The Importance of Design - 7 UX Design Principles

PERSPECTIVES: THE IMPORTANCE OF DESIGN
Important design principles to help envision
and create innovative user experiences
Erik Bullen
BullHaus Ventures
January 2019
Copyright © 2019 BullHaus Ventures, LLC

Agenda
Seven important product and service design principles to help envision and
create innovative user experiences
1. The UX is not the UI
2. A product must first and foremost meet its purpose
3. Great products make AND fulfill promises
4. Make it emotional
5. Solve the right problems (by asking the right questions)
6. Make it easy
7. Use design as a strategic differentiator

Purpose of this session
To help you to envision and design meaningful digital user
experiences.

How?
By discussing and showing examples of important design
principles that contribute to creative and innovative problem
solving.

Important
Many of the examples are NOT digital solutions. The reason is
that we want to engender lateral, divergent, and convergent
thinking. It’s up to you to be creative and to apply the concepts
and ideas to the design of your digital product and/or service.

Finally
The selected design principles are neither mutually exclusive nor
collectively exhaustive. These are only a few sparks to inspire
thought and debate.

But first an important foundation
What do we mean by “User Experience”, and why is it different
from the “User Interface”?

The experience is the product
Begin with the total experience in mind. It’s the only thing that
customers care about. Then design the product and service to
suit the experience.

Experience = Feeling = Emotion

Human Behavior = Rational Thought + Emotion
(As much as we like to think that it’s the reverse)

“Everybody experiences far
more than he understands.
Yet it is experience, rather
than understanding, that
influences behavior.”
- Marshall McLuhan

The misuse of the term “Experience”
The use of the term has exploded as companies become more
design focused. However, it is also often over and misused. By
doing so, we limit our thinking to and lose sight of the pieces
that add up to making a truly great user experience.

“We’ve been testing new
experiences like suggested
videos which enables people
to discover more videos they
might be interested in. We’re
also exploring ways to give
people a dedicated place on
Facebook for when they just
want to watch videos.”
Mark Zuckerberg
CEO Facebook
Q4 2015 Earnings Call
Suggested videos is a
function that
contributes to the
experience.
Experience = Feel (an emotion)

From Envivio Verimatrix Over The Top (OTT) Content Delivery White Paper September 2010. EB: Use
QoS instead.
Technically, QoE should be called QoS,
or Quality of Service. Network
performance is a non-functional,
performance factor contributing to the
experience.

So, the UX is not the UI…

Four models to illustrate the distinction
1. Design Thinking Tripartite Perspectives
2. Pyramid of User Needs
3. Kano Model
4. The Sketch

Applying Design Thinking to Problem Solving
1. Start with the end user.
2. Look at the business.
3. Evaluate the technology.
Identify the right problem to solve. Then
design realistic and actionable solutions that
solve real problems and create market and
business value*.
Is it feasible?Is it desirable?
Business
TechnologyUser
Is it viable?
FOUNDATIONS
* There is much more to design thinking (e.g., visualization, prototyping,
exploration) but the tripartite competency model is a foundational aspect.

User Experience: The UX is not the UI
Technology factors that enable business and
design factors of the experience such as
performance, responsiveness, access on and
delivery to devices, security, etc.
User related factors such as
aesthetics; behavior; structure,
organization and discoverability of
content; other usability factors.
Business
TechnologyUser
Business factors such as market and
industry data; business model;
functionality; business rules;
procedures; organization, etc.
A Holistic View of Factors Influencing the User Experience (Experience is the end-result)
FOUNDATIONS

FOUNDATIONS
The Pyramid of User Needs
Great experiences focus
on human emotions

FOUNDATIONS
The Kano Model
(The idea doesn’t
just come from the
design world)

21 | Confidential
Credits:
Jennifer Aldrich
@jma245
Just remember this, and you’ll be fine…

DESIGN PRINCIPLE
The raison d'etre. A product or
service must first and foremost
meet its purpose.

