How To Start Thinking Like A Designer

Presentation for Brigham & Women's Primary Care Residency Workshop on Design Thinking

With thanks to Mad*Pow colleagues Dan Berlin, Adam Connor, and Mike Hawley for sharing supporting materials for this presentation

1. How To Start Thinking Like a Designer Brigham & Women’s Primary Care Residency Workshop #1 Presented by Jamie Thomson, Senior Experience Designer, Mad*Pow jthomson@madpow.com / @uxjam Nov 7, 2014 With many tipped hats to Dan Berlin, Adam Connor, Mike Hawley, and AC4D
2. Wikipedia What is Design Thinking? PART 1 How do I get started? PART 2 What is design research? PART 3
3. What is Design Thinking? A process, and a mindset PART 1
4. Design Thinking is an abstraction of the process that designers use to solve problems
5. Synthesize Create / Refine Observe & Analyze Goal / Ideal State
6. Synthesize Create / Refine Observe & Analyze Goal / Ideal State TODAY’S AGENDA
7. Analysis The process of breaking down a complex topic or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it. Observation The active acquisition of information from a primary source. Synthesis The process of making sense of data and insights through categorization, comparison, pattern recognition, and pruning. Wikipedia
8. Usually looks something like this…
9. Design Thinking is also a mindset – a way of approaching problems
10. Optimism Seeing potential for what might be, rather than constraints of what is. Iteration The act of repeating a process with the aim of approaching a desired goal, target or result. Empathy Feeling what someone else feels, in order to relate to their behavior and attitudes. Wikipedia; Austin Center for Design
11. Empathy in design focuses on the user as a person, not just a consumer.” “ Ralph Caplan
12. Empathy Mapping ACTIVITY
13. How do I get started? Know thyself & know thy user PART 2
14. You have to understand a problem before you can solve it.
15. Sometimes the problems you’re asked to solve aren’t the ones you need to solve.
16. There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency that which should not be done at all.” “ Peter Drucker
17. Tips for “Crispifying” the Problem ê  Talk to everyone you can (within reason) – users, their family & friends, your executive stakeholders, thoughtleaders, admins, customer support staff… ê  Call out any assumptions or “sacred cows” within your organization. ê  Be honest. Take a careful look in the mirror at your organization, from the inside, and consider what our goals are for your product or service at large. Some of them might sound less than altruistic, but it’s important to know where you stand. ê  Solidify your findings into opportunities, objectives, and themes. Be specific about your scope. Challenges that are too vague can lead to stagnation in coming up with ideas or not enough criteria to determine how to proceed. ê  Context is king. Get to know the people, places, and things that relate to your creation by visually mapping the ecosystem.
18. In order to utilize and reference findings throughout the design process, various foundational elements are often created.
19. Principles Desired qualities or characteristics of the final creation. Ex: Decide for me but let me have the final say. Take your best guess and act rather than asking first. Too many choices and decisions make people unhappy. Just in case you get it wrong, allow for 'undo'. Goals Desired, measurable outcomes from someone interacting with the creation. Can be user oriented, business oriented, or both. Ex: Increase utilization of internal learning resources by 20% principle example from Android Design Principles
20. Personas & Journey Models User archetypes that describe their average behaviors, needs, goals, expectations, senses, knowledge, etc. Personas are snapshots, while journey models follow a user over a long period of time, through multiple scenarios. Journey models are often used to compare the present vs. ideal states. Ex: see next 2 slides Use Cases & Scenarios Describes a task or tightly linked set of tasks someone will accomplish by using your creation. Ex: Finding something to read/watch/etc. – How does a user find something to read appropriate to their current needs (topic, time available, learning style)?
21. Personas
22. Journeys
23. Contextual Model Visualization of people, places, things, forces, and relationships that comprise the problem space and surround your future creation. Ex: two slides ahead – plus, you’ll create one soon! Interaction & Service Blueprints Detailed flow documentation of the specific systems, channels, touchpoints, interactions, and back-of-house processes in question. May document the current state, or depict the design of a future solution. Ex: see next slide
24. Interaction & Service Blueprints service blueprint from ServiceDesignTools.org
25. Contextual Modeling Austin Center for Design Flow Model Cultural Model Physical Model Artifact Model Sequence Model
26. Synthesis requires deep, tacit understanding of the context of a design opportunity.” “ Jon Kolko
27. Contextual Modeling ACTIVITY
28. What is design research? Design thinking is based on observed human needs, which are captured through research PART 3
29. Who knows more about the healthcare needs of the elderly?
30. Who knows more about the healthcare needs of the elderly?
