• Designing a Product You’re Not Going To Use
  • The Nuggets translation Project
  • Translator: jiaowoyongqi
  • Proofreader: Cbangchen, Mypchas6fans

When I tell my friends that my job is to design a product that features sports news, they often say, “Do you know anything about sports?” . In response, I often watch games on TV and know some basic sports knowledge, but I am definitely not a sports fan, far from it.

I must admit, I had some thoughts when I started working for MinuteMedia, the parent company of 90min and 12Up. After all, I’m a former ballerina myself, so designing a product for sports enthusiasts sounds like the right time, right? And so it is.

When I started working on 90min, I was convinced it was a great product. Not just because of its appearance, but because of its core concept. This is not only a platform for publishing football articles, but also a place where football fans can have a voice in the discussion. I was immediately struck by the uniqueness of its content. When I was assigned to design our new product, 12UP, I knew it would be a challenge. What I wanted to do was make an evolution of 90 minutes. But that wasn’t enough. 12UP was involved in every sport in America, and I knew nothing about it. How can I take the old product and put it back in the oven and remake it into a good product? How do I communicate my ideas about new products to the rest of the staff? They put in 90 minutes of effort and work through the night to solve a single pain point. If I told you it was easy, I’d be lying. In fact, the whole process took a lot of effort, including thousands of sketches and many attempts at design solutions, and we learned a lot from the unforgettable process.

I’m sure you have the same project experience, so I would like to summarize my own experience.

Don’t understand to ask

There’s no shame in asking. We can’t know everything. Yes, I understand that asking questions is important in any design project, but when you’re not the intended audience for the product, it’s important to ask the right people. Asking questions is the first step in trying to solve a problem. If you don’t know anything about the problem how do you solve it? So don’t be afraid to ask them, even if they’re stunned when they hear, “How long does a soccer game take?” (True story)

Figure Sam Bunny

“I” will never be a user

We always say, “I’m not going to click on that,” “That’s easy to understand,” and we just know how we’re doing it on the interface. There are two concepts, one is you, the other is the user, you are designing for the user. I’m not perfect, and I make mistakes like this from time to time. When I’m arguing with a product manager about a feature, he always says to me, “But you’re not a user.” Sometimes it’s hard to let go of something you’ve created (especially if you’ve fallen in love with it), but sometimes it’s necessary to sacrifice something for a better product. Sometimes we just need an idea, come up with it and let go when it’s time. When you’re working on your idea, try to think about the user model and see if the idea is worth keeping. You’ll be surprised how thinking about your target audience will help you get out of your design dilemmas, rather than your perceived perfectionism. I design for Kevin and John and Chris, not for myself, and I turn to them when I can’t solve a problem.

Figure William Matiola

Your intuition vs the A/B test

When you are sure of something, you are always full of enthusiasm. Our intuitions are amazing. Sometimes they can lead to surprises and sometimes disasters. It is important to learn to control this inexplicable primordial force.

In the design process, I always have such feelings. When making a decision, there will always be a voice in my heart telling me what to do, but I will come up with another plan before telling my idea to other partners in the team. Then I will do a careful comparison and test and document the pros and cons of each solution. If you do this faithfully, you will clearly see which is the better solution. Once you know the best solution, you should be ready to convince others, but it’s not an easy task. Here’s a little piece of advice from my father, “If you believe in something, keep convincing people until they believe you.” I’ve always done that in my own way. My boss can attest to this 🙂

Final advice

We’re designing for a better experience, and it doesn’t really matter what the area is. Don’t worry because you lack knowledge or are not the intended audience for the product. Instead, consider whether the project is something that interests you and challenges you. If a former ballet dancer can design a sports news product, why not? 🙂