Dirk Knemeyer: A Design Framework for Meeting Human Needs and Desires
Posted on January 14, 2008 by Christian Drehkopf
Not quite new stuff but still true. Dirk gives us a great view how designers should doing research if they using their tools for uncovering behaviors and unmet needs of their audience. Of course this may not be the only way of creating classifications and there are truly other well working alternatives. But! And there is a big but!
The design community keeps making a lot of noise about designing for people/users/customers. However, while this notion is well-intentioned and even conceptually correct, I find much of it boils down to empty rhetoric. What exactly are we doing? More user research? More usability testing? Certainly these are valid approaches to finding out about people’s needs, but they’re only a small part of an optimal solution. Are we using hollow tasks and tools like personas and scenarios? Those approaches typically take design farther away from the people for whom we are designing products rather than closer. How about focusing on usability and the user experience? That gets at only part of the issue and tends to come from the perspective of the product—as opposed to the more universal needs and desires of actual people.
No. The methods most UX professionals typically use today are, at best, incomplete and, at worst, without any meaningful focus. There is not a successful, established approach and framework for closely linking the real-world needs and desires of our potential customers into the DNA of product strategy and development. Sure, there are various examples of the integration of users’ needs and product strategy being successfully accomplished in some cases, but they are more the outcome of clear vision and talented design than an intentional, strategic product architecture that really accommodates people’s needs.
So, let’s step back for a minute and think about the problem of user-centered design from a different perspective. Typically, we boil users’ needs and desires down to only those that are most obvious and complementary to the company, product, brand, or communication we are designing. This is especially true for product design, where we often translate needs and desires into issues of usability: “They want it to be quick and simple!” “They want it to look good!” But these product goals have little to do with the real needs and desires of actual users. In advertising design, the messages and positioning in communications at least attempt to appeal to higher-order needs and desires—for example, Just Do It, Impossible Is Nothing, Dream Big—albeit often as a mechanism of simply selling product as opposed to really connecting in more holistic ways.
“We can engage customers through very thoughtful and intentional design that deeply considers the needs and desires of people—independently of the business and strategic goals that usually define the products we design.”
Interestingly, for the most part, the companies that do the best job of appealing to real needs and desires are those whose products are most closely aligned with our health and personal appearance. Consider Aveda, whose mission statement is: “To care for the world we live in, from the products we make to the ways in which we give back to society. … We strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility—not just in the world of beauty, but around the world.” Aveda extends this mission to the way their brand experience manifests in the marketplace, with a consistent focus on the overall well-being of both their customers and the overall environment. Indeed, the Aveda strategy manages to deliver an improved lifestyle to customers through their products and services, while their business and operational model addresses green issues that further satisfy their clientele’s desire for a more eco-friendly world.
Of course, not all companies and products have it as easy as Aveda does. In the personal health and wellness industry, Aveda delivers packaged products and services that are high touch and intimately important to their customers’ daily personal lives. But engaging people at a deep and meaningful level does not necessarily require a core business charter and strategy like that of Aveda. We can engage customers through very thoughtful and intentional design that deeply considers the needs and desires of people—independently of the business and strategic goals that usually define the products we design. By approaching our problem-solving from a user-centered perspective and dovetailing that viewpoint with the more traditional, task-focused design approaches we typically employ, we can achieve and enjoy a resonant advantage over our competitors in the marketplace.
Read the full article on:
www.uxmatters.com
