The iceberg underwater part: reconciliation of business goals and consumer desires

Consider a business product on the example of a block of ice drifting in the ocean. Its underwater part consists of the product idea, its goals and objectives, what we want and what users will receive, as well as the means by which this happy ending will be possible.



A frequent scenario - a business wants to make a pleasant product, consumers, in turn, simply dream of using this product, they think of something like this:
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But for some reason it turns out like this:



This happens largely because the business often does not understand what the user really wants, and when he does, he cannot always give it to him. How to avoid it?

Iceberg

Before you start designing you need to answer a few questions, the success of our enterprise depends on the correct answers, and also to determine the KPI.

For example, in the case of a media service (for example, a content project), the KPIs can be:

• Increase conversion.
• Increase viewing depth.
• Increase time spent on the site.
• N users daily.

It all comes down to the task of such services to sell advertising space on the site at the highest price.

Why are we doing this? The key phrase to answer this question: " we are making a product that ... "

In the case of a media service, goals will sound like differentiation from competitors and making a profit from the site.

The solution of the problem

Having decided on the product's task and target indicators, we proceed to the design itself. Here we need to build on the limitations of the platform with which to work. In relation to web applications, a desktop, mobile device or tablet can act as a platform. The context for using the web application is different in all three cases: if, in the case of a desktop application, it means “quiet” performance of some functions, then the mobile application is focused on solving immediate tasks, and the context of the tablet computer also implies performing immediate tasks, although more complex than using a mobile device.

You also need to take into account the factor of the target audience (housewife! = Sysadmin and give information to them in different ways), as well as the limitations of hardware and our software capabilities.

We summarize: we are determined with the idea, goals and objectives, as well as our benefit and the benefit of users. Then we apply technical means to this knowledge and we get an excellent result.

Example

A case from the practice of our company is a magazine codenamed “Omsk Hipster” (the real name of the project cannot be disclosed due to NDA), for which we have developed the site.



We define KPI, in other words, we need:

• Attract more users.
• Keep available.
• Receive advertising revenue.

Tasks had the following form:

• To facilitate the entry into the community and its specifics - it is necessary to attract new users and their “adaptation” in the thematic environment of hipsters (realtors, lawyers, programmers).
• Attract users to generate content - you need to retain users.
• Attract visitors to the site to communicate and discuss the published materials.

What, in the end, gets the business:

• Advertising platform.
• Expansion of partnerships - you can sell not only advertising in the magazine, but also the package also on the site.
• Support offline directions. Actually, feedback is also valid.

Users, in turn, receive:

• Community - all successful projects have their own audience. Example - Habrahabr and IT-community.
• Unique opportunities for communication.
• Support and advice.
• Gaining recognition.
• The opportunity to seem better than they really are.

What are the means to achieve these results? It's simple.

• We provide users with unique opportunities for communication, content creation and discussion.
• Studying the target audience helps to know her wishes.
• Using game mechanics also gives a positive result (user rating, publication rating, assigning "titles" for services on the site, etc.)
• This is, of course, aerobatics, but sometimes it is possible to achieve the effect called “group experiences”, when users manage to unite with one common goal, for the sake of which they take some action (as an example, you can take any crowdsourcing project).

For the successful implementation of the project, it is also necessary to document in detail the process of preparing for it (from the research of competitors, the target audience to conversations with customers).

In our case, when designing and creating a website for a magazine, we documented the following points (pictures of the poke open in full size):



Navigation and screen composition:



Information structure of the site:



The final concept of building a log site interface:



Just in case, you can download the schemes in one archive here .

Profit

The implementation of the project on this technology carries a number of positive "side" effects:

• Customer requirements and user desires are taken into account.
• During the interviews and documentation, we as designers managed to find a common language with the customer, and they, in turn, better understand their users.
• All project participants got an idea about the final product at the design stage, and the final result did not become “a cat in a bag” for anyone, i.e. there was no usual uncertainty for developing web projects.
• Of course, the customer had the opportunity to control the development of the product.

The thoughts voiced in this topic formed the basis of the presentation that Dmitry Mikheev from the UIDesign Group presented at the ISDEF 2012 conference.