Rob Monacelli’s Post

(The posts I like) Series : 0279 . #Hazem_K_Madi #ProductDesign #UserExperienceDesign #UXUIDesign #ProductLedGrowth #ProductManagement #UserBehavior #UserInterfaceDesign

To insight or not… That is the question. Or perhaps, many questions. There’s not always a clear way to guide design decisions. Sometimes, research and testing aren’t necessary. Intuition can be enough. I’ve noticed that practitioners who focus solely on “research” (like user interviews) or “testing” (like usability testing) often have the strongest views on how design should be guided. As a designer, it's misguided to think in narrow lanes. I believe: → You don’t always need either. Not every design project requires user input. → Using asynchronous methods in high volume to evaluate and validate users provides more signals, often leading to deeper insights from continuous testing and iterative design. → You don’t have to talk to users. → Talking to users can create an emotional connection to the work. → Waiting for research insights can take too long for certain types of design that benefit more from intuition and quick iteration. → Insights lead to open-ended conversations and can inspire fresh ideas. → Signals push for action and create more concrete discussions with stakeholders who want to understand the business problem from the user’s perspective. → Getting user input humanizes the work. Integration within the work is even better. A product designer’s perspective leans toward taking action, but that’s not just creating artifacts. Many organizations aim to foster a "build and get it done" mindset, and when combined with informed design, creates the right mix for amazing products and services. Insights are great. Signals are informative. And getting stuff done brings them together. #productdesign #productdiscovery #userresearch #uxresearch

Hi Connections Here is my Article.... #snsinstitutions #snsdesignthinkers #designthinking Design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving and innovation. It involves understanding the needs of users, challenging assumptions, and redefining problems to identify alternative strategies and solutions. Here are the five key phases of the design thinking process: 1. **Empathize**: Understand the users and their needs through observation, interaction, and immersing yourself in their experiences. This phase involves user research, including interviews, surveys, and ethnographic studies. 2. **Define**: Clearly articulate the problem you want to solve based on the insights gathered during the empathy phase. This involves synthesizing the information and creating a problem statement that is user-centered. 3. **Ideate**: Generate a wide range of ideas and solutions through brainstorming sessions and other creative techniques. The goal is to explore as many possibilities as possible without judging or limiting the ideas. 4. **Prototype**: Build tangible representations of a few selected ideas to explore and test. Prototypes can range from simple sketches and models to more sophisticated versions. They are tools for learning, exploring, and communicating ideas. 5. **Test**: Evaluate the prototypes with real users, gather feedback, and refine the solutions based on what you learn. This phase is iterative, meaning you may go through multiple rounds of testing and refinement. Design thinking emphasizes a non-linear process, where phases often overlap and iterate based on feedback and new insights. It is widely used in various fields, including product design, service design, business strategy, and social innovation, to create solutions that are both effective and user-centric. #snsinstitutions #snsdesignthinkers #designthinking

Highlighting my article on Friction in Design Process and how to overcome it. https://lnkd.in/gKXMAsBd #design #designthinking #designbuild #designstrategy #product #producctdesign #productmanagement #productstrategy #designprinciples #innovation #designers #digitaltransformation #ux #uxdesign #uiux #uidesign #designinnovation #application #software #softwaredesign #usability #userresearch #research #usercentereddesign #productleadership #uxwriting #designsystems #empathy #interfacedesign #usabilitytesting #userexperience #productdesign #accessibility #ui

