The second course in my certification is called “Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, and Ideate.”

Grade: 92.50%

Here are a few highlights from my notes.

Key Takeaways

Empathy is design is important because it helps designers understand the user’s needs. It’s also very important to have a diverse group of users for doing research as well as on your team when doing ideation, which will help overcome our own biases.

Best Practices for Giving Peer Review Feedback

Understand the activity
Provide descriptive feedback
Pick 2-3 things you like (positives first)
Pick 2-3 things that could be improved (give actionable advice)
Be respectful and kind

Best Practices for Receiving Feedback

Stay open-minded
Remember your goal
Keep your own agency

Understanding Empathy in UX Design

Ask lots of questions
Become more observant
Be an active listener
Request input
Have an open mind
Keep current on UX research

Survey Participants

Family
Friends
Colleagues
Managers
Peers
People you don’t know
- Online groups
- Social media
- Third party recruiting

Determine Research Goals & Questions

Determine your goals
Writer interview questions
- Open-ended
- Short & simple
- Ask follow-up questions

Conducting User Interviews

Meet participant
- Build a good rapport
- Thank them for coming
- Review legal details
- Gather basic details
- Let them know there are no right or wrong answers
Conduct interviews
- Follow interview ettiquette
- Ask open-ended questions (why)
- Take notes!
  - Compelling quotes
  - Document observations
  - Record
- Wrap up -> show gratitude

Empathy Map

Identify User Pain Points

Financial (paywall)
Product (quality)
Process (stop user – cart > checkout)
Support (answers to questions)

Personas

Fictional users whose goals and characteristics represent the needs of a larger group of users.

Build empathy
Tell stories
Stress-test designs

Advantages of User Stories

Prioritize design goals
Unite the team
Inspire empathetic design decisions
Personalize pitches to stakeholders

As a ________ (type of user), I want to ________ (action), so that ________ (benefit).

Happy Path

A user story with a happy ending.

Spotting and Resolving Edge Cases

Create personas and user stories
Thoroughly review project before launch
User wireframes (visualize)

User Journey

The series of experiences a user has as they achieve a specific goal.

Accessibility is design, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities.

Touch
See
Hear
Speak

Define problem statements (who, what, where, when, why, & how)

________ (user name) is a/an ________ (user characteristics) who needs ________ (user need) because ________ (insight).

Define Hypothesis Statements

If/then
No standard formula

Value Proposition

Why a consumer should use a product or service.

What does your product do? (clearly explain the offering that your product provides to users)
What should they care? (describe how your product addresses users’ pain points)

Build Value Propositions

Describe your products’ features and benefits
Explain the value
Connect these features and benefits with the needs of your users
Review your official value proposition list

Ideation in the real world

Ideation – the process of generating a broad set of ideas on a given topic, with no attempt to judge or evaluate them.

Brainstorming out loud
Document all ideas
Focus on quantity
Do now allow evaluation
Gather a diverse team
Question the obvious

Take a break, then evaluate the ideas.

Competitive Audit

An interview of your competitor’s strengths & weaknesses

Identify key competitors
Review the products they offer
Understand how they position themselves in the market
Examine what they do well & what they could do better

Direct Competitors – have offerings that are similar to your product and focus on the same audience.

Indirect Competitors – have a similar set of offerings but focus on a difference audience, or have a different set of offerings and focus on the same audience.

Benefits of a Competitive Audit

Inform your design process
Solve usability problems
Reveal gaps in the market
Provide reliable evidence
Same time, money, and energy

Limitations

Stifle creativity
Depends on how well you interpret findings
Not all designs work in all use cases
Need to be done regularly

Steps for Audit

Outline the goals
Create spreadsheet with list of competitors (5-10 direct, 5-10 indirect)
Call out specific aspects to compare
Research each company (what do they do well or not?)
Analyze findings (similarities to your product and each other)
Summarize findings in report (screenshots and simple graphics)

Best Practices for Ideating

Do creative warmup
Make sure problem is well-defined
Don’t judge your ideas
Don’t judge others’ ideas
Include a diverse group
Ideate in a comfortable environment
Don’t be afraid of sketching