How to Design Applications People LoveHow to think like an end-userAnd figure out who your end-users are

Who's My Audience?Developers?Entrepreneurs?Marketers?Designers?Anything else...?

My Intended AudienceDevelopers & Entrepreneurs

(Sorry, everyone else)Which brings me to my next point

Reality CheckIt's not easyLots of trial and errorLots of surprises

Where Do We Begin?With an ideaWhat are some of

your application ideas?

Now we have to find our audience

Finding Your AudienceWhy?

What?

How?

When / Where?

Who?

Why the “Onion Process?”

Why?

What?

How?

When / Where

Who?

Forces you to defineyour value proposition

along the way

Narrows your focus andhelps you arrive at more

accurate decisions

Outlining Our Assumptions

Outlining Our AssumptionsAssumptions are bad.What assumptions did we make about:

Why people will use our app?What people will use our app?How people will use our app?When / where people will use our app?Who will actually use our app?

Assumption Maps

Assumption 2

Assumption 1

Who?

Assumption 2

Assumption 1

Where / When?

Product DesignAssumptions Map

Assumption 2

Assumption 1

How?

Assumption 2

Assumption 1

What?

Assumption 2

Assumption 1

Why?

Testing Our AssumptionsHow do we test our

assumptions?By actually talking to

people

Talking to Potential UsersGet user input before we build anythingUse our time with users to test our

assumptions

Finding Potential Users to InterviewFriends and familyCo-workersOnline communities

Should be specific to your audienceLinkedIn InMail / Introductions

What Do We Ask Potential Users?Ask about everything in our assumption

mapIntroduce our product idea

Mock-ups are a plusGet their gut-feedback

Ask about similar products and servicesWhat do they like?What don't they like?

User Feedback IRL

The users we interview are not always rightAnd they may not always be the best

representativesTake everything with a grain of salt

If I’d asked my customerswhat they wanted, they’dhave said a "faster horse."

-Henry Ford(super-rich dude)

When Our Assumptions Are Mostly Wrong...

Start over with the onion process

Do a post-mortemWhat assumptions

lead you astray?What did you learn?What will you do

different next time?

When Our Assumptions Are in the Ballpark

Time for an MVPUse RAD

methodologies if you can get away with it

OUR APP

Better than LeBron

Prototypes, MVPs, and Alpha Testing

Prototype vs. MVP?Implement core features onlyAlpha testing

Find a small, talkative groupTest usefulness of experienceQualitative analysis

We want to know if a real product is viable

What Happens Next?If our application idea has survived thus far:

People like our idea / applicationFind the experience to be usefulOur assumptions have been reasonably tested

It might be time to start:Business planningFormal UX designBeta testing

Continuous Application Improvement Cycle

AppImprovement

Cycle

Gatherfeedback from

users

Makesimprovements,

changes

Launchapplication

Words of Wisdom

Maintain Relationships with Potential Users Throughout the Cycle

Feedback a consistent group over the lifecycle of your app = super valuable

It'll be that much easier to launch

Don't Drink the Kool-AidAlways be skeptical

of both praise and criticism of your applications

But always listen

Prepare for SurprisesHonda ElementTargeted towards

younger consumersSold in massive

numbers to...

Prepare for Surprises

Your grandparents!Average age of Element owner: 45 years oldStill a success

Maintain the 30,000 Foot View

Does your app make your users happy?

And do they think it's worth more than what they invested into it?

If you can't answer "yes," to both of these questions, then nothing else matters

Thanks for Listening!Aaron StannardTwitter: @AarononthewebBlog: http://www.aaronstannard.com/ My works in progress: http://stannardlabs.com/