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Introduction to Product Design

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8:01 with May Kim

Understanding the user is one of the most important aspects of product design. Empathetic research is a process informed by deep qualitative data rather than statistical data. It focuses on people rather than technology, and it requires understanding and empathizing with them.

Design Project: Synthesize insights from researching Craigslist customers and create insight statements.

Access the project files in the downloads tab

Research Methods:

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    [MUSIC] 0:00
    Every good design begins with good research. 0:04
    Whether you're a designer, a product manager, or 0:08
    an engineer, the first step in creating a product is to understand the user and 0:10
    define the problem you're trying to solve. 0:15
    A good and successful product solves a problem for people. 0:17
    Once you've done the research around your users and 0:21
    defined the problem, then you can explore all the possible solutions to the problem. 0:23
    The first stage of designing a product is called discovery. 0:28
    Understanding the user is one of the first and 0:32
    most important things you'll need to do as a designer. 0:34
    You may have heard the term empathic research, 0:38
    which is all about understanding and empathizing with users. 0:40
    As designers, we need to better understand who it is that we're designing for 0:44
    by observing people, how they behave, and how they think or feel, so 0:48
    that we can help solve a problem or a need. 0:53
    There is a wide range of research methods out there, 0:56
    especially at the early stages of a product. 0:59
    There are research methods such as field studies, focus groups, interviewing, or 1:01
    surveys that will help you better understand the opportunity or 1:06
    the problem you're trying to solve by talking to users. 1:09
    Creating personas is also a great way to build empathy. 1:13
    Personas help you and your team to keep your users in mind with every decision. 1:16
    Whether you're a designer, a product manager, or a developer, 1:22
    it's important that every person on the team is thinking about the user, and 1:25
    that everyone works together to keep the user 1:29
    at the forefront at every stage of the product development process. 1:31
    For our project, I want you to go and 1:36
    talk to at least ten people who have used Craigslist at least once recently. 1:38
    You can choose to interview them in person, or 1:43
    you can also send out a quick survey email to your friends, family, or colleagues. 1:45
    During this exercise, ask them about their experience with using the product and 1:51
    gather any insights. 1:55
    Here's a list of questions to help you get started. 1:57
    When was the last time you used Craigslist? 2:00
    What was it for? 2:03
    What types of things do you do on Craigslist? 2:04
    And what do you like most about Craigslist? 2:07
    What do you like least about Craigslist? 2:09
    Tell me about the last time you tried to sell something on Craigslist. 2:12
    And tell me about the last time you bought something on Craigslist. 2:16
    How often do you use Craigslist? 2:20
    What would make you want to use Craigslist more? 2:22
    For more tips on how to conduct interviews or 2:25
    create interview scripts, refer to the teacher's notes. 2:27
    After you've done your research, 2:31
    you may be wondering what to do with all that data. 2:33
    First, take all the data from your interviews or survey and 2:36
    organize them into one place like a spreadsheet. 2:39
    You can use the sample spreadsheet provided in the project files as 2:42
    a template, or you can create your own. 2:46
    Notice that the interview questions are color coded because this will help 2:48
    you later on when we begin to organize and analyze the data. 2:52
    Once you've finished adding all the data, begin making some initial observations. 2:56
    What do users like about using Craigslist? 3:00
    What are some common pain points that users are experiencing? 3:03
    For example, if the majority of your users are saying that they're worried about 3:06
    safety and whether they can trust Craigslist or 3:10
    not, that's an opportunity or a problem to solve. 3:12
    As you start to look through your data, you can make notes for 3:16
    yourself by highlighting or bolding the data that seems important. 3:18
    Now it´s time to analyze your data. 3:24
    Tracking all the data and finding patterns can be difficult, 3:27
    especially when you've got a long spreadsheet full of text. 3:30
    Affinity mapping, or affinity diagram, is a tool that gathers large amounts of data 3:34
    and organizes them into groups based on their natural relationships. 3:39
    It provides a complete picture of the research, showing trends, themes, issues, 3:43
    and areas of opportunity for improvement. 3:47
    Using sticky notes is a great way to create an affinity map. 3:50
    This could be done with real sticky notes, or 3:54
    you can do this digitally by using a free product called RealtimeBoard. 3:56
    Let's go ahead and open a new browser window, and go to realtimeboard.com. 4:00
    RealtimeBoard is an online whiteboard that's useful for 4:05
    visual team collaboration. 4:08
    You can add sticky notes, images, mockups, drawings, 4:10
    videos, etc., onto an endless canvas and share it with your teammates. 4:13
    It saves a lot of time and makes collaboration much easier, 4:18
    especially if your teammates are working in remote locations. 4:22
    The link to the RealtimeBoard website is also in the teacher's notes. 4:25
    After you sign up, log in to get started. 4:29
    If you're using a Mac computer, you can activate the split screen mode 4:33
    by clicking and holding down the full screen icon of your browser. 4:37
    You can drop the RealtimeBoard browser into one side of your screen, and 4:40
    then drop the Google spreadsheet into the other side. 4:44
    You can also resize your split screen window to what works best for you. 4:47
    A split screen will help save you a lot of time from switching back and 4:51
    forth to different browsers or programs as you work. 4:55
    Create a new board in RealtimeBoard and click on the frame tool, 4:58
    and choose a custom frame to begin. 5:02
    Click on the paint bucket icon to add a color to the background of your frame. 5:11
    Then click on the sticky note tool and choose Bulk mode. 5:16
    I'm going to assign the color green for 5:19
    all of these notes as it corresponds to the color in the spreadsheet. 5:21
    Let's start by entering the data for 5:25
    the question, what do you like most about Craigslist? 5:27
    Once you're done entering your insights for this portion, click Done. 5:53
    You can resize the sticky notes so that they can fit into your frame. 5:57
    Then continue adding the rest of your data using different color sticky notes that 6:02
    match with the color you've assigned in your spreadsheet. 6:06
    Once you've gathered your research, 6:17
    select the frame and choose the More icon, 6:22
    then Duplicate to create a copy of this frame. 6:28
    On this new frame, begin to organize and 6:39
    group the sticky notes based on similar insights or topics 6:41
    Start making observations like, which topics or 6:59
    insights were repeated the most, and jot down any notes. 7:02
    This will help you create insight statements. 7:05
    Here is an example of what your board might look like after you finish grouping. 7:12
    Now create a new frame, and then click on the sticky note icon and 7:22
    choose a color that you haven't used yet. 7:25
    Look at your insights and notes you've taken and 7:29
    write insight statements that summarize the main points. 7:31
    For example, the summary of these two columns is that 7:35
    scammers cause users to feel nervous and worried. 7:38
    You can write an insight statement like, users are worried, nervous, and 7:42
    furious because of scammers and scam posts. 7:45
    Here are the insight statements I came up with from my research. 7:55

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