Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design

User Experience : How a person, the user, feels about interacting with or experiencing a
product.

User experience careers

Interaction designers focus on designing the experience of a product and how it functions.
They strive to understand the user flow, or the path, that a typical user takes to complete a
task on an app, website, or other platform. At Google and many other companies, interaction
designers are a specialized type of UX designer.
An interaction designer's work answers questions like: What should happen if a user taps on
this button? How do we make this action easier for users to complete? And, how are the
design elements within the website laid out? Interaction designers focus less on how the
product looks and instead strive to make the product easy to navigate and simple for users to
interact with.

Visual designers focus on how a product or technology looks. They are often responsible for
designing logos, illustrations, and icons, as well as deciding on font color, size, and
placement. Visual designers focus on the layout of each page or screen and make all of the
design elements fit together in a visually appealing way. At Google and many other
companies, visual designers are a specialized type of UX designer.

The role of a visual designer is to answer questions like: What kind of visual style should
icons have, in order to fit the product's branding? Or, which color and font should we use for
this button? The goal of a visual designer is to delight users with designs that inspire, engage,
and excite them.
Motion designers think about what it feels like for a user to move through a product and how
to create smooth transitions between pages on an app or website. They may also create
animations or visual effects to bring their design ideas to life. At Google and many other
companies, motion designers are a specialized type of UX designer.

A motion designer’s work answers questions like: How should an app transition between
pages? How do we show the connection between these actions? And, what’s an engaging
animation that will help tell our story? Motion designers focus on design elements that move,
rather than traditional static designs.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) designers create products that provide users
with immersive experiences, unbounded by the limits of the physical world. Virtual reality
involves a wearable headset that takes over a user’s vision; it blocks out their physical
surroundings and immerses them in a completely virtual world. For example, VR can feel
like you're entering the setting of a magical imaginary land.

On the other hand, augmented reality uses the physical world as a backdrop and adds virtual
elements on top of it. Users are still contextually aware of their surroundings, but their reality
is augmented, or enhanced, by adding elements through a screen. For example, you can sit in
your actual kitchen, and an AR experience can add digital images, like a new barstool or a
piece of artwork, to the room around you.

A VR or AR designer’s work answers questions like: How do we create a user experience

that leverages 3D space? Or, will this action cause a user motion sickness? To ensure users
are comfortable immersing in a VR or AR experience, designers need to carefully consider
everything from sound to lighting.
UX researchers conduct studies or interviews that examine how people use a product. UX
researchers often identify pain points that users are experiencing and explore how products
can help solve those problems. They also explore the usability of existing products, by asking
users to complete tasks in an app or website, for example.

UX researchers answer questions like: What problems are users facing? Is the design of this
product easy to use? And, would people be interested in this new design feature? The goal of
UX researchers is often to understand how a product can provide a solution to a real problem
users are having.

UX writers think about how to make the language within a product clearer so that the user
experience is more intuitive. UX writers also help define a brand’s voice and personality. The
work of UX writers often includes writing labels for buttons and determining the tone of
language used within an app or website.

UX writers focus on answering questions like: What words should be used to communicate
this idea clearly? Should the tone for this app be friendly or technical? And, what should the
language on this button label say? UX writers often become subject matter experts in order to
present content that’s easy to understand for all users.
UX program managers ensure clear and timely communication, so that the process of
building a useful product moves smoothly from start to finish. This might include setting
goals, writing project plans, and allocating team resources.

UX program managers answer questions like: What are the overall goals for this project, and
what’s the plan to achieve them? And, how can we create and improve processes within the
team? UX program managers work across departments to make sure that UX is involved
throughout a project lifecycle.

UX engineers translate the design’s intent into a functioning experience, like an app or a
website. They help UX teams figure out if designs are intuitive and technically feasible.
UX engineers answer questions like: How do we implement each interaction? How do we
build this design in a way that stays true to its original intent? And, how might we explore
alternatives to determine the best user experience? UX engineers synthesize design and
development, bringing product concepts to life.
Product Development Life Cycle
The Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) is the process of bringing a new product from
conception through various stages until it reaches the market. Here’s an overview of the key
phases:

1. Ideation and Concept Development

-**Brainstorming and Idea Generation: ** Identify potential product ideas based on
market needs, customer feedback, or emerging trends.
- **Concept Development:** Develop initial concepts and evaluate their feasibility,
considering factors like technology, resources, and market potential.

2. **Market Research and Analysis**

- **Market Research:** Conduct research to understand customer needs, market size,
competition, and potential barriers to entry.
- **Competitive Analysis:** Assess competitors’ products and market positioning to
identify unique selling propositions (USPs).

3. **Product Design and Prototyping**

- **Design Specifications:** Define product features, functionalities, and technical
requirements.
- **Prototyping:** Develop prototypes or MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) to test
design concepts and functionality.

4. **Product Development**
- **Engineering and Development:** Translate design specifications into a working
product, involving coding, manufacturing, or other development processes.
- **Iteration:** Refine the product based on feedback from testing and prototyping.

5. **Testing and Validation**

- **Alpha and Beta Testing:** Conduct rigorous testing to identify bugs, usability issues,
and performance gaps. Alpha testing is often internal, while beta testing involves external
users.
- **Quality Assurance:** Ensure the product meets predefined quality standards and
regulatory requirements.

6. **Launch and Marketing**

- **Go-to-Market Strategy:** Develop a marketing and sales strategy, including pricing,
promotion, distribution channels, and customer support plans.
- **Launch:** Release the product to the market, often accompanied by promotional
activities to build awareness and generate sales.

