6 Key Tips for Designing a Successful Product
Although there are many steps one must conquer when taking an idea from paper to product, one of the most important, other than obtaining the preliminary data from empathy interviews, is prototyping. In this phase of the design process, the inventor tests a soft version of the product to gather feedback from the user, in order to gather critical data related to both the behavior of the product and the users themselves.
The article, Test Your Prototypes: How to Gather Feedback and Maximize Learning, by Rikke Dam and Teo Siang, published on the Interaction Design Foundation Website, lists six key tips to gathering audience information during the prototyping phase. These are: soliciting feedback, testing the product on the right people, asking the right questions, being neutral when presenting your ideas, adapting while testing and letting the user contribute their ideas about your product.
During the soliciting feedback stage, the designer chooses a specific way in which he or she conducts the process of gathering data — either through forms of observation — an example of which might be while prototyping a role-playing session, or, through conducting interviews with the user after they have finished testing the product — in the case of an app. Dam and Siang also point out that it can be helpful to test multiple variations of the product during this stage, as each user will generate more contrasting opinions about each of the specific variations. This helps eliminate the tendency for users to be less critical of the product than if they were only testing one variation.
While collecting information about your prototype, it’s also important to conduct tests on the right people. For example, if you were creating a product with the goal of helping race car drivers improve their lap times around a track, it would be unwise to test the product on a ten-year-old whose only experience with race-car driving is on the PlayStation. By testing your product on the intended audience not only do you get useful feedback, but the feedback is relevant to the product’s operation.
Another thing that is important to keep in mind is asking the right questions of the users who are testing your prototype. You should make sure that the testing session for the prototype is set-up in such a way as to provide you with a measurable way to find the answer to the specific question that you are testing. According to the article, it is important to keep an open mind while testing each of the prototypes and be accepting of honest feedback. This also ties in to the fourth tip listed in the article, which is being neutral when presenting your ideas.
As a designer, it’s easy to get caught up in a project, personally. We spend so much time thinking and crafting what we consider to be the perfect product for our customer, only to have it fail when tested. It’s human to be a bit disappointed when something doesn’t measure up to our standards, however we must constantly remind ourselves that this step is just a part of the process and we must be open to negative feedback. We must not become too attached to our ideas.
The last two tips the article provides us with are being able to adapt while testing and letting the user contribute their ideas to the project. As a famous quote from Albert Einstein goes, “the measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” While this quote is true in our daily lives, it’s even more practical when applied to product design. In the development phase good designers are willing to adapt their product around the user through the contribution of user feedback.
Now go out and create a successful product!
