The Art of Making Assumptions
I have a lot of people in my life who don’t understand what I do as a UX designer. The question I get asked a lot is if all I do at work is to make assumptions about what people might want from the product. Wrong!
To be fair, that is partially true. But not all assumptions are created equally!
I do make a lot of assumptions at work especially when it comes to designing new features or new products. Pure assumptions alone, though, will never be enough to design a good product. Assumptions always need to be backed up by facts. Here are some of the techniques I use to make valid assumptions.
Research
Yep, this is obviously very important. Without research, assumptions are weightless. There’s a few types of research I do way before even getting into the actual design.
Competition Research
Most of the time, somebody else has probably tried to do whatever you are trying to do.
They might have either succeeded or failed, it doesn’t really matter. What really matters from this type of research is learning why they succeeded or failed. This helps me make better design decisions, since they have already studied and tested the assumptions for me.
Interviews
Interviews are very helpful because you get insightful opinions and reaction from real people. I normally do interviews with the clients and stakeholders to learn exactly what they expect. However, the most helpful interviews usually come from the real potential users and their real struggles. Knowing exactly what the users need already reduces the risk of me making bad assumptions based on what I think they need.
Personas
Creating user personas helps me empathize with the users more. With the user personas at hand, I can constantly refer back to who the users are, their goals, their struggles, etc., I can put myself in their shoes while thinking about what they would need. However, again, good personas need to come from good research. Here is a descriptive read about creating personas:
https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html
Analytics
Data doesn’t lie!
Setting up analytic tools can seem complicated sometimes, but it’s so worth it. I learn so much about how the real users ACTUALLY interact with the product. What they use the most, where they drop off, etc. This makes it easy to decide what needs improvement, or what to move forward with. I wrote about the tools I use for analytics here:
https://medium.com/@patlapa/my-product-analytic-tool-friends-a769379d99da#.qd4lw1dt4
These techniques have helped me make better assumptions before jumping in to the design process. Getting feedback often as I design also helps me make better assumptions for the iteration process. I usually do usability testing, both internally and externally, to get feedback. Surveys are also easy and helpful. I also think it is important to update the clients and the stakeholders often to get everyone on the same page as I move on with the process as well ;)
Thanks for reading!
