January Product Design Recap

This recap is a kick-off for 2024. It's about the separation of the UX and UI, and that UI really matters in your products. Some thoughts about designing intuitive products without creating user manuals, B2B product's complexity, and using our intuition and gut feeling in product design. Wrapping up with a crucial principle: Think Big, Start Small, I learned at Intercom.

It is impossible to separate UX from UI

It is impossible to separate UX from UI and vice versa. And I genuinely don’t understand stand-alone jobs like UX designers (don’t be confused with UX researcher; it’s a different one) or UI designers.

I’m absolutely confident that companies that separate these jobs break the product and entire customer experience. For our users, there is no distinction between functionality and visuality. They use a product (an app, website, or any other piece of software) and don’t think with categories of UX or UI. If something doesn’t work, it means a poor experience and product for them, affecting the entire company, reputation, etc.

So why did we decide to separate these roles? Is it just because some designers have more strengths in UX and others in UI? I’m pretty sure that good design leaders can train and build teams with diverse skills and thereby strengthen a product and overall customer experience.

Any thoughts on why these roles should be separated? Drop them in the comments.

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UI matters

I want to extend the controversial topic of UX vs UI, which I started earlier this week, with more thoughts about why UI matters for product design, especially for B2B solutions.

1?? Aesthetic-Usability Effect. Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that's more usable ??. It means that "ugly" interfaces usually have a poor UX as well.

If you ask how to measure "ugliness", there is a simple set of rules graphic and visual designers use. These are rules of composition, alignment, balance, contrast, repetition, proximity, hierarchy, scale, colour, typography, grids, movement, unity/harmony. All these things are measurable. As product designers, we must know these rules and use them.

Unfortunately, many UX/UI design courses nowadays don't teach all of them and are limited just to composition, typography and colour theory.

2?? We impact the culture by surrounding our users with more aesthetically pleasing digital products. For instance, fashion, architecture, car design, etc. They don't serve functionality solely (the world would be extremely boring in this case). They impact the visual perception, as well.

As designers, we have the tools and knowledge to do this with digital products. We can create more beautiful things in the world, more beautiful interfaces, and leave a nice footprint in the history of product design.

3?? User Engagement and Retention. A very tangible and measurable thing. Visually appealing products can increase user engagement and impact growth metrics like retention. Of course, we can use UX mechanics to control engagement. But we can't do it completely without UI. It's impossible.

4?? Reduced learning curve. It's interesting because it's essential for B2B software where efficiency and productivity are at the top of the requirements. It can help simplify onboarding, learning how to use your product, memorising some new patterns, etc.

5?? Emotional connection. An engaging UI can create an emotional connection with users. When they find joy and satisfaction in interacting with the interface, it fosters a positive association with the product and brand. Apple products are one example. Users can even forgive some mistakes with UX when there is a solid emotional connection.

The modern product development world is very focused on UX. We shouldn't forget about UI because it really matters. And as designers, we are able to change this.

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Intuitive Interfaces: the no-manual approach

I deeply believe that digital products that require manuals or tutorials to learn how to use them are poorly designed.

This usually relates to B2B, SaaS and other complex solutions. This type of product usually has a lot of complex functionality and algorithms under the hood, so the easiest way of solving the problem is to create a manual about how to use the interface.

I had a lot of experience in B2B, and faced multiple examples when the team created a very complex interface; during the usability tests, they validated that it was hard for users to use it, and the team created a manual or guidelines describing every step users had to perform.

As product designers, we must create straightforward digital products. Don’t make your users think. There is even a book by Steve Krug, “Don’t make me think”, describing this approach.

So, designers, test yourselves. If your newly designed product requires a manual, it is a strong signal that something was designed wrong.

P.S. Of course, there might be exclusions, as always, from any rule. These thoughts are based on my experience with Fintech and SaaS B2B solutions.

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Don't make B2B products complex

We usually consider B2B products as something highly complex and hard to use. But is it really so? The answer is no. They’re complex because we made them complex.

People who use these systems and products have context, knowledge and experience. For them, it’s not as complex as it is for a product designer. And that’s one of the reasons why we should speak to our customers. Always. Because they are the users and have knowledge and expertise about the field.

But are these products supposed to be complex to use? No. They have a lot of functionality inside, and this is a design problem: how to arrange everything and create a seamless UX while still managing good quality UI.

So, I encourage all product designers who deal with B2B products and different SaaS systems not to make them more complex than they are. We have our creativity and can create better solutions for our users ??

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Intuition in Product Design

Intuition and gut feeling for product designers: is this something we can use? Or should everything we create be based on evidence and rationale?

There are probably 2 groups of product designers. Those who think everything should be tested, and those who dare to use their gut feeling.

I personally belong to the last one. I think designers can and should use their intuition for product development. And here is a breakdown of why I think so.

1?? After a certain time (approximately after ~3 years of experience), product designers started gaining expertise level. It means they could know how things work just because they know it. The more experience designers have with different projects, the more expert they are.

Of course, it shouldn’t be applied to every design solution. Definitely not. But expert-designers can create something based on their feelings.

2?? There are common patterns of user behaviour. These patterns are the same across various products and even platforms.

- Swipe down on the image will close it

- Zoom in and zoom out with your pinch.

- Etc.

And designers know these patterns work without additional research, usability tests or metrics.

3?? Unlike a previous one, being brave enough to design something completely new can also be rewarding. Design intuition can drive innovation and boost any product. In a product team, designers are those who, more than others, are responsible for creativity. And we can use our superpower.

We shouldn’t just solve customer problems. We should aim to exceed customer expectations to create a truly outstanding product.

__________

Of course, I’m not encouraging you to follow the above steps mindlessly. They are one of the options. We should always consider the context, product environment, economic situation on the market, and other indicators.

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If our designs don’t reach its customers, the value of these designs is zero

Unfortunately, if our designs don’t reach its customers, the value of these designs is zero. And they mean nothing more than a Figma file. But of course, there are exemptions. And I’d like to share one below.

I hope we all know how important it is to ship our designs rather than just collect concepts and impressive interactions. This is the real measure of success: a working product our customers use. But it’s very helpful to use our creativity and create concepts to find a real solution.

My example goes back to the time when I worked in the bank, creating B2B Fintech solutions. We had a goal to make the internet bank better. Of course, no business or stakeholder could accept the goal of redesigning the internet bank. So, we found more specific and concrete goals:

• Improve interactions and selling banners on the main page.
• Find a new scalable solution to add data from different products to the main page.
• Create a new flexible layout to allow customisation.

These goals helped to run a workshop where designers created a bunch of different concepts. And while these concepts were never shipped, they worked as an inspiration and foundation for some future solutions.

Many times after, we returned to this Figma file to get an idea, validate it, use a part of a solution, try to enhance it and create something new. It was beneficial in expressing our creativity and creating concepts that served us later.

Do you have similar examples? I’m keen to hear about them in the comments.

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Think Big, Start Small

One of the best product and design principles I learned is being used by Intercom: Think Big, Start Small. Before generating ideas and features, apply this principle to build a foundation for your product solution.

When you have your problem statement, start thinking as big and broad as possible to define the vision and strategy for your potential solution. It should involve many factors, like

• the system of connected products and features
• the goal of the product
• company mission & vision
• business goals
• customer feedback
• market research
• and even more

Then, you can start narrowing everything down and creating the first version/iteration/MVP (whatever you call this). Ensure that you're solving customer problems and making outcomes for the business.

This approach helps to ship a solution very quickly and, at the same time, to have space for scalability and future iterations with the product.

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