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Uncovering design problems by asking the right questions
Let me first throw in a few questions for you to deliberate on:
Given that we are able to leverage AI to identify fake news, what criteria or parameters were considered in flagging the news and how do we communicate them in the best way to users?
If we were to design a framework for immigrants planning to live abroad, what approaches would allow such people to integrate seamlessly into society without facing discrimination.
What are some of the hurdles around ubiquitous drones that can assist farmers in monitoring agricultural health?
We’ll tackle the first question as we progress through the article.
The internet and the onset of the fourth industrial revolution have brought a unique set of challenges in the space of human-centered design. Consumer needs are evolving rapidly, as high availability of digital products and apps imply that users will jump ship towards the ones that save their time, energy and money, whilst discarding the rest. It is a whole different dimension of complexity for product designers who have to brainstorm about technologically feasible solutions that cater to the fast-moving desires of the users.
During the prototyping stage, teams experience a false sense of belief about what they think is the product ‘is gonna work’ but end up discovering it to be a bust. Mind you, it’s not because of the shiny new features that come with the package, but it's because of the nuances that are not guiding users to fulfill their goals.
I mean, what's the point of making a product if users do not relate to it, right?
So, the team goes back to the stacks of paper, scribbled with notes of the 10 or 11 volunteers you managed to interview, just to find that most of the answers follow a similar pattern. The goals are the same, the pain points also match but what is it that’s not clicking?
“What’s the underlying problem?” is a legitimate question to ask here.
The power of asking questions
The purpose of a ‘question’ in the context of product design is to uncover problems and identify business opportunities within the domain being explored. There are…
