All the keys to the main UX methods for the post-pandemic market

23 november, 2020. – The user or customer experience is no longer an abstract and generalist concept but a broad and complex discipline. It has now become necessary to create new tools and renew methodologies to adapt to market needs and explore new forms of interaction, beyond the ideal contexts of use.

In this sense, the pandemic has accelerated and forced companies to offer key user experiences when acquiring or consuming a certain product or service. Vector ITC, an international technology and digital group, has published a complete guide with the seven main methodologies and 38 tools for creating solutions from the perspective of design principles, based on its User Experience & Research projects.

To create new products or services it is necessary to follow a working methodology and a creation process. In its beginnings, the user experience (UX) was wrapped up in cognitive theory and universal principles, but it was also surrounded, as is always the case with creative and innovation processes, by uncertainty.

Today, there are many UX methodologies, some older and others newer, but all valid and the choice of which one to use for the development of a project will depend on the team, the company or client for which it is being carried out and the project itself. Next, we will briefly develop the best known ones:

• Design Thinking: is an approach to problem analysis and resolution, which chooses between the best of the possible solutions, and applies a divergent approach that makes the process more collaborative, open and participatory. It consists of five stages: empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping and testing. It is used to design solutions focused on the client, and on their needs, which reformulate key aspects of the business.
• Lean UX: helps in the creation or improvement of a project, having at its centre the satisfaction of the user’s needs in a fast and efficient way. Its final objective is to achieve a minimum viable product that provides value to users. The use of Lean UX reduces production times, and reduces the risk of failure of a product, as well as making that failure cheaper. The philosophy is to fail the sooner the better.
• Google Desing Sprint: developed by Google Ventures for the design of products, it tries to improve all those methodologies that try to give quick answers. Therefore, its cornerstone is Design Thinking, but it takes into account Lean Design and Scrum to create a process that only lasts a week. It is used both at the beginning of a project to define the product, and when you are in a moment of despair.
• UX Dual Track: consists of the merger of Design Sprint from Google Ventures and LeanUX from Jeff Gothelf. Both propose to eliminate the waste of time and money on ideas that do not work, and promote the validation of these, giving much importance to iteration. It seeks to get the best out of both approaches: constant interaction and the research process.
• Deep DT by Mary Cantwell: created by Professor Mary Cantwell, DEEPdt is a non-linear process where it is important not to hesitate to go back to the beginning, discard the solution or repeat, whenever necessary. This methodology is user-centred. They are the ones who define the problem and guide you to the solution. The most important aspect of DEEPdt is bending and opening your mind to the needs of others.
• Double Diamond: this design tool seeks to optimise processes and make them simpler. In addition, it offers a visual representation of the design process, regardless of the techniques and tools used. Double Diamond is divided into four phases: discover, define, develop and deliver. It seeks to optimise processes and make them simpler. It is presented as a tool for managing any type of problem.
• HCD by IDEO: It is a creative approach to problem solving that starts with people and ends with innovative solutions that are adapted to their needs, focusing on feelings and emotions. At IDEO they believe that the key to discovering what humans really want lies in doing two things: observing the user’s behaviour and putting yourself in the end-user’s situation. It starts from the premise that providing innovative design solutions can generate changes in society.

“User experience management and the interaction that this has with digital products has become indispensable, as well as merging Business and Consumer in any creative process”, says Aldara Sánchez González, UX Manager at Vector ITC.

For more information on the subject, download our guide at the following link (content in spanish).