Quelle est votre stratégie pour améliorer la conception des produits ?

Context is key. Ask why a product or service that solves the problem hasn't been developed before now, and whether the barrier is technical or contextual. Products and services that provide incremental change are easily understood by stakeholders and are more likely to receive buy-in than large scope disruptive solutions. Product design for disruptive solutions may need to address both the technical and contextual problems.

Designing a successful product involves going beyond understanding the problem and user context; it requires designers to embrace a forward-thinking mindset that anticipates future needs and challenges. By taking a proactive approach, designers can not only solve immediate problems but also create innovative solutions that address emerging trends and technological advancements.

To understand the problem effectively, it is crucial to begin by conducting thorough research and analysis. Here are some steps to guide you in understanding the problem: 1. Define the problem 2. Empathize with users 3. Gather qualitative and quantitative data 4. Create user personas 5. Utilize problem statements 6. Use user stories By following these steps, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of the problem you are aiming to solve. This understanding will lay the groundwork for designing effective and relevant solutions that address the needs and pain points of your users.

As Einstein said “If I have an hour to solve a problem, I would spend 55 minutes studying the problem and 5 minutes to solve it”. Understand the problem both from the user’s point of view as well as the economic buyer’s perspective- in B2B, they are different personas. Lastly, understand the current workaround the problem, to better counter the inertia of moving to a new solution.

During the development of one of our products, we conducted user testing sessions to gather valuable insights. I distinctly remember a particular elderly user who required significant assistance with certain tasks. While some of my team members were disappointed with the outcome, I was actually thrilled because this user represented our target demographic perfectly. I firmly believed that if we could address her needs and make the system user-friendly for her, we would undoubtedly achieve a high level of usability for 90% of our users. It brings me great joy to share that our efforts have paid off, as we are now receiving positive feedback from users who find the new application incredibly easy to navigate and use.

To effectively follow design principles, consider the following guidelines: 1. Simplicity 2. Consistency 3. Hierarchy 4. Navigation 5. Accessibility 6. Responsive Design 7. Feedback and Affordance 8. User-Centric Design By following these design principles, you can create intuitive, visually appealing, and user-centric interfaces that enhance the user experience and drive engagement with your product or service.

Design principles should be considered at both the universal and the company/product level. Good accessibility leads to good usability in most cases, and given the aging and expanding population of internet and tech users, needs to be high on your list of considerations (with the understanding that you aren't designing for everyone, but you don't want to eliminate key potential users from poor inclusion.) At the same time CONSISTENCY of design in your marketing, product, UX, and messaging is key to developing the kind of fans that make organic growth your ally instead of enemy. Develop and use your design book and style guides and make sure that EVERYONE in the company is aware of them (even that junior programmer that just started.)

Design principles are not rigid rules to be blindly followed, but rather flexible tools that provide a framework for making informed design decisions. While they offer valuable guidance, it's important to recognize that design principles should be adapted and tailored to specific contexts, user needs, and project requirements.

1. Be consistent with the use of UI patterns across the product -you are teaching customers a visual language and don't want them to think about which parts of the product are interactive. 2. Beautiful, branded, UI can make up for product issues in the short-term. Sometimes it's easier to boost brand value through UI than net-new features.

Design principles help guide your design choices and are as applicable as industry ISO standards. However, they are all context dependant. A piece of robot surgical equipment will have different accessibility requirements to a mobile phone. It is important to choose the correct guidelines without bias.

Develop interactive prototypes that represent the key functionalities and user interactions of your design. These prototypes can range from low-fidelity paper sketches to high-fidelity digital mockups. The goal is to create a tangible representation of your design concept. Here are some commonly used ones: 1. Paper Prototyping 2. Digital Prototyping 3. Clickable Wireframes 4. HTML/CSS Prototyping 5. Interactive Mockups 6. Wizard of Oz Testing 7. Remote Usability Testing 8. A/B Testing 9. Eye-Tracking 10. Usability Testing The choice of prototype and test methods should align with the specific needs and constraints of the design project.

In my experience the Finance leadership often get in the way of fast track prototyping, its often safer to stick within budget and ignore the opportunity costs

In an Agile environment prototyping should be done as quickly and as low tech as possible. It is important to get the product in front of your customers and the test it with them as quickly as possible. Fail fast needs to be the adopted mental model. This allows for rapid iteration in a much shorter time scale than traditional methods.

Prototyping does not have to be as involved or time-consuming as an A/B test run or a format focus group. Running mockups or sketches past key partners or user group representatives, with a strategic explanation of them, can provide the desired feedback fairly quickly.

In addition to collaborating with stakeholders, product designers should also actively involve end-users in the design process. Engaging users through research, usability testing, and feedback sessions enables designers to gain valuable insights and ensure that the final product meets their needs and expectations.

Collaboration is key and it is important to have a well defined, unbiased decision making process that can aid rapid development and communication across the organisation.

Learning and improving is the core of Product Development, because the job is never done. As markets fluctuate, technology improves and customer needs adapt, products must be able to be flexible and open to change. The industry I work in is constantly impacted by changing market conditions, causing economic cycles to have a big impact on client needs. Being tuned into the news and what is happening every single day is a great way to predict your user's needs and incorporate those needs into your product design thinking.

It is impossible to keep pace with technological change unless you continually iterate, challenge and improve your product design. If you do not follow a continuous improvement process you will be out of date before you even launch.

Product design is about how the product works, not just about how the product looks. This applies to both B2C and B2B products alike.

Depending on the product and the role of the user (I'm thinking of an administrator at the moment) it's very powerful to consider how you can enhance the user's career. How can your feature or UX really make an impact on their life by adding a ton of unexpected value? This takes empathy and deep understanding - that comes from talking to your actual users and really getting to know them