the UX definition. Prototypes can be low or high-fidelity. Low-fidelity prototypes focus on functionality, while high-fidelity prototypes focus on the UI of the final version.
- Micro-copy – Text clusters that are responsible for shaping a significant portion of the experience. Effective use of these texts facilitates guiding, engaging, suggesting and creating pleasant experiences.
- Design system – Without the creation of a ‘design system’, interface elements can vary widely in style, behaviour and even terminology, leaving users confused and frustrated. The Design System establishes clear guidelines that guide the appearance and behaviour of all components: consistency and cohesion, saving time and effort, scalability and collaboration.
- Usability tests – Once you have a functional prototype, it’s time to conduct some usability tests. This is a tool that can be used at any point in the process. Usability tests can be moderated or unmoderated, in person or remotely. In-person (moderated) tests provide the opportunity to analyze how people react emotionally to the experience, allow for unfiltered feedback and reveal what is working and what is not.
In summary, this is the macro diagram of the end-to-end UX work process:
Conclusion
As we’ve seen, the ideal experience lets users perform a task effectively and positively, giving them a feeling of satisfaction.
This premise is deceptively simple: building the ideal experience is a more complex journey than one might initially think – it is, in fact, a journey of learning and trial and error, accompanied by many iterations and evolutions. It does not have a definitive beginning, middle and end, because the ideal experience changes as our users also change, making it inherently iterative by nature.
The User Experience team at Xpand IT is focused on creating omnichannel experiences that are both useful and valuable for users and that are fully aligned with our client’s business needs, objectives and vision.
Read the first part of this article.