It’s all about the journey
Problems can be nebulous creatures with many tentacles. That’s why it’s so satisfying to pin them down and solve them through sound UX methodologies. Here is an overview of several methods I have experience applying.
User Flows
I’ve used user flows to map out and understand the user journey. It has informed our knowledge of what screens or actions need to built into the functionality of our prototype. It’s a great visual aid and of course an essential tool for developers to understand the design.
Heuristic Evaluations
This can be a great tool in helping a client understand the strengths and weaknesses of their site by breaking it down into small chunks to focus on one at a time. It also helps me know me know how to prioritize my efforts during a redesign.
Card Sorting
Oh, the art of organizing information so it makes sense! I love any tool that will help achieve clean information architecture and a card sort is a good one. It’s fascinating to see the results. I feel like there are always surprises.
Card sort results similarity matrix
Competitive & Comparative Analysis
I like doing a feature list. It’s a simple quantitative method however I love a pluses/deltas section too. Sometimes you need to point out things that can’t just be listed. It’s great to point out which site is more beautiful and which feels dated.
Feature analysis
Aesthetics
Pluses + deltas of competitors
User Interviews
This is something I truly enjoy. I like the challenge of writing unbiased and non-leading questions, and the challenge of getting people to open up and tell you their precious thoughts so that we can make informed decisions about our designs.
Affinity Mapping
I find this process fun. I like that it is collaborative and fosters communication with your team. I also love writing persona and scenario statements and this process helps make way for that.
Persona & Scenario Development
I love anything that has to do with writing and stories. It truly has been a helpful tool to call the persona to mind to prevent scope creep.
Sketching
The honest-to-goodness simplicity of putting pen to paper is the best way to get started. Let those ideas flow, free and unhindered.
I have really enjoyed using sketches to do a mini-design studio with colleagues before we draw up our first wireframes. We showcase our ideas and bring the strongest ones together in our first wireframes.
Wireframing
Here we have a mid-fidelity set of wireframes, created for Wisepause. This is what we showed the client and received feedback on before moving onto our first round of testing, and later high-fidelity.
Usability Testing
I find it’s all about a good set up. Introduce the product generally so the user knows why they are taking the time to help you, and then give them simple prompts to fulfill. I feel like I have the right mix of patience and curiosity to allow users to reveal what works for them and what doesn’t.
