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The model is based on the one in my book, E-Commerce Usability. The main benefits of the model are:
The model has four main steps.
This step provides the business context for the product. You begin by identifying the stakeholders for your new product development. This includes all those people who have an interest in the success or failure of the product, such as management, technical support and regulatory bodies in the industry. Next you identify your user experience vision for the product: your view of what using the product will be like 5 years or so in the future. This provides a design target that you can use to ensure you are progressing towards your design goals. The final part of this step is to segment the market for the product so you can identify what Geoffrey Moore calls 'a beachhead segment' that will become the focus of your design solution.
Common user experience activities during this step include:
In this step, you aim to build a rich description of customers, the environment in which they use the product and the critical tasks they want to carry out with it. You begin by building user profiles: a set of personas that describe the goals and behaviours of the product's key user groups. Next, you create environment profiles: descriptions of the social, technical and physical environment within which the product will be used. Finally, you identify red routes: a list of the critical tasks that users need to easily carry out with the product for it to be a success.
Common user experience activities during this step include:
This step is an iterative process. You start the process by developing key performance indicators for the product: quantitative measures, based on key customer and business requirements, that the management team use to determine if the product is ready to launch. You then move on to develop the information architecture: the high-level, conceptual model of the product, showing how all of the product's functions and features will hang together. Next, you lay out the screens (the detailed design), starting with paper sketches and then moving onto wireframes and interactive prototypes. The final part of this step is to evaluate usability by asking potential customers to carry out realistic tasks.
Common user experience activities during this step include:
To paraphrase Winston Churchill: this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. This is the end of the beginning. In this step you find out how your product was actually used in practice and use these insights to drive the next release of the product or to design a future product.
Common user experience activities during this step include:
We've found that senior managers love this concise description of user experience activities. Next time you're called upon to explain what it is, exactly, that you do, try using this as a framework. You might also be interested in reading our free eBook on this topic: The Fable of the User Centered Designer.
Dr. David Travis (@userfocus on Twitter) is a User Experience Strategist. He has worked in the fields of human factors, usability and user experience since 1989 and has published two books on usability. David helps both large firms and start ups connect with their customers and bring business ideas to market. If you like his articles, why not join the thousands of other people taking his free online user experience course?
Gain hands-on practice in all the key areas of UX while you prepare for the BCS Foundation Certificate in User Experience. More details
Follow a young man's journey as he discovers the three secrets of user-centered design. This free eBook describes the key principles of user centred design. The Fable of the User Centred Designer.
This article is tagged careers, strategy, selling usability.
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