01
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What is UX design?
For a long time, everyone was advocated to say to want to do all the link designer, is in a project, designers not only focus on your vision/point of interaction design, but can take from the user research > > > the visual design in interaction design design walkthrough > experience optimization, all design work relating to the project from start to finish, This is when we can call ourselves experience designers, not just interaction/visual designers, etc.
There are two main scenarios for experience designers:
1. The company/team is small in scale and lack of manpower, so one person is required to handle N personal use;
2. The company is very large, but this is the direction of talent training, and it is mandatory to achieve the standard of full link.
02
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What do UX designers face?
NOW, the question is, in the context of limited energy, work/task attributes; Company size/direction decision, you assume the role of experience designers and energy were split on the entire link multiple points, if your project/task/demand is very trivial, such as make a Banner today, tomorrow to others website redesign the navigation, such as how to cycle short very urgent task, the task properties difference and a lot of time, Do you create value that benefits you and others see your growth and improvement?
Due to the work scene and task attributes, I have to undertake PD, application research, interaction and vision as well as operation in a project. The above problems have bothered me for a long time since a year ago, and it was thankless to deal with them. Now, a year later, I have found some of my own methods and techniques to make some explicit value that I and others see.
I think you may have encountered similar problems in the beginning of the workplace. I will tell you some practical work suggestions and methods based on my own growth experience from different link points, hoping to inspire you.
03
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How to solve the problem?
1. User research
When you receive a demand, the first task is to know the project background and the main problems to be solved. However, when you are PD yourself, you can only collect user information by yourself and improve user experience from the design level. But how do you get value out of a small requirement point if you only have three days between receiving the requirement and delivering the project?
1.1. Settle all the communication research content
The information you learn from the user there, after sorting, with the way of text record and precipitation down, it is best to put the demand background, user pain points point description clearly. (It is better to attach the source file of the question and answer with the user, so as to facilitate the reference of the subsequent browsers)
1.2. Use design model to visualize relevant data conclusions
Due to the high cost of text browsing and reading, project team members cannot quickly and intuitively feel the research conclusion and key points in a short period of time. The visual research conclusion can better clarify the current core value points of the product and the strength points of team members, and also reduce the cost of understanding and reading. For example, the user journey map is used to show the specific pain points of users in different scenarios, which is convenient for the project related intuitive viewing. Here’s an example:
Before visualization, the results of all the survey data sorted out are as follows:
1.2.1. What is the product and who is the user?
1.2.2. What can this product do and what is its core competitiveness?
1.2.3. What are the problems of the current product and how to optimize/solve them?
After visualization, the survey data are sorted out and the results are as follows:
1.2.1. What is the product and who is the user?
1.2.2. What can this product do and what is its core competitiveness?
1.2.3. What are the problems of the current product and how to optimize/solve them
Compared with before and after the visualization, everyone will definitely feel that the students after the visualization are more professional and have better thinking depth. Although they are all the same data, the written records and precipitation effect before visualization do not highlight the professional value of UX students, because they do not present professional views in a professional way. Maybe another developer student can record them in this way, and maybe the classification is more logical than the design student. In fact, visualization ability is not just the ability to make beautiful pictures, but the performance of systematic design thinking and professional ability. In the face of different types of project teams, we must show our professional strength.
1.3. General-purpose research information is extracted for design empowerment
To save communication costs, write down the related professional terms for subsequent development/project related people to understand and view
Or to do their own user research methods and processes and skills recorded for other team members to reuse
2. Functional Design
After the user study, it is the specific functional design level. However, in functional design, there are interaction layer and visual layer. According to different functional types, we can draw lessons and summarize from the following points:
2.1. Consider general solutions for similar functions according to a single function
For example, if you are redesigning a navigation for a website, how can you get more value out of a short delivery period, and how can you do better next time? It’s not just a navigation device that’s designed and then designed and thought stops.
In fact, we can figure out all the relevant things in the navigation field, which is suitable for what kind of navigation style in the end, according to the specific needs of the use of the scene, we can figure out this kind of problem, will get twice the result with half the effort later.
Could it even be a component library for the team? Can you reuse the research results to your peers and collectively bring greater value to the team?
Before, my boss always felt that I was unable to solve problems in depth, and I always thought that he thought I was not delicate and meticulous enough for a single design plan. Later, I gradually realized that only by combining the delicacy of a single plan with the overall systematic solution can I truly solve problems in depth and solve the essential problems.
2.2. Extract design rules and summarize design principles and techniques
If it is a single visual function points, such as the platform of the entrance to the Banner design, etc., if don’t let the design for the delivery, then we can undertake classified research on each of the elements in the interface, the location of the different elements on the page will be combined into the corresponding what style, what kind of click effects, etc. (the need to do professional testing, If it is a marketing Banner, we can do AB test to see the flow change; Or received a variety of similar requirements, unified organization user testing (can use eye movement instrument or other, etc.) in general from a problem is to, find a problem of generality, summed up a set of reusable rules, to keep more than one function/function is done is done, did the level value only stay on.