7. **Post-Launch Evaluation and Support**

- **Performance Monitoring:** Track product performance using KPIs like sales,
customer satisfaction, and feedback.
- **Continuous Improvement:** Collect customer feedback and iterate on the product to
enhance features, fix issues, or expand market reach.
8. **End-of-Life (EOL)**

- **Product Retirement:** Decide when to discontinue the product based on factors like
declining sales, market changes, or technological advancements.
- **Transition Plan:** Manage the transition for existing customers, including support,
data migration, or upgrades to newer products.

The PDLC is often iterative, especially in agile environments, where products are
continuously refined based on feedback and changing market conditions.

Characteristics of good user experience

Good design is easy to spot but often hard to pin down. What exactly makes a product
effective to its users? Is it a matter of simplicity, structure, or functionality? The answer
depends on the product in question.

In the earlier video, “The basics of user experience design”, you were introduced to some
primary characteristics of good UX. These characteristics—usable, equitable, enjoyable,
and useful—can help you evaluate a product’s design. In this reading, you’ll learn more
about each one and why they're important.

If a product is usable, it means the design, structure, and purpose of the product is clear and
easy to use. As you evaluate a product for usability, you can ask questions like: Is everything
in the design easy to find? Is the design’s functionality easy to understand? Can users
accomplish specific tasks within the design? As you evaluate, these questions can help you
determine whether the design delivers a usable experience.

Imagine you are evaluating the usability of an airline app. Assuming the primary purpose of
this app is to book a flight, the design should provide a clear and easy way to complete that
task. For example, a section where you can easily enter travel and flight details on the
homepage would be an example of good usability.

If a product is equitable, it means a design is helpful to people with diverse abilities and
backgrounds. In other words, the product’s design addresses the needs of a diverse audience
and ensures a high-quality experience is delivered to all users regardless of background,
gender, race, or ability. Equity means providing people with the tools they need to
accomplish their goals and support improved quality of life. Equity goes beyond the concept
of equality, where everyone is given equal resources, because people often need different
tools and support based on their needs. This is especially important to keep in mind for those
in commonly disenfranchised groups. As you evaluate the equity of a product’s UX, you can
ask questions like: Are the needs of a diverse group of users considered? Does the product’s
design address the needs of traditionally underrepresented and excluded groups? These
questions can help you determine whether the design delivers an equitable experience.

Imagine you are evaluating how equitable a social messaging app is. You might consider the
design more equitable if the keyboard emoji list includes different skin tones and gender-
neutral avatar options.
If a product is enjoyable, it means the design delights the user. The design reflects what the
user may be thinking or feeling and creates a positive connection with them. A product’s
design doesn’t have to be enjoyable for it to function properly. But, an enjoyable design adds
to an already functional product and can enhance the user’s feelings about the experience. As
you evaluate how enjoyable a product’s UX is, you can ask questions like: Are there aspects
of the design that consider the user’s feelings? Does the design inspire delight in the user?
Does the design keep the user engaged throughout their experience? These questions can help
you determine whether the design delivers an enjoyable experience.

Imagine you are evaluating how enjoyable a video streaming app is. Design aspects that
might increase how much you enjoy the product include personalized recommendations
based on previous watching habits, or the ability to customize the appearance of your
account.

If a product is useful, that means it solves user problems. In other words, the design
intentionally solves a user problem that the designer has identified. It’s important to note that,
while similar, useful and usable have different meanings. A product that is useful isn’t always
usable. The same is true for the opposite. The distinction between the two is that usability
refers to the product working well and being easy to use, while usefulness refers directly to
the ability to solve user problems. As you evaluate how useful a product’s UX is, you can ask
questions like: Does the design add value to the user’s experience? Does the design solve a
problem for the user? Does the design help the user achieve a specific goal? These questions
can help you determine whether the design delivers a useful experience.

Imagine you’re evaluating how useful a banking app is. Users typically download these apps
because they need a place to manage their money. With this in mind, aspects of the app that
might be considered useful are features that can be used to transfer money between accounts
and pay bills.

The role of a beginner UX designer

As you start out on your path to becoming a UX designer, you’re probably curious about the
actual work your new career might involve. In this reading, you can explore the different
responsibilities that entry-level UX designers commonly take on during a project. You'll also
review the differences between generalist, specialist, and T-shaped UX designers.

But first, a quick call out: You’ll probably notice a lot of new vocabulary and unfamiliar
terms in this reading. Don’t worry! You’ll learn about each of these concepts in more depth
throughout the certificate program. We’ll also provide a glossary of important terms and their
definitions at the end of each week of content.

Responsibilities of an entry-level UX designer

As an entry-level UX designer, you’ll have a lot of exciting opportunities to gain experience.
When you first start out, you’ll probably take on a lot of different roles and responsibilities.

Icons include user research (a tablet with magnifying glass over it) Information architecture
(a series of 3 colored, numbered bars) Wireframing (a graphic of a wireframe) Protoyping (a
graphic of a desktop monitor with protoype of mobile device on screen) Visual design (a
mobile phone next to paint swatches) Effective communication (a graphic of two people
talking)
User research: User research is about understanding the people who use your product.
Through research, you’ll learn about users’ backgrounds, demographics, motivations, pain
points, emotions, and goals. Your research methods might include surveys, observations, and
interviews. We’ll explore user research in much more detail in an upcoming course.

Information architecture: Information architecture, or IA for short, involves deciding how

your product is organized and structured. Think of IA as a skeleton that outlines how users
interact with your product. Everything in your product should be organized in ways that make
sense to the user and meets their expectations.

