In order to better formulate design goals, we need to deeply understand the underlying logic of design, and this article will deeply analyze the source of design goals and how to formulate them to enhance the design value.
1. Basic concepts related to design objectives
A clear design goal is particularly important in a design task. The design strategy is formulated through the goal, and the design method and strategy are evaluated by observing the design indicators.
Let's take a look at the basic concepts involved: design goals, design strategies, design methods, and design indicators, all of which play an integral role in the design process.
- Design goal: the starting point and end point of the design work, which clarifies the effect and expected results we want the design to achieve.
- Design strategy: The path and method to achieve the design goal.
- Design methodology: The specific operation and expression we use in the design process.
- Design index: It is the standard and scale to measure whether the design results meet the expected goals.
Taken together, they are interrelated and mutually supportive, and together form the basis of the design work. By using these elements wisely, we can better achieve our design goals and improve the quality and effectiveness of our designs.
Second, the underlying logic of the design goal
First of all, we need to understand the essence of Internet business products: products serve as a bridge between enterprises and users, selling the services or resources provided by enterprises to users in need; we, as interactive experience designers, need to help build a good product "bridge" between enterprises and users, and ultimately help enterprises achieve profitability. Product features are ultimately for better revenue, so design goals need to serve the business.
Secondly, the design result is to serve users, so we need to start from the user's needs, understand the user's pain points, so that our design intention can be reflected in the product in a way that is understood and loved by the user. Only when the user is satisfied and willing to use can the business demands behind the design goal be achieved, so the design goal needs to be user-centric.
In summary, the design goal comes from the business goal, and it is necessary to be user-centric, balance the business and user demands, and design a design scheme that meets the characteristics of the product.
3. How to set design goals
1. Source of demand analysis
In the process of developing design goals, the first step is to base on a source of requirements, and there are usually three types:
- Business-oriented, due to market changes or business adjustments, resulting in changes in demand, the design goal comes from the dismantling of business requirements;
- Taking user insight as the starting point, through user research and user data analysis, new insights are found as an opportunity point, which can help achieve business demands.
- Taking product analysis as the starting point, through expert investigation or product data analysis, we can find some points that can be optimized to improve the user experience, so as to better help the product achieve the business demands behind it.
It can be found that design goals are always inseparable from business goals.
The achievement of business goals is inseparable from the collaboration of different departments of the whole enterprise, which requires the joint participation of operations, products, marketing, etc., and design as a part of the product, designers need to take product goals as the entry point, and use design professional knowledge and capabilities to help products achieve goals, so as to achieve business goals.
When doing product design, designers need to trace the source of the goal as much as possible, and when they have an overall perspective, they can give more different insights and solutions to the product from the perspective of user experience to enrich the product goals and strategies, help themselves grasp the right to speak, and provide more guarantee and certainty for the subsequent implementation of the design plan.
2. Principle of target dismantling
After understanding the source, it is necessary to disassemble the principle of target disassembly, and according to the mainstream management knowledge, the SMART principle can be followed
The SMART principle is used to disassemble the goal according to a certain specification, and split it into sub-goals according to the dimensions of time, granularity, and entity, so as to make the goal large and small, and change from difficult to easy. These include:
- 目标必须是明确的【Specific】
- The goal must be measurable
- The goal must be attainable
- The goal must be relevant to the job responsibility [Relevant]
- The goal must have a clear time-bounding period
3. The process of deducing the idea of dismantling the target
Here I take a project experience as an example to deduce and illustrate, the project background is briefly summarized as: the business department invests a lot of costs in a certain product, the product mainly serves the merchants who sell goods, but the income is always very low, and the user transaction volume has not been able to go up, how to increase the income of this product is the main problem at present.
Business goal: increase product ROI from 6% to more than 20%.
Return on Investment (ROI) = Annual Profit or Average Annual Profit / Total Investment × 100%
We understand that the factors related to the current product ROI are mainly composed of the following:
This revision and optimization is related to the design of advertising landing pages at the product level, and it is necessary to think about how to optimize landing pages to improve conversions.
Product goal: Optimize the landing page and increase the conversion rate of the landing page.
Once you have a product goal, you need to further analyze and diagnose the product to derive the design goal. For example, clarify the target users and user preferences, locate the key moments in the conversion stage, and the key touchpoints of the design of the core landing page.
The user goal comes from the definition of the product goal, and at the same time the product goal is full. After product diagnosis and analysis, it is found that the current important obstacle is that the first screen fails to retain users, so it is necessary to further gain insight into users, and speculate user goals through user research and analysis.
User goal: Using this product can help them sell better and reduce management costs.
Combine product and user demands to derive design goals.
Design goal: Optimize the landing page, so that the target user is motivated to click the download button, and increase the click-through rate of the "free download" button, so as to help improve the conversion rate of the landing page.
Design strategies can be optimized based on the findings of user insights.
Design strategy 1: Reduce the cognitive load of information.
Design method 1: Optimize the copywriting design in a language that users can understand, so that users can understand the selling point of the product at a glance and reduce the resistance to information comprehension.
Design strategy 2: Add motivational elements to encourage users to click.
Design method 2: Optimize the header image of the homepage, so that users can bring it in at a glance, and at the same time increase the revenue elements that users pay attention to, arouse associations with beautiful results, and trigger user interest.
Design scheme: according to the design method, the imagination and creativity are used to give full play to the design skills, and the design skills need to be tested.
The selection of design indicators should be determined based on design goals and strategies.
Design metrics: Click-through rate of the "Free Download" button month-over-month.
brief summary
It is only when we fully understand the underlying logic of the design goal that we become comfortable in the process of formulating the goal. Give full play to the designer's empathy ability and user experience knowledge system to help the business achieve growth, let the value of design be seen and quantified, and improve the voice and influence of design.
This article was originally published by @玄清 on Everyone is a product manager, and it is forbidden to reprint without the author's permission.
The title image is from Unsplash and is licensed under CC0.
The views in this article only represent the author's own, everyone is a product manager, and the platform only provides information storage space services.