Defining Your Problem
I am learning more and more that in order to solve for a problem, you have to have a very clear definition on what exactly that problem is. A lot of times I will jump into a solution far too quickly, only to hit a brick wall or produce a slump solution, all because I never clearly defined the problem I was trying to solve. Asking the ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ is vital to truly identifying the best options.
If you are having trouble finding a solution then you haven’t clearly defined the problem.
For cyber Monday this year I bought a class on Udemy called the UX Web Design Master Course. It was a good refresher on a lot of basic concepts and high level thinking when it comes to user experience design. I think with any problem, I find myself starting work much too fast. Here is a few things I pulled from the course, and I created a template from the class notes. Currently, I am using the template to redesign my portfolio site once again!
Questions:
- What are we creating?
- Why are we doing this?
- What should the site accomplish?
- How does it fit into the business strategy?
- Who is it for?
- User/Target audience?
- Visit, use or buy?
- Stakeholders?
- What value does it provide? To user and owner?
- What is worth doing?
Importance VS feasibility
- What technology is already in place?
- Who is the competition?
- How do we differ?
- Direct or indirect
- List top 5
- Differences? Why?
- How will you differentiate yourself?
- How will Success be measured?
“Can’t be measured, Can’t be achieved.”
- Stakeholder Business objectives?
- Desired outcomes?
- B2B or B2C?
- Industry common/best practices?
- Requirements?
- Terminology?
- Voice/Design?
- Biz or service processes
- Brand or position
- Ratio of ‘Show’ to ‘Tell’