First Questions to Ask When Creating Great UX

FIRST STEPS TOWARDS BETTER PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

User experience is all about knowing who your user is. And in order to find this out, you need to know what questions to ask when creating great UX. Why do we care so much about learning about the user? Another way to ask this is: Why do we invest so much time into understanding our users…especially when most design and development doesn’t do this? Here’s why:

• Create a product or service that better responds to the user’s needs.
• Save time by cutting down on rework by creating the right product the first time.
• Save money by needing on rework.
• Build something that doesn’t just fulfill a need, but delights the user, leading to better retention.

So what are these questions to ask when creating great UX? Let’s jump into it.

Who Is Going To Need, Use, And Benefit From This Solution?

You need to really know who you are helping. If your answer to this question is “women ages 15-18”, then you don’t know enough. You need to know their demographics, as well as what they do, what their hobbies are, what kinds of things do they like, and what problems do they have. You can build this info with user personas, user interviews, and multidisciplinary brainstorm teams.

What Is The User Doing Currently?

Whether you are building an application, providing customer service, or creating any other product, service, or system that includes users, you have to know where the user is going to be before, during, and after use. We usually generate user journey maps in order to track this. This is beneficial because you will need to know if your user will be using this device on their desktop, tablet, or phone. Are they at work, in commute, or at home? Do they have WiFi?

User journey maps can also provide insight into how your user is feeling at the different stages of their map, which allows you to be proactive with customer service, optimization, and trouble-shooting.

What Pains And Issues Do They Have With The Current Solution?

If there is already a product or service that already exists, how does the user feel about it? Is it working well? What problems do users have with it? The answers to these questions will give you valuable insight into what you should be creating. You want to provide a solution that is better than what already exists.

This information can be easily found by conducting user interviews, preferably with the actual potential or current users. The biggest benefit of actually interviewing real users is finding out exactly what they need. Brainstorming and hypothesizing can only get you so far.

What Does A Successful Product Look Like?

Here’s another question you can get answered in user interviews. This question is looking at what the user things is the best solution. Are you trying to make an application that lets you browse online shopping stores? What does the user think is necessary for this application? Users don’t always know what they really need. However, this question will give you valuable insights into what they think they need.

Putting It All Together

These are pretty straightforward questions, but you’d be surprised how many companies get them wrong. They might ask themselves these questions, but they usually don’t ask the actual users. 

Companies like to think they know their users, and I’m sure they do, to a certain extent. But making assumptions about users is not the same as getting answers directly from the users. Users might not always know exactly what they want or need, but a good UX researcher will know how to piece the puzzle together from their research.

About Pixel506

Pixel506 is a digital marketing company that believes in the intersection of quality writing, design, and technology. Together, these three major components create some of the best digital marketing and content marketing campaigns that bring about the kind of leads and conversions that boost ROI and bring real growth to your company.