💥Design Brief #121: Expectations vs. Reality in Product Design, Design Ventura, an Awesome Designer, UX Research Diagrams, and Designing for Interaction Modes

Product Design: Expectations vs. Reality

We tend to believe that there are new rules that must be learned to design products in the 21st century. But as the French put it — ‘the more things change, the more they are the same’. Humans needs and behaviours change really slowly. Only the environment we live in differs. Therefore, some basic design principles will remain untouched. Here are 7 product design expectations which everybody thinks need to be met, debunked. Read more

Sebastian Conran: “Design Is Not Making Something That Looks Pretty”

The Design Museum has announced the finalists of its annual Design Ventura scheme, which gets teenagers aged 13-16 across the UK to pitch ideas for new products. One of them will be fully developed and go on sale in the museum shop for charity. ‘Design week’ speaks to product designer and head of the judging panel, Sebastian Conran, about how the initiative aims to teach young people how to communicate, problem-solve, and be conscious of the environment. Read more

Bad Designer, OK Designer, Awesome Designer

Users are very clear about what they want, and at times, can be quite vocal about it. It is the designer’s responsibility to dig deep and uncover the root cause that triggered their requests. A Bad Designer will only satisfy user requests. An OK Designer will ease the problem. An Awesome Designer will eliminate the problem. So which do you want to be? Read more

Designing for Interaction Modes

The best experiences result from designers matching the way the computer behaves with the way users are thinking, feeling, and interacting. This is what user experience design is all about. However, due to pressure, competing priorities, and industry trends, interaction modes are often an afterthought. Andrew Grimes argues that designers should acknowledge the user’s needs in the first place, and only then account for multiple possible interaction modes and the shifts between them. Read more

10 Diagrams to Help You Think Straight About UX Research

Some of the problems we work on as UX researchers are simple and are easily solved by getting users in front of our product. But other problems we sometimes deal with in product development are multifactorial and complex. In these situations we can get swept up in discussions of technical issues or business rules and forget the importance of users and their goals. In situations like that, a simple 2x2 diagram can cut through the "what ifs", the "how abouts”, and all the edge cases, and provide a simple way of looking at the problem. Here are 10 examples of 2x2 diagrams to simplify UX research discussions. Read more