Are You Thinking About Your Users?

Happy National Unicorn Day! I’ve been sleeping on this one: a person in the Ugly Unicorn Slack channel told me about this. We’ve got a good conversation going over there, so I highly recommend you sign up if you’re not already in the chat.

I’m wearing my Ugly Unicorn merch today, obviously. Not sure how else to celebrate the holiday though. Is it time to sprinkle glitter all over my podcast setup? Somehow I don’t think that would be a good experience for me as the user, so I’ll have to pass. You know I’m all about the user experience side of things!

Are You Thinking About Your User? 

Here’s the question I want to ask today:

Are you really thinking about your users when you design your products?

As a former graphic designer, I know the temptation to focus on making things look nice. Nothing wrong with looking nice! But if you start there, you’re doing it backwards.

If you really think about your users as you design, their experience will be the top priority. Because no matter how many people seem to fall down this rabbit hole of UI, a user interface that looks nice but doesn’t work right is a complete fail.

The UI rabbit hole leads people to focus on using tools (Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, etc). Guys, tools and programs are not about user experience, they’re about implementation. If you start there then you’re getting way ahead of yourself.

Arguing with your team about button colors, about icons, low-level things like that… those things matter, but not nearly as much as the actual process or flow. So get your focus where it needs to be, and make it pretty later.

UI vs. UX

Like I’ve said before, we have to stop lumping UI and UX together. They’re not just buzzwords.

Here’s some brutal honesty: if you use those words interchangeably, you’re outing yourself as someone who does not know what you’re talking about.

Harsh, but true. And people are not only wasting a lot of time because they don’t know the difference, they’re wasting money. Imagine hiring a UX designer for jobs that someone else can do, or vice versa. That’s wasteful. So defining the problem is important: is this really a job for a UX designer, or is this something our developer can fix because it’s a surface level issue?

There is no such thing as a “UX/UI Researcher Product Designer,” but I swear I see these kinds of titles popping up in LinkedIn all the time. Craziness! It doesn’t make any sense but people think they are adding value by taking on all these titles to each other. I cringe every time.

Ego vs. User

If you are actually working on UX design, you have to keep looking a few steps ahead. How will a certain change affect the user? Does this tweak bring us closer to our stated goals based on user feedback? How are we going to test this?

So much design is about the ego: people really are out here making things off their own ideas without any research or data. And it makes me crazy. There are choices and changes that make sense to you that don’t serve the user. Are you thinking about the user?

Are you thinking about the user?.

UI Porn

I have to say it: these sites like Dribble or Behance are basically UI porn. It’s all very cool and luxurious… and basically unusable.

There’s no context, there’s no documentation, there’s no way for me to know why they went with certain choices or what testing has been done. What happens if you need to change the app to a different language setting? Why are the buttons designed that way? What happens when users can’t get this to work IRL?

Pretty designs on Dribble, Behance, or even on Instagram or LinkedIn? What does that achieve? I have no time for people throwing these visuals up on platforms so they can say it’s UX design. Or the “before and after UX.” That kills me. What does that even mean? It really means “before and after UI,” because there was no UX involved in that process.

Most people seem to focus on visual treatments, but the visuals are only one component of the user experience. If your product doesn’t work or is hard to navigate, at least the user has something pretty to look at, right? That’s just not good business.

Start at the Beginning

If you actually care about user experience, you need to start at the beginning. Slow your roll with those nice mockups and prototypes, and get some ideas on paper.

Who are you designing for? What’s the user journey supposed to look like?

Map out a task flow. Information architecture matters, guys. All these different things that come before UI are non-negotiable for a successful product.

Pretty mockups mean nothing to me without context. Visual appeal is awesome, but only if it’s meaningful and usable. So don’t skip to the end of the line. Ask the questions you need to ask first. Go through the process and really think about your flow.

In other words, function before form.

Keep That Edge Case Out of My Meetings

It’s not that I don’t care about edge cases… it’s just that I don’t care about them while I’m in the middle of a meeting and you’re presenting a 1-2% edge case that doesn’t affect 98-99% of our users.

We can talk about that later, but don’t derail me with edge cases! It’s not reasonable to change focus and spend a lot of extra money and time over extreme examples. 

Obviously, we have to build accessibility into everything, and take different needs into consideration! But that’s not the same thing as letting edge cases distract the team.

And qualitative and quantitative data have to be balanced, so if there’s an issue there you may need your data scientists or analysts to help bring those two pieces of the puzzle together.

From the User’s Point of View

Let’s say users are not signing up for a particular program. Is it because they can’t get the button to work? Is it because the copy isn’t compelling? Maybe they don’t like the offer?

Or hey, maybe they don’t understand the offer, or it’s not something they’ve ever been interested in. Nothing has grabbed their attention.

Maybe they perceive the process of signing up to be too complicated or long. Maybe there isn’t any real urgency, so they plan to come back later, but forget.

All of those are possibilities, so how are you going to find out what the correct answer is? Or find out that more than one of these issues is popping up? You have to think like a user, and talk to the users. You are their advocate, so take time to understand what the whole process from start to finish is like for them.

This is especially important in any setting where there are people who aren’t really thinking like the user. If a dev is complaining about having to recreate buttons for preference testing, or about having to recreate material instead of just reusing the same model, or anything else… you have to sit there and be that user advocate.

Technical Constraints and Compromise

Look, sometimes there really isn’t a good solution to a problem that you’ve defined. Maybe the tech hasn’t really gotten that far yet, or there isn’t anyone in-house with the skill to do what you need.

Everyone bumps up against technical constraints sometimes. Not everything that is desirable is possible, and not everything that is possible is feasible. That’s just how it is.

In those times, you have to compromise without going too far. Get as close to the design that people really like and can use, remove as many friction points as you can. Maybe it’s not going to be ideal. It’s super annoying to know what you need and not be able to achieve that! But when it comes down to it, finding the balance between “best” and “possible” usually does land on “good enough.”

If you’re new to UX, that balance can be hard to find. Heck, it’s hard even when you have experience! That’s why you have to stay nimble, and keep your options open mentally.

Finding balance and doing that gracefully? That’s an almost priceless skill.

Keys to Putting the User First

If you ever find yourself questioning your design thinking, remind yourself to put the user first. Here are five don’ts and five do’s to keep your priorities straight:

Don’t:

1. Confuse UI for UX.

2. Focus on form over function.

3. Get distracted by UI porn.

4. Let edge cases derail you.

5. Overcommit to any one idea or design.

Do’s:

1. Start at the beginning and map out the ideal user journey.

2. Advocate for the user at every chance you get.

3. Stay focused on the main user base, with accessibility in mind.

4. Look for balance when you face technical constraints or feasibility issues.

5. Keep user experience at the forefront of every decision.