Design Thinking Applications

Recently, I got a WhatsApp message from WhatsApp that included a video telling me about a new feature. This got me to thinking: If you want to tell people about a thing, why not use the thing to do it? 🤔 Sure, in-app notifications and emails can be great ways to communicate directly with your users, and even drive engagement with your product. But they can also disrupt your user experience.  What struck me is their commitment to using their own product format. And it got me thinking about other products that do this well. 👉 Just last week, LinkedIn’s product team announced their new AI-powered premium experience by posting about it on their own platform. 👉 Reddit keeps ‘redditors’ informed with product announcements and monthly recaps on r/reddit. 👉 Snapchat shows off new features by ‘snapping’ their users with video tutorials and direct messages. It seems obvious, right? Of course companies would use their own products to announce their product updates. Yet more often than not, I receive in-app notifications or emails that bring me to a webpage with a ton of boring text about a new feature. The problem? They’re taking me outside of the product! So why is using your own product format so much more powerful? Here’s the behavioral science POV: 💡 By using your own product format to introduce a new feature, you help users build a clear mental model, or understanding of how and when to use the feature. 💡 It isn’t just about the new feature. It matters how and where the user encounters it. This approach meets users where they are — in the normal follow of the product — and they’re more open minded to consuming the message as a result.  If you’re a video platform, I’m already consuming videos, right? So tell me about your new feature with a video! If you’re a messaging platform, I’m already consuming messages — send me a message! You get the point. There are tons of opportunities for other products to follow suit. ✅ #productmanagement #productdesign  

Some organizations function without user insight. Someone at the top says, “We should build X”. And the org builds X.  That's not a great place for a UX researcher. Other orgs do want user insights to drive decisions. However, they may still struggle to integrate UXR into decision-making. If you’re in the second type of org, have you paused to do research on your role? Asking yourself and stakeholders, “Am I driving business value for the company?” And if the answer is no, why not? Janelle Ward, PhD recently wrote about how research can end up being difficult to work with from the stakeholders’ point of view. If we’re struggling to integrate UXR into an org that clearly wants it, you need to run user research on your user research. Based on conversations I’ve had, I’d suspect these themes would come up: ℹ️Context: Do I as a researcher have enough context to deliver valuable, relevant insights? 📅Timelines: How fast does the business need to move, and how fast does research move? 📃 Communication: Am I sharing insights in a consumable way for stakeholders? If you find that you’re running into the above issues, here are some resources/ways to think about solutions. ℹ️ Context Make sure you have done the leg-work to know how the business runs. Where does the money come from? Which stakeholders exist aside from users (e.g., advertisers)? Here’s some extra expert advice on it: https://bit.ly/3QkkyDZ If research at your org is a centralized function, be part of conversations as a fly-on-the-wall. Product meetings. Design reviews. Marketing syncs. Or even 1-on-1 chats with stakeholders on a regular basis to stay up to date. 📅Timelines Sometimes research <> business timelines can intersect better. Usually, the solution comes down to one of these: - Is there part of the answer the org needs first, and another part that can come later? - Do I need more resources/tools to speed up my work? - Do I need to leverage existing data (qual or quant) to answer where we can? For the last two—when you ask for them, tell stakeholders why. “I need budget for a recruiting solution so we can get you the answers you need in a week.” 📃 Communication - Have I used context to share key takeaways upfront?  - Is the answer easy to consume? (e.g., Reels, clips) - Does my “insight” tie back to what my stakeholders care about driving as a business? Dan Winer has a lot of great advice on how to structure research reports best for stakeholders btw: https://bit.ly/3KRPuZ3 Opening this up as a discussion: what are times you’ve felt a gap between yourself and your stakeholders? What did you work on, and where did they meet you halfway? #uxresearch #stakeholderbuyin #userresearch #uxresources