Wireframing: A wireframe is a basic outline or sketch of a product or a screen, like an app

or website. As the name suggests, wireframes look like they were created with wires. They’re
mostly lines and shapes, with some text. Wireframes can be drawn by hand or created
digitally using software. Wireframing helps you bring your design ideas to life, so other
people on your team can provide input and feedback.

Prototyping: A prototype is an early model of a product that demonstrates its functionality.

Prototypes can be in physical or digital formats and can vary in complexity. Sometimes a
prototype is made to demonstrate one specific feature of a product, like the transition between
screens or the way the product physically looks and feels. You’ll make multiple prototypes
for any given product throughout the design process.

Visual design: Visual design focuses on how the product or technology looks. As a UX
designer, you need to understand the foundations of visual design in order to communicate
the connection between a product’s functionality and its appearance to users. You’ll learn
some of the most important principles of visual design throughout this certificate program.

Effective communication: Effective communication as a UX designer means connecting

with your colleagues through emails, meetings, presentations, and design software. UX
design is a very collaborative field, so being able to communicate both digitally and face-to-
face with teammates is important. You need to be a good listener, be receptive to feedback,
and share your ideas in a clear way.

Specialist and generalist designers

Specialist: A specialist dives deep into one type of UX design, like interaction, visual, or
motion design, and becomes an expert. Specialist UX designers are more common at large
companies that have a lot of designers, like here at Google. Some of the benefits of becoming
a specialist include:
 Focusing on one type of design that you enjoy more than others.
 Gaining deep knowledge of one type of design.
 Becoming well-known in the industry for your expertise in a particular type of design.

Generalist: A generalist has a broad number of responsibilities. A majority of UX design

jobs are generalist positions, especially at companies with fewer UX designers. Typically,
entry-level UX designers work in generalist roles, and some people choose to stay in
generalist design roles for their entire careers. There are a lot of benefits to being a generalist
UX designer, like:
  Expanding your skills in many different types of UX work.
 Trying a variety of responsibilities and finding an area of UX that you’re especially
passionate about.
 Keeping your job feeling fresh and new, while doing a variety of tasks.

T-shaped: A T-shaped designer is a specialist who also has a lot of capabilities in other
areas. T-shaped designers get their name because the stem (or vertical line) of a T represents
their expertise in one area, while the top (or horizontal line) symbolizes their related skills in
a broad number of areas. T-shaped designers are great to have on your team, since they come
with the benefits of both specialists and generalists. The image below highlights some of the
skills a T-shaped UX designer might have.

Each designer tends to naturally have a little T-shape in their abilities, even at the beginning
of their career. As you start to work on projects, you’ll probably notice where your strengths
and interests lie. As you get better at one area of design, you’ll likely find yourself working
on that part of design projects more often, which helps you continue to improve in one area.
You can also decide to direct your T-shape by developing specific skills that will open up
future job opportunities. For example, you might work extra hard on your prototyping skills,
in addition to your general UX design skills, which can lead to new experiences and
professional growth.
Universal Design
The process of creating one product for users with the widest range of abilities and in the
wides range of situations.

Inclusive design
Making design choices that take into account personal identifiers like:
1. Ability
2. Race
3. Economic Status
4. Language
5. Age
6. Gender

Equity Focused Design

Designing for groups that have been historically underrepresented or ignored when building
products.

Equity means providing different levels of opportunity and support for each person in order
to achieve fair outcomes.

Equity-focused design means thinking through all the aspects of a design product and making
sure the product is both accessible and fair to all genders, races, and abilities. Plus, the
designs need to specifically consider underrepresented and excluded groups.

1. Start by identifying a product you want to build.

2. Then, think about the groups that have not been served by this type of product in the
past.
3. Finally, build your design while keeping the groups who identified as under-
represented front and centre.

Design for different platforms

Responsive Web Designs

Designs which allows a website to change automatically depending on the size of the device.

Few points to consider when designing for mobile view :

1. Call to action buttons should be placed front and center, allowing the user to easily
complete the desired task, like joining an email list or adding an item to their
shopping cart.
2. Navigation menus should be short and simple. It should simplify the user experience
on mobile, so menu options should only highlight the core functions of the product.
3. Use gestures that users already do, like tapping and swiping. Gestures should be
intuitive and familiar to users.
 4. Design for both directions a phone might be held. Need to consider the vertical
portrait view of a mobile phone and the horizontal landscape view. We want users to
have an effective experience no matter how they hold their phone.
5. Reduce visual clutter. Mobile phones have smaller screen sizes. So it's important to
keep the visual experience simple.

Designing cross-platform experiences

When designing a new product or feature, it’s important to think about the different types of
platforms that the design will be experienced on. As a refresher, a platform is the medium
that users experience your product on. Some common platforms are:
 Desktop computers
 Laptop computers
 Mobile phones
 Tablets
 Wearables, like smart watches
 TVs
 Smart displays

A product might be experienced on countless different platforms, but desktop computers,

laptop computers, and mobile phones are the most commonly used platforms for interacting
with apps and websites. These are the platforms that you'll spend the most time focusing on
during this certificate program. In this reading, you'll learn about key considerations when
designing for different platforms to help you get started.

Screen size
The first consideration when designing for various platforms is adjusting design elements and
features to fit different screen sizes. For example, you have a lot of screen space when you
design for desktop and laptop computers. But when you design for smaller screens, like
mobile phones, you have to carefully decide which parts of the design you'll prioritize
including in the limited space. This means making every word, icon, and image count!
In the first five courses of this certificate program, you will design an app for a mobile phone.
In the sixth course of the program, you will design a responsive website, which allows the
design of a website to change automatically depending on the device's screen size. This
means you'll learn a lot more about designing for different screen sizes later in the certificate
program, so stay tuned.

