UX Strategy (Part 1)

What is Strategy ? 

Strategy According to Henry Mintzberg …

• Strategy is a plan, a "how," a means of getting from here to there.
• Strategy is a pattern in actions over time; for example, a company that regularly markets very expensive products is using a "high end" strategy.
• Strategy is position; that is, it reflects decisions to offer particular products or services in particular markets.
• Strategy is perspective, that is, vision and direction.

Hierarchy of Strategy 

1 ) Business Strategy 

Business strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal or set of goals & objective.

2 ) Brand Strategy 

Brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages.

3 ) Product Strategy 

Product strategy is defined as the roadmap of a product. This roadmap outlines the end to end vision of the product and what the product will become.

4 ) UX Strategy 

UX strategy is about how design will help the business win in its strategy by providing value to customers in a uniquely meaningful way.

Introduction to UX Strategy

• UX strategy is the set of choices to reach a desired position over time.
• UX strategy is about how design will help the business win in its strategy by providing value to customers in a uniquely meaningful way.
• Keep in mind that this document is based on assumptions. In order for a design strategy document to truly facilitate a user-centered design process, those assumptions must be validated and informed by user research.

Defining UX Strategy

Before staring with any design work, try to find answers to these 2 questions : 

• What do we want to get out of this product/Service ?
• What do our users want to get out of it?

The first question helps in understanding the product/Service  objective while second question helps in understanding user needs.

Elements of UX Strategy

Business (Viability )

What will sustain the business ?

• Business goals
• Branding Goals
• Success Metrics

People (Desirability) 

What do people need ?

• Target Audience & Needs
• User Goals & Task

Technology (Capability)

What can we build ?

• Constraints

In this part we have looked what the strategy is,what is the hierarchy of strategy,introduction & definition of UX strategy , elements of UX strategy .In the future post we will dive deeper into the elements of UX strategy .

Till then enjoy reading .

Author: Shiva Subhedar (@UXDShiva)

What is Kano Model

The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano.

Customer satisfaction is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation.
It is defined as "the number of customers, or percentage of total customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds specified satisfaction goals.”

Customer satisfaction and User Experience

Customer satisfaction comes from a Product or service.

User Experience comes from overall journey related to a product/service, like buying product, using product, maintenance services etc.

Kano’s model in detail

The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction which classifies customer preferences into five categories.

1. Must-be Quality  (Basic needs, Dissatisfies)

 These attributes are taken for granted when fulfilled but result in dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. 

2. One-dimensional Quality (Performance, satisfiers) 

These attributes result in satisfaction when fulfilled and dissatisfaction when not fulfilled.

3. Attractive Quality (Delighters or Excitement Needs)

 These attributes provide satisfaction when achieved fully, but do not cause dissatisfaction when not fulfilled.

4. Indifferent Quality 

 These attributes refer to aspects that are neither good nor bad, and they do not result in either customer satisfaction or customer dissatisfaction.

5. Reverse Quality 

 These attributes refer to a high degree of achievement resulting in dissatisfaction and to the fact that not all customers are alike.

Kano Model Diagram

Kano diagram is represented below with all types of needs in single graph.

Important points

1. Time influence:  

Time has a big influence on Excitement Quality. Attributes' place on the model changes over time.

2. Categorization of needs: 

Define your users’ needs in light of the Kano model. What are the basic expectations that they simply expect to be there and where would the absence of these features lead to frustration?

3. Competitive analysis: 

Monitor your customer satisfaction and competition to ensure that features you think delight users haven’t slid into basic expectations and no longer help your customer satisfaction.

4. Innovation in Design: 

Find and focus on sustainable delighters that truly differentiate your product and continue to deliver customer satisfaction over time. 

5. Prioritizing Needs: 

It is intended to help prioritize customer needs.

6. MVP (Minimum viable product): 

A minimum viable product has just those core features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more. Generation one has to cover the “must be”. 

How to conduct Heuristic Evaluation

A heuristic evaluation is a usability inspection method for computer software that helps to identify usability problems in the user interface (UI) design. It specifically involves evaluators examining the interface and judging its compliance with recognized usability principles  (the "heuristics ").

It is really necessary for any Usability analyst/ UX designer to know proper way to conduct 'Heuristic Evaluation'. lets see the process step by step.

1. Understand Participants and Facilitators 

First step in conducting Heuristic Evaluation is finding 'Participants' who will be contributing actively in this process. Generally design team members/ domain experts / stakeholders becomes participants for H.E. Facilitator is the person who manages and conducts this process and prepares evaluation reports. (Recommended 'Participants' counts 3-5) 

Make sure all the Participants understand Heuristic Principles, if not brief them about Heuristic Principles.

2. Prepare use-cases 

For conducting H.E. prepare the use cases of primary features of application. Use cases should be real scenarios in which application is currently being used. You can conduct H.E. of any kind of application like, website, mobile website, mobile or tablet app etc. 

3. Prepare Participant's and Facilitator's sheet 

Now your task is to prepare Participant's sheet and Facilitator's sheet. Both the sheets are same but being used at different steps. Sheet includes below mentioned fields,

- Use cases

- Problem description

- Severity 

- Heuristic Principles affected

Ex. of a sheet is shown here,

Download the Heuristic Evaluation templates

4. Individual Evaluation 

Now ask your participant to use application on the basis of use cases mentioned in 'Participant's sheet' twice or tries. While using the application if they find any problem or finding then ask them to make a note. Also ask them to provide 'Severity' rating to each problem they found and associate with affected heuristic principles. 

Severity rating scale

1 - Cosmic or minor problem

2 - Moderate problem

3 - Major problem

4 - usability disaster  

Perform this step with all the participants individually.

5. Sit together and consolidate findings 

Once all the participants have evaluated application individually now we start the 'Group activity'.

Ask all the participants to tell their findings/problems with severity and discuss about it. This step will provide you unique problems and finalized severity.

Now you have problems, severity and heuristics principles which are affected.

Now next step is reporting and presenting the insights from this activity.