The 3 things you must always solve to guarantee your user will love and adopt your solution
How do you know when your solution is the one that truly solves your user’s problem? What I mean is, how do know when you’ve created a solution that your user will undeniably, totally, hands-down use because it’s absolutely the best solution compared to all the other possible options?
It’s a simple answer, really. There are three critical ingredients to figure out user satisfaction, which are need, ease, and delight. Ace these three criteria, and you’ll be on the path towards problem solving success.
Background
Here’s what I see a lot of the time. A team has defined a problem, generated a bunch of ideas, and even narrowed down their solutions against constraints, say the ideas that have both the highest impact and take the least amount of resources. Great. Now what?
Well, in the design thinking process, this is where prototyping and testing come in. But what are you testing? What are the indicators of a successful user test? Is it the one the user likes the best? That’s fuzzy. Is it the one that looks the best? That’s also subjective.
Prototypes are about testing all kinds of things, and parts of things, before you launch the full enchilada. For example, a user test for a website might focus on functionality in one instance and aesthetics in another instance. Testing these separately and independently is smart and keeps things focused on solving for one problem at a time. When the prototype is scoped this small, it’s clear what you’re trying to get feedback on.
However, if the prototype is for something abstract, like a process, a system, or an experience, then it gets more complicated. Instead of asking the user, “How was that experience?” or “What did you like about that process?”, which are great open-ended questions but not comparable to a set of defined criteria, I recommend using need, ease, and delight for your base criteria every time. I think they provide exactly the kind of insights you need in order to dial into what’s really working and what’s not.
Why it works
This set of criteria works to determine what it takes to reach the highest user satisfaction, hence the best solution, because you’re effectively triangulating (a fancy research term for comparing three data points, the golden rule for validation in research) data around what drives user behaviors and habits. Ultimately, that’s what you’re trying to change or improve through better designs and solutions.
If you score high in user feedback on all three of these categories, then you know your user is going to want to use your solution. If you score high in one or two areas, but low in the other, then you see where there is room for improvement.
Let’s break it down:
Need is have to have — You actually solve the pain point. If the thing works and it solves a real frustration for the user, then that’s a win.
Ease is laziness — the minimum level of effort needed to accomplish something. I don’t want to work harder, nor do you, nor does your user. Is this solution easier or more accessible than the rest? Great, that means brownie points for this category.
Delight is emotion — anything that puts a smile on my face means I’m more likely to do it or use it again and again because it makes me feel good. Positive vibes make this solution one a user will continue using. Another win.
My recommendation is to ask your user to rate need, ease, and delight respectively on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being not at all and 10 being completely). For example, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how easy is this (insert name of prototype here) to use?” Then ask, why did you give it that rating (and if it wasn’t a 10, ask what would make it a 10). From here, capture and record the ratings and the user feedback and compile these insights to make adjustments to your future design solutions.
