This document provides an introduction to user experience design. It defines user experience as encompassing all aspects of a user's interaction with a company, service, or product. It describes the role of a user experience designer as involving user research, content creation, coding, user interface design, and competitive analysis. The document outlines techniques for user experience research like usability testing, guerrilla research, and competitive analysis. It discusses how to create personas and problem statements to understand users and design problems. Finally, it provides an activity using a persona and problem statement to demonstrate how to apply this knowledge to design decisions.

1. An Introduction to User Experience Design

2. Table of Contents
What is User Experience?
A User Experience Designer’s Toolkit
Activity: Show What You Know
Conclusion

3. An Introduction to User Experience Design
What is User Experience?

4. “‘User experience’
encompasses all aspects of
the end-user's interaction
with the company, its
services, and its products.
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/86623992811488400/
Don Norman
Called the “father of modern user
experience”

5. Interacting with
their website
• Using their website
• Researching the
product
• Using the online chat/
help feature
Buying the
Video Game
Let’s say you wanted to order a video game online...
• Filling out the order form
with your personal
information
• Do they even ship to your
country?
• Will they price match if it
goes on sale after you
buy?
Playing the
Video Game
• Game set up: how easy
or difficult is it?
• Can you play with friends
or only on your own?
• Is it compatible with your
console?

6. Let’s say you wanted to order a video game online...
All of these factors (and more!) contribute to
the user experience of the video game!
Interacting with
their website
Buying the
Video Game
Playing the
Video Game

7. So what is a User Experience Designer?
A user experience designer can have many different responsibilities on a team!
While their main role has to do with designing the experience of their product or service for their
users, they might also be responsible for…
User
research
Content
creation
Coding
User
interface
(UI)
design
Competitive analysis

8. An Introduction to User Experience Design
A User Experience Designer’s Toolkit

9. Building Your UX Design Toolkit
1
Research techniques
Usability testing
What it is: The most formal
of these three techniques,
usability testing is usually
used to test an in-progress
prototype to see what
works well and what can be
refined.
When to do it: Depending
on project timeline and
budget, as frequently and
as often as you can.
Tip: Testing often, making
changes based on
feedback, and then re-
testing is often called
“iterative design”.
Guerilla research
What it is: Guerilla
research is where you go
out into the “real world”
(sidewalks tend to work
well) and ask people
passing by their opinion on
something you’re looking to
test or verify.
When to do it: At the
beginning, so you can use
the quick insights to refine
your research efforts down
the line!
Tip: Only ask one quick
question and don’t take
rejection personally- people
are busy and it’s not you!
Competitive analysis
What it is: Competitive
analysis looks at what your
competition is doing. What
features are they offering?
What are they doing well?
What are they struggling
with that your product or
service could improve on?
When to do it: A big push at
the beginning of the project
will help give you context,
and ongoing awareness of
what’s out in the market will
help you stay relevant
Tip: Look to other
industries for inspiration!

10. Building Your UX Design Toolkit
1 Insightful research starts with asking effective questions. Compare the
following questions: what kind of information will each question give you?
Do you like this
button here?
What do you think
this button is used
for?
vs

11. Building Your UX Design Toolkit
1
Do you like this
button here?
Yes
No
• Questions that start with “do you…” often just lead to “yes” or “no” answers
which, ultimately, don’t provide a lot of information
• Also, some people will say “yes” just to avoid hurting your feelings!
How to make it better:
What does this button
placement mean to you?
How would you use this
button?
What is confusing about this
button?

12. Building Your UX Design Toolkit
1
• Open-ended questions will often yield better insights
• They give your participants the opportunity to expand on their responses
What do you think this
button is used for?
Well, I
think…
Try starting your questions with the 5 Ws…
Who What Where When Why How

13. Building Your UX Design Toolkit
2
Your Persona
It is always helpful to keep in mind who you are designing for. One way that
you can do this is by creating a persona.
A persona is… A persona is not…
Based in demographic information
and other facts
Based in stereotypes
One person who might use the end
product you’re creating
The only person who will use your
end product
A reality check: consider all features
you’re thinking of adding in light of
your persona
A substitute for actually testing your
ideas with potential users
Used to build empathy for potential
users
A bad idea!

