Target Audience
Relevant Roles: Interaction designers, Product Designers, User Researchers, Developers, Marketers, and anyone working on the usability of products (be them new, existing or being updated) or wanting more experience in the design mindset.
Domains in this track
User Experience (UX)
UX is how your customers interact with your product. In the case of digital products (apps, websites), how the interactions between the app and the user are happening, how many steps a user has to take to get something done, how easy or difficult it is to find something or navigate somewhere in the app. All these crucial anecdotes are built and improved on in UX. As a PM, you need to put yourself in the customer’s shoes, and figure out if you find any difficulties using the product.
Related Resources Show Summaries
The Design Sprint — GV
Jobs to be done personas
Information Design
Information design can be used for broad audiences (such as signs in airports) or specific audiences (such as personalized telephone bills). In this sense, information design is intricately linked to the audience it is aimed at. To the recipient, it explains facts of the universe and leads to knowledge and informed action - and thus selling organizations also use it in an effort to improve a user's trust of a product. The broad applications of information design along with its close connections to other fields of design and communication practices have created some overlap in the definitions of communication design, data visualization, and information architecture.
Related Resources
Designing Tables for Reusability
Gamification
Gamification involves the application of game-design elements and game principles (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to non-game contexts. It can also be defined as a set of activities and processes to solve problems by using or applying the characteristics of game elements. Gamification commonly employs game design elements to improve user engagement, organizational productivity, flow, learning, crowdsourcing, knowledge retention, employee recruitment and evaluation, ease of use, usefulness of systems, physical exercise, traffic violations, voter apathy, and more. It is often used as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.
User Research
User research is the systematic investigation conducted to understand users' behaviors, needs, motivations, and preferences in the context of designing products or services. It involves various methods such as interviews, surveys, observations, and usability testing to gather insights into users' goals, pain points, and expectations. The primary goal of user research is to inform the design process by uncovering valuable insights that help in creating user-centered solutions. By empathizing with users and gaining a deep understanding of their perspectives, designers can make informed decisions and create products that meet users' needs effectively.