User Experience / Interface Tiger Team

Understanding user’s wishes

When it comes to understanding users and their real issues, a classic dilemma is often faced: people may not know what they truly need. Henry Ford once said, ‘If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.’ This highlights a key point in user experience (UX) design: the need to look beyond users’ explicit requests to uncover their needs.

While using a form to collect feedback is essential, there might be issues related to unconscious desires and needs that people don’t realize (or simply don’t know how to express). Just like in Ford’s case, where the real desire was for faster transportation, not necessarily faster horses.

Therefore, the ‘abstract laddering’ method is used to understand the real root of the problem. The first step is the diagnostic phase, the base of the ‘ladder,’ where what is causing confusion or difficulty for the users is identified. It’s the direct description of the feedback or the issue that users are facing (specific problem).

From the specific problems, the designer seeks to understand the underlying causes of these issues. This involves asking questions like ‘Why is this a problem?’ or ‘What is causing this difficulty?’ This helps understand the true reasons why users are facing these difficulties, identifying what people want (problem abstraction).

Next, thoughts are given to what users are trying to achieve overall. This may involve their larger goals or what is important to them (broader need). Questions like ‘What do users really want to achieve?’ or ‘What is the unmet need here?’ help reach this level.

Sometimes, even further thought is given to how the problem fits into larger trends or what is known about how people behave in general.

Based on the abstract understanding of the problem, concrete changes that can be made to solve the issue are suggested. These are practical actions or design changes that can be implemented to improve the user experience (implementation).

‘Abstract laddering’ helps create solutions that not only solve immediate problems but also enhance the user experience in a more significant and profound way, leading to a more user-centered design.

Example: 

Lower level (specific problem/feedback): ‘I see two form options and don’t know which to choose.’ 

Intermediate level (problem abstraction): The confusion between two types of forms indicates a need for simplification and a better explanation of the available options. Users want to know which form is most suitable for their needs without having to guess. 

Higher level (broader need or motivation): Users desire a personalized experience that enables them to make efficient decisions without information overload or unnecessary complexity. 

Implementation (based on abstract laddering): Reduce the variety of forms and email types to one each, simplifying the choice for the user, and provide a recommendation system that guides users in configuring the form based on their specific tasks and goals.

Following this, the methodology is proposed to be applied to absolutely all items, ensuring that there is a clear view of what to do and a consistent approach to reviewing and analyzing incoming feedback.

Validating issues and improvements with the community

The community is a crucial part of the work promoted through this plan. The user experience analyses generated by each step or test of this plan will generate several suggestions for features to implement, changes in the terminology used for resources, and various other modifications aimed at improving the platform for the user. 

For each improvement proposal, the following points are crucial:

1. Ensure community have enough context for what has been done or is being attempted
2. The first validation must occur through community instead of companies’ team and each conversation must be public
3. Community may participate in the UX analysis and have access to reports if they want
4. Provide opportunities for discussion before implementing changes
5. Consider the importance of personal bias when having conversations, and ensure that all voices are given a chance to be heard in all discussions
6. Provide research information or descriptions to support proposals as appropriate

These combined points ensure a good approach, but we would like to know if the community has any ideas to make this even better. 

Creating issues or pull requests to fix validated problems and improvements

It is recognized that analysis and testing will yield valuable reference materials and recommendations to enhance user experience. 

While the UI/UX Tiger Team has some resources to move forward with this project, it is acknowledged that an individual or a single team cannot implement all these suggestions.

Therefore, it is essential to document the proposals in issues thoroughly and work in public, enabling the community to understand and contribute to the development of these functionalities or improvements, whether now or in the future, or even for other engaged companies to take on this task.

How to get involved?

We are committed to transparency and collaboration in our project. Therefore, we invite everyone to contribute their ideas and feedback on the proposed plan. Community participation is crucial for us, and together, we can ensure that the final outcome is practical, effective, and well-received by all.

Please provide your insights into this plan in the comments, any suggestions you have for improvements or changes, or even concerns.