14. Building Your UX Design Toolkit
2
https://static.pexels.com/photos/38554/girl-people-landscape-sun-38554.jpeg
Megan Rochester
22 years old
Student, University of Waterloo, studying Environment and Business
Lives in Waterloo, originally from Winnipeg
• Loves camping and being outside
• Buys “green”, sustainable products
• Is saving up for her graduate education
• Wants to adopt a dog but can’t right now, because she’s frequently out of the house,
due to class
Below is an example of a basic persona. Notice how we only need a few
lines of information to start empathizing with Megan and making her feel
real!

15. Building Your UX Design Toolkit
2
Another way we can make Megan come to life is by creating a Thinks –
Feels – Says – Does chart. Based on what we know about Megan, what
does she think, feel, say, and do?
Megan Rochester
Thinks
Says
Feels
Does

16. Building Your UX Design Toolkit
2
Here’s an example of what her chart might look like:
Megan Rochester
Thinks
Says
Feels
Does
“I hope I can afford grad school.” Homesick for family in Winnipeg
Volunteers at a local animal
shelter to be around dogs
Goes camping with friends
Sometimes sleeps through her
8:30 class after working on group
projects through the night
“Do I want to live in Waterloo or
Winnipeg? Should I try to get a
more permanent apartment?”
Determined to graduate with an
excellent academic standing
“I can’t this weekend, I’ve got to
work.”
At peace in nature
“EV3 is practically my second
home at this point.”
“I need more plants in my room.”

17. Building Your UX Design Toolkit
3
As a designer, it is important to make sure you understand exactly what the
problem is you’re trying to solve with your design. One way of making sure
you’re getting to the root cause is by crafting a problem statement.
Problem statements
As a…
I want…
So that…
Who are you designing for? Consider the persona
you’ve created.
What are they looking for? What is the underlying
problem they’re looking to solve?
What is the desired outcome? How will you know if
your solution was successful?

18. An Introduction to User Experience Design
Activity: Show What You Know

19. Activity: Show What You Know
1 2 3 Bringing it all together
Scenario: Imagine you’re working for a company who is trying to design a revolutionary new way
for people to transport liquid when they’re camping. Consider our persona from before and the
following problem statement:
Megan Rochester
22 years old
Student, University of Waterloo, studying Environment and Business
Lives in Waterloo, originally from Winnipeg
As an… environmentally conscious university student, I want… a
sustainable way to carry water with me so that… I always have water
when I go camping.

20. Activity: Show What You Know
Based on the information we have, what design decisions can we make?
We are designing for
students.
Megan favours
sustainable products.
The product needs to be
durable enough for
camping.
Megan doesn’t go
camping often because of
school, so this solution
will likely find its way into
her “daily life” too.

21. Activity: Show What You Know
Based on the information we have, what design decisions can we make?
We are designing for
students.
Though still durable, it needs to be
relatively cheap for the student budget.
Megan favours
sustainable products.
We need to create something that can
be reused a lot that will still maintain
quality.
The product needs to be
durable enough for
camping.
We probably can’t make the product
out of glass if it’s expected to survive
camping, so metal or plastic is a better
option.
Megan doesn’t go
camping often because of
school, so this solution
will likely find its way into
her “daily life” too.
The product should be built for
“domestic” life: it should be able to go
in the dishwasher, hold hot liquids, and
even potentially be microwave safe.

22. An Introduction to User Experience Design
Conclusion

23. Conclusion
• What user experience is
• The role(s) of a user experience designer
• Some research techniques and how to ask questions that will help you to get information
about your design
• What a persona is and how to create one
• Building empathy through a Thinks – Feels – Says – Does map
• How to create a problem statement
• How to tie these components together to help inform design decisions
Today we learned:

24. Conclusion
This was just a very brief introduction to user experience- there’s so much out there to explore
and the field is growing by the day! Some great resources for further reading:
uxdesign.cc
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
designresources.party

25. Conclusion
“Take chances, make mistakes,
and get messy!”
- Ms. Frizzle
Ms. Frizzle was a character created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen in 1985 for Scholastic for the Magic School Bus series.