No one can resist the power of time, you can blame its heartless, can also praise it to give, in the process of growing up, we are looking for not what time brings us, but what I have experienced in the process. The latter is what we need to ponder and be grateful for.

As with “user experience,” many people judge whether a product’s user experience is good or bad. But “good” and “bad” are only conclusions of the whole, ordinary people can say these two words. But as a designer, you have to know what’s good and what’s bad, and why it’s good and why it’s bad.

Just like storytelling, people who have actually read a book don’t just say, “This book is too good/bad.” He must have had a feeling, even if it was just a sentence.

Let’s enter the translation.

Since it is to improve the “user experience”, we have to go through the experience with the user, in order to have a basis for optimization.

Typically we establish a user experience path that aims to understand the user’s motivations, concerns, and needs. In order to improve the user experience, users must be invited to participate in the design process of the experience path.

When users use a product, most of them only want to complete some task, so in this process, users may only use some functions, or they may use all functions.


Therefore, do not limit the design of the experience path to specific products or functions, but to understand the complete user experience path, and conduct targeted inspections to improve product usability together with users.

Involve users in the product design process

The real user experience path requires the participation and interaction of different users, whether one-to-one discussions or focus groups, and requires a large amount of data to draw real conclusions.

Any attempt, hypothesis, data that is not based on research reports will make it largely theoretical. Therefore, we must objectively analyze which link in the path can be further optimized through the different experience conclusions of different users.

Communication with your users is key, and with their help, it’s easy to find points to improve your experience.

Because users’ emotional fluctuations and expressions of happiness, satisfaction, doubt, disappointment and regret cannot be accurately reflected in the report, designers should pay attention to these user feedback, including the interaction scenes can make designers resonate, and design and optimize functions through empathy.

However, no product or feature service can satisfy all user needs in the process, so understanding the need points that emerge at each stage, as they evolve into different factors, allows us to understand how the product can better serve users’ lives.

Again, there is no magic bullet that will positively change the user experience, but through constant engagement with the user. You might say it’s hard to have a direct conversation with your users, so it’s okay to collect information through customer service follow-up, customer feedback, etc.

In case you haven’t fully understood by now, let me give you an example.

Unpacking – User experience journey

Let’s take an example of a travel platform that is used by a variety of people and business travelers, including vacation packages such as flights, hotels, taxi rentals, and so on.

In order to give you a deeper understanding of the experience path, and better understand our users, let’s also do a dismantling of the traveler experience path. The diagram below:


This path will provide a comprehensive understanding of users’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as they go through different stages, helping to fill in the gaps in our path and help us better design our products.


Plan to travel

What do designers think users think when planning a trip?

  • Purpose: rest, vacation, business trip;
  • A shortlist of destinations, check the distance and time to reach the destination;
  • Travel options: plane, train, bus, cruise, self-driving;
  • Check hotel locations and reviews;
  • Assess travel costs (e.g., flights, hotels, etc.);
  • Functions can be cancelled (such as booked flights, hotels, etc.);

User perspective

Through the follow-up, return visit and feedback with users, it can help us understand the real thoughts in our hearts, and help us enhance and simplify the user experience.

  • Offer as much as possible when conditions permit;
  • Frequent travelers will voluntarily pay more for the best seat on a plane;
  • Families who travel want to know about fun children’s activities at their destination.
  • Display travel packages that fit a user’s custom budget;
  • Help users estimate travel costs;
  • Provide evaluation information for users to judge (friends, booking platforms, Facebook, etc.);

A special case

Is the product equipped to handle special situations?

  • Postponing travel plans due to personal reasons;
  • Unfavourable weather or other conditions at destination;

Can we help users better deal with these situations? By providing timely information on the weather conditions of the destination, alternative travel plans or suggestions for similar destinations, etc.

Then through the disassembly of the first content, we can find that this point can do a lot of functions. Moreover, these features can be prioritized and can be actively promoted by the designer to increase the value of the designer. Function to go check the importance of believe you also see. So let’s continue.


To complete the booking

It’s time to decide where to go, when to go, how to travel, and where to stay. (Again, designer perspective)

  • An orderly and intuitive booking experience;
  • Secure and smooth payment process, including multiple payment channels;
  • Confirmation details of travel patterns, including driving directions and help hotline numbers;
  • Hotel confirmation: room details and hotline;

User perspective

  • Confirmation directly from airlines/hotels is more valuable than confirmation from travel agents;
  • Destination guides (videos, weather, clothes, tips, things to do, culture, etc.);
  • Proposed travel routes;
  • Emergency helplines (which should be able to be reached in a timely manner if the customer calls during the booking process);

A special case

  • Reservation not confirmed, payment processed;

Travel and Hotels

The designer considers the needs of the user.

  • Comfortable travel experience (on-time flight, etc.);
  • Check into the hotel, quick check-in;
  • Clean, convenient and well-lit rooms (especially beds, toilets);
  • Experience local cuisine and culture;
  • WiFi coverage;
  • Clean and tidy means of transport such as taxis;
  • Sharing photos with family and friends in real time;
  • Allocate your time wisely;

User perspective

  • Actively track users’ trips to ensure everything goes well (send reminders, confirm with the hotel);
  • Destination guides (events, local traffic, weather, clothes, tips, things to do, etc.);
  • Local restaurants/shopping vouchers/discounts, etc.

A special case

  • Flight delays or cancellations;
  • Medical emergencies;
  • Credit card overdraft;

Journey and Return

Memories and gains from the journey.

  • Share updates and photos on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/WhatsApp;
  • Share experiences with family and friends;
  • Recall the local cuisine;
  • Experience is inconsistent with expectations before travel, over-hyped;
  • Flight and hotel services;
  • Comment on the journey as a whole;

User perspective

  • Reminders to bring essential medicines;
  • Help advance your travel budget;
  • On foreign exchange conversion;
  • Local medical advice;

A special case

  • How to exchange the rest of the money; (e.g. overseas travel)
  • A refund.
  • Luggage lost;

Through the above disassembling explanation, we can see the importance of experience path for functional design. Designers must not think subjectively that “you are the user”, but analyze the needs of users to design more reasonable functions.

summary

Designers need to constantly improve the user’s experience path model, because it will evolve and make the product better and better, rather than just thinking, “I’ve done this product”.

So why is user experience a process? Because it is always changing, so as a designer also need to continue to self-value, in order to keep up with the pace of product iteration, the development of The Times.

Thanks for reading 🙂

END.

By Anand D

Link: uxdesign. Cc/ux – is – all – a…