2.3. Extract and build page templates according to similar functions to complete empowerment
If this requirement takes some time and we need to deliver multiple pages after completion, can we extract the generic pages and make them into page templates? Deliver specification components to the business/add-on team to kill two birds with one stone. The summary and reuse of design materials can save a lot of cost for their subsequent design.
On the whole, we need to use the business time to make a systematic sorting and classification of such scattered demands, and consider connecting them in series and combining them into a system to form a closed loop, so as to generate greater value from the dimension of products.
This allows you to do more than just passively deliver tasks to meet business needs; It can better reflect your initiative to promote the progress of the project, find and summarize the thinking ability of the problem, more can let you find the interest of active exploration, improve their competitiveness.
3. Operation
After the launch of the project, if you, as a designer, have to play the role of operation and promotion, I suggest that you can show your value more deeply and intuitively from the following points.
3.1. Summarize and settle common contacts and channels
Summary of relevant channels/contacts; Collect the channel contacts you have decided for communication application into a unified document, and deposit them for subsequent use by those who need to be connected, so as to avoid repeated communication among project members.
3.2. Systematize and summarize relevant materials, unify and standardize them, and facilitate search
Reusability of promotional material sizes, templates; The material and specific size required by each channel should be clearly marked to avoid repeated communication, confirmation and search.
3.3. Data-driven innovation, keep sensitive to data and identify operational opportunities
Regular discovery, which channel, which time point is the most effective, guide the subsequent use; The timing of advertising to obtain the highest click-through rate and the strongest user interaction needs to be customized and implemented according to the working habits of target users.
For example, the ali startup page on the Intranet usually has the highest click rate around 10:30 in the morning, because people who just came to the company at this time need to check the latest news/take a short break in the morning, depending on user habits.
3.4. Improve risk control ability and ensure the balance of input-output ratio
Estimation of input-output ratio and risk estimation; Summarize the data for each application activity, compare the expected goals and final results; Summarize the input-output ratio; Gradually cultivate my ability to predict and judge risks, so as to better guide the next operation and relatively accurate setting of project goals.
4. Customer service/Q&A
Finally, if you have a part-time job in answering questions from users, you will communicate with users periodically every day to clarify their feedback problems, take charge of recording and settling users’ problems, and assign different docking personnel to solve them. Then I suggest you to yourself from the following points:
4.1. Find out the essence of users’ problem points and try to convert successful opportunity points
Communicate and clarify what the user’s problem is, what his most essential needs are, and what problems to solve. After figuring out his essential needs, convert them into product needs. If the design can solve the problem, then provide a solution and continue to follow up until the problem is solved. Instead of simply writing down the problems and throwing them to others to solve, there are challenges as well as opportunities.
4.2. Summarize and categorize the q&A questions, discover the types and rules of the questions, and clarify the follow-up direction
I was responsible for the user feedback problems during a period of time, and classified, summarized and analyzed the problems according to their attributes.
Assign to the appropriate person according to the requirements/tasks/defects, but what percentage of these problems are specific problem blocks? More defects or more requirements? Is it the current experience, or is it lacking in features and coverage? According to the feedback data, deeper meanings can be mined. If there are many experience points optimization, then which kind of experience points are the most feedback? Is it design layer or technical layer??
For example, before summarizing the problem:
After sorting and summarizing the problems:
It is obvious that the data conclusion after sorting out is of more reference value. It can not only find out the experience problems of the current product and the key optimization direction in the future, but also excavate and utilize the limited data information in a more profound way to expand its reuse value/find opportunities to do well. It also shows your depth of thinking and professional ability.
4.3. Consider how to be smart and lazy, optimize your work mode and improve efficiency
For example, some time ago, when I was working on a mobile operation and maintenance tool, many users always asked the same question in the feedback group, which required one or more people to answer many times. I wondered if there could be a more labor-saving solution? Subsequently, I will extract and sort out the general answers to repeated questions, input the answers to intelligent question answering robots, and add it to the user question answering group.
From the user’s point of view, the answers to the robot’s feedback questions are more uniform and the feedback is faster, so the user will feel better; From a developer’s perspective, it saves us the manpower and time to answer questions repeatedly, and we use that time to do more valuable thinking about the product.
I have read a sentence before, called “high-quality laziness is better than low-quality diligence and effort”. After seeing it, I was still a little shocked, and I also share it with you.
04
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conclusion
Most of the time, we always want to do big projects, solve big problems, in fact, a product from 0 to 1, such scenes will be more; But once the product is up and running, from 1 to 2, to 3/4/5, it’s more about fixing and tuning the experience in some detail points, and that’s when our work nature is determined to be trivial, consistent, and long to deal with different tasks/needs. So how to learn the ability to make value from small things is very important. The above experience and suggestions are based on my own work experience and the pits I have stepped on, hoping to be of help and inspiration to the students who are also going through these.