Solving UX problems

1. Tackle a UI problem by dividing it into tasks that each have a beginning, middle and end
2. Use sketching as a response to uncertainty and move on to HTML to establish gaps
3. Focus on the most natural solution [for a persona] so that [persona] people will intuitively grasp a design
4. Focus your design process on conflicts and friction points, attacking them one by one until the design works<

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Derived from Ryan Singer Watch me sketch and code a UI from scratch

Storyboarding in UX Design

In user experience design we’re familiar with user research techniques like workshops, contextual inquiry, and interviews. We synthesise our research into audience archetypes, user stories and process flows. We communicate our thinking and solutions to our teams and clients with artefacts like personas, flow diagrams, and wireframes. And if we’re feeling really fancy we can even shell out experience prototypes and service blueprints. Somewhere in all of this lies the people for whom we’re designing, what’s going on in their worlds, and how we’re making their lives better. As practitioners in the science and craft of UX, we innately get it, we see the narrative that threads all of these artefacts together – the spirit of the solution breathing through it all, that we want our clients to be captured by.

But clients tend not to be conceptual thinkers like us; they need us to connect the dots. And that’s where storyboards come in. Storyboards – indeed all forms of conceptual illustration – work well because of two truths: firstly that the act of drawing (and even seeing others draw) can help us think, and secondly that images can speak more powerfully than just words by adding extra layers of meaning.

Johnny Holland: Storyboarding & UX – part 1: an introduction

Benefits of lo-fi prototyping

Here’s a couple of the main advantages:

• Get better and more honest feedback
• It’s great for A/B testing
• Make the cost of mistakes cheap, not expensive
• Refine the page flow, not the pages
• Figure out the interaction design rather than the visual design

Andrew Chen: http://andrewchenblog.com/2009/09/15/why-every-consumer-internet-startup-should-do-more-low-fidelity-prototyping/

Clickable lo-fi prototypes

Benefits for client/agency:

• Facilitate documenting requirements
• Allow quick iteration at very little cost
• Compatible with agile workflow
• Focus on functional elements rather than visual treatment

Benefits for customer/user testing:

• Focus on screen elements that matter for the journey (no distractions)
• Edgy look-and-feel invites to expressing ideas and comments (improvements/changes)
• Allow for multiple test-sessions in quick iterations
• Easily allow for A/B/C comparison