> Go sit in an uncomfortable chair, in an uncomfortable location, and stare at an uncomfortably small screen with an uncomfortably outdated web browser. How easy is it to use the websites you’ve created?
It's so easy to get disconnected from the real-world applications of our technology. Build user empathy.
My favorite example of this was when I worked on a B2B product with a daily email report. We noticed the most common usage of this email report came from native iOS email clients first thing in the morning.
As a test, my team all went home and practiced being the user. We had a test email sent to our email addresses we would open first thing in the morning and attempt to make sense of it while laying in bed.
The result was a lot less cruft, bigger text, and key takeaways above the fold.
I love examples like this, I hope you don't mind me tagging on my own.
Our team was doing in home interviews for a TV product. One of the customers subscribed to an expensive sports service and yet barely ever watched it.
When we probed it was because her two sons had left home in the last year and she knew they would come home when a game was on if she had the service. She said that she wish she knew when big/popular games would be coming up so she could invite them around and see them more often.
We trialed a fortnightly email newsletter for people that were subscribed but not very active. And saw a decent uptake in viewing almost immediately.
Years ago I noticed that when I was hungry and tired, I would notice just how much bad design got in the way of completing a task. Things that I would work around easily when I was well-rested and sated all of a sudden became incredibly frustrating. Unclear instructions, or buttons that were hard to find, or error messages that were inscrutable suddenly became very obvious.
I posited that it would be an interesting user test to have someone who was in an irritable mood try to use your product. I've never actually done this, and I still think it would generate interesting feedback.
> Go sit in an uncomfortable chair, in an uncomfortable location, and stare at an uncomfortably small screen with an uncomfortably outdated web browser. How easy is it to use the websites you’ve created?
It's so easy to get disconnected from the real-world applications of our technology. Build user empathy.