Iterating on Good Design
By: Priscilla Ho
Tags: UX, UI, Less But Better, Research, Sketch

Define: Good

Before I started my talk, I asked everyone what they thought iteration meant, and what ‘good design’ meant. The verdict: meaningful, intuitive, and simple designs (aka ‘good’) cross paths with better and better re-designs that result from sound usability testing and UX research. My favourite!

Benefits of Qualitative Research

Once we all aligned on the same perspective as a starting point, we talked about how to get there. I shared some case studies about how live usability testing, using qualitative methods such as Fly on the Wall observation, Shadowing, Experience Sampling Method, Card Sorting, Paper Prototyping, and Cognitive Walkthroughs helped hone in on the right research questions. We all have our personal biases, regardless of how many years we’ve been doing this. Taking ourselves outside of our assumptions, and (re)immersing ourselves in the shoes of the people we are designing for more often than not results in new ideas.

Ever had a stakeholder be skeptical about spending money on qualitative research? Whenever we gave them direct access to end customers who interacted with their product or service, which is better than any video recording or verbatim quote, leeriness transformed into confident advocacy for user research prior to validating a product strategy.

Of course, we always triangulate qualitative insights with quantitative data, wherever possible.

Why ask The Five Whys

Good designs fit our needs so well they are invisible. — Donald Norman

When I shared an example from my Master of Interaction Design project with Tuen Mun Nursing School (Experience Sampling Method) that was featured in TU Delft’s Pick-A-Mood product manual, I also remembered how Donald Norman (interaction-design.org) swore by The Five Whys when I had a master class with him in Hong Kong as his favourite design methodology.

Whether it is at the beginning Discovery phase, middle Synthesis, or conclusive Design and Test part of the design process (which doesn’t need to be sequential), asking ‘why’ is important in any good design. For example:

Why does the client want people watching this video?

Because we want people to learn what the video has to say. Why do we want people to learn what the video has to say?

Because that’s the whole point of creating this tool. Why are we creating this tool?

Because people are complaining about this change. Why is this change happening?

Because more and more people don’t understand it. Why don’t people understand it?

We’re not sure why people don’t understand it…

This is a great question to answer the original question, and one way to ask the primary research question: How do people currently understand the changes that are happening?

Don’t be afraid to ask ‘why’. Here’s why.

You may be wondering why this topic is discussed at a Sketch meetup anyway. Why not? As designers, we make meaningful decisions in any UX and UI Sketch file that impacts people. Every atom, molecule, organism, component, design system, webpage, website, and product or service leads to an interaction (read Brad Frost). Every interaction I currently design is between a human and a computer, where time is a constant, though a constant change. If time is always ticking away, how might we spend it with the people who matter most to us? I hope you spent your time well (see Humane Tech, aka Time Well Spent) reading this reflection, and consider this a break in your day to get back to what’s left of your day.