Interaction
In addition to the size of the screen, you also need to consider the way users interact with
each platform and how those interactions might affect your design decisions.
It’s also critical to consider accessibility when developing your designs at each point.
Different groups of people will interact with your product in different ways, like using a
screen reader, closed captioning, or a switch device. To get started, it’s helpful to try using
some of these technologies yourself, in order to understand how people with disabilities
might interact with your product on different platforms.

Content layout
In the world of UX design, layouts refer to the way that information is organized on the
screen. For example, when designing for desktop or laptop computers, you have the
advantage of working with a familiar, standardized size: landscape (horizontal) mode. The
screen is wide, content can be laid out in columns, and there’s much more flexibility to
design.
In contrast, mobile phone content is usually laid out in portrait (vertical) mode, which is ideal
for scrolling. In addition, mobile phones often allow users the option to use landscape
(horizontal) mode by rotating their device. Implementing this in your designs requires more
work from you as a designer, but provides users with a wider range of options.
Consider the layout of content on a couple more platforms: tablets combine both the desktop
and mobile phone user experience, which means you can incorporate aspects of desktop and
mobile phone content layouts in your designs. Smartwatches tend to have compact square or
rectangular screens, offering very little digital real estate to lay out content.

Functionality
There are a lot of reasons why users might choose one platform over another, but
functionality and the kind of tasks they want to complete is a huge driver. Your designs for
each platform will likely vary based on how and when you expect users to need the product.

User - Centered Designs

 It puts the user front and center.

 It has 4 steps:
o Understand the end users needs
o Specify the end users needs
o Design the solutions to end users problem.
o Evaluate the designs against the end users needs
Assistive Technologies
The term assistive technology, or AT for short, is used to describe any products, equipment, and
systems that enhance learning, working, and daily living for people with disabilities.

 Colour Modification
 Voice Controls
 Screen Readers
 Alternative texts
 Speech to text

Design thinking: A UX design framework

In the world of UX design, a framework is a conceptual tool that provides guidance on the best
practices and processes for solving problems and building solutions that solve the problems of real
users. Frameworks provide structure for the design process and foster collaboration, which can spark
innovations. Most UX designers follow a specific framework or process when approaching their
work, from the first idea all the way through to the final launch of a product.
The design thinking framework involves the following phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype,
and test.

Though it may sound like a linear process, the design thinking framework should be iterative, which
means that you’ll repeat certain phases as you refine your designs. For example, depending on the
feedback you receive during testing, you might need to conduct additional research, brainstorm new
ideas, or develop new prototypes.

Empathize
During the empathize phase, your primary goal is to learn more about the user and their problems,
wants, and needs, and the environment or context in which they’ll experience your design. The most
important part of the empathize phase is to step away from your assumptions and guesses and let your
research findings inform your decision-making in later design phases.
Your user research might include user surveys, interviews, and observation sessions, and you might
also need to conduct some research on the competitors’ products to determine how your user frames
competitors’ products as part of their daily life and daily problem-solving.

Define
In the define phase, you’ll analyze your research findings from the empathize phase and determine
which user problems are the most important ones to solve, and why. This will drive you toward a
clear goal for the design of the product.
The most important outcome of this phase is a clear problem statement, which is a description of the
user’s need that your designs will address. You might also develop a value proposition, which is a
summary of why your user would or should use the product or service that you’re designing.
Ideate
After you land on a user problem and establish why it’s an important one to solve, it’s time for the
ideate phase. The goal of ideation is to come up with as many design solutions as possible—don’t
settle for your first solution because the most obvious solution is not always the right one.

Ideation involves collaborative brainstorming with other members of your team to generate as many
solutions as possible to a problem. This could include marketing, engineering, product management,
or any other stakeholders for the product or service. During brainstorming sessions, you should
explore all possible solutions. Don’t focus on whether something is a “good” or “bad” idea, just
collect as many ideas as you can. The important thing here is to keep this process judgment-free.

After brainstorming, you’ll then analyze your potential solutions and start to make choices about
which ones are the best options to pursue as prototypes. You might return to user or competitive
research to help you narrow down your ideas, and you might also create user flows to illustrate how
the user will interact with your solution.

Prototype and Test

After you have an idea of how to solve the problem, you’re ready to enter the prototype phase, where
your goal is to produce an early model of a product that demonstrates its functionality and can be used
for testing. The test phase is critical to developing the right solution to address your user’s problem,
and an organized approach to testing can help you create exceptional user experiences.

Prototyping and testing are interconnected, which means that you’ll test your designs at each stage of
prototype development rather than waiting to test until after the working prototype is complete. If the
design is too polished the first time you present it to users, you might not get as much feedback. Think
about ways to include testing throughout the design process, so that you’re iterating your designs
based on user feedback instead of other reasons.

For example, you might test the concepts behind your design by presenting users with a simple
sketch, wireframe, or a sitemap. Taking what you learned, you might iterate on that design to a more
detailed design on paper (known as a low-fidelity prototype) and conduct another round of user
testing. At some point, you’ll iterate the design again into a working, interactive model using a
software program (also known as a high-fidelity prototype) and test that as well. You might also
consider testing more than one prototype at the same time to get feedback on multiple solutions, or
testing the same prototype on multiple platforms, such as a laptop, tablet, and smartphone.

