In this episode of the Experience Design Strategy podcast, Erling discusses understanding people; ways to improve your understanding of the people who are your customers and users.
I recently visited several RV shows. As an active RV camper, I am interested not just in seeing the latest campers and gear, but in understanding how well those things work for their intended audience.
After attending RV shows, I wrote about my observations on my travel blog. You can find the posts at:
7 Innovations at the Tidewater RV Show
It got me thinking about how designers understand their customers. Do you have to be both an expert designer and full time camper to design great camping gear? Not necessarily. But you do have to observe and learn from those for whom you design. Understanding people is a key part of creating any great product.
If you don’t have easy access to your customers or don’t yet know the types of people who use your product, you might want to start with social media listening. This can help you understand the range of people using your product in different ways. Check out this presentation by David Rabjohns about his work on social media listening How Social Segments Can Improve Your Marketing Impact
Once you have a target customer or customers in mind, then learn about them. Job shadow, interview or observe. These are all good ways to better understand people.
After doing research with several people, you might start to see patterns emerging. You can use these to help build a persona. Personas are a fake person made up of common characteristics that are used to represent a customer or user. They can be really helpful to keep everyone on your team aligned during the design process. If you want to learn more about personas, you might like the post How To Create a User Persona from 99designs.
I would love to learn more about your approach to learning about customers and designing great products for them. Leave a comment to start the conversation.