What do you do if your design decisions need improvement?
When you realize your product design decisions aren't hitting the mark, it's crucial to take a step back and assess where things went awry. Product design is an iterative process, and it's completely normal for initial ideas to require refinement or even a complete overhaul. The key is to identify the shortcomings, gather feedback, and apply this insight to create a more effective and user-centric design. Remember, the goal is to solve real problems for your users, and sometimes that means going back to the drawing board to ensure you're on the right track.
Collecting feedback is a vital step in improving your design decisions. Reach out to users, stakeholders, and team members to understand their perspectives on the current design. This feedback can provide valuable insights into what's working and what's not. By actively listening to the concerns and suggestions of others, you can pinpoint specific areas that need refinement. Remember, the aim is not to seek validation but to gather actionable insights that can drive your design process forward.
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Felix Ayoola
Designer (Brand and Product) | Webflow Expert
Design is iterative, nothing is final except the deadline is close, so not be afraid of iterating but first you must check what you are about to iterate. Questions like “what is wrong” usually valid, try to get the answer and use it to iterate your design. You can also reach out to colleagues for a fresh perspective.
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Girdhar Shrivastava
Xylem | PLM | GTI | Windchill
When addressing design improvements, I adhere to a structured approach aimed at achieving optimal outcomes: 1. Actively listen to feedback from stakeholders and users. 2. Identify key areas for enhancement based on received input. 3. Implement necessary design adjustments to address identified needs. 4. Foster transparent communication to ensure alignment across all stakeholders. 5. Continuously refine the design iteratively until it meets desired effectiveness. These steps form the foundation for iterative improvement, ensuring that the design evolves to meet evolving requirements.
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Kritika Jindal
Senior Product Designer at Dell Technologies | LinkedIn Top Voices in UX, UED & Product Design | Visual Communication Enthusiast
1. Reflect: Take a step back and reflect on your design decisions objectively. 2. Seek Feedback: Reach out to colleagues, stakeholders, or users for constructive feedback. 3. Research: Conduct research to identify best practices and trends in UI/UX design. 4. Iterate: Iterate on your designs based on feedback and research findings. 5. Test: Conduct usability testing to gather insights and validate design improvements.
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Kashif Jamshaid
Team Lead and Senior UI/UX Designer | Empowering Startups with User-Centric Web & Mobile Designs for Growth & Innovation #gethired #careers
If you suspect your design decisions need improvement, don't be afraid to embrace the feedback loop. Constructive criticism from colleagues, user testing results, or even negative user comments can be valuable learning opportunities. Revisit your initial user research to ensure your design aligns with their needs – have their needs changed, or did you miss something crucial? Utilize A/B testing or usability tests to compare your design with potential refinements. Data is your friend here, guiding you towards the most effective solution. Remember, simpler is often better. Can you remove unnecessary features or clarify confusing aspects to enhance user understanding? Finally, seek inspiration from successful design patterns in your industry.
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Felix Ayoola
Designer (Brand and Product) | Webflow Expert
Design is iterative, nothing is final except the deadline is close, so not be afraid of iterating but first you must check what you are about to iterate. Questions like “what is wrong” usually valid, try to get the answer and use it to iterate your design. You can also reach out to colleagues for a fresh perspective.
Once you have feedback, dive into the data. Look at user interaction metrics, such as time spent on a page or feature usage rates, to understand how people are engaging with your design. If certain aspects are being ignored or are causing confusion, it's a clear sign that those elements need rethinking. Data analysis can help you make informed decisions based on actual user behavior, rather than assumptions or personal preferences.
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Andrew Smith
Co-Founder at Tenscope | On-Demand Product UX Design
Use data to inform your design decisions. This could be user analytics, heat maps, or engagement metrics that offer objective insights into how users interact with your design. Analyzing this data helps pinpoint what's working and what isn't.
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Phil Buckler
Product & Design leader | ex eBay, Work & Co
Data is a great way to get insight at scale. Trends across 100's of target users can be more reliable than smaller sample sizes used for qualitative user research (eg. user experience testing). Keep in mind that data doesn't always have all the answers. Often quantitative research gives you a signal that something is wrong, and qualitative research tends to tell you more specifically what's happening. How users think and feel often doesn't show up in quantitative research. Step back from your user experience and decide whether one or the other is more appropriate for your scenario.
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Gideon Simon
Mechanical Design Engineer l Reverse Engineering Specialist/CNC Router Specialist /CAD&CAM Specialist l Freelancer
Analyse your previous decision that lead to the unfortunate or unwanted outcome, seek out professional advice from those who have achieved such feat effortless, then unlearn, re-learn, and edit your perspective.
