Part 2 of our series of articles dedicated to the design sprint. Understanding users is the first step in the process of designing a web project. To do this, the field of UX design offers many tools and methods to be deployed in the form of workshops (between the client and the service provider) as part of the design sprint.
Our series on design sprint:
- Design Sprint part 1/3: The concept of the design sprint in UX design
- Design Sprint part 2/3: Understanding your users
- Design Sprint part 3/3: The art of generating ideas
Understanding, the first phase in designing a website’s user experience
Understanding your users is the first step in the web project design process. This phase allows you to immerse yourself in the subject, formulate clear problems, and become familiar with your target audiences.
This stage also coincides with the first day of a design sprint that we discussed in this article. The design sprint is a user-centered UX design co-creation method. Invented at Google Ventures and theorized by Jake Knapp, its aim is to design a digital product in 5 days through a series of workshops bringing together several participants: client representatives, UX design experts, and a facilitator from the provider. Each day of the design sprint corresponds to a specific work step: understand (day 1), ideate (day 2), decide (day 3), prototype (day 4), test (day 5).
The starting point of the design sprint
During a design studio workshop, the first day corresponds to the user understanding phase. Its objectives are to:
- Break the ice, get to know each other, and build group cohesion
- Understand the challenges, issues, needs, and users
- Obtain early concrete deliverables with personas and the experience map!
The Design Sprint usually brings together several participants from both the client and the service providers (UX design experts, facilitator). That’s why the understanding phase generally starts with an icebreaker workshop, organized around a croissant, to get to know one another and gain some energy. It’s also an opportunity to introduce the Design Sprint, its rules, and how it will be conducted to the participants.
Setting your long-term goals
Then, the method begins with the task of defining the long-term goals of the project. Because without clear objectives, there can be no successful project. To do this, we use the “2-Year Vision Workshop.” Its aim is to answer the following question: In 2 years, in the best-case scenario, what has happened?
Participants then have 5 minutes to write their response. At the end of this exercise, we end up with several post-its starting with “In 2 years...,” which each person will present to the group. These ideas are then put to a vote to help guide the final decision-maker in choosing the goal.
Identify the issues and constraints
Still with the goal of properly framing the project, you will then need to identify the various issues and constraints of the project. That’s the purpose of the “Sprint Questions” workshop (Questions du Sprint, as it’s called in French). Its goal is to identify:
- The different questions we want to answer during this sprint
- What needs to be done to achieve our long-term goal
- The potential causes for failure to meet the set objective
Methodologically, participants may give 2 or 3 answers. Each post-it here begins with “Can we…”.
The experts speak
The workshop entitled “Let the experts speak” (Ask the experts in English) involves interviewing experts to create a shared, customer-oriented knowledge base: data, research, strategic monitoring, etc. This moment also provides an opportunity to discuss user research if it has taken place.
The workshop involves anyone relevant to interview (customer relationship specialists, marketing, information systems, etc.)
After a listening phase, the insights provided by the speakers about the clients (objectives, motivations, and barriers) must be turned into questions. In this sense, participants are invited to write on a post-it notes questions beginning with "How might we…”. These are called How might we questions. For example, “How might we enable users to understand what we do?” At this stage of the project, questions should not provide solutions, but should help better define the problem’s angle.
Same process as before: we present the questions, categorize them, and vote!
Represent your users
To better understand your users, you need to create personas, that is, a representation of the different typical users who visit your site. These representations take the form of persona sheets, each detailing the socio-demographic profile (profession, age, place of residence, etc.) and characteristics of the users (concerns, habits, hobbies, etc.)
This exercise will help keep users at the heart of your approach and keep them in mind throughout the project.
Projection in the user journey
This phase of understanding your users leads to the creation of experience maps (experience map in English). The principle is simple: start from the personas to imagine their journey, from discovering the site to achieving their goals. This exercise allows you to think about user journeys, analyze the opportunities and potential obstacles of your future site.
Once completed, you just need to associate the How Might We Questions with the different stages to fully understand the challenges related to each of them.
Are you interested in the design sprint concept?
Feel free to contact us to discuss it or check out our various articles on the topic!
To go further, discover the reference on Design Sprint, the book by Jake Knapp.
Our design sprint series:
