This document discusses Lean UX and validation techniques for products. Some key points include:
- Lean UX focuses on user-centered, agile, data-driven and hypothesis-driven approaches to product design.
- Various validation techniques are described such as landing page tests, prototype testing, guerrilla user tests, and A/B testing to gather feedback and validate hypotheses.
- An MVP or minimum viable product should be both minimum and viable, providing a small whole product to validate rather than an incomplete large product. Metrics like retention, revenue, and conversion can provide insights but require careful analysis.
3. A fundamental change in the way we design products
Attributes of LEAN UX :
User Centered
Agile
Data Driven
Fast and Cheap (sometimes)
Hypothesis validation
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5. It’s a Design Standard
Company X does it this way
We don’t have time or money
We’re new, we’ll do it later
It’s my Vision, users will screw it up
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7. If you can isolate the 10% of a complicated product, you
can deliver an infinitely simpler product!
Test someone else’s product
It points out mistakes that others have made
Helps you learn about users’ problems
It works even before you have an idea for a product!
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8. One page sites to see how many people are interested.
Can be used even before an actual product is build so it’s cheap
Validates both problem and market
Draw traffic using Facebook or AdWords and analyse
results
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9. To test the first impression of the design/product
Make the user look at your product for five seconds
Ask participants if they can look at a couple of screens
and answer some questions ( maybe, in exchange of
something)
Can use usabilityhub.com – Application to test your and
others’ products as well
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10. Give your potential customers something that has the look
and feel of your product.
Clickable prototype testing
Make an interactive prototype
Decide what tasks to perform
Ask open-ended questions
Be careful as it could be labour intensive sometimes
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11. Cheap and fast method of gathering feedback
Quickly finds usability flaws in the product
Can be conducted at any place with a significant footfall
How to perform guerrilla tests :
Use a portable kit – Product installed on your laptop, tablet etc
Ask someone to perform a task
Observe as the do it
Do not ask questions in between
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12. Don’t give a guided tour
Ask Open-Ended questions
Follow Up
Let the User fail
Look for patterns
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14. Design patterns are reusable solutions to a recurring problem
Understand the difference between copying and being inspired
Don’t settle for a design pattern without considering your
problem
Examples : Comments, fetching data , purchase , searching etc
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15. It makes a design more professional and usable
Problems with inconsistency :
Makes products less finished
Mentally taxing for users
Try to find out what is making the product inconsistent
in the first place
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16. Frameworks – Responsive grid line interfaces with decent
styling and functionality
Use plug-ins instead of building everything from scratch
These are trivially simple to use
Saves time and effort
Example – Bootstrap, Spree, Magento etc
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17. Establish what kind of designer do you actually need
Try not to judge someone by his random static piece of
work
Walkthrough his/her projects to see what exactly has
been done by him/her before you hire
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18. Diagrammatic representation of flow of an application/
interaction
Any interaction that needs more than one or two steps has
the potential for branching and hidden errors
A simple sign up can have a number of steps when it
comes down to a flow diagram
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22. Helps in visualizing how users will move around in the
system
Creates a clearer picture of how much effort will be
required in design and engineering
Helps in deciding which states need design
Helps in visualizing design
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23. Rough representation of your vision of the design
They are quick and disposable
Good for starting to communicate your design to others
Help in deciding where should the elements be in
relation to one another on a page
Cuts down a lot of documentation work
The only way you can sketch good is to start sketching!
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24. Wireframes lie somewhere between a rough sketch and an
interactive prototype
Includes all buttons, call-to-actions and navigation
elements of a real product
Includes all the content that goes into each screen
Helps in visualizing a deeper level of design
Helpful in getting usability feedback
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25. Interaction Design
It’s about how something works
Example : Number of steps in checkout, what elements
will be there on each page etc.
Visual Design
It’s about how something looks like
Example : Font sizes. Colors etc
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26. Visuals enhance information
Ex : Color schemes of Facebook & Google are very subtle to
enhance information content
Reinforces desired user actions
Ex : Encouraging interaction by making buttons look
clickable
Visuals set the tone of a product
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27. MVP
Limited Vs Bad product
Shipping an MVP
Metric analysis
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28. A good MVP has to be both M & V
Don’t try to do too many things at once, none of which
work properly
Making a product Minimum doesn’t ensure it’s viability.
Amazon and Facebook started as MVPs and grew slowly
with time
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29. A limited product is both Minimum and Viable whereas
a bad product could be minimum but is not viable
A limited product may not do much but whatever it does,
it does it well
Aim at making a small whole product than a large bad
product.
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30. The following mechanisms can be used :
Opt in – Target early adopters
Opt out – Target people not looking for a change or an
MVP
N% rollout – Target a percentage of existing customers
The new user rollout – Target new set of users
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31. Retention - A good metric to look out for but be mislead
by forced retention
Revenue – Don’t sacrifice long term revenue for short
term gains
Net Promoter Score(NPR) – It’s a good indicator but can
be difficult to collect accurately
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32. Conversion to paying – Good indicator but skews to measuring
the free part of the product
Engagement – Good for social networking and gaming
products
Registration – It’s a good indicator but works better when
it’s lazy
Customer Service contacts – Could be a tricky indicator
depending on accessibility of services
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33. Mistakes people make while analysing data :
Trading-off long term gains for short term effects
Forgetting the goal of metrics
Combining data from multiple tests
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34. Pain Driven design
Wizard of Oz feature
Design Validation
The Two Q’s of validation
How much to design
Need Vs Want
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35. Before you start, figure out what is causing pain for your
users and potential users.
When does Pain Driven Design help?
Before you have a product
If you already have a product
Even if the product is disruptive
Listen to what your customers have to say
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36. Putting up a front that looks like a real working product
but functions are being carried out manually in the
backend.
Saves engineering and design time
Validates feature/product
Saves time and money
Example : FoT , Aardvark
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37. When starting with an MVP keep the following in mind :
Design the ‘Test’ first
Write Design stories (if required)
Talk about possible solutions with the team
Sketch a few approaches
Make a decision (Using Return On Investment(ROI) approach)
Test and Iterate
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38. QUANTITATIVE APPROACH :
Includes A/B testing, Cohort Analysis etc
Can be used alone with one-variable (small) changes
QUALITATIVE APPROACH :
Includes contextual enquiry , Usability studies, Customer
development interviews etc
Needed along with Quantitative approach when multiple
variables are involved
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39. Design what you need to design to learn what you want
to learn
Design just enough to validate your hypothesis
Design what is absolutely necessary first and then the
neat
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41. Give users what they really need and not just what they want!
The three customers example :
Choice
Problem
Value
for
Money
Problem
Social
Proof
Problem
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