I’ve already written about how, when I approach a design problem, I start with the assumption that “I am probably wrong.” Now I’d like to write about a way you can “test” and refine your designs without taking them to customers.
If you chuckled at the title of this post, then I don’t need to explain it to you – you know. So skip the next paragraph. If you didn’t, them, read on…
A famous sketch from the legendary Monty Python comedy team was the “I’m a Lumberjack” song, in which an inept barber expresses, in a lyrical fashion, how he really wanted to be a lumberjack, “swinging from tree to tree.” It gets progressively more absurd with each verse and… well, just watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7n5mEmXJo
So, what does this have to do with User Experience design? Well, the best way I have found to validate your designs are to look at what you have done as a tree, and you’re a lumberjack. Take a critical objective axe to your design, and try and knock it down. Even better, pull in some fellow “lumberjacks” to help with the whacking. If it’s a great design idea or approach, then it will easily withstand the cutting blade of criticism. If not, it will fall and you have no need to invest in the idea any further.
If the idea is still “standing,” then clearly define who will use the idea and how they will use it. Understand how it will be used by the target audience and how they would use it OVER TIME. Aim high. If you create a mobile app that is only used “once or twice” then it’s an offering that will not be integrated and integral to user’s lifestyles. You may be happy with casual usage, so, this may be enough. I wouldn’t be. I’d aim for a mobile app that becomes a “lifestyle” app, one that people use all the time. If you don’t have that, consider going back step number one, above.
Once you have confidence in the design idea and that it will be one that will be an integral part of people’s lives, flesh it out and mock it up. Make a functional prototype, and then formally test it. But accept that the first version won’t be right! Take the feedback to heart: revise, polish, improve. Make it better. Iterate, refine, and focus on making it the best solution you can produce.
Keep hacking away.