UX for Business: How to Design Valuable Digital Companies

Copyright
Table of Contents
Preface
The What
	The Right Thing
		How Do You Know You’re Designing the Right Thing?
		UX Is a Process: Humans Are the Constant
		UX Is a Process: Business Is Always Different
		The VDP Framework for UX in Real Life
	Value
		V = Value
		User Needs + Business Needs = Value
		Value Is User First, Business Second, and Always Both
		OK, but Seriously, What Is a Business Model?
		Value for the User, Not Lingo for the UX People
		Efficiency: Do More with Less
		Entertainment: Good Feelings
		Value for the Business: Efficiency
		Value for the Business: How Does It Grow?
		Great. So, What Are You Making?
		Let the Business Model Guide You
		Value Summary
	Diagnosis
		“We Tried That; It Didn’t Work”
		Allow Me to Introduce Diagnostic Design
		Imagine a Doctor
		Now Imagine Like  a Doctor
		Take a History: Context Is Everything
		Ask Basic Questions First: Who, What, When, Where, Why
		Identify Symptoms
		How Do Symptoms Change Over Time?
		Make a List of Symptoms
		Find Clusters of Symptoms
		Formulate the Problem
		Test to Confirm (Ideally, with Real Users)
		Hypothesis + Positive Test Result = Diagnosis
		You Are the Doctor; Your Designs Are the Patients
		Diagnostic Design Comes with a Lot of Big Benefits
		Diagnostic Design Is Battle-Tested
		On a Personal Note...
		Diagnostic Design, in Summary
	Probability
		Don’t Be Lucky; Be Smart
		All Things Being Equal, What Will a User Click?
		Probability Intuition: You Can’t Do the Second Thing Before You Do the First Thing
		Effort and Time Both Work This Way
		Incentives (Motivations) Also Work This Way!
		“Yeah, but Who Would Do That?”
		UX Is a Numbers Game
		Data + Understanding Probability = Insights
		More Users, More Predictable
		Probability Is How We Optimize
		Design Is Redesign: Your Second Try Is Often Luckier Than the First
		There Is a Lifetime of Nuance to This
		Probabilistic Design, in Summary
	VDP: Put It All Together
		Make It Work, Make It Right, Make It Scale
		Value, Diagnostics, and Probability Work Together
	Quick Detour: Advice
		Most Advice Is Bad Advice
	A Simple Button
		A Button Is One of the Simplest Things to Design. Or Is It?
		It’s Just a Button. How Hard Can It Be?
		Is a Button the Right Answer?
		Take a History: What Does This Button Do?
		Constructive Buttons Add Value
		Constructive Buttons Need Higher  Probability
		Special Buttons: Constructive Buttons That Are Make-or-Break
		Destructive Buttons Reduce Value
		Destructive Buttons Need Lower  Probability
		Appropriate Friction
		Ethical Note
	A Modal
		No Button Is an Island
		Constructive and Special Modals Need Higher  Probability
		Destructive Modals Need Appropriate Friction
	A Page
		Let’s Combine a Few Design Clusters into a Whole Page
		Take a History: What Does This Page Do?
		Take a History: A Lead Generation Page
		Take a History: Pricing Page
		You Know Too Much
		Prioritize the Clicks You Prefer
		Scrolling Is Navigation
		Protip: Looking Versus Seeing
		It Is Hard to Stop Scrolling!
		Visual Hierarchy
		Use Visual Hierarchy to Control Probability
		Design Good Comparisons
		Be Ethical When You’re Designing Choices
	A Flow
		One Type of Information Architecture: A Flow
		Conversion
		Take a History: What Is the Purpose of This Flow?
		Design Is a Two-Way Conversation
		A Flow Includes Time
		Design Each Flow for What It Does
			Optional or Required?
			Get the Valuable Stuff First!
			How Familiar Are the Questions?
			Speed or Accuracy? 
			Information or Conversions?
			How Necessary or Valuable Is It, for the User?
			Easier Steps or Fewer Steps? 
			How Often Will the User Do This Flow?
			Are You Just Getting Input, or Are Users Making Choices?
			Is It Long?
			Are There Legal, Financial, or Security Risks?
		How Should We Measure a Flow?
