How I make decisions to provide delightful experiences
There are a lot of different examples on how to design better, how to create intentional experiences within time constraints etc. But every framework looked similar and overwhelming to me, which was lacking in being succinct and to the point.
Hence, I slowly started creating a guiding principle this year which is helping me to reflect on my decisions and provide thoughtful experiences.
Intent
Why does the problem exist? What are you trying to solve?
We designers love to jump on the tools (e.g; Figma, Sketch etc) and start producing solutions. But doing it at the very beginning only produces half baked experiences which lacks context, use cases and intention. Without these, you won’t be able to solve real problems.
Try to: Zoom out, get to know which teams/stakeholders has to be involved, understand the value propositions, gather more context, different use cases and think more from 1st principles (e.g; if you are anxious and open an app to get solution what will you do, what do you expect etc).
Write down all these snippets and this will form a story to you. Start from there and keep doing this when you are stuck in the rabbit hole.
Understand the problem statement better → to solve intentionally
Our job is to create solid 2–3 options which are equally good, and not to create X number of half baked iterations.
How did I arrive at a decision(s)
Which insights helped me? How to document your decisions?
While creating the contextual iterations, always document each decisions you made for each feature and how it is gearing towards solving the problem. Sometimes, it will be to drive a specific business metrics, content discoverability, nudging the users, and what not. Not to forget, certain decisions will be made based on different constraints of the current system and scalability. Make sure to document all of them.
This will help you in many folds:
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Makes a solid case when you present to your stakeholders. Remember, people want to know why you made what you made. It has to be intentional. Once you can persuade them with your reasonings, your 1st hurdle is achieved.
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This habit will be immensely helpful when you want to compile you work for portfolio case studies. We don’t always remember every decision we made after certain days/months.
Scaling & Sustainability
Why should you think about the future while designing for the present need?
You don’t want to build a product which doesn’t have any future. Design is contextual and it changes with growing needs and requirements. Hence, while designing always think about how the future version of the product will be. What will enable the users to do their jobs easily and faster, does the design serves a purpose, can we scale this system etc.
Always think beyond the current need and how it can scale to the prospective future. This will also help to prepare yourself and your team better for the future.
So always be prepared!
FYI: This is a living document.