The goal of testing prototypes is to continue to refine the prototype as you gain insight into whether
the design for your product or service is easy to use and solves the user’s problem. At some point,
you’ll finalize a prototype, and then you’ll provide it to developers, who will then turn your design
into a product.

UX design business requirements

Good UX designers take time to carefully understand these assignments before they move forward.
Why? Because most assignments include crucial business requirements that must be considered at
every stage of the design thinking process.

Business requirements
For any UX design project, business requirements come from whatever entity assigns the project.
That entity might be a for-profit business, a nonprofit organization, a governmental organization, or
something else. But no matter where they come from, business requirements typically include two
kinds of information: goals and parameters.
Business goals typically describe:
 The users they want the design to target
 The outcomes they want the design to achieve
 Their vision for the design’s final look and functionality

Business parameters typically describe:

 The project’s budget, timeline, and scope
 The specific tools and systems that designers must use or design for
 The requirements and standards the design must meet

Business requirements vary depending on the project and its key players, and they can often be
negotiated over the project’s lifecycle. And just as these requirements may evolve over the course of
the project, so too should they shape designers’ execution of the design thinking process in powerful
ways. In the empathize phase, for example, UX designers connect with users and gather information
about their needs. This task costs time and money, so it should be conducted in ways that fit the
project’s schedule and budget.

A bakery owner is contracting a freelance UX designer to design a new website. The bakery serves
customers exclusively through delivery and pick-up orders. Since its founding two years ago, the
bakery has advertised and taken orders over the phone and through its social media accounts. This
approach has helped the bakery connect directly with customers and build a loyal base without
partnering with third-party ordering services.
But as sales have increased, the owner and their team have struggled to individually process orders as
they come in through multiple channels. They need a website that will help them maintain a direct
connection with customers while enabling them to process orders in a more automated and efficient
way.
When they contract with their freelance UX designer, the bakery owner shares their goals and
parameters. With a modest budget and relatively short time-frame, they want a simple website that
supports online ordering without routing users to third-party ordering services. The site must be easy
to navigate, maintain, and update. It must also reflect the bakery’s existing brand and appeal to its
target customers. While the bakery’s customers come from a range of locations and demographics, the
majority are 35–70 years old and they live or work in the local area.
These business requirements provide an invaluable starting point for the designer, who reviews them
to learn more about their end users, understand their budget and timeframe, and start planning the rest
of their design thinking process.
Phase 1: Empathize with users

After understanding these requirements, designers are ready to start the first phase of the design
thinking process: empathize.
When you empathize with people, you try to deeply understand their feelings, thoughts, and
experiences on their own terms, without bias or preconceptions. Empathizing helps designers connect
with users, not just as consumers or customers, but as human beings with their own unique histories
and situations. This kind of deep connection helps designers create products that solve real problems,
address real needs, and engage users in the long term.

Building on business requirements

When empathizing, designers seek to understand how users experience the product they’re designing.
They want to know their users’ problems and needs, and they want a clear understanding of the
situations and environments where users interact with the product. The more a designer understands
these details, the better equipped they are to create products that truly meet users’ needs in the long
term.
Some of this user information will likely be included in the project’s business requirements, but it
may be limited or based on assumptions. That’s why good UX designers use the empathize phase to
validate, update, and expand on the user information in their project’s business requirements. They do
this by connecting directly with users and researching their experiences.
Here are some powerful methods for empathizing with users as a UX designer:

Interviews
Interviews take many forms, but UX designers most commonly use four:
1. Questionnaires/surveys
2. In-person interviews
3. Phone interviews
4. Video interviews
Before starting interviews, designers consider the type and amount of information they need. Next,
good designers consider their business requirements: how much time, money, and other resources do
they have for planning and conducting interviews? Finally, designers can plan interviews that achieve
the best balance between their information needs and their project’s parameters.

Empathy maps
Once designers have conducted their interviews, they can turn to empathy maps. These are a great
tool for processing the information a designer has collected. In a classic empathy map, designers draw
directly from interviews to answer five questions about their users:
1. Who exactly are the users and what are their situations?
2. What do users say about their experiences with the product or similar products?
3. What do users think about their experiences?
4. What do users do before, during, and after their experiences?
5. What do users feel about their experiences?
Ideally, the answers to these questions will build on any user information included in a project’s
business requirements.
For example, in the business requirements you explored in the previous reading, the bakery owner
claims their older customers prefer ordering over the phone because they aren’t comfortable with
online order forms. But the UX designer’s empathy research tells a different story: Many older
customers are comfortable with online ordering but prefer phone ordering because they think it’s
faster and feel an emotional connection with the bakery and its staff. In this way, the designer’s
empathy research has updated and expanded the user information in the bakery’s business
requirements.

User personas

Personas are fictional characters who represent groups of similar users. They help designers distill
large amounts of user information into more manageable chunks.

Once designers have established personas, they can keep their users in mind throughout the design
thinking process without having to remember every detail they captured during their interviews.
These personas also help designers explain their design choices to clients and other business
stakeholders. Rather than try to describe their users in the abstract, they use user personas to tell
compelling stories that put their designs in context.

Phase 2: Define users’ needs

After empathizing, designers move to the next phase of design thinking: define. In the define phase,
designers analyze their empathy work to answer this key question: Which of my users’ needs or
problems are the most important ones for my design to address? Typically, designers use a
combination of tools to answer this question.

User stories
While a user persona distills a large group of similar users into a single character, user stories help
designers focus their understanding of those users even more. A user story is a one-sentence narrative
told from a persona’s perspective. It should encapsulate who the user is, what they want to do, and
why they want to do it. The following is a simple template for writing a user story:

As [type of user], I want to [action] so that [benefit].