	Quick Detour: Redesign
		Design Is Redesign
		Reasons to Design More Than One Version of the Same Thing
		Should Everything Be Responsive?
		Consistency Isn’t Always a Good Thing (Functional Inconsistency)
		Brand Isn’t UX
		A/B Testing Is Science, Not Guessing
	A Structure
		Another Type of Information Architecture: Structure
		Build Structure Around Value, Not Semantics
		Probability Should Define the Structure
		Don’t Stop Yet! Leaving Is Still an Option.
		Analytics: Diagnose Structures as a System
		A Three-Screen Banking App
		We Also Need Settings
		Diagnosis: This Is an Efficiency App
		Probability: Make It More Efficient
		Another Structure: A Three-Page Portfolio Site
		Is a Portfolio Efficiency or Entertainment?
		Diagnosis: Users Only See One Project?!
		Probability: Why Only That Project?
		Why Does a Loop Work?
		Little Loops Become Big at Scale
	A Simple Business
		Let’s Start with an Ecommerce Site
		Understand the Brand!
		Value 1: Browsing and Finding Products
		Value 2: Buying Products
		Aim for Perfection
		Be Quantitative and  Qualitative
		Think About More Than One Visit
		Think in Comparisons
		Use Probability to Sell More
	Content-Heavy Products and Services
		Content Is the Purpose
		Revenue Without Conversion
		Page Views as a Priority
		Time-per-Visit as a Priority
		Diagnosis: Balancing User Value and Business Value
		Conflict: User Value Versus Business Value
		Another Conflict: Paywalls Versus Ads
		Observe Long-Term Trends
		Probability: Your Best Content and Users
	A More Complicated Structure
		Most Real Products and Services Are Not Simple
		When a Site Is Big, Structure Is Very Important
		What Should Be in the Main Menu?
		Information Density
		Put the Business Value Near the User Value
		Don’t Get That Backward!
		Navigate All the Things: Shortcuts Are Powerful
		Search, Menus, Scrolling, Dynamic Content...It’s All One Thing
	Search as Navigation
		Search Is Just a Sophisticated Menu—Or Not
		Google Is the Internet’s Main Menu
		Bad Search Can Be Worse Than No Search
		Good Search Can Add a Lot of Value
		Search Is Hard to Predict: Data Is Your Friend
		Search Should Have a Purpose
		Probability: Order Things with Data
	Marketing-Driven Versus Revenue-Driven Products
		Too Much Agency Work Can Warp Your Sense of Value
		Brand Value or Business Value?
		The Purposes Are Different
		The Real Difference Is in the Inputs and Outputs
	Quick Detour: Competitive Advantages
		Real Competitive Advantages Are Long-Term
	A Marketplace
		Complex Products and Services Are More Than the Sum of Their Features
		Supply and Demand as Products
		Marketplaces Make Money in Specific Ways
		Diagnosis: How Do Users Look for Each Other?
		Diagnosis: What Percentage of Users Find a Match?
		Diagnosis: What Else Do Users Need to Make a Decision?
		Cheaters Gonna Cheat
		Probability Kills a Lot of Marketplaces
		Marketplace Design Should Increase Probability, Radically
		Probability Is in the Nature of a Marketplace
	B2B Software: SaaS, PaaS, Etc.
		What Is B2B?
		B2B Versus B2C Versus B2B2C
		B2B and B2C in General
		Welcome to Sales-Driven UX!
		Buyers Versus Users
		What Are You Selling, Really?
		Design for What You Really Sell
		Self-Service Versus Sales
		What Does the Company Buy to Make What the Customers Buy?
		Revenue Models: How  Customers Pay Is Make-or-Break
		Impulse Purchase or Highly Considered Budget?
		Protip: Design Around Credit Card Limits
	Social Networks and Communities
		Users Are the Product
		Human Connection as a Feature
		Free Things Can Make a Lot of Money...Eventually
		What Are Network Effects, Really?
		Virality Multiplies All of Your Choices Exponentially
		A What-Not-to-Do Example: Clubhouse
		How You Monetize Determines Your Problems
		Social Incentives Are Powerful Weapons
		Don’t Wave That Thing Around; It’s Loaded!
		Why Algorithms?
