Overview
At the core of customer experience is knowing your users and putting them first. Human-centered design starts with a commitment to prioritize the needs of your users, but that commitment requires an understanding of who your users are and what they need.
To improve the experience for your users, you can:
- Identify key user groups and their top tasks
- Review analytics and feedback channels
- Use your data to inform decisions
- Prioritize accessibility
This is a good start, but a commitment to human-centered design requires a commitment to research and learning. Identifying users and their needs may look different for each product or service, and there are a variety of human-centered design methods that can be used.
Putting into Practice
What method makes the most sense for a project? One helpful way to decide that is to consider what stage of the project is in. Projects development usually runs in cycles, with several key phases:
- Problem framing: Identify, understand, and clearly define the problem you’re trying to solve. What does the user need or want?
- Ideation: Generate creative ideas and potential solutions. What new features could you offer? What would you create if you didn’t have constraints?
- Experimentation: Test different proposed solutions to evaluate how effective they are at solving the problem you’re trying to solve. What is and isn’t working?
- Optimization: Refine your solutions based on the results of the experimentation phase. Are you able to improve its efficiency, usability, and overall performance?
- Evaluation: Assess the success of the changes. Was it impactful? Did it resolve the initial problem? Did it achieve the stated goals? What should you do in your next cycle?
This should bring you back around again to problem framing for your next cycle. Here’s a breakdown of each method, when it makes sense to use it, and what you can expect to accomplish by using it:
Problem Framing
Journey Mapping
A visualization map of the process a user goes through to accomplish a goal with your products or services. More about journey mapping from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Generate empathy for the user
- Highlight pain points on a user’s journey across services
- Identify key services and stakeholders that impact the user’s experience
User Interviews
A qualitative research method where researchers ask users about their experiences, behaviors, and attitudes to gather insights for improving or designing a product or service. More about user interviews from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Identify user needs and goals
- Learn how users perceive existing processes or workflows
- Validate existing solutions
Subject Matter Expert Interviews
Conversations with stakeholders and subject matter experts to obtain knowledge of their area of expertise and gain important insights about the project landscape. More about stakeholder interviews from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Gather insights from experts in a given field
- Establish a shared understanding among teams
- Identify important context for the project and key obstacles to avoid
Ideation
Design Thinking Workshop
A human-centered, cross-functional white boarding session that can help teams generate a wide range of ideas and possible solutions. More about design thinking from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Brainstorm ideas for specific design challenges
- Create a shared vision for a product or service
- Bring an outside perspective
Storyboards
A series of visual illustrations that demonstrate a sequence of actions for a product or service. More about storyboards from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Visualize the user journey, especially their emotional state
- Translate a complex or abstract journey into a visual narrative
- Prioritize a user’s needs and feelings
Prototypes
Interactive mockups or samples of a product that simulate its design or functionality in order to test and get feedback before moving into development. More about prototypes from UXPin.
Use this to:
- Test solutions before significant energy or resources are used to produce a final version
- Reduce risk by revealing additional requirements, pain points, flaws, and accessibility issues before full development
- Focus feedback gathering from users, team members, and stakeholders
Wireflows
A combination wireframe and flowchart that shows how a user navigates through a task. More about wireflows from Balsamiq.
Use this to:
- Illustrate complex interaction pathways for users
- Communicate expectations about functionality
- Identify usability issues in complex systems
Experimentation
UX Review
An experienced UX professional analyzes designs or user interfaces to identify issues and opportunities for improvement. These professionals might check the designs against specific guidelines or usability heuristics. More about UX expert reviews from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Identify issues not spotted or considered by original designers or developers
- Gain valuable direction for further refinement or future improvements
Rapid Usability Testing
Concise tests focused on evaluating specific parts of a product or service and designed to provide rapid feedback for quick iterations. More about rapid testing from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Test specific elements of a product
- Get quick feedback on specific aspects of a product or service
- Quickly refine and improve based on user input
Accessibility Reviews
Evaluating a product or service to ensure that its features are usable and inclusive for all, including those with disability or special needs. More about accessibility reviews from W3C.
Use this to:
- Identify and address issues that might prevent people with disabilities from using a product or service
- Help ensure that products and services comply with accessibility standards
- Raise awareness for inclusive design
Optimization
Unmoderated Usability Testing
Users attempt to use a product or service and provide feedback remotely and independently, without the oversight or guidance of a researcher. More about unmoderated user tests from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Collect feedback from users without the cost or coordination of moderated testing
- Reveal other opportunities for improvement
Eye Tracking
Measuring and analyzing where and how a user’s eyes move and focus when interacting with a product or service. How to conduct eyetracking studies from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Understand what most attracts a user’s attention on a page or screen
- Enhance usability testing with a rich set of additional user behavior
A/B Testing
Two versions of a feature or design element are presented to different user groups, and their performance is quantitatively measured against a set of specific goals. More about A/B testing from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Achieve slight improvement between two similar versions of a design at scale
- Test an isolated, narrowly-focused hypothesis in a design
Evaluation
Analytics
Quantitative data like page views, unique visitors, bounce rate, average session length, or conversion rate for insights into actual user behavior. More about quantitative data from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Quantify the usability of your product
- Compare statistically significant differences between two versions of a product
- Inform decisions about priorities or budget
Completion Rates
The percentage of users who successfully complete a given task. More about success rates from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Get a coarse, easy-to-understand representation of your product’s usability
- Create a benchmark and track usability over time
App Reviews
User feedback and ratings on app distribution platforms.
Use this to:
- Prioritize design decisions and feature enhancements
- Get a snapshot on the overall user satisfaction of your application
- Hear directly from users
- Identify common pain points
Surveys
A set of questions used for gathering structured user feedback, typically about their behavior, background, or opinions. More about surveys from NN/g.
Use this to:
- Learn about what users think and feel (but not necessarily what they do)
- Efficiently gather user feedback at scale