Presentation on how to design applications that are efficient to work with. Focuses on what is efficiency and how can product designers affect it in a positive way. Discusses picking the right features to design, automate manual tasks, streamline input options, ensure the application is understandable, and increase the speed of the application.

1. Designing for ef
f
iciency
4 June 2022
@GabrielaVeghova

2. Hello!
I’m Gabriela
Head of Product Design @ Scrive
ex Solarwinds
ex Honeywell Aerospace

3. Today we’ll cover
• What is e
ff
iciency
• How to look at your product
• What aspects to consider
when designing an e
ff
icient system
• Tips and other resources for each of
these aspects
• Discussion

4. Ef
f
iciency is not time spent on task
but getting to the desired goal with as little time
and effort as possible

5. How we tend to see our product
• Sales people want to have a document
signed
• Network administrator wants to see
which node causes troubles
• Pilot wants to see which
f
light level to
pick to save fuel

6. How we our users tend to see our product
• Sales people want to close good deals
• Network administrator wants keep
network well functioning
• Pilot wants to safely get to the
destination

7. What can we focus on?
• Solving right problems
• Not involving user unless it
really provides value
• Be fast
• Connect to the larger
ecosystem in a smart way
• Provide e
ff
icient input
• Be understandable

8. Solving right problems
• Have clear product vision, mission, and
strategy
• Know your user’s ecosystem
• Don’t forget to ask about it during your
research & discovery
• Have primary persona(s) de
f
ined
• Know your competitive landscape
• Be good ally to your PM

9. More references & resources
• [Article] Tim Herbig: Product Vision vs. Product Strategy: What‘s the
Di
ff
erence?
• [Article] Christian Strunk: How to de
f
ine a product vision (with examples)
• [Article] Tue Mansa Larsen: Create your compelling Product Vision (How
we created our product vision at Scrive)
Yes, I’ll share all of that in Slack 🤞

10. Not involving user unless it
really provides value
• Find ways to automate manual tasks
• Allow user to set rules based on which
the system will do the actual job
• Let the system do their job, and only
check the outcome
• Re-evaluate which of your tasks are
really crucial for the user to get to their
goal

11. More references & resources
• [Book] Christopher Noessel: Designing Agentive Technology
• [Article] Hagan Rivers: UI Design for Rule Builders
• [Article] Almeda Brook: 5 Ways to Stop Cognitive Overload From Killing
Your UX
Yes, I’ll share all of that in Slack 🤞

12. Be fast
• Collaborate with your engineering team
on smart design of your system,
including it’s inner working
• optimize for most common actions
• predict & optimize for the next action
• work on background as much as possible
• show (and compute) right level of detail
• Make sure your fancy media don’t
actually make the experience worse

13. More references & resources
• [Blog series] Chris Kiess: The UX of Waiting and the Perception of Time
• [Book] Steven C. Seow: Designing and Engineering Time: The Psychology
of Time Perception in Software
• [Article] Gabriela Veghova: Designing for timeliness
Yes, I’ll share all of that in Slack 🤞

14. Connect to larger ecosystem in
a smart way
• Learn where the data your users work
with really come from
• Learn where your outcomes are really
heading to
• Learn what real issues your errors cause
and guide the user to their desired
solution

15. Provide ef
f
icient input
• Use standard UI patterns for input
• Allow for shortcuts and accelerators,
especially when repeated usage
(keyboard shortcuts, gestures…)
• Utilize auto
f
ill and check it’s working
• If the use-case is a complex task, do not
rely on standard good practices, test!

16. More references & resources
• [Article] Euphemia Wong: Principle of Consistency and Standards in User
Interface Design
• [Article] Sasha Maximova: J, K, or How to choose keyboard shortcuts for
web applications
• [Article] Gabriela Veghova: Designing for e
ff
iciency—keyboard shortcuts
• [Article] Aurora Harley: Accelerators Allow Experts to Increase E
ff
iciency
• [Article] Morgane Peng: Lessons from Designing for Advanced Users
Yes, I’ll share all of that in Slack 🤞

17. Be understandable
• Make it clear what is expected from the
user, avoid showing locked or
unavailable options
• Use plain, clear language
• Use clear visualisations
• Be consistent in your UI elements,
interaction and terminology
• Make it easy to
f
ind meaningful help

18. More references & resources
• [Article] Anna Kaley: UI Copy: UX Guidelines for Command Names and
Keyboard Shortcuts
• [Book] Edwar R. Tufte: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
• [Article] Gov.uk: Writing for user interfaces
Yes, I’ll share all of that in Slack 🤞

19. Solve right problems
Connect directly
Be understandable
E
ff
icient input
Be fast!
Automate

20. Questions?
sure I’ll post the slides on Slack

21. Thank you!
@GabrielaVeghova