Stop building irrelevant systems; start building for the user.

As web designers and developers we need to get in the habit of understanding the context in which regular people operate; we need to understand the relationship between what is being made, and what is needed.

Web directions was held in Sydney last week and I was fortunate enough to attend one of the talks presented by Dan Hon, Content Director for Code of America.

Hon’s talk was titled “An internet for humans, too” the idea that we should be building for the other humans to use.

The web industry is full of innovative and clever platforms; whether they are used for banking, social or shopping, these platforms generally provide the user with a solution to a problem. These systems are flexible, easy to use and intuitive.

However, more often than not, many of these platforms were built with no context of usability in mind.

Hon spoke about “Designing an internet of things that’s for humans means understanding what the empathy gap is. It’s the gap in understanding between an organization and its audience.”

“Designing an internet of things that’s for humans means understanding what the empathy gap is. It’s the gap in understanding between an organization and its audience.” 

It’s important that we take a step back in the early stages of a project, and think about who will be using the platform, and what the users motivations are; we need to be solving problems, not just building features.

Before we even begin thinking about the build phase of a project, we should be validating our assumptions, and testing against users.

We believe adopting the principles of Lean UX in the first stage of any project will ensure that the end product resembles what the users wants, not just what we think they want.

The Lean UX process is relatively simple in concept; declare assumptions >> Develop the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) prototype >> learn through user testing >> and iterate. The MVP lifecycle; build, measure, learn.

You can pretty rapidly gather valuable insight into a project and solve the problem the user would like and actually needs.

lets close the gap, and start understanding people.

The more time we spend with users – the better the end solution will be.  It’s important that we value the users time; do it quickly, simply, and engage; lets close the gap, and start understanding people.

It will cost less money in the long run, if we make stuff work and do it properly the first time.