DESIGN PLUS | USER EXPERIENCE
TUHX ED BEESNIGENFITS OF
UX DESIGN
Colman Walsh, CEO of UX Design Institute,
explains how User Experience-based design
can help engineers.
Good design should be
a central pillar in any
business and now, more
and more businesses
are realising this. In fact, Inc listed
UX design as one of the most ‘indemand
hard skills’ of 2019.
While UX (User Experience)
design is primarily focused
on software products, design
engineers can bene t by
embracing some of the core
principles that make UX so
successful.
WHAT IS UX DESIGN?
UX design evolved from the
software industry and is based on
the premise that the risk of failure
can be reduced if design solutions
are tested with real users before
the product is built.
A step further is the notion
that the best software products
solve genuine problems for users,
and you need to understand the
problem before you design the
solution.
It may sound simple, but many
organisations fail here. As a
result, the software industry is
littered with poorly conceived and
designed products.
Smarter organisations
genuinely engage with users,
using simple research techniques
like user testing, to cut down
waste and build market-leading
products.
Design engineers typically
operate in a different space to
UX designers. The products are
often more complex, but both
roles centre on solving problems
and bridging the gap between
engineering and the end user.
Below are some key UX
principles that could bene t
design engineers:
UNDERSTAND THE
PROBLEM YOU’RE
TRYING TO SOLVE
Good UX designers always take
time up-front to learn about the
problem that needs solving.
The simplest way to do this
is to talk to the people who
will ultimately use it.
What are you trying to do?
What – if anything – is preventing
you from doing it? How can it be
done more effectively? Simple
questions can lead to a thorough
understanding of the problem to
be solved during the research
phase.
The UX profession has
developed techniques for
drawing information from users in
a neutral, unbiased way, through
in-depth interviews, surveys and
contextual inquiry, primarily
grounded in common sense.
CLEARLY DEFINE THE
PROBLEM, VISUALLY
“A perfect formulation of a problem
is already half its solution.”
DAVID HILBERT
Another step to save time later
is to clearly de ne the problem.
Research data can have rough
edges and taking time to re ne
what you’ve learned can give
clarity.
Again, UX designers have
frameworks to do this, including
personas and customer journey
maps, which are simple and
engaging ways to visually
represent the problem and reduce
ambiguity.
By taking the time to de ne the
problem clearly to everyone on the
project, the solution to the problem
will begin to present itself.
TEST BEFORE YOU BUILD
Testing your designs with real
users, not just in-house, before
launch is a key step in the UX
journey.
The real purpose for UX
designers is to see if their
design actually solve the user’s
problem before the team starts
the expensive – and irreversible –
business of building the product.
After all, the only arbiters of what
works – or not – are the end users.
The best technique to do this
is user testing (not to be confused
with user acceptance testing)
which is a quick and cost-effective
way of ironing out kinks before
build occurs. It’s a cornerstone of
the UX profession and, with a little
dedication and some practice,
can easily be learned by any
experienced design engineer. !
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