How might we uncover students' real unmet needs instead of applying predetermined solutions? It's time for human-centered solution finding. Traditional problem solving starts with a set problem and jumps straight to solutions. By contrast, design thinking begins with problem finding – gathering diverse insights to reframe issues in an enlightening way. This problem finding then leads to solution finding. Design thinking moves educators from trying to solve narrow, presumed problems to human-centered problem finding. For instance, rather than accept chronic absenteeism as the defined problem, a school community identifies underlying causes by employing techniques to empathetically hear from students directly. In this instance, problem finding may reveal issues like lack of belonging. Reframing the problem becomes essential for solution finding. Applying preset remedies without a diagnosis will not address the core issues students face. Design thinking flips the script to put collaborative problem-finding first, leading to creative solution-finding. This process allows schools to uncover root causes and design human-centered solutions that truly help students. #designthinking #students #educators #schools P.S. This post is in a series where I share learnings on design thinking in schools distilled from my book. I welcome your perspectives as we explore together how human-centered design can help schools better serve students. How can I make these better?

It's been fun connecting with so many aspiring toy designers on LinkedIn over the past several months, utilizing the platform for mentorship. While there were moments I questioned if I bit off more than I could chew, I'm enjoying the continued engagement with so many creative individuals as we head into 2024.   In recent questions around ideation processes, I want to share an exercise I've successfully used for toy ideation. I employ various methods, some more process-oriented, while others are simpler yet effective. Developing a revolutionary toy concept demands a blend of creativity, empathy, and a deep understanding of the target audience. So, as we progress into 2024, here's an exercise to stimulate innovative thinking: Exercise: "Empathy-Driven Play Persona" Objective: Create a toy concept that deeply resonates with the target audience's needs, desires, and emotions. Define Target Audience: • Identify the age group and demographic (e.g., preschoolers, school-age children, teenagers). • Consider their interests, preferences, and developmental stages. Create Play Personas: • Develop detailed personas representing typical individuals within the target audience. • Include aspects like hobbies, challenges, preferences, and emotions. Empathy Interviews: • Conduct interviews or surveys with children and their parents. • Ask open-ended questions to understand needs, frustrations, and desires related to play. Empathy Mapping: • Use data to create empathy maps for personas. • Identify thoughts, feelings, actions, and pain points during play. Identify Unmet Needs: • Analyze empathy maps to pinpoint where existing toys fall short in meeting emotional or developmental needs. Creative Ideation: • Organize a brainstorming session with your design team. • Encourage "What if?" and "Why not?" questions to push beyond boundaries. • Use techniques like mind mapping, random word association, and reverse thinking for diverse ideas. Cross-Disciplinary Inspiration: • Draw inspiration from fields like psychology, technology, art, and science. • Look for trends and emerging technologies for integration into the toy concept. Prototyping and Testing: • Develop rough prototypes based on promising ideas. • Test with real children to gather feedback. Iteration and Refinement: • Use feedback to refine the concept. • Ensure the final toy addresses unmet needs and resonates with the target audience's emotions. Storytelling: • Develop a compelling story or narrative around the toy concept. • Ensure the story aligns with emotional and developmental aspects. Visual Representation: • Create visuals (sketches, 3D models, or concept art) conveying unique features and benefits. Pitch and Gather Feedback: • Present the toy concept to a diverse audience, including users and industry experts. • Gather feedback and be open to further refinement. This basic exercise emphasizes understanding the user, ensuring the toy resonates with the target audience. Have fun!

🚨 "HELP! I need to supercharge my DAUs and MAUs to get more investors' $$..." Does this sound familiar? Behavioral Science offers invaluable insights into user behavior. Here's how it can be a game-changer for your growth strategy: 1️⃣ Understanding User Motivation: Behavioral science helps us delve deep into what drives users. By uncovering their motivations and desires, we can tailor our products and features to resonate with them on a personal level, leading to higher engagement. Context is key and a blanket approach for all users will only get you so far (and might even cause churn for some users). 2️⃣ Nudging for Action: Notifications, reminders, and personalized recommendations, can gently guide users to take desired actions. BE CAREFUL! While these small interventions can have a profound impact on increasing both DAUs and MAUs, if done ineffectively could have the opposite effect. 3️⃣ Reducing Friction: By identifying and mitigating points of friction in your user journey, behavioral science can streamline the user experience. This results in higher retention rates, with more users coming back regularly. However, some strategically placed points of friction can actually generate user buy-in. Use wisely! 5️⃣ Behavioral Segmentation: Tailoring your messaging and features to specific user segments based on their behavior can boost engagement rates significantly. 📈 Incorporating behavioral science principles into your growth strategy can lead to not just short-term spikes but sustainable, long-term growth. It's a win-win for both users and your business! 🤺 I challenge you! If you're in health tech, think about the meaning of DAUs and MAUs. Do you need users to be engaging multiple times per day for them to see benefit? Are there times when it would actually benefit the end user to push them OUTSIDE of the app/program? #BehavioralScience #UserEngagement #GrowthStrategy #DigitalProduct #UserExperience #LinkedInPost #DataAnalytics

