{"id":12774,"date":"2016-02-29T19:29:10","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T03:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/?p=12774"},"modified":"2021-09-21T05:59:54","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T12:59:54","slug":"want-better-ux-change-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/blog\/want-better-ux-change-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Want Better UX? Change the Conversation."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve ever been a user experience designer, you\u2019ve probably heard people say something like this when starting a new project:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We want to make it delightful and easy to use.<\/li>\n<li>We need to do some user research.<\/li>\n<li>We want to improve our onboarding process.<\/li>\n<li>We think it needs a walkthrough for new users.<\/li>\n<li>We want a persona\/photoshop mockup\/wireframe\/landing page\/insert deliverable here.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of these statements are absolutely useless. Why? Because none of them help you decide what to work on or how to improve a product.<\/p>\n<p>So, the next time somebody introduces a UX project by asking for a specific deliverable or by giving vague instructions to \u201cmake it better,\u201d you need to change the conversation.<\/p>\n<p>You can do that by asking the following questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who is the target user for this product or feature?<\/li>\n<li>What problem are you trying to solve for those users?<\/li>\n<li>What business need are you trying to fulfill with this project?<\/li>\n<li>What metric are you trying to move?<\/li>\n<li>Why do you think that solving this particular user problem will move that metric?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How Do These Questions Help Users?<\/h2>\n<p>The most important thing about these questions is that they help you define three things that are critical to a successful design project:<\/p>\n<p>1. The problem you are trying to solve<\/p>\n<p>2. The reason you are trying to solve it<\/p>\n<p>3. The way you will know if you\u2019ve succeeded<\/p>\n<p>Design without these elements isn\u2019t really user experience design. It\u2019s just drawing pictures. Design is about solving real problems, both for users and for the business. In fact, at its best, design is about solving problems for the business (for example, generating revenue or improving retention) by solving problems for the user (for example, offering something somebody wants to buy or helping make their lives better).<\/p>\n<p>By knowing the answer to these questions, you are far more likely to build a product that users want to use and that improves key metrics for your company.<\/p>\n<h2>How Do These Questions Help Designers?<\/h2>\n<p>Answering these questions can be incredibly helpful for individual designers. When we ask these questions, we reframe the project to give the designer far more freedom to solve problems, which is, after all, the fun part of the job.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of being told \u201cchange the onboarding flow\u201d or \u201ccreate a tutorial walkthrough,\u201d we get asked to \u201cimprove the 10 day activation metric for new users.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As designers, we get to create our own hypotheses about how we will improve that metric rather than simply implementing someone else\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n<p>More importantly, we can understand when our designs were successful, because we have a specific metric against which we can measure our results. This kind of direct feedback can make us better designers.<\/p>\n<h2>How Do These Questions Help Engineers?<\/h2>\n<p>These questions can be incredibly useful for defining the scope of a project, which has a very real impact on engineering. For example, poorly defined projects are particularly susceptible to scope creep.<\/p>\n<p>After all, if you don\u2019t have a very solid idea of the problem you\u2019re trying to solve or the metric you\u2019re trying to move, it\u2019s very easy to justify adding \u201cjust one more thing.\u201d But when you have a clearly defined problem, it\u2019s easy to push back on new feature requests that don\u2019t contribute directly to solving that problem.<\/p>\n<h2>What to Do If They Can\u2019t Answer Those Questions<\/h2>\n<p>The first few times you try to change the conversation, you may get push back. You\u2019ll get clients or product managers or engineers who simply can\u2019t answer these questions. Keep asking them.<\/p>\n<p>If people can\u2019t answer the questions, you need to help them get the answers before you start work on the project. Otherwise, you\u2019re shortchanging your users, your company, your team, and yourself.<\/p>\n<p>Like the post? <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/lauraklein\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Follow Laura\u00a0on Twitter!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Originally posted on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usersknow.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/want-better-ux-change-conversation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Users Know<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: If you found the post useful, check out the free guide <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/ux-design-process-documentation-best-practices\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">UX Design Process Best Practices<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/ux-design-process-documentation-best-practices\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12777\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/blog-book1.png\" alt=\"blog-book\" width=\"720\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/blog-book1.png 720w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/blog-book1-655x300.png 655w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UX expert Laura Klein explains how to guide stakeholder conversations to focus on what delivers business and user value. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":12775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,17,18,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-collaboration-2","category-process","category-ux-design"],"yoast_title":"","yoast_metadesc":"UX expert Laura Klein explains how to guide stakeholder conversations to focus on what delivers business and user value.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Want Better UX? 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