Sarah Doody
Last week I challenged you to choose one idea that you were going to commit to experiment with. What did you learn? Did you uncover anything new that you hadn’t thought of? Did the experiment create the momentum needed to keep going with your idea?
Congrats, we made it to April. I have no idea how three months have already gone by. I think it’s because I committed to running a ton of experiments at the beginning of the year. This kept me pretty busy, focused, and learning.
When was the last time you decided to run an experiment? If you’re like me, it was probably a long time ago.
I’m the type of person who has a ton of ideas, but I often don’t make time to act on my ideas. And they get tucked away in a notebook and left there. That is … until I stumble upon someone else on the Internet who’s done my idea! Then, I beat myself up and think, “if I’d only started 6 months ago, think of where I’d be.”
When you’re designing a website or an app, you can’t assume that you know best. Sure you probably have some good assumptions about what you think will work. But to truly set yourself up for success, you must intimately understand the people who use or will use your product.
Is your team investing enough in user research? When was the last time you did user research … last week, last month, last year, never?
Einstein once said: “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
Why should we spend more time thinking about the problem than working on the solution?
Well, the answer is quite simple. The more we understand a problem, the more obvious the solution will be.
Think about some of your favorite brands and what it’s like to interact with them. How often do you visit their sites or use their apps? How have those positive experiences translated beyond the screen? Have you purchased a product, connected with people, or recommended the service to a friend?
A few weeks ago I decided to train for another marathon. In November 2015, I ran my first marathon – the NYC marathon – and it was a great experience. I was able to do it only 15 weeks after having surgery. Crazy, I know.
When I start a new project, I immediately go into research mode. I spend hours looking at other sites, products, and apps to see if the purpose of the product is clear.
The start of any year is a great time to think about the direction UX might be going. UX is an ever changing area and one that can be different one week to the next. Here I share some of my thoughts on where I think UX might be steering towards in the coming year.
One of the reasons why I love user experience so much is because it involves solving a lot of problems. One thing I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is:
It doesn’t matter how you get to the conclusion – you just need to get there.
When we’re trying to solve a problem, there isn’t one way to approach it. In the end, the most important thing is that we solve it.