I recently gave a talk to a large group of Service Designers talking about the Top 5 reasons to consider leveraging applied behavioral science in product and service design. I decided to 'Frame It' for different people in the audience. Gain Framed (stresses achieving positive outcomes): 1️⃣ Products become more intuitive and easier to use when designers apply behavioral science principles, thereby enhancing the user experience. 2️⃣ Improving decision making is facilitated by behavioral insights, which help present choices in user-friendly ways and reduce decision fatigue. 3️⃣ Behavioral science aids in driving desired actions by guiding users towards specific behaviors, such as enrolling in programs or changing habits. 4️⃣ Testing and validation of product features are more effective when guided by behavioral science, ensuring changes align with actual user behaviors. 5️⃣ Designing with an understanding of psychological drivers, such as rewards and social proof, plays a crucial role in increasing engagement and retention. Loss Framed (emphasing avoidance of negative outcomes): 1️⃣ A poor user experience can often result from the lack of behavioral insight, failing to meet user expectations or needs adequately. 2️⃣ Ignoring behavioral strategies in product design can lead to lower adoption rates, as users might not be effectively motivated to take desired actions. 3️⃣ There's a risk of developing features that don't meet real user needs, termed as feature misalignment, when behavioral understanding is not applied. 4️⃣ Products or services risk reduced user engagement when applied behavioral science is not leveraged, leading to designs that may not resonate with users. 5️⃣ Product development processes can become guesswork without behavioral insights, leading to development inefficiencies and wasted resources. If you liked this post, please give it a share, or a simple comment. Insightful 💡or Love ❤️ it! #besci #productdesign #servicedesign

𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻 “ 𝗪𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁, 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 “ But, effective design requires research –– not something that takes months, but something that can be done effectively and quickly. The question always comes down to - how much research is enough? Research in design isn't just asking preferences––it's systematic inquiry. Erika Hall's book "Just Enough Research" offers useful principles: 🔍 Know your purpose Is it to explore user needs, test proposed solutions, or refine designs? Define design problems clearly. 👥 Involve everyone Designers, developers, users –– cross-functional perspectives enrich findings. Stakeholder interviews help move past biases and improve requirements. 💻 Go to users Contextual inquiry reveals how they interact with products in real-world settings. Ethnography takes culture into account. 📝 Prototype early Paper sketches, wireframes, interactive mocks –– start low-fi, keep testing, and only then use more expensive methods. 🛠️ Choose your approach carefully Base it on the design activity while addressing time and budget considerations. Task analysis can help break design tasks into discrete steps. 📊 Combine qualitative and quantitative data User interviews uncover pain points while A/B tests can optimize solutions. Use competitive audits to evaluate your design against others and usability test competitors for further insights. 🔁 Keep iterating Ongoing iterations mean continuous design improvement. 💡Research-driven design always wins! Here’s a set of super helpful visual notes from the book - https://lnkd.in/g8AH3GhB What are the best insights you’ve learned while researching for design? 👇🏼 ♻️ Share it with someone who might benefit from these takeaways or be interested in Erika Hall’s book!

