Designing With Lenses: See ideas through a different design lens

What is a design lens? Why is designing with lenses so important in user experience and product development?

As we know, it’s easy to get tunnel vision, to get stuck on your perspective, to design in a silo. Design lenses help us see our product and vet product ideas through different perspectives.

Recently, I’ve been doing this in one project of my own, a re-imagination of the website for The UX Notebook.

When I start any project, I allow myself time to go into research mode. I ask a ton of questions, talk to people, and explore similar products. But I create a deadline for research. Why?

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Why You Can’t Afford to Skip User Research

When you’re designing a website or an app, you can’t assume that you know best. Sure you probably have some good assumptions about what you think will work. But to truly set yourself up for success, you must intimately understand the people who use or will use your product.

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User Research: Why it’s an investment, not an expense

Is your team investing enough in user research? When was the last time you did user research … last week, last month, last year, never?

Einstein once said: “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”

Why should we spend more time thinking about the problem than working on the solution?

Well, the answer is quite simple. The more we understand a problem, the more obvious the solution will be.

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