Design for Product Managers

Dealing with Design A survival guide in three acts

When do you need a designer?

What are the flavors of designers?

Hiring & Vetting
What are my product’s goals and challenges?
What must users do/experience for us to win?
What competency must the designer have?
Where do I find them?

The Interview
Portfolio
Watch out for “we”
Design exercise
Same exercise for everyone
Short, and reveals thinking
Not about making a good design
Interview
How did you solve a similar problem?
What would you change about our product (if existing) or competitor
What’s your ideal job?

Working effectively with designers
Bring them in EARLY
Set clear priorities
Get the flows (or IA) first
Critique with goals, not solutions
Push respectfully forward

Ten reasons to kill your designer
"I did the best I could - there's only so much you do with..."
"Just tell me what you want and I'll make that."
“ Oh, that can't be done.”
“ Oh, but my idea is much better”
"Well you never told me it was supposed to be REALLY good!"
"Your database doesn't work with my design" or “Is all of this stuff really necessary?”
"That solution would be non-standard" or “Users don’t scroll.”
"I went to design school"
"Because it looked better.“
“ Trust me"
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/product-management/product-design/interface-design/PRM_PDS_INF/173714-1751812

When it’s you

Layers of design
Base: User need/business need/tech options
Information Architecture and/ or Interaction Design
Interface Design
Graphic Design

Four Design Hacks

Participatory Card Sort

Running a successful card sort
50-75 pieces of content (not categories!)
Provide as much information as possible while not overwhelming
Lay all content out on a large table, shuffled thoroughly
Provide blanks for category labels
Encourage thinking-out-loud
Be helpful, but do not suggest or advise. Play psychiatrist.
Collate results and look for patterns.

Scenarios and Task Analysis

Example Persona Scenario

Task analysis
Step by step breakdown of scenarios
Helps define interface/interaction needs
Flushes out potential opportunities for errors

Task analysis Purchasing a purse at nordstroms.com might include the tasks: 1. locate purse 2. add purse to shopping cart 3. check out f. Review order “ CHECK OUT” BECOMES g. Finalize checkout e. Input payment d. Input billing address c. Input shipping address b. Sign in/sign up a. Select checkout

Task analysis And so on…
v. Input state (dropdown of standard abbreviations)
f. Review order “ INPUT BILLING ADDRESS” BECOMES “ CHECK OUT” BECOMES
vi. Input country
g. Finalize checkout
iv. Input street address
e. Input payment
iii. Input street address
d. Input billing address
ii. Input family name
c. Input shipping address
i. Input first name
b. Sign in/sign up d. Input billing address (prepopulate all fields from c.) a. Select checkout

Page Zoning

Table setting?

Title Content Viral features metadata Related content

Graphic design hacks

Minimalist Design
Only use one font. Preferably helvetica.
Only use three, maybe four sizes, all very very different.
Only use one color, with variations, and one “accent” color.
Turn on the grid (if you are using photoshop, etc)
Never align center.
Never use stock photography.
Have a hierachy

I am a serifed font I am sans-serif

I am Times New Roman Hey, I’m arial

niiiiiiice

Cheat
Patterns
Libraries
Odesk
Conference proceedings
You can’t buy taste

Research Beyond usability

Who does it?
Internal User Research Specialist
Outside Consultant
You

Why do it?
Know if the product meets user needs before you build it
Cheap to change a sketch
Affordable to change a Photoshop comp
Expensive to change fully coded product
Customer service expensive as well

Why do it?
Enable you to develop easy-to-use products
Satisfy customers
Decrease expenditures on technical support and training
Advertise ease-of-use successes
Improve brand perception
Ultimately increase market share

Who are the users of the system?
Start by collecting pre-existing information
Hunt down previous data (marketing demographics, surveys, past usability tests)
Hold stakeholder interviews
Conduct customer service interviews

Finding the end user
Recruiting
Develop a portrait of the user (a la the persona)
Develop a screener based on this
Recruit typical end users
Professional recruiter
Do it yourself
Offer a consideration: cash or a gift
Watch for ringers
Professional testers
Inarticulate users

Not the end user
Employees
Designers
Programmers
Market researchers
You

Three Research Hacks

Site visit

Rules
Ask them to use your product, and “think aloud” while doing so
Take photos (with permission)
Record quotes
Note interruptions, accessory items, and social itneractions

Friends and Family Usability

OK, if
They are just like your target users
Unfamiliar (or typical familiarity) with product
NO CHEATING!

Form of… usability test!
Set of tasks
Think aloud
Time tasks, if relevant
One more time– no hints, no leading questions

Paper Prototyping

Research Don’ts
Ask leading questions
Show people where things are
Let them get frustrated
Make them feel stupid
Take your own notes
Do focus groups

Research dos
Do it.
Any way
Do it

Organizations
Iainstitute.org
Ixda.org
Aiga.org
These all hold excellent conferences. Ixda.org will be posting videos of last weekend’s conference shortly (including my talk on viral design).

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Design for Product Managers

by cwodtke on Feb 14, 2009

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Design for Product Managers — Presentation Transcript