A crucial aspect of UX research most junior designers overlook: They believe that research is just "talking to users." It's a method that’s seen its fair share of use, but here’s where many get it wrong: - They rely solely on small, qualitative studies. - They lack validation from quantitative data. Focus on these 3 strategies instead 👇 1️⃣ Dive deeper into the research tools Understanding both qualitative and quantitative methods tells you different stories about the same problem. → Explore different methods—surveys, analytics, behavioural data, and more. → Read case studies, analyze research papers and engage with leading UX forums. 2️⃣ Understand business needs Before planning any study, consult with stakeholders to understand the core business problems. Ask them: → What do you need to learn from this research? → How will this information impact your strategy? 3️⃣ Generate actionable insights Find the right tool for the job. Triangulating data from multiple sources to uncover new insights → Engage with your data analysts. → Integrate different data types to uncover and validate new findings. _______________ Hi there, I'm Muskan! 👋 🌱 I help engineers break into design. 📈 DM me “design” to get started!

Hey LinkedIn fam, lots of talk about UXR lately. So I want to share some insights on why UXR is an essential aspect of creating exceptional digital experiences. User Experience Research is a game-changer when it comes to understanding your target audience's needs, wants, and behaviors. It allows us to go beyond assumptions and get real insights directly from the people who use our products. By immersing ourselves in their shoes, we gain valuable perspectives that enable us to design intuitive, user-centric solutions. 💡 UXR benefits Everyone! Whether you're a product manager, engineer, marketer, or executive, UXR should be an integral part of your strategy. By involving UXR throughout the product development lifecycle, we align our decisions with real user needs, resulting in happier customers, increased conversions, and ultimately, higher business success. 💡 UXR is an investment, not an expense! Yes, conducting UXR requires time, effort, and resources. But the value it brings is immeasurable. By investing in UXR upfront, we avoid costly redesigns, reduce the risk of building the wrong features, and ensure a competitive edge by delivering products that truly resonate with our users. Unleashing the UXR Toolkit: Research Methods & Techniques 🔍 User Interviews: Engage with your users one-on-one to understand their goals, expectations, pain points, and motivations. Uncover their emotional and rational drivers behind their behaviors. 🔍 Surveys & Questionnaires: Reach a large and diverse user base to validate hypotheses, gather quantitative data, and uncover patterns to inform decision-making. 🔍 Usability Testing: Observe users interacting with our product, identify pain points, and optimize the user experience by addressing usability issues. 🔍 Analytics & Heatmaps: Harness data-driven insights to gain a deep understanding of user behavior, journey, and interaction patterns. 🔍 A/B Testing: Test and compare different variants of designs to refine and optimize the user experience. Making UXR a Competitive Advantage To succeed in today's hyper-competitive digital landscape, we need to craft experiences that resonate with our users on a fundamental level. User Experience Research gives us the tools to make data-driven decisions that align with our user's goals. By consistently iterating and improving based on their feedback, we not only build products they love but also create a loyal user base that advocates for us. 🌈 Now It's Your Turn! Let's Connect and Share 🌈 What's your experience with User Experience Research? Have you witnessed the power of insights in your projects? Let's connect and share our stories, tips, and learnings. Comment below or drop me a message. Excited to hear from you! #UserExperience #UXR #UserResearch #DesignThinking #CustomerCentric #DataDriven #DigitalExperience

An exciting update to my article on Cognitive-Behavioral Design Strategies! I've added a new section on the crucial role of empathy in understanding customers' authentic behaviors and psychological drivers. Five to Thrive™ actionable insights: 1. Cultivate empathy as a skill through perspective-taking exercises and active listening. 2. Prime your empathy by creating customer journey maps that hypothesize pain points and emotions. 3. Gather insights from diverse users to counteract individual biases and assumptions. 4. Engage customers in co-creation sessions to foster collaboration and refine concepts. 5. Use behavioral science techniques to develop and sustain empathy throughout the design process. Read the full article for a comprehensive guide on leveraging empathy to create innovations deeply rooted in customer psychology! #cognitivebehavioraldesign #empathy #customerexperience #innovationmindset #designthinking Check out the Behavioral Economics Bootcamp from Irrational Labs to integrate proven methods and frameworks to increase customer engagement and behavior change through product design. Innovate & Thrive subscribers receive a special discount: Insert code "DrJack" for $50 off!