When done well, a user story gives the designer information they can use to create a checklist they
can return to as they define their users’ needs and ideate effective solutions. For example, recall Berta,
one of the user personas in the bakery example you’ve been exploring. For Berta, the UX designer
might develop a user story like this:
As a long-time customer with a visual impairment and a close connection to the bakery staff, I want to
place my orders over the phone so I can order with ease and continue to connect with staff members.

User journeys
Once a designer has distilled their user groups into realistic personas and stories, it’s time to start
mapping out each persona’s user journey. A user journey is a series of experiences that the user has as
they try to achieve their goal. It might be an experience they have with the product that’s being
designed, an experience they have with a similar product, or an experience they have in the absence of
those products.

In developing the new bakery website, for example, the UX designer creates two user journeys for
each persona, including Berta. One of Berta’s user journeys reflects how users like her typically
interact with the bakery and its current ordering systems (a mixture of phone ordering and direct
messages on social media accounts). The other user journey reflects how users like Berta will
typically interact with website-based ordering systems, which is the type of product the designer is
creating.

Problem statements
With complete user journeys for each persona, a designer can better identify the problems their design
must solve or the needs their design must address. Then, they can distill these problems or needs into
problem statements.
A problem statement summarizes who the user is, what they need from a design, and why. The
following is a simple template for writing a problem statement:
[Name of user persona] is a [type of user] who needs [type of user experience] because [benefits
of user experience].
This template is similar to a user story, but problem statements are typically more detailed, and they
are written from the designer’s perspective. For example, here’s a problem statement for Berta:
Berta is an older person with a visual impairment. She is a long-time bakery customer who prefers
ordering over the phone. She needs a website and online ordering system that are easy to use, adapt to
her vision needs, and mimic the feel and flow of a friendly phone conversation. She wants to place her
orders with ease and feel like she’s making a personal connection with the bakery.
Effective UX designers create problem statements for each of their user personas. This helps
designers create products that address the needs of multiple user types rather than catering solely to
one type of user.

Phase 3: Ideate solutions

The ideate phase is all about getting creative and brainstorming lots of potential solutions. Designers
often collaborate with team members, business stakeholders, and potential users. Their ideas may be
unexpected or out of the box, and that’s great!

Early in the ideate phase, good designers try to suspend their assumptions, preconceptions, and
judgements: The goal is to propose, consider, and challenge as many alternatives as possible without
evaluating or selecting anyone. Evaluation and selection come in later in the ideate phase: Once
plenty of ideas are on the table, designers have a better chance to compare alternatives and select the
best.
As you’ll learn in a later course, there are many, many different techniques for brainstorming, and the
best UX designers choose, adapt, and create new techniques as needed. For now, here are some of the
most common:
“How might we?”
In this brainstorming exercise, designers take a problem statement from the define phase and turn it
into a list of questions that start with “How might we,” or HMW. HMW questions help designers
reframe user problems as exciting opportunities for solutions. For example, recall the problem
statement you explored in the previous reading defining user needs:
Berta is an older person with a visual impairment. She is a long-time bakery customer who prefers
ordering over the phone. She needs a website and online ordering system that are easy to use, adapt to
her vision needs, and mimic the feel and flow of a friendly phone conversation. She wants to place her
orders with ease and feel like she’s making a personal connection with the bakery as she places her
orders.
If the bakery’s UX designer reframed this problem statement as a series of HMW questions, they
might include:
 How might we make the online ordering process easy to use?
 How might we make the online ordering system mimic a friendly conversation?
 How might we ensure the online ordering system adapts to Berta’s vision needs?
After creating these HMW questions, good UX designers spend time answering them with as many
possible solutions as they can think of—and they don’t hold back!

Rapid Sketching
While “How might we?” focuses on written questions and solutions, Rapid Sketching is a visual
approach to ideation. (It’s commonly called “Crazy Eights” in the UX design industry.) Rapid
Sketching is especially useful when designers need to brainstorm the visual elements of a new design.
First, designers clarify the problem they’re trying to solve or the idea they’re trying to iterate. They
might use one of the questions or solutions they developed in a HMW exercise. Then, they:
1. Divide a large sheet of paper into eight squares.
2. Grab something to draw with.
3. Start an eight-minute timer.
4. Take one minute to sketch an idea or solution in each square.
When the eight-minute timer goes off, there should be a different sketch in each of the paper’s eight
squares. Designers can adapt this approach as needed. For example, if a designer has less time or
smaller sheets of paper, they might start with four squares and four minutes for sketching.

Competitive audits
When designers want new ideas about how to solve a problem, they can also audit their competitors
by asking questions, like:
 What products do they offer?
 What are those products’ strengths and areas for improvement?
By answering questions like these, designers can get inspiration for their own designs, identify gaps in
the market, and find evidence for what designs have already worked and not worked. With audits,
designers can save time, money, and effort by learning from competitors who have already designed
similar products or tried to solve similar problems.

SCAMPER
SCAMPER is a technique designers used to brainstorm changes and alternatives to ideas and designs.
Each letter of the acronym stands for a different action that designers can apply to their designs, such
as substituting (S) elements for other elements, combining (C) elements into one, or adapting (A)
elements with alternatives. In full, the acronym stands for: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put
to another use, Eliminate, and Rearrange.