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Oluwadamilare (Dami) Agbolade, MBA
Creative Strategist | Doctor of Strategy | I have over a decade of experience creating innovative strategies for personal brands and businesses, that brings more profit and attract the right customers.
Analyzing the data you receive can reveal insights you would not have noticed on a normal day. Thank God for the advent of AI and Machine Learning, it is easier to analyze data in real time now. This real time feedback helps to improve decisions faster.
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Rishabh Jain
Multi-Disciplinary Designer | User Research & Strategy | Educator | SHAPE - Curator of Innovative Design
Analyzing data effectively involves a streamlined process: Collect Data: Gather data through surveys, tests, and analytics. Clean Data: Remove errors and irrelevant details. Organize Data: Categorize and structure data for easy analysis. Exploratory Analysis: Use visualizations and basic statistics to identify trends. In-depth Analysis: Apply advanced statistical methods to uncover deeper insights. Interpret Findings: Translate analysis into actionable insights for decision-making. Report: Present findings in a clear, structured format to stakeholders. This concise approach ensures that data analysis is efficient and impactful, leading to informed design and strategy decisions.
With feedback and data in hand, it's time to brainstorm solutions. Don't just fixate on the first idea that comes to mind; explore a range of possibilities that could address the issues identified. This stage is about creativity and innovation, so encourage divergent thinking and consider how new technologies could enhance the user experience. The goal is to ideate multiple solutions and then refine these ideas into viable design improvements.
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Aman Ratnam
Senior Product Manager, THB | B2C, B2B| ex-Droom | Product Mentor
A beautiful part about creating solutions through design is that it is blank canvas and your creativity can soar through the sky. Having said that, there are some guidelines and tenets that we must never lose sight of: 1. The value that the customer is seeking OR the key pain point that the user is facing. 2. The metric that your solution will directly impact. 3. The overall module's (or product's) vision that is driving other interconnected components. 4. The expected user journey the solution will enable the user to go through. Problem solving through design in alignment with customer centricity and maintaining business goals is a hard task to do but a rewarding one when done successfully.
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Andrew Smith
Co-Founder at Tenscope | On-Demand Product UX Design
With feedback and data in hand, brainstorm solutions to the identified issues. Encourage creative thinking and consider multiple approaches. This stage is about generating a wide range of ideas without immediately judging their feasibility.
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Phil Buckler
Product & Design leader | ex eBay, Work & Co
Fixate on the customer problems you're trying to solve. If your ideas aren't solving problems, then they're not the right ideas. When coming up with ideas, the more diverse and broad the ideas, the better. Now is not the time to shoot ideas down. Explore lots of different avenues, challenge the status quo. Don't be afraid to think big. Collaboration is key when ideating. Bounce your ideas off of friends, family, colleagues. Build on them. Make them bigger. Think about their scale; perhaps they might solve even bigger problems or tangental problems. Think big and broad with the only constraint being the customer problem. Narrowing down can be done later.
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Rishabh Jain
Multi-Disciplinary Designer | User Research & Strategy | Educator | SHAPE - Curator of Innovative Design
Ideating solutions involves a streamlined process: Define Problem: Clearly identify what you need to solve. Gather Input: Collect perspectives from a diverse group of stakeholders. Brainstorm: Generate a wide range of ideas in structured sessions. Develop Concepts: Refine promising ideas into detailed concepts. Prototype: Create basic prototypes to visualize and test ideas. Feedback: Seek feedback on prototypes to refine concepts. Select Solutions: Choose the most viable solutions for further development. This approach ensures effective and innovative solution development.
Develop prototypes of your improved design concepts. Prototyping allows you to test and tweak your ideas in a low-risk environment before committing to final changes. It's an opportunity to see how your design decisions function in a practical context and get a sense of how users might interact with the revised product. Iterative prototyping means you'll likely go through several versions, each one informed by the last, gradually honing in on the most effective design.
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Andrew Smith
Co-Founder at Tenscope | On-Demand Product UX Design
Turn your ideas into prototypes. Prototyping allows you to explore concepts quickly and see how they play out in a more tangible form. Iterate on these prototypes based on ongoing feedback and analysis, refining them into more effective solutions.
