UX Questions to Ask — What, Why & How?
In today’s Day & Age, UX design has come a long way with its fair share of numerous strategies to cope with the ever-evolving technology space. We have IxD, CX, Agile UX, Lean UX & many more which respectively fit well with the new tech & form factors. Although this has helped with the requirements of flexible timelines & niche budgets, the one step missed/ ignored is to ask questions which beats the whole purpose of UX. This signifies the empathy level from the stakeholders towards their users.
Research, Analysis & Design are all dependent on how we garner information about the product.
The Backbone
So we need to ask a lot of questions covering some points which should be considered as a mandate. Following are the topics on which the questions should revolve around:-
#1 The Problem
Post the briefing session with our positive thoughts on how this product would revolutionize & impact the market, we need to take a step back to understand WHAT is the core problem. The problem is the heart of the product & as long as it exists, our solution would be worth the value. Secondly the WHY, why are we trying to solve it. This “why” would lament our belief to solve it & implies our sustenance. In their initial days of success, Google with their search product was in a Catch-22 situation. They either had an option to show the required search results in the other pages or they could show quick relevant results on the first page & lose the customer by him/her migrating to other websites. They chose the latter.
#2 Our Users
We need to connect with our Users irrespective of the design strategy or budget constraints. Further, we need to dig into their metrics — Age, Gender, Race & other possible demographics. Knowing them would help us identify our potential leads, create personas & work on customer journey maps & further classification of user groups. A great example is Apple with their range of innovative products.
#3 Business Goals
As phrased above, the Customer is the King & we must look into our user pain points & desired goals. However, this needs to go hand in hand with the Business Goals. There are many situations where User Needs & Business Goals would contradict each other. This requires a thorough research & analysis in order to identify the balance catering to both entities.
#4 Competitors & Market
Your competitors impact your business decisions in a major way. This happens at a subconscious level where one unknowingly builds a product just to gain the competitive edge which is very much unavoidable. Conducting a thorough Competitive Analysis would deeply help to understand their gain points, market demand & industry focus. Also, we need to keep a watch on the market disruptors who are generally fresh companies working in the shadows.
#5 Future Relevance
After understanding the product, stakeholders motives & the company’s direction, a forecast is required to evaluate how the product would fare in the future. This information would enable the stakeholders to plan the future stages.
#6 Measuring Success
In order to measure success, some metrics need to be laid out to check your milestone & achievement factors. This can be marked with a timeline & budget as XY axis with the completed goals.
The Hidden Caveat
All the steps mentioned above could only be effective depending on the HOW of things. For each step, we need to remember the following:
- Ask Meaningful Questions
- Avoid Passing Hints
- Building a Rationale
You should ask questions which would yield meaningful & valuable output without leading the stakeholders/ users of what you are trying to imply. Finally, what you make of all data collected & how well it is presented helps in avoiding subjective arguments & lays the foundation for your design decisions.
Thank you!