Breaking Down Bias in Design: Real-Life Lessons Learned Bias: Favoring or having prejudice against something based on limited information Confirmation Bias: Occurs when you start looking for evidence to prove a hypothesis you have Design Research: Answers the question: How should we build it? False consensus bias: The assumption that others will think the same way as you do Foundational research: Answers the questions: What should we build? What are the user problems? How can we solve them? Implicit bias: The collection of attitudes and stereotypes you associate with people without your conscious knowledge Interviews: A research method used to collect in-depth information on people’s opinions, thoughts, experiences, and feelings Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Critical measures of progress toward an end goal Post-launch research: Answers the question: Did we succeed? Primacy bias: Remembering the first user more than others Primary research: Research you conduct yourself Qualitative research: Focuses observations on why and how things happen Quantitative research: Focuses on data that can be gathered by counting or measuring Recency bias: Most easily remembering the last thing you heard Secondary research: Research that uses information someone else has put together Sunk cost fallacy: The idea that the deeper we get into a project we’ve invested in, the harder it is to change course Surveys: An activity where many people are asked the same questions in order to understand what most people think about a product Usability study: A technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on users. #ResearchMethods #BiasInResearch #DesignThinking #UserResearch #DataAnalysis #UXDesign #BehavioralBias #QualitativeVsQuantitative #ProductDevelopment #UserExperience #MarketResearch #ResearchBias #DesignResearchMethods #UsabilityTesting #ResearchInsights #UI/UX Design

Use question based design to address internal business challenges. In the past, designs were based on intuition and incomplete business ideas. The goal was to help clarify business proposals. I still do some of this to help stakeholders understand ideas. While this can build trust, it often limits the design process. With Helio’s targeted audience access, we've changed this approach to focus on designing for questions. Rather than figuring out how the interface solves a business problem, design iterations now answer questions about user needs. This is a major shift, where designs are created to provoke strong responses and narrow down signals. "Testing" becomes more about exploring the problem’s boundaries, not just checking if the interface works well. Combining this with qualitative feedback from user actions lets you learn much more quickly. Taking this approach moves design work away from solving unclear stakeholder business problems and opens space for new ideas by pushing concepts to the edges of the problem space. Why is this shift significant? → Shifts design to user needs, not business assumptions → Enables quicker testing and improvement cycles → Keeps the design process open to new possibilities → Informs decisions based on clear signals from user feedback → Improves communication between teams and stakeholders → Pushes designs to explore creative solutions → Catches issues early, minimizing costly revisions Changing these discussions may take some time, but the aim is to shift from solving an idea, to finding the best way to align business goals with user needs. Be a partner. Informed questions are the best tool. #productdesign #productdiscovery #userresearch #uxresearch

The design thinking process is a human-centered, iterative approach to solving problems and developing innovative solutions. It focuses on understanding user needs and involves the following five stages: 1. Empathize 👉 Goal: Understand the users, their needs, and challenges. 👉 Activities: Conduct user interviews, surveys, and observations. Create empathy maps to visualize user behavior and emotions. Immerse yourself in the user's environment. 2. Define 👉 Goal: Clearly articulate the problem to solve. 👉 Activities: Analyze data gathered during the empathize phase Identify patterns and insights. Frame a problem statement (e.g., "How might we…?"). 3. Ideate 👉 Goal: Brainstorm and generate multiple creative solutions. 👉 Activities: Use brainstorming techniques (e.g. mind mapping, SCAMPER).Encourage wild ideas without judgment. Focus on quantity first, then refine later. 4. Prototype 👉 Goal: Create low-fidelity, inexpensive representations of the solution. 👉 Activities: Develop sketches, wireframes, models, or mockups. Focus on testing specific features or concepts quickly Allow for quick feedback and iterations. 5. Test 👉 Goal: Evaluate the solution’s effectiveness and usability. 👉 Activities: Gather user feedback through usability testing. Observe how users interact with the prototype. Iterate and refine the design based on feedback. 🚨 Key Principles of Design Thinking 🚨 ✒️ User-Centric Focus: Prioritizes user needs throughout the process. ✒️ Collaboration: Encourages teamwork and diverse perspectives. ✒️ Iterative Process: Allows continuous refinement and improvement. ✒️ Experimentation: Promotes creativity and trying new approaches. #aurolakshmanan #dementeeAcademy #UIUXDesign #UserExperience #LearningJourney #continuousimprovement #TeamGrowth