		The Probability of Content Creation and Consumption
		Why Most Companies Kill Their Own Communities
	Games and Gamification
		Deep Game Design Is Beyond the Scope of This Book
		Games Are Entertainment, Not Efficiency
		Quantified Feelings: Games in a Nutshell
		Gamification
		The First Taste Is Free
		Difficulty Is a Feature
		Match the Business Model to the Structure of the Game
		Diagnosis and Probability Depend on the Game
	Internal Tools
		Captive Users
		Understand What Makes Money, Not Just User Requests
		Internal Tools Should Increase Your Capacity
		Avoid the Temptation to Prioritize Yourself
		Protips: Reliable Symptoms
		Data Without Significance: Not Enough Users
	Machine Learning, AI, and Data Products
		AI Is the New Black
		Think: New Speed, Not New Knowledge
		Data Doesn’t Always Mean AI
		Data for What?
		Data Quality Is a UX Problem Too
		Visualizing Data
		Controlling and Confirming Bias
		If You Aren’t Comfortable with Numbers, Don’t Take the Job
		User Research About Data Is Data!
		Does Anybody Even Want the Truth?
	Ecosystems
		What Is an “Ecosystem”?
		Probability Still  Defines Structure!
		VDP Still Applies!
		Strategy: What Kind of Ecosystem Do You Need?
		Brand Ecosystem
		Ecosystem Value Can Be Very Indirect
		A Note About Strategy
	Meta Design: Design According to Your Problems
		“Your Process” Isn’t One Process. Be Flexible.
		Only Consider Solutions You Have Researched First
		Dogfooding: The Best Research Method Nobody Uses
		Dogfooding Should Be Uncomfortable
		Don’t Pass the Buck
	How to Prioritize
		VDP Is a Great Way to Prioritize Your Work
		The Value of a Feature
		V Then D Then P
	Design in Different Situations
		Designing with No Budget
		Designing with a Huge Budget
		Designing with a Tight Deadline
		Designing with No Deadline
		Designing with Total Freedom
		Designing with Strict Limitations
		Designing with Painful Legacy
		Designing for Growth Versus Revenue
		Designing from Scratch
	VDP Cheat Sheet
		Value Creation
		Diagnostic Design
		Probability
The Who
	Company Culture Versus You
		It’s Not You, It’s Them (Probably)
		“How Do I Persuade Stakeholders?”
		You Don’t Have to Explain Everything
		“Choose the Hill You Want to Die On”
	Working in Different Companies
		UX at Startups
		UX at Big Companies
		UX as a Team of One
		UX in a Big Team
		UX at Regulated Companies
		UX at Public Companies
		UX for a Famous Brand
	Quick Detour: Documents
		Why I Haven’t Focused on Documents in This Book
		Everybody Focuses on Documents!
		Some Quick Notes About Communicating with Documents
	Working with Different Stakeholders
		Everybody Can’t Do UX
		The Benefits and Conflicts of Working Together
		UX Versus Sales
		UX Versus Marketing
		UX Versus Product
		UX Versus Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
		UX Versus Developers
		Why Coders Love “Agile” and UX Designers Don’t
		UX Versus Customer Support
		UX Versus UX
		UX Versus UI
		UX Versus Project Managers
		UX Versus Finance
		UX Versus Leadership
	Working with Users
		User Research in Real Life
		Your Biggest Results Will Come from Good Research
		I Often Start with Data, Not Users
		Why Complicated Methods Are Usually Worse
		The Exception: High Volumes of Users
		Accessibility
		Protip: Make Users Comfortable First
		Observation
		Surveys
		User Tasks
		User Interviews
		Focus Groups (and Why They Suck)
		Don’t Help Users
		Everybody Lies
		User Testing with External Services
		A/B Testing
	Working with Yourself
		We Are Human
		How to Convince Stakeholders: Another Perspective
		The Right Thing Versus Your Favorite Thing
		Make Things Easier for Users, Not Yourself
		Discovery Versus Research
		Research Theater Is Bad for Everyone
		Treat Causes, Not Symptoms
		You Can Have Too Much Empathy
		“A Paying Customer Wants a Stupid Feature. What Should We Do?”
		Pragmatism Should Always Win
		No Research and No Strategy = Random Decisions
		Design Like You Own the Place
Index
About the Author