| When |
At
the start, specify what the product is and
how it meets your business and customer goals.
|
Early
in design, structure the product and outline what
and how the product is used.
|
Throughout
design, revise and test design ideas. |
Interspersed
in the design process, incorporate real users design ideas
and feedback. |
| Good
for |
Clarifying
- What customers want
- What the product does
- Budgets and schedules
-Business success |
Communicating
- Who the customers are
- What they want to do
- How they need to do it
- How the parts are related
|
Visualizing
- Structure
- Interactions
- Sequence
- Layout
- Mental Models |
Incorporating
- Users' goals
- Users' structures
- Users' sequences
- Users' language
- Users' comments |
| Goal |
Guide
design
- Prioritize features
- Prioritize users
- Establish benchmarks
- Specify scope
- Ease project management |
Simplify
concepts
- Information architectures
- Customer personas
- Usage scenarios
- Use cases
- Flow diagrams
|
Reduce
re-work
- Allow easy changes
- Validate designs before coding
- Provide tangible requirements |
Integrate
users
- In initial design
- In on-going user reviews
- In iterative evaluations
- In feature selection |
| Benefit |
Reduces
risk
- Sets clear priorities
- Prevents scope creep
- Facilitates project management |
Improves
Communications
- Common goals
- Clears up confusions
- Utilizes show and tell
|
Reduces
costs
- Requires minimal effort
- Resolves issues before design
- Promotes innovation |
Grounds
design
- Provides constant user
feedback
- Prevents faulty assumptions
- Promotes innovation |
| Challenges |
Balancing
scope and schedule
- Incomplete requirements
- Mis-managed complexity |
Not
accessible or useful
- Information overload
- Cumbersome |
Unsuited
to your process
- Bad Timing
- Inappropriate skill sets
- Poor integration with processes |
Misinterpretation
- Customer product bias
- Customer selection
- Customer loses objectivity |
