7 Additional Ways to Focus on Users

Post from September 10, 2007 (↻ August 5, 2017), filed under Art and Design.

Smashing Magazine just published my article on 20 (Alternate) Ways to Focus on Users, and not only may I point out the article but even extend it with a few additional methods. A quick bonus level, so to speak.

1. “A day in the life”: Compile the activities and conditions that users experience over an entire day in order to derive design decisions for everyday life products.

2. Competitive product survey: Conduct and compare competitive product evaluations in order to determine product standards and to specify requirements.

3. “Quick and dirty” prototyping: Roughly sketch design ideas in order to reveal and test the underlying concepts.

4. Rapid ethnography: Spend as much time as possible with people relevant to the topic in order to grasp their behavior.

5. Scenarios: Illustrate and describe the context of use for a service in order to identify and evaluate the essence of a design idea.

6. Try it yourself: Obviously but sometimes forgotten—use products you are designing in order to get a minimum understanding of the experience that users make.

7. Word-concept association: Let people associate words with (design) concepts in order to cluster user perceptions and to range in features.

About Me

I’m Jens Oliver Meiert, and I’m a web developer and author. I love trying things (sometimes involving philosophy, art, or adventure). Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.

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