Effective behavior design requires making actions simple, appealing, well-timed, and influenced by social norms. We’re enjoying Robert Meza’s ideas these days. Here’s another great article from him on using the EAST framework in design projects, emphasizing its use at the end of the design process. The framework was developed by The Behavioural Insights Team. Before applying EAST, he suggests understanding the job, behavior context, influences, and behavior change strategies. The EAST principles are: → Easy: Reduce effort and steps → Attractive: Make options appealing → Social: Leverage social norms → Timely: Present choices at key moments Robert provides a checklist for teams. Check out his post and course: https://lnkd.in/geVMtFUY Helio is a powerful user research tool that ensures your design decisions are data-driven and aligned with behavioral insights. Using the EAST framework with Helio can enhance user research and product design: Easy ↳ Use Helio's tools to identify and remove barriers in user journeys, simplifying tasks. Attractive ↳ Test visual designs and incentives to see what appeals most to users. Social ↳  Gather data on social influences and incorporate social proof elements based on user feedback. Timely ↳ Analyze user behavior to determine optimal times for prompts and notifications. We’d love to hear from anyone who has used this thinking! #uxresearch #productdiscovery #marketresearch #productdesign

On day 7 and 8 of the 30-Day product design challenge I was taught about User Research, and I'll be sharing what I learnt below. What is User Research? It is the process of gathering insights about your users in order to make smart design. With the right research method, you'll learn about your users' needs, goals, and pain-points to invalidate or validate your own assumption and continuously test the usability of your design Types of User Research: 1. Quantitative vs Qualitative 2. Attitudinal vs Behavioural No-No's in conducting User Research: 1. Making the interviewee uncomfortable 2. Asking direct questions e.g would you use a 'specific' function? 3. Asking leading questions e.g Do you use Google to search online? Research Techniques: 1. A/B Testing 2. Surveys & Questionnaires: attitudinal in nature. 3. Card sorting: Helps to understand how users view, categorize content. You need to write down all of the discrete elements that you wish to organise on cards, then ask participants to collect them into groups that makes sense to them. 4. Eye tracking: used to collect behavioural data. 5. Diary studies 6. User Interview 7. Affinity mapping: allows you to group items together and make sense of your product. User Interview Questions: Firstly find objective of the interview questions, making sure it is neither too broad nor narrow. Below are the steps for structuring the questions: 1. Questions for getting to know the user 2. Questions about user's preference 3. Questions on user's perception on 'objective' 4. Questions for closing the interview e.g 'are there any ideas or thoughts you think will be useful to us?', 'can we follow-up?' 'do you have any questions for us?' Remember to start broad then deeper until you get to the crux. #TO-ICT #30DaysChallenge #MedinTech #BUAMS #BabcockUniversity #LearningJourney #Productdesign #UIdesign #UXdesign #UIUXdesign #LearningChallenge

#WeekendRead Did you know that our communication manager, Susa Horvath, has a #uxdesigner certification too? Her next book to read is 100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People by Susan M. Weinschenk, Ph.D. Serving as a comprehensive reference guide, this book delves into the basics of how people #see, #think, #read, and what #motivates them. It provides valuable insights and tactics from cognitive, social, and perceptual #psychology #research for creating successful UX designs. Key Takeaway: The book teaches that effective design stems from understanding #human #behavior and #motivations. It applies psychology and #neuroscience research to user-centric design, offering practical advice on creating intuitive, accessible digital and physical products for varied audiences. You'll also find techniques to create compelling user experiences and achieve higher conversion rates. “To design a product or Web site that persuades people to take a certain action, you need to know the unconscious motivations of your target audience.” – Susan M. Weinschenk We believe this could be interesting for you too if you’re looking to deepen your understanding of user behavior and create more impactful designs to your product. How do you think understanding hashtag #human #psychology can transform the #design? Share your thoughts and let's discuss! #weekendread #uxdesign #humanbehavior #userexperience #visionhealthpioneersincubator #learning #growing #berlinstartup #healthtech #medtech #valuebasedcare #founderjourney