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Rishabh Jain
Multi-Disciplinary Designer | User Research & Strategy | Educator | SHAPE - Curator of Innovative Design
rototyping iteratively involves a streamlined cycle: Create: Build a basic prototype with core features. Test Internally: Identify initial improvements. Gather User Feedback: Obtain insights from users. Analyze Feedback: Determine necessary changes. Revise: Update the prototype based on feedback. Repeat: Continue refining through multiple cycles until the product meets the desired standards. This process ensures that the final product is effectively tailored to user needs.
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Neha Gupta
A passionate product leader invested in scalable, efficient and profit generating solutions | Doubled Admin NPS
We practice iterative prototyping for everything in life. Be it sharing different versions of any documents, pictures, cuisines that we cook, etc. The idea here is the Nth version is always better than the first version if we focus upon the feedback we have received and closely monitor our progress in reference to the quality and not solely with the quantity of the feedback we have addressed.
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Phil Buckler
Product & Design leader | ex eBay, Work & Co
In my experience, the best prototypes are the ones that "feel real". The more real your concepts feel, the better your feedback will be. Stakeholders and users will feel immersed in the experience, rather than feel like they're critiquing a design. Show the prototype in an expected flow, use "real" text, images, UI and transitions in the experience, not placeholder elements. This way, you'll get much more valuable feedback.
User testing is essential to validate your improved design decisions. Set up tests with real users to observe how they interact with your prototypes. Pay attention to their behavior, listen to their feedback, and note any areas of friction or misunderstanding. This direct user input is invaluable for confirming whether your design improvements are on the right track or if further adjustments are needed.
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Andrew Smith
Co-Founder at Tenscope | On-Demand Product UX Design
Conduct usability testing with real users to validate your design decisions. Testing provides direct insights into how users perceive and interact with your design, offering a clear gauge on whether your solutions are effective.
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Phil Buckler
Product & Design leader | ex eBay, Work & Co
In my experience, the best testing environments are ones without the bias of the Designer or broader team. Be really careful with the way your experience is tested. Don't use leading questions that take the discussion with users down a path where they're led to provide the feedback you want to hear. For example, rather than "do you see the button?" ask "talk me through what you're seeing"
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Manny N.
Fostering Commercial Growth via Transformation & Strategic Innovation
Need to spruce up your design decisions? Turning to rigorous testing and validation could be your secret weapon. Begin with setting up a focus group, and try something. I've personally found success using FIGMA prototypes to gain invaluable user feedback through usability tests, surveys, and interviews. Once you've gathered insights, it's time to delve into the data and uncover the makeover aspects of your design. For instance, if users are meandering through five clicks to reach a desired outcome, why not streamline with lesser clicks & intuitive? Validate your alterations with additional testing rounds. Keep refining in this manner until your design sings in perfect harmony with your users' wants and needs.
Finally, take time to reflect on what you've learned through this process of improvement. Consider how the feedback, data analysis, ideation, prototyping, and testing have contributed to a better product design. Use these insights to inform future projects and decisions, building a knowledge base that can help you avoid similar issues down the line. Continuous learning is a cornerstone of great product design, ensuring that each iteration brings you closer to an optimal user experience.
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Mercy Oke
Digital Marketing Manager | Social Media Management | Content Strategy and Creation | I help brands excel online and boost their sales
Firstly, i go back to the drawing board and meet with my users. Design is an iterative process and which you have to include your users every step of the way. Therefore, i conduct user research to be able to pinpoint what exactly is wrong with the design design. Then, i consult with colleagues and stakeholders to get their insight. Now, based on the feedback and research findings i get, i refine my design decisions. Finally, i test the newly improved design to see if it's optimal yet. And so the cycle goes on...
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Vicky G.
Senior UX/UI Designer | Specializing in Interaction Design, Usability & Accessibility | Enhancing User Experience for AI-Driven Solutions
Change my design process ensuring that it will bring me closer to a great outcome. Every project is different and there's always room for improvement.
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Antoine Grau
Mechanical Design Engineer
I strive to apply these points below when I'm Designing : -Keep it simple ! - go back to the basics of product use. - Aim for the most intuitive human/object interface possible. - Stay focused on the end user's expectations. - Emphasize quality. - Ensure the technical feasibility of the project.
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Reihu Design
Reihu Design
In my experience in design, several times I have come across mistakes or ideas that were not so good or applicable for a given project, but when I am faced with this situation, the best thing to do is to take a step back and analyze data or have a conversation with the team involved in the project or even with the client can help a lot to clarify everything. Resolving a mistake at the beginning is the best thing to do, if you have doubts, stop, rethink, talk and analyze, to bring about the best possible resolution.
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