Dive into UX design topic based on our years of award