researching and prototyping your startup ideas
TRANSCRIPT
TOM HACZEWSKI@THEHACKSAW
RESEARCHING AND PROTOTYPINGYOUR STARTUP IDEAS
WHO ARE WE?
• User Experience agency
• Started in Feb 2015
• User research, prototyping, design,
workshops & training
• Working with startups, larger
businesses and partner agencies
SO WHAT IS UX, AND WHY DO I
NEED TO THINK ABOUT IT?
FINDING PROBLEMS AND
SOLVING THEM
“It’s a commitment to
developing products and
services with purpose,
compassion, and
integrity”Whitney Hess, Empathy Coach
PURPOSE
COMPASSION
INTEGRITY
THAT’S ALL VERY NICE…
…BUT PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS
You should understand your users so deeply,
that you can design a product that your users
can deeply understand
REVENUES UP 35%
$80M ADDITIONAL REVENUE
#0044CC
88% LESS LIKELY TO
RETURN
CUSTOMER VALIDATION
DESIGN
CUSTOMER VALIDATION
DESIGN
(RAPID) DESIGN
HOW TO DESIGN SOMETHING IN 54 33(ish) HOURS
• Start with useful, then make it usable
• KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid
• MVP - Minimum Viable Product (actually, MPP)
• Don’t do everything at once
• Define journeys then build on them
(RAPID) DESIGN
USER JOURNEYS
(RAPID) DESIGN
PAPER PROTOTYPING
(RAPID) DESIGN
LO-FIDELITY PROTOTYPING
(RAPID) DESIGN
LO-FIDELITY PROTOTYPING
(RAPID) DESIGN
ITERATE!
LEARN
BUILD
MEASURE
CUSTOMER VALIDATION
DESIGN
CUSTOMER VALIDATION
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
• What problem am I solving?
• How many people experience this problem?
• What do these people look like?
• How am I helping them solve this problem?
CUSTOMER VALIDATION
SOME WAYS TO VALIDATE
• Surveys
• Interviews
• Remote user testing
• Eyetracking
Google Forms
WRITING GOOD SURVEYS• Use short, sharp, simple questions
• Ask questions about recent experiences
• Don’t ask too many questions - and only one at a time
• Multiple-choice works best, and avoid overlapping answers
• Don’t ask for opinions - but do ask for facts and reasons
• Don’t repeat yourself - questions should not be similar!
• Remember the context and audience will create bias
WRITING GOOD SURVEYS
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a
snack or dessert. It is usually made from dairy products,
such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or
other ingredients and flavours.
Most people love ice cream. On a scale of 1-18, how much
do you not hate ice cream?
WHY INTERVIEW?
• Start with similar short, sharp questions
• Ask open-ended questions afterwards. Here’s a good one: “Why?”
• Remember, interviews give context and further reasoning
REMEMBER:
OPINIONS ARE DANGEROUS
FIND THE FACTS
REMOTE USER TESTING• A quick way to get real, impartial feedback
• Quite cheap and fast to get started
• Test any website you like
• Test unreleased iPhone/Android apps
• You can even test your low-fidelity prototypes
• Remember: it will be biased
• Simple, open-ended tasks
• Don’t lead the participant
• Try writing 3-4 tasks per test
REMOTE USER TESTING
WHAT SORT OF TASKS?
WHY EYETRACKING?
• Helps provide context
• It’s behaviour, not opinion
• See what’s noticed, and what isn’t
• Identify overall understanding
• It’s superbadass
• Gaze plots
• Heatmaps
• Area of Interest
maps
EYETRACKING IS A TOOL
NOT AN ANSWER
TOM HACZEWSKI@THEHACKSAW
ASK ME QUESTIONS
TOM HACZEWSKI@THEHACKSAW
THANK YOU
Want to test in the lab today/tomorrow?
www.theuserstory.com/syncthecity
Want to test other people’s prototypes?
www.labapp.co.uk/syncthecity