UX — Inputs

Abstract

Since beginning a UX project, one of the initial starting points is to have as much information as possible, and this is how all teams of UX professionals establish it. However, a common issue not considered regularly in the initial stages is the minimum required information to start a new project.

In some specific cases, I usually like to work with at least the below three inputs in a UX project, and until now this minimal approach was enough to start with, but at the same time, in some other projects, the need for more inputs is imperative and constitutes an added value in the chain of success. However, if a project started with these three elements, the team is on the right track.

Photo by Amélie Mourichon on Unsplash

Business objectives

A fundamental input in the UX design process is a solid understanding of the underlying business objectives because these will give to the team a north star to be followed. Below are some of the business questions teams will solve.

• What are you trying to accomplish?
• Do you want to sell products or services?
• Are you improving a process?
• There’s an issue in current digital channels impacting customers conversions?
• Provide customer information to reduce phone calls?
• Engage and entertain users?
• A clear definition of the business goals and objectives is the first and most critical step.
• Want to improve the transformation funnel from visitor to a fan?

After defining these objectives and answer those questions, you and your team must also determine how you will measure success, that is, what the KPIs are.

Defining your key success metrics, or key performance indicators (KPIs), at the start of the project is critical because they will affect all other decisions and actions you take throughout the process.

These metrics also ensure that the final experience aligns with your original goals.

However, the team must additionally consider other operational business objectives, which may also be important. Below are some of them to be considered:

• How will the experience be maintained and updated in the future?
• Who will update the content?
• Who will define the content strategy in the future?
• How will the experience change and improve over time

Competitive landscape

For many of the projects I’ve been working on, one of the inputs that add additional value is to consider the competitive landscape, based on the below questions:

• Who else owns a similar product or service that is on the market?
• Have you created a user experience to promote, sell or endorse your product or service?
• How mature is that UX?
• What can you learn by evaluating the UX of that service?
• What do you like?
• What features or content might be missing?
• Did you consider any specific characteristic as differentiating?

Assessing their competition means that the team understands what others in the same industry are doing, especially around any kind of user interaction the team will create.

Given the iterative nature of digital design, where websites and applications are constantly updated and improved, it is particularly useful to take a deep look at any similar experiences (products or services) that exist in the market.

You can learn a lot by quickly evaluating these services and avoiding many of UX’s common pitfalls in today’s design.

You can learn a lot from quickly assessing these services, and avoid many of the UX pitfalls that are common in design today.

Technology architecture

This information includes what technology is required to support the solution team is creating. Below are some of the common questions to be answered.

• What technology is necessary to create, produce, publish and maintain your user experience?
• Where will the user experience run (for example, a website on mobile devices, tablets, and desktops)?
• What is the current customer technological architecture (AS-IS)?
• What will be the customer technology architecture be in the future (TO-BE)?
• Are there any specific Technology Stack considerations to take into account?

Taking time to evaluate the architecture of the underlying technology will ensure design decisions you make throughout the process will be supported.

Assuming we are working on a digital product, some of the simplest technology questions that need to be addressed are:

• What will be the web browsers supported?
• Will the solution be used via mobile devices and, if so, what operating systems will be supported (Apple, Android, etc.)?
• Does any specific device or device feature to consider?

If you are designing for an e-commerce or a more complex solution, you need to explore additional areas, including:

• Is there a system for publishing and managing content, such as a content management system (CMS)?
• If you sell products, whence will the product catalog be updated and maintained?
• How will you process payments?
• Will the website or application require a user to register or authenticate?

These topics can get very technical quickly. However, all team members participating in a UX project must have a common understanding of the technologies that will enable the user experience.