UX Principles
I use the following as guidelines whenever I evaluate at a UX solution to a problem:
- Simplicity and Functionality is valued first for the user. Design should be purposeful and user-centric, it is not simply art.
- Be Consistent: Visual hierarchy and standardized styles are meant to ground the user in consistency across the product.
- Text is not the solution: Extra text isn’t always the solution. If you need a paragraph to explain something, it’s probably time to take another look at the structure/information architecture/visual representations of the screen itself.
- Use Data wherever you can. When you can’t, challenge yourself to conduct smart user research: Try using Data from Mixpanel/mode when possible to inform decision making. When that isn’t possible, challenge yourself to conduct user research in a defined form, and evaluate if it can be done in a form to get you to your answers efficiency (ex. employee testing, etc..).
- This should be obvious, but users above all. This requires us to define who our user is first when designing, but that will ground us across the other four principles.
A key inspiration has been Don Norman’s book, The Design of Everyday Things.
User Research
Validate your hypotheses and potential solutions with a combination of qualitative and quant-based research.
- Qualitative research is immensely powerful to establish motivation and user need trends.
- Quantitative research will help further validate trends gained in qualitative research, at scale.
| Example Research Brief |
|---|
| Goals, Purpose and Context |
| Test Details (Start Date, Who, Testing Method, Study Size) |
| Communication and Recruitment Strategy and Demographics |
| Testing Assets |
| User Session Script |
| Compensation for Study |
| Results and Takeaways |