What is a good product from a UX perspective How to do quick'n dirty user testing and prototyping How to find good designers

1. product success
- from a designer’s perspective
Xiaodan Wang
XD Lead Consultant

2. my goal for today - practical and useful
what defines a good product?
how to do quick and dirty user testing and
prototypes?
what comes first, quality or speed?
how to find good designers?

3. questions
what defines a good product?
how to do quick and dirty user testing and
prototypes?
what comes first, quality or speed?
how to find good designers?

4. what defines a good product
what are the good products that you could
think of?

5. what defines a good product
what qualities do they have in common?
• useful - the idea
• usable - the interactions
• desirable - the emotions

6. what defines a good product
what can designers do to achieve these qualities?
• understand the users and their needs, define the USPs,
create use cases - useful
• easy to use, achieve user goals quickly - usable
• aesthetically pleasing, attention to detail - desirable
and how do they achieve these?

7. competitor analysis
user experience research interaction design
visual design prototyping front-end review
performance
analysis & iterative
improvement

8. competitor analysis
user experience research interaction design
visual design prototyping front-end review
performance
analysis & iterative
improvement

9. thoughtworks case study - useful, usable & desirable

10. what defines a good product?
design is not just about creativity or look and
feel, it provides a systematic thinking process
that ensures the product success
designers should have high level of
involvement in the product, starting at the very
beginning as executives and product leads discuss
what they should build

11. what defines a good product?
“Here, the designers will be in almost every
conversation about their product”
- Kate Aronowitz, facebook design director

12. questions
what defines a good product?
how to do quick and dirty user testing and
prototypes?
what comes first, quality or speed?
how to find good designers?

13. how to do quick’n’dirty user testing and prototype
why bother with user testing?
understand the users
validate product concept
get real feedback on product feature & interactions,
earlier & faster

14. how to do quick’n’dirty user testing and prototype
how to do it:
define user criteria: age, gender, socio-economic class...
how to get the users: your colleagues, mailing list, social
& pro networks, word of mouth... (provide incentives)

15. how to do quick’n’dirty user testing and prototype
what to test:
specific feature/interactions - 1-1 interviews
get new ideas or define unmeet needs -
workshops, focus groups
create user personas, general market info - online
surveys...

16. how to do quick’n’dirty user testing and prototype
prototypes
• paper prototype (by hand)

17. how to do quick’n’dirty user testing and prototype
prototypes
• interactive wireframes (balsamiq, axure...)

18. how to do quick’n’dirty user testing and prototype
prototypes
• linked static images (firework, photoshop...)
• interactive prototypes (dreamweaver, or get a front
end developer if you could afford)

19. questions
what defines a good product?
how to do quick and dirty user testing and
prototypes?
what comes first, quality or speed?
how to find good designers?

20. quality or speed?
1) how do you define quality?
2) how do you develop the product?

21. quality or speed?
2004
2008
2012

22. quality or speed?
1) what matters to your users the most?
2) what is that ONE thing your product does the
best?
p.s. validate design ROI through user testing

23. questions
what defines a good product?
how to do quick and dirty user testing and
prototypes?
what comes first, quality or speed?
how to find good designers?

24. how to find good designers
not easy in Singapore...
• recommendations
• linkedin, job sites, design universities
• make sure you like the portfolio
• do a design test - junior-mid weight designer

25. how to find good designers
working arrangements
• to begin with - freelance or part-time, local or remote working
• once the business is stable - build a design team:
• user experience designer
• design researcher
• prototyper or front-end developer

26. useful references
9 essential Principles for Good Web Design
facebook design history
export a clickable PDF from balsamiq mockups

27. How can we help?
ThoughtWorks is a global custom software solutions
consultancy trusted by many of the world’s leading
businesses with their most complex and critical
systems. We deliver consulting grounded in delivery
expertise, build custom applications and help
organisations across all market sectors to drive IT
efficiency – working to an exceptionally high
standard.
Contact us
xiaodan wang | xiaowang@thoughtworks.com
www.thoughtworks.com
Private and Confidential. © 2012 ThoughtWorks. All rights reserved.