Collaboration
Ideation typically works best when it’s collaborative. Effective design teams often ideate together in
collaborative working sessions. And whether they’re working alone or in a team, designers often
bring other players into the ideation process, including their users and their business stakeholders.
Before launching a collaborative partnership or working session, effective designers or design teams
typically ensure they’ve answered crucial questions such as:
 Who will be involved? What will their roles be?
 Where will the collaboration happen? Will it be in person or virtual?
 Why is the collaboration happening? What is the end goal?
 How will the collaboration happen? What tools and processes will we use?
Business requirements
Ideation techniques help designers brainstorm lots of ideas, but will those ideas meet their project’s
business requirements? As designers review their ideas, they must refer to their business requirements
and ask questions like these:
 Which of these ideas will be feasible within the project’s budget and schedule?
 Which of these ideas will best meet the standards for the design?
While ideation starts with exploring boundless possibilities, there will always be firm parameters for a
project. Good UX designers often try to frame these parameters positively: They are obstacles that
inspire creative problem solving, guardrails that keep the design process on track, and filters for
sifting through all those boundless possibilities.

Phase 4: Prototype solutions

In the prototyping phase, the goal is not to build a final product. Rather, designers produce early
models, or prototypes, of the solution so they can see how it will look and function for users.
Prototypes also show stakeholders and potential users what the design can do. So, how do designers
prototype? There are many practices they can use.
Information architecture and sitemaps
To meet users’ needs, products like web apps must present information in ways that users can
understand and navigate with ease and enjoyment. When designers organize the information in a
product, they create something called “information architecture,” or IA. Information architecture is
essentially a high-level diagram or flowchart that shows how users can move through a product, like a
website or an app.

Wireframing
Wireframes are rough sketches of the product that bring the sitemap to life. Designers use them to
figure out how the product’s pages are laid out, how each page’s elements are arranged, and how
users will progress from page to page. They are relatively bare bones, consisting primarily of shapes,
lines, and minimal text. There are two methods designers can employ:

Paper wireframes
Paper wireframes are sketches on paper. They use horizontal lines to represent text, rectangles or
boxes to represent icons or images, and other shapes to represent buttons and additional elements. It’s
easy and inexpensive to iterate many versions with paper.

Digital wireframes
Digital wireframes are developed in a UX design tool such as Figma or Adobe XD. Digital
wireframes are 2D designs that show, at a high level, what the product will look like. Designers use
grayscale, shapes, and placeholder text to demonstrate what the design will look and feel like when
content is added.

Low fidelity (lo-fi) prototypes

In UX, “fidelity” means how closely a design matches the look and feel of the final product. A low
fidelity prototype is a simple interactive model that provides a basic idea of what the product will look
like and how its components will flow for users. Designers often create lo-fi prototypes by assembling
their wireframes and adding interactivity, or the ability to navigate from one screen to another.
Designers use lo-fi prototypes to test and improve their designs before spending time and effort
developing more detailed high-fidelity prototypes.

High fidelity (hi-fi) prototypes

A high fidelity prototype takes the lo-fi prototype and brings it as close to the final product as
possible. Hi-fi prototypes incorporate all of the product’s components, interactivity, and content,
though some content may be represented by realistic placeholders. It is not the final product, but it
enables people to more fully experience how the product will look, feel, and work. For example,
consider the richly detailed hi-fi prototype for Tee’s Shirts below. More than just an assembly of
navigable wireframes, this hi-fi prototype will enable testers and stakeholders to simulate a realistic
experience with the final product, which means richer and more detailed feedback for designers on
every facet of the final product.

During prototyping, whether lo-fi or hi-fi, designers often revisit information and decisions from
earlier stages of the design thinking process. When evaluating prototypes, for example, they should
ask if the layout, flow, look, and feel address the problem statement developed during the define
phase. Would Berta, the bakery customer persona you met earlier, be able to easily use the site to
order? Does the site give her the personal experience she’s used to and looking for? These are all
things for the bakery’s UX designer to consider when taking a critical look at prototypes.

Prototyping and testing

You’ve read about designers creating prototypes so people can experience what the product will look
and feel like. If you think that sounds like testing, the next phase of the design thinking process, then
you’re right: prototyping and testing are deeply interconnected. In the next reading, you’ll see how
these phases work in tandem. Keep exploring to find out what happens next!
Phase 5: Test solutions

Effective testing aims to reveal what users think, feel, and experience as they use a product, such as a
website or an app. To get rich and unbiased results, good testing starts with a plan. Let’s briefly
explore the key elements of UX testing by considering the who, what, when, where, why, and how of
a testing plan:

Who will participate in the tests? Early on, designers might ask friends, colleagues, design partners,
or other informal participants to test a product and offer feedback. Later on, ideal participants include
real-life users who align with the project’s user personas.

What types of tests will be conducted? In upcoming courses, you’ll learn more about different types
of UX research and UX tests, including the kinds of information they help designers collect.

When and where will the tests be conducted? Tests can be conducted in person or virtually, in a
range of different environments or communication channels. It all depends: Good UX designers plan
tests that achieve the best balance between their needs and their project’s business requirements.

Why are the tests conducted? UX tests are conducted for a range of reasons, but the core goal is
always to understand users and improve their experiences. During the test phase of design thinking,
some of the most common reasons for testing are to:
 Validate ideas, information, or decisions from other parts of the design thinking process,
such as user information generated during the empathize phase or design decisions made
during ideation.
 Uncover usability issues to address with further iteration and prototyping. Users experience
these issues as pain points that prevent them from using the product and achieving their goals
with ease and enjoyment.

How will participants engage with the prototype? Here, a key consideration is whether the testing
process itself is inclusive and accessible for all participants. As you’ll learn, effective testing
incorporates assistive technologies and other inclusive elements to ensure all participants can engage
fully.

