UX design notes part 2
More notes from my Udemy course in UX design.
Design process
The instructor reiterated that this is about coming up with the process that works best for you and not to copy another designer’s style. Make changes however you see fit.
There are four main steps in most processes: research (empathize), analyze (your reserach), ideate (generate ideas), test.
Mistakes people make/things people don’t realize:
- there is a design process; need to do research, come up with ideas, etc. One can’t just come up with an idea on the spot, work needs to go into it, and that takes the form of your design process.
- need to have an excess of research before you analyze, and need excess of ideas before you test them; it’s imporant to be aware of as many problems that you are facing as possible, so you can proritize the most imporant ones. Solving some problems can also cause problems in other areas.
- each of these design phases require different types of thinking; divergence and convergence
Research and ideation are divergent, quantity over quantity, need to gather lots of data Analysis and testing are convergent, need to focus on most important details, lots of time to think
Critical thinking/design thinking
Scandinavian cooperative design: Scandinavian designers actually worked with the people they were building software for. The workers essentially helped to design the software they were going to use.
- this type of process is more about perception, rather than a “scientific” or rational thinking kind of process
- often re-packaged as “design thinking”, boiled down to process steps; these short courses don’t usually help you to become a better designer
Innovation theatre: the appearance of being innovative without actually having interest in a better user experience; more for show, for stakeholders, etc
Design is about thinking
- it’s important to improve your preception, creativity skills, and listen more
- decisions come from emotions rather than rational thinking
- book recommendation was Six Thinking Hats - to learn about different ways of thinking
Experience
We can get people to buy products by saving them:
- time
- money
- space
If the cost of any of these is too high it is no longer worth it.
These days, improving the experience of a product is more important.
It’s important to look at the emotional responses that people have to various tasks in their lives
- e.g. Tinder - online dating full of rejection and emotional pain, Tinder takes the rejection out of it by having “matches” and includes the experience of “swiping” people out of your life or into your life
- good experience, however not in the long term
Focusing on making something a good experience does not make it inherently good. A cheeseburger is a good experience, but is not good for you.
Center for Humane Technology: organization that wants to make things that are good for people, rather than focusing on a good experience
People like to talk about things that are easy to articulate. But sometimes it’s more important to address the things that are difficult to talk about.
Perception is important. If someone says it took too long to do something on your site, it’s likely they just don’t like your site. It doesn’t matter how long it actually took them - if they perceived it to take too long it is a problem. People’s experiences are not rooted in reality. These things can be difficult to articulate to your coworkers; talking about things like the number of clicks to a particular part of a site is easy.
People like to feel in control. They like to know how long it will be until the Uber or train arrives, and will more happily wait when they know what to expect. If your site responds when you click a button, or you let the user know that something is loading, they will be more patient with your site
Software design isn’t all about usability - creativity is important too.
- e.g. TV remote - if you take away some buttons from your TV remote, you should replace them with something unique and interesting. If you just take buttons away, people will think it’s less valuable.
Creativity
TL;DR - creative people come up with lots and lots of ideas
We value novel experiences, even if the things we have are fine as they are.
Creativity: ability to generate novel solutions to a problem
- how many ideas you can come up with in a defined amount of time
- judgement free, whatever comes to you; don’t try to overthink and figure out why something won’t work
- you can’t be creative and rationalize at the same time
- this is important to practice - the more you do it the better you get
- your first idea is probably bad, and don’t want to get attached to an idea too early
Exercise: every day pick a problem and see how many solutions you can come up with in one minute
Exercise: think of 100 uses for a potato, see how quickly you can do it
- can do this for other things like a pin
Charles Darwin: sometimes unique traits help an animal survive, more than fitness
- so don’t make your designs forgettable - you need some uniqueness for people to remember it
The things we love are imperfect and unique. Humans’ highest perception of value is creativity.
It is important to write down or draw out your ideas. It gets them out of your working memory, freeing it up for the more interesting ideas underneath. Use paper and get away from the computer.
“Good ideas are hidden under bad ideas”
Important parts of your brain for creativity:
- Central Executive Network - for focusing on a task
- Default Mode Network - where you daydream and let your brain make new connections
The most creative people use both of these parts of the brain at once or can switch between them quickly. Taking breaks is good, because that’s when you’re in default mode. A lot of ideas can come when you’re not in focused mode.
Boundaries/limits make people more creative - Van Gogh used only a few colors in his paintings.
Rory’s story cubes: roll them, come up with a story
Post-its:
- not too much detail
- gets people moving around the room
- can combine your ideas easily
- gets thrown away; ideas on their own aren’t valuable, don’t get attached to ideas too early
- downside: innovation theatre; just because you have post-it notes doesn’t mean you are innovating, have to use them properly
Test ideas way before you’re ready
- e.g. comedians testing out their jokes; cross out the bad jokes that don’t get many laughs
- they create more jokes than most people, and they test them, not necessarily more funny than anyone else