April 4, 2015…The Promise.
The reality.
Some early smart phones. A computer in your pocket but hard to make phone call.
IDEA IN ACTION

April 4, 2015
The Promise

April 4, 2015…The Promise.
The Reality

26 | Confidential
Data about the human impact
FOUNDATIONS
Cognitive load associated with stressful situations
THE HUMAN IMPACT

REMEMBER THE USER EXPERIENCE
Maintaining the sanctity of the viewing
experience so that nothing detracts from
watching video being entertained.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE
Great design must make AND fulfill promises.
*Marketing is about making promises

THE IDEA IN ACTION
“Beauty is the first message
you give the patient, that you
consider them as equal.”
- Raul Pantaleo, Co-founder of Tamassociati (2013 Curry
Stone Humanitarian Design Prize)

DESIGN PRINCIPLE
Make it emotional. Form matters as
much as function.

THE IDEA IN ACTION
”Researchers in Japan setup two ATMs, ‘identical in function, the number of buttons,
and how they worked.’ The only difference was that one machine’s buttons and screens
were arranged more attractively than the other.
In both Japan and Israel (where this study was repeated) researchers observed that
subjects encountered fewer difficulties with the more attractive machine. The attractive
machine actually worked better.”
- Stephen Anderson, A List Apart, referencing Donald Norman’s book Emotional Design

SUPPORTING THEORY: PROCESSING FLUENCY
Processing fluency, the ease of information processing by
humans, influences many experiential factors such as
perception of effort, risk, product value, and aesthetic
pleasure (e.g., a persons attractiveness).

33 | Confidential
THE IDEA IN ACTION
Great healthcare providers
address the patient’s strongest
emotion, which is fear of the
unknown.
Kindness, listening, smiling,
caring, empathizing. Setting
expectations. High impact
and low cost for any service
experience. However, many
companies fail at these
basics.

THE IDEA IN ACTION
"We thought about buttons, but we found that to be really unsexy.
It's not an essential feeling....It was too abstract; that's not
emotional”
- Christian Knoll, Interior Designer for BMW i3

THE IDEA IN ACTION
“Other companies with dispensing machines
have focused on adding a few more buttons and
combinations of flavors.”[With Pepsi Spire],
added—you experience the infusion
of the flavor, as opposed to merely hitting a
button and out comes the finished product.
A well designed product is one you fall in love
with.
- Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo CEO

THE IDEA IN ACTION
Comparing very similar flights with jetBlue and American Airlines.
My flight with jetBlue:
☺ Same features
☺ Same outcome
☺ Delightful experience

THE IDEA IN ACTION
Comparing very similar flights with jetBlue and American Airlines.
My flight with American Airlines:
☺ Same features
☺ Same outcome
☹ Terrible experience
Too little, too late?

“DESIGN IS A FORM OF
THOUGHTFULNESS. IN
ESSENCE IT'S ABOUT
CONSIDERATION FOR
OTHERS—THEIR NEEDS,
THEIR SURROUNDINGS,
THEIR ASPIRATIONS. TO
DESIGN IS TO BE
GENEROUS.”
- KATE STOHR AND CAMERON SINCLAIR,
ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY (CURRY
STONE DESIGN PRIZE VISION AWARD 2013)

DESIGN PRINCIPLE
Solve the right problems (by asking
the right questions)

Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4
Problem Space
Don’t limit the problem space
SOLVING THE RIGHT PROBLEMS
Don’t’ immediately think about the solution to a problem. . Unfortunately, this is how many engineers and developers are
training to think. Jumping to a conclusion about what problem to solve or limiting the problem space can stifle creativity, limit
innovation, and prevent us from coming up with the best solution. It allows you to refine but not to explore.
Refinement with One Problem Space
Best possible solution to the problem.
RELATED CONCEPT: HILL CLIMBING
In computer science, hill climbing is a mathematical
optimization technique. It is an iterative algorithm that
starts with an arbitrary solution to a problem, then
attempts to find a better solution by incrementally
changing a single element of the solution. If the change
produces a better solution, an incremental change is
made to the new solution, repeating until no further
improvements can be found. Hill climbing is good for
finding a local optimum (a solution that cannot be
improved by considering a neighbouring configuration)
but it is not necessarily guaranteed to find the best
possible solution (the global optimum) out of all possible
solutions (the search space).
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_climbing

