Three Reflections on User Experience in Singapore
Author: zengzhiyan editor: Netease user experience centre
“A product does not work, no matter how good the user experience will not go to use .– Do you think this sentence is right or wrong?” I have initiated such discussion in the weibo.
When I saw the commentary “A product needs 60% user experience,” I was surprised: is the user experience just an icing on the cake? Do not understand the user, do not know what part of the user experience what happened, how is your product 60%?
The first reflection: the concept of user experience and the situation on the ground
In a nutshell, User Experience (UX or UE) refers to the purely subjective experience that users build when using a product, system, or service.
There are two main points here. First, users, and second, purely subjective feelings. The user is the intended user of the product, system, or service, not yours. Affected by personal experience, treat the same thing but each person’s feelings may be different. But when we learn about the feelings of a group, such as Taobao’s buy rating. Subjective evaluation of a buyer may be a special case, but when multiple buyers give a bad review, they can already objectively reflect some facts. So, while experience is subjective, it does not in any way affect how much we value it.
In the work related to user experience, we often hear similar opinions:
Is not it easy to use? Is not enough easy to learn? Is not it beautiful enough?
Believe it or not, most people confuse usability and user experience when implementing user experience work, and consider usability as the user experience.
This really needs to be changed.
Although the usability of the UI is important, it does not equal the user experience. There is a fantastic relationship between user experience and usability. In most cases, high availability means that the user experience during use is good. But there are exceptions. An example is a highway, which is wide and straightforward and highly usable, but for the driver, it experiences far less experience than a curvy winding mountain road.
For the user experience, it is a full range of concepts. From our users to see the product advertising, media coverage, to know our product and then make a choice; then to use the product after he encountered problems consulting customer service. At different stages, different channels, each one may come into contact with your product, service, or even the business itself, can produce a user experience.
More and more UX designers are starting to use “user experience maps” to guide design efforts. User Experience Maps are visual representations of the emotional states of a user’s needs and a series of interactions that satisfy those needs. With this map, we easily access the user’s world, feel their experience, understand the pain points and opportunities. This approach also better communicates user stories to each of the associated roles to optimize product and service.
【Map: adaptive path company created for the European railway company user experience map】
The second reflection: user experience and product value
When you confine the user experience to the usability of the user when it comes to the UI, or if the user experience is limited to something that happens only when the user is using the product, you say something more important than it, such as User value, product value.
Yes, that’s right. If the product is useless, that is, no value to the user, UI availability is by no means the most important and urgent matter.
But we still have to keep reminding ourselves that usability is not the same as user experience, and usability is only part of the user experience (in use). User Experience Design Beyond Product Design. User experience design includes organizing a number of skills such as user research, usability studies, creating character roles, designing information architecture, designing usage processes, and designing low / high fidelity prototypes. Its essence is user-centered product design, system design and service design. It not only focuses on the usability of the UI, but also focuses on the user’s feelings before, during, and after each stage and channel. User experience design includes both tangible products, system design, but also includes intangible service design.
A product is not useful to users, that is, to meet the needs of users, determines whether the product has the user value. Solve the problem of user value, equal to solve the problem of product usefulness. Making products useful is the foundation of user experience design. In addition, user experience design also needs to address the issue of product availability and appeal.
In a business environment, a valuable product, in addition to helping users solve problems, needs to be able to help businesses achieve their business goals of both user and business value. User Experience Designers conduct detailed research, analysis and analysis of each point of contact between a user and a product, system, or service, and then design useful, usable, attractive products that combine business goals to ultimately deliver value. In the process, product managers and designers sometimes need to strike a balance between users and businesses. After all, the pursuit of a better user experience also means higher costs.
When we continuously improve the usability on the UI and optimize the user experience, we also need to pay attention to the experience of users before and after use, cover every key contact point of the users as much as possible to understand their needs, Behavior and ideas. For the purposes of user experience design, usefulness is the foundation, availability is the requirement, and attraction is the expectation.
You can say that the experience of using 12306.cn is not good, that is, the usability of the UI is poor. But the particularity of this area determines the particular usefulness and appeal of this product, so it is still a valuable product. As with this example, there is also 51job.com, UI usability can be bad to mess, resulting in the use of the experience is not good. However, its usefulness undoubtedly, today there are still millions of Internet users in the use of it for job search and recruitment, its stock performance also shows its product value.
But do not forget, the bad user experience left a chance to competitors, fierce slash the entrepreneurial environment, every opportunity is very valuable. You will not underestimate this.
Back to the discussion at the beginning of the article, I think the conclusion that “a product is useless, no matter how good the user experiences it or not,” and “60% of a product needs a user experience” is wrong. However, if the description is ” A product useless, no matter how good the user will not use “This conclusion is correct. User experience from the decision to do this product need to be considered, by no means icing on the cake.
The third reflection: user experience and product department, design department
As UX design progresses, you will find that many problems will return to users and requirements. Only comprehensive research and analysis of all stages, channels and touch points of user experience to understand the needs, behaviors and ideas of target users can provide the most suitable solution. The quality of user experience design depends very much on how well we know our target audience, not how much the interface’s interaction or visual design is.
The division of roles such as Product Design (PD) + User Experience Design (UXD) is a mistake because UX design itself already includes the design of products, systems, and services. Separation of “product design” and “user experience design”, user experience design work can not force from the strategy layer, the so-called user experience design often only confined to solving the usability problems and how to better meet the target user’s aesthetic problems Only. At the same time, the division of roles such as “product design + experience design” leads to very serious overlapping of functions. As a result, inefficiencies and inefficiencies often occur. This I particularly feel, product designers / product planners and user experience designers such a terrible match: two characters hollowed together to gather solutions, but never for the purpose (to do the cause and meaning), Goals (Expectations to what extent, how to measure) Spend more time thinking clearly, function a bunch, but in vain.
More appropriate is the division of roles such as Product Management (PM) + User Experience Design (UXD), and they are the best part of the same department and do not require a separate user experience unit. Two roles for the same product service, so that the success of this product is their common goal.
The division of labour for both responsibilities is very clear and defined. The product manager, the product manager, is primarily responsible for evaluating product opportunities and defining the product to be developed. Including the formulation of product strategy and product objectives, product demand, product development planning and monitoring of the realization of the demand, and always follow the market feedback to make timely adjustments. In addition to business, technology and user experience, project management capabilities are also key requirements for product managers. User Experience Designers are primarily responsible for researching and analyzing users and providing solutions. This includes working with product managers and user researchers to understand the target audience, refining user needs and user experience goals, and then designing the information architecture, usage process, user interface and more in line with business needs.
For start-ups, set the product management role as appropriate. But most of the time, product management is done by the founders. In any case, the division of labour is a means not an end. Of course, the benefits of specialization are also obvious, everyone has no excuse.
One of the topics I’m really interested in is how product managers and user experience designers work together efficiently. During ICC China Interaction Design Experience Week 2013, I conducted a workshop on this topic.
【Figure: A goal from the goal to solve the work of ideas]
Now think about it, I still think many problems are caused by the organizational structure, such as the produce department and the user experience design department exist independently, the design work is not tied with the business and the team’s understanding of the purpose of inconsistent goals. The goal is inconsistent This is very fatal, it led to the team’s direction and method of error, cannot help product success.
Author: Sting
Source: Jane book
Copyright belongs to the author. Commercial reprint, please contact the author authorized, non-commercial reprint, please indicate the source.
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