Design Thinking 3: Iterative Design and Collaborative Design

Steve Jobs said: Design is not just what it looks like and feels like, Design is how it works. I firmly believe that he is right, but I think it is not just these. When we think about design, we are actually thinking more about how to solve problems. Simply put, design is about paying attention to problems, trying to solve them, and focusing on users. We will use iterative design and collaborative design methods. These two methods can be said to be almost universal and can solve any problem.

1. Iterative design: It is a design method that builds demos, tests and analyzes, confirms problems, and then repeats the above process. Each time, we improve and test based on the results of the previous time.

2. Collaborative design: Collaborative design method can adopt various methods such as brainstorming, experience mapping, etc. to gather collaborative people to expand thinking. Finally, the host collects all ideas and finds the core issues. Exploring problems .

Many people may be like me. Their job title is interaction designers. Our responsibilities are not just to design an appearance. We need to actually solve problems. Design is a way to solve problems. I think good design should include doing user research to understand who the users are and what they are like? At the same time, you may need to consider what are these people like in an environment or organization? How various aspects of the organization affect them. Using some methods, you can understand what they want and don't need, and you also need to understand how the decisions you make will affect them.

Good designers also need to learn to use rapid iteration methods, first making a simple low-fidelity prototype to realize their ideas, and then testing them. Maybe find a group to see if this works and work together to find a suitable solution. Another method is collaboration. A good designer should be good at teamwork. Although we are saying that design can solve any problem, we are not omnipotent. We need to combine everyone's expertise to analyze problems and find solutions from multiple angles.

Low risk and fast are ways to deal with problems efficiently, especially in meeting reviews. We will eventually have a complete and beautiful interactive draft, but at this moment it is more important to confirm whether the current plans and strategies are is correct and the interaction process is smooth. At times like this, we move the tables around to make room for the design drafts to be posted and we all discuss the entire scenario together. Who are our users? What kind of situations will they encounter? We will consider various scenarios.

I think the most important thing is: when you need to do such a high-risk project, you can only reduce the risk through constant iteration and repeated testing (perhaps testing of countless demo prototypes), and find the The right solution. We will also be nervous and afraid. Fortunately, we are in a digital era. We can collect data, observe feedback, and quickly modify and iterate. For designers, the product is full of their hard work, but they also have to face the possibility that users will not like such a revision at all. But you'll never get the answer if you don't try. We can minimize this risk through the design process (collaborative design and rapid iteration and verification), and in the end we are confident that such a solution is correct.

Storytelling can be used in any process of product development or in problem solving. It is very effective. Everyone can experience real scenarios and problems through stories. We can tell a story to discover the process that a real user will go through, which helps us build awareness of such users and discover the problems they face. Everyone will become empathetic and can relate to the experience of perhaps a friend they know. For example, we will think about some new functions. At this time, maybe one of our designers comes up with an idea, and this functional creativity has never been seen before. If he wants to express this idea better to everyone, he can use storytelling.

For example, there is a family of 5. They are going to travel on the weekend, and the mother starts searching for housing on the renter app. She needs to bring a stroller and a pet. She spent 3 hours looking for a suitable location through these criteria. At this time, let's take a look at this new feature. We know what kind of needs she has through historical booking information. We can prioritize the houses that meet her needs, highlight the services she needs, and explore what kind of experience would be good for her. In order to better explore these issues, we can expand more user information to help understand. For example, this woman's name is B and she comes from Jiangsu. Then everyone has a specific imagination and considers the problems and needs she will encounter. Of course, at this time, we can not rush to refine the entire function or determine a plan. First understand the user's complete experience, split the entire process, and analyze each stage in detail. During the design process, you will be very clear about every stage that B goes through, and nothing will be missed during the design.

Storyboards are a very effective tool for exploring and thinking about users.

We put together the breakdown before summarizing the storyboard. When looking at these branches, we consider what role our product plays in the entire user process? At what stage does it play what role? If we sum it up, we find that our product may be involved in less than half of the branches, and in the entire offline experience, it accounts for more branches than the product itself. So we realized that in the whole process, our products can still do a lot, and we can help users better complete their tasks.

Suppose we design a travel product. When designing, we will ask ourselves, if we bring our mother to play, what kind of itinerary will we arrange for her? How to show her a more real Shanghai. This is what we hope for, to give travelers the same sense of belonging as locals wherever they go.

Storyboards only help you understand the problems people encounter and understand the value and significance your product can have on these problems and on this society. Your understanding of business goals and data accumulation will be very helpful to you.

When starting a project, we understand where we are and what our goals are. Later, it was more about designers working with multiple other teams. For example, if we need a big data team to provide us with data support, we will sit together and jointly promote the entire project. Sometimes, some great ideas come from other teams. If we want to say that the design of a product is successful, then it is better to say that the success of this product is the result of collaboration.