31. What we made had to fit into the contours of their lives, their emotional states, and their conversations…” “ Andrew Hinton
32. What people say and what they do aren’t necessarily the same (But there’s still a lot of value in talking with people)
33. Users do strange things
34. What someone actually does Discovered by: Observation What someone says they do or think Discovered by: Interviews & Surveys What someone really thinks and feels Discovered by: Meaningful human connections and conversations
35. Qualitative Used to gather deeper information on individuals’ thinking, feeling, and motivations. Ex: Interviews, Focus Groups Quantitative Used to identify and measure patterns in thinking ad behavior among groups of people. Ex: Surveys, Data Mining
36. What kind of data do you want?
37. Formative Interviews, ethnography, diary studies, surveys, participatory activities, collaging, card sorts How far along are you? Summative Usability, ongoing online assessments, analytics, user community comments Evaluative Usability, A/B testing, eye tracking, surveys, desirability studies, tree tests
38. Concept Business Task/ Workflow Usability User What type of question are you asking?
39. What does ethnography look like?
40. What does desirability testing look like?
41. What does a usability study look like?
42. Device that I can’t show you
43. A Marketing Focus Group is generally NOT User Experience Research
44. You don’t need significant numbers to make a significant difference
46. design research studies clinical trials
47. What’s the difference? Incremental Usability Testing ê  Small studies throughout the product lifecycle ê  Qualitative; 5-8 participants per demographic ê  Learn user needs and expectations and use these to guide design ê  “These are ideas for improving usability” Usability Validation for FDA Submission ê  Fewer, larger studies closer to product launch ê  Quantitative and qualitative; >30 participants ê  Validate that the product is indeed usable for the target audience ê  “This is usable” Feasibility Studies ê  Small studies to determine potential usefulness and impact on health measures ê  “This is an idea worth pursuing” Clinical Trials ê  Statistically significant samples, rigorous randomization and blind/double-blind protocols ê  “This is effective”
48. Typical Usability Study Results Positive: Users were able to find the “Buy Now” button. 3 out of 8 participants mentioned that the picture had no relevance to them. Consider: replacing this with an infographic or another picture that may draw in users. 6 out of 8 participants mentioned that the text in the buttons was hard to read. Consider: increasing the contrast of the text to ease readability.
49. FINDING RECOMMENDATION Participants said that the text was hard to read Increase the contrast of the text Participants were unable to locate the product; they said they expected it under Products & Services Move XYZ product to the Product & Services area Participants were unable to discern the top from the bottom of the vial Include a visual cue as to which is the top and bottom of the vial Participants were able to figure out how to use the insulin pump, but said that the instructions were very hard to follow Add detail throughout the instruction manual, including photos or diagrams Typical UX Research Results
50. Moderators observe behaviors and ask the right questions
51. Tips for Interview Questions ê  Avoid leading questions that limit or hint at a desired answer: “Did you do this?” ê  Ask open-ended questions starting with Who, What, When, Where, How and Why. ê  Encourage people to talk more: “Tell me more about that…” ê  Be quiet and listen. Let them do almost all of the talking. ê  Resist the urge to come up with ideas on how to solve the problems. ê  Consider asking how they think the problem might be solved. But don’t take it as a command; use it to dive deeper.
52. Defining study goals Good Study Goals ê  Learn stakeholder project goals ê  Understand users’ wants and needs for the interface ê  Learn if users can perform business critical tasks on the interface ê  Determine how users interact with the interface in a real-world setting Bad Study Goals ê  Learn if users like the design’s colors (too specific) ê  Learn about potential users (too vague) ê  Understand how users expect a certain interaction to work (having users design) ê  Determine how users think other people will use the interface (hearsay)
53. Formalize the problem & study goals ê  Problem: < people with this behavior > < have this problem >. ê  Objective: < brief description of what we’re looking to change >. ê  Ideal State: We will know we’ve succeeded when < quantitative and/or qualitative metric >. ê  Target Behaviors: < long list of all the potential behaviors that may be relevant to the problem you want to solve > ê  Study Goals: We would like to … < learn / understand / determine > < something(s) >. questions based on worksheets from Dustin DiTommaso and bit.ly/ux-recipe
54. Interview Questions < who / what / when / where / why / how … > ê  What is the value to you (patient) of learning your medications? ê  How can I know when you have truly absorbed and understood this information? ê  What behavior or action do I want to happen? ê  Where will this happen?
55. Thanks for listening & participating! Keep in touch: @uxjam // jthomson@madpow.com // linkedin.com/in/jamiethomson