How will information be collected? Designers use a range of methods to collect information from
users, including observation and interviews. They may also be able to gather information from the
prototype itself or the systems that participants use to interact with the prototype.
For the bakery, the UX designer tested a low-fidelity prototype and then a high-fidelity prototype with
a range of users who aligned with the project’s key user personas, including Berta. Through user
feedback, the designer discovered key ways to improve the website and better meet users’ needs. With
some time and further iteration, the designer eventually created a successful design that met his
client’s business requirements while also creating an easy and enjoyable experience for users. Now
it’s time for some pastries!

Design Sprints

1. Understand
2. Ideate
 3. Decide
4. Prototype
5. Test

Immediately following a design sprint, the team should hold a retrospective. A retrospective is a
collaborative critique of the design sprint process.
Collaborative critiques play an essential role throughout the Design Thinking process, particularly
during the prototyping and testing phases. These critiques focus on improving the design solution
itself, considering factors like usability, visuals, and alignment with user needs.
A design sprint retrospective is also a feedback-oriented activity within the Design Thinking process,
but it has a different goal. The goal of a design sprint retrospective is to make sure everyone who took
part in the sprint has the chance to give feedback and think about opportunities for improving the
process.
The key questions to ask during a retrospective are:
1. What went well?
2. What can be improved?
Answering these questions will help the individuals and the team work better.

UX Research
UX research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation
and feedback. Your product design should be built upon research and facts, not assumptions. UX
research aligns what you, as the designer, think the user needs with what the user actually needs.
Remember the product development life cycle from an earlier course of the program? The product
development life cycle has five stages — brainstorm, define, design, test, and launch — that take an
idea for an app, website, or product to its launch.
Let’s check out how research fits into the product development life cycle.

Foundational research is always done before you start designing. Within the product development
life cycle, foundational research happens during the brainstorm stage (stage one) to help you
empathize with users, understand their needs, and inspire new design directions. During this stage,
you will also make personas and user stories, which you'll learn about soon.
In foundational research, your goal is to figure out what the user needs and how to address those
needs with your product. Strong foundational research can contradict your personal perspective on
what a good solution might be.
Questions you might consider during foundational research include:
 What should we build?
 What are the user’s problems?
 How can we solve those problems?
 Am I aware of my own biases, and am I able to filter them as I do research?
There are lots of research methods for conducting foundational research, but many of them are based
on observations. Common foundational research methods include:
 Interviews: A research method used to collect in-depth information on people's opinions,
thoughts, experiences, and feelings. You’ll often conduct interviews of your target users
themselves.
 Surveys: An activity where many people are asked the same questions in order to understand
what most people think about a product.
 Focus groups: A small group of people whose reactions are studied. For example, your focus
group might bring together eight users to discuss their perspectives about new features in your
design. A focus group is usually run by a moderator who guides the group on a certain topic
of conversation.
 Competitive audit: An overview of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. You'll
conduct your own competitive audit later in the course, so you will understand this research
method well!
 Field studies: Research activities that take place in the user's context or personal
environment, rather than in an office or lab.
 Diary studies: A research method used to collect qualitative data about user behaviors,
activities, and experiences over time. Often, a user will log, or diary, about their daily
activities and provide information about their behaviors and needs, which can help inform
your designs.

Design research is done while you design. Within the product development lifecycle, design research
happens during the design stage (stage three) to help inform your designs, to fit the needs of users,
and to reduce risk. Each time you create a new version of your design, new research should be done to
evaluate what works well and what needs to be changed.
In design research, your goal is to answer the question: How should we build it?
The amount of design research you conduct will vary depending on where you work and what you’re
building. The most common method used to conduct design research is a usability study, which is a
technique to evaluate a product by testing it on users. The goal of usability studies is to identify pain
points that the user experiences with your prototypes, so the issues can be fixed before the product
launches. You’ll conduct your own usability study in the next course of this certificate program.
Additional research methods that might be used to conduct design research include:
 A/B testing: A research method that evaluates and compares two different aspects of a
product to discover which of them is most effective. For example, you might have users
evaluate two layouts for the homepage of your app to find out which layout is more effective.
 Cafe or guerrilla studies: A research method where user feedback is gathered by taking a
design or prototype into the public domain and asking passersby for their thoughts. For
example, you might sit in a local coffee shop and ask customers if they would be willing to
test your app design for a couple of minutes and provide feedback.
 Card sorting: A research method that instructs study participants to sort individual labels
written on notecards into categories that make sense to them. This type of research is largely
used to figure out the information architecture of your project, which we’ll discuss in the next
course of the program — Course 3: Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Designs.
 Intercepts: A research method that gathers on-site feedback from users as they engage in the
activities being researched. Intercepts are often conducted in the field, so this type of research
 is often considered a subset of field research. An intercept study can provide quick, high-level
feedback.

Post-launch research is done after the design is complete and your product has launched. Within the
product development life cycle, post-launch research happens after the launch stage (stage five) to
help validate that the product is meeting user needs through established metrics.
In post-launch research, your goal is to answer the question: Did we succeed? This research will tell
you how your final product is performing based on established metrics, such as adoption, usage, user
satisfaction, and more.
You should use research methods that give insight into what the user thinks of your product and if
their experience using your product aligns with how you intended it to function. Research methods
you might use to conduct post-launch research include:
 A/B testing
 Usability studies
 Surveys
 Logs analysis: A research method used to evaluate recordings of users while they interact
with your design, tools, etc.