Where are they now?

WHY?

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often”

 – Winston Churchill

burbn

A game similar to MafiaWars that had a check-in feature as well as a photo-sharing element

Instagram

Worried about all the cluttered features, the company stripped it's product down to just the photo-sharing feature 

tote

a browse and shop platform that sent alerts about user's favorite products

pinterest

most users just built collections to share. While wildly successful, the company is still trying to get back to it's ecommerce roots for revenue purposes

kutol

In 1933 this soap company made a putty to remove the coal grime from walls - a once common problem when we used coal to heat our homes

play-doh

With the introduction of vinyl wallpaper, folks could clean their walls with soap and water. The soap company then began selling their product as a toy

you're not psychic

ask and you shall fail

“If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

 – Henry Ford

how?

Observe your user

usability demo

Run usability tests

• Learn about user to categorize into Personas later
• Have your user teach you about your product
• "Play dumb"
• Don't test your user, test your product
• No leading questions
• Give them tasks, but never instructions
• Wait till end to answer any questions
• Allow for "dead space" in discussions
• The more comfortable the user, the more authentic the feedback

Now, ever, and always

when?

“Change before you have to.”

 – Jack Welch | CEO, General Electric

All Stages of Your Business

Usability tools

Design thinking

• involve designers early
• human-centered approach
• try early and often
• co-create with users
• start with smaller ideas
• allow time for innovation
• train non-designers to be design-thinking
• design from inspiration through implementation

Tim Brown, Harvard Business Review

Usability tools

http://silverbackapp.com/

https://popapp.in/

http://www.invisionapp.com/

https://www.usertesting.com/

references

http://www.ideo.com/images/uploads/thoughts/IDEO_HBR_Design_Thinking.pdf

UX books

Don't Make Me Think

Rocket Surgery Made Easy

anything by Steve Krug

go out and test the world!