Google UX Design

Explore

UX Design Process

Week three

Problem Statements

Problem statements provide a clear description of the user’s need that should be addressed. To build a problem statement, you can utilize the 5 Ws framework.

The connection between pain points and problem statements

As a reminder, pain points are any UX issue or friction that frustrates the user and blocks them from getting what they need. There are four categories pain points can fall into:

Financial, or money-related pain points.

Product, which are pain points related to quality issues.

Process, which are pain points related to the user’s journey.

Support, which are pain points related to getting help from customer service.

Identifying the pain points your user is experiencing will help you find potential problems that your design can solve.

The 5 Ws and H: who, what, when, where, why, and how

The most common framework used to create problem statements is the 5 Ws and H framework. After you define the user’s pain points, you can answer who, what, when, where, why, and how to solve the user’s problem.

⁠

Who is experiencing the problem? Knowing your users and their background is key to creating successful solutions for them.

What are the pain points you’re trying to solve? Determining a user’s pain points early allows you to answer the rest of these questions and clarify the context of the pain points.

Where is the user when they’re using the product? A user’s physical context matters to your design.

When does the problem occur? Maybe it’s right after the end of a long and tedious process, or maybe it’s something that happens daily. Knowing when the problem occurs can help you better empathize with the user’s feelings.

Why is the problem important? Knowing how this problem affects your user’s experience and life will help to clarify the potential consequences.

How are users reaching their goals by using the product? Understanding how users reach their goals allows you to map the user journey that they take through your product.

⁠

Loading…⁠

⁠

A hypothesis statement is an educated guess about what you think the solution to a design problem might be. You know the challenges users are facing, so it’s time to consider how your designs can alleviate their pain points.

First, you can use the if / then format to come up with a hypothesis statement. Here are examples of if/then hypothesis statements applied to the users of the dog walker app:

If Arnold downloads the dog walker app, then they can utilize the “simplified” mode setting to view only the basic app functions.

If Tobias signs up for the dog walker app, then they will quickly and easily pick a walker that fits their schedule.

Second, you can use the we believe format to come up with a hypothesis statement. Here are examples of we believe hypothesis statements applied to the dog walker app:

We believe that a simplified mode of the dog walker app for Arnold will allow them to hire dog walkers efficiently.

We believe that easy access to available dog walkers for Tobias will increase the amount of walks they choose for their pets.

If / then statements focus directly on the needs of users. On the other hand, we believe statements take the perspective of your team into account, while remaining empathetic to the needs of users.

⁠

Determine a value proposition

Value propositions summarize why a consumer should use a product or service.

Build value propositions

Everything that your product has to offer might seem obvious to you, but you have to put yourself in the mind of your users. Users don’t know your product or understand its value yet. That’s where value propositions come in.

To start, you need to do some research in order to answer these two questions:

What does your product do? Clearly explain the offering that your product provides users.

Why should the user care? Describe how your product addresses users’ pain points.

Step 1. Describe your product’s features and benefits. Create a list of all the great features and benefits of your product, big and small. Don’t hold back; list everything that comes to mind and then narrow it down later.

⁠

Step 2. Explain the value of the product. Anything that you identify as a value proposition needs to be beneficial to your users. In this example, for the dog walker app, there were four categories of product values that were identified during user interviews: accessible, professional experience of the dog walkers, cost, and reliability. The giant list of features and benefits from step one is sorted into those four categories.

⁠

Step 3. Connect these features and benefits with the needs of your users. The goal is to identify what’s truly valuable to the user and not just a cool feature that users didn’t ask for. To determine value, take the personas you’ve developed and pair each persona with a value proposition that meets their biggest pain point.

⁠

Step 4. Review your official value proposition list. You’ve narrowed your list down of lots of benefits and features by matching them with actual user needs. Now it’s time to review the list of value propositions your product offers.

Identify your app’s unique value proposition. This means reviewing the list of value propositions that match to your personas and removing those that your competition also offers.

⁠

Psychology in UX Design

Some common human factors are: Prejudice, misjudgement, fear, impatience.

Every day, whether we know it or not, we experience examples of psychological phenomena.

The first psychological phenomena, Von Restorff effect or isolation effect, states that when multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is most likely to be remembered.

In UX design, this is why the call-to-action buttons look different from the rest of the buttons on a site or app; because we want them to stand out.

The second psychological phenomena, serial position effect, says that when people are given a list of items, they are more likely to remember the first few and the last few, while the items in the middle tend to blur.

This is why most applications and websites position the most important user actions toward the far right or far left of a top navigation bar.

The third psychological phenomena, Hick's law, states that the more options a user has, the longer it takes for them to make a decision.

In other words, if the number of choices increases, the time to make a decision increases in proportion.

As a UXer, you might think that giving your user a lot of choices enhances their experience.

But Hick's law tells us we may be making their decisions harder.

It's important for UX designers to use these different psychological principles in an ethical way.

You don't want to exploit the user. You only want to encourage them.

You don't want to overpower the user. You want to empower them.

With a little psychology, creativity, and empathy, what starts as a limitation can end up as a benefit.

⁠

Course 2 Week 3 - Glossary of terms and definitions - Google Docs⁠

⁠

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.