Problem Space 1
Problem Space 2
Problem Space 3
Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Iteration 3
Iteration 4
Abstract and widen your thinking
SOLVING THE RIGHT PROBLEMS
Instead, widen the potential problem space, and think about the problem first. Ask critical questions. To do so, many
methodologies and techniques exist in the design, tech, and management industries, including the traditional design process
(observation à insights à needs à opportunities à solution) and the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework.
RELATED CONCEPT: JOBS-TO-BE-DONE
Created by Clayton Christensen, author of the Innovators
Dilemma. Ask why customers “hire” your product. What
is the higher level purpose?
Further reading:
• http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/what-customers-want-
from-your-products
The best solution
Exploration with Many Problem Spaces

THE IDEA IN ACTION
The Candle Makers Conundrum
Why did candle makers go out of business after the invention of the light bulb?

DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Make it easy
Reduce complexity
Reduce choice

THE IDEA IN HISTORY
“Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai
pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.”
(“I have made this [letter] longer than usual because I
have not had time to make it shorter.”)
- Blaise Pascal, Lettres Provinciales, 1657

THE IDEA IN HISTORY
“Any intelligent fool can make things
bigger and more complex… It takes a
touch of genius—and a lot of courage to
move in the opposite direction.”
- Albert Einstein

“Any intelligent fool can make
things bigger and more
complex… It takes a touch of
genius—and a lot of courage
to move in the opposite
direction.”
- Albert Einstein
THE IDEA IN HISTORY

THE IDEA IN ACTION
“You press the button, we do the rest”
- Slogan for the first Kodak Camera (1888)

THE IDEA IN ACTION
“When you start looking at a problem and it seems really simple, you
don't really understand the complexity of the problem. Then you get into
the problem, and you see that it's really complicated, and you come up
with all these convoluted solutions. That's sort of the middle, and that's
where most people stop....But the really great person will keep on going
and find the key, the underlying principle of the problem—and come up
with an elegant, really beautiful solution that works.
That's what we wanted to do with Mac.”
- Steve Jobs in 1984, from Insanely Great, by Steven Levy

“Design can be art. Design
can be aesthetics. Design is
so simple, that's why it is so
complicated.”
- Paul Rand

THE IDEA IN ACTION
Paradox of Choice. Netflix’s strategy of personalization but
still too much choice. How do you handle both Maximizers a
and Satisfiers. Opportunity for OTT niche services.
Netflix Introduces New 'Browse Endlessly' Plan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Bm2WUYBxU

THE IDEA IN ACTION
Emperor Qin Shihuangdi and
the design of standardized,
common arrow

52 | Confidential
VW Vehicle Architecture Strategy
THE IDEA IN ACTION

DESIGN PRINCIPLE
Use design as a strategic differentiator (in
an increasingly commoditized world)

RELATED CONCEPT
Hyper Differentiation: “The art of reducing the importance of price
and the principal determinant of customer selection among
alternative goods and services.”
See “Information, HyperDifferentiation, and Delight: The Value of Being Different”; Clemmons, Spitler, Gu,
Markopoulos; Wharton, May 2003
http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/~clemons/files/delight_info_paper_v2_1.pdf

THE IDEA IN ACTION
The IPC IQMax Trading Turret
Traders are notoriously resistant to changes in their routine. The standard
adoption for new products in this sector averages 15%. In the first year, the
adoption rate for IPC IQMAX was 65%.

56 | Confidential
THE IDEA IN ACTION
The $200 Toilet Brush
Making a cheap and functional
object desirable, expensive, and
highly profitable.
The innovation is not about the
physical product but rather what
it means to the consumer.
Content such as detailed
specifications, designer notes
(J. Peterman!), care (for a
toilet brush!), multi-media
content, and trusted
customer care give the
product a back story and life;
an air of exclusivity; and
effectively create emotional
bonds.
$199 for toilet brush. Is this a
Veblen Good?
Sexy design creates
desirability and sells.
(Important: Cohesive brand
and design language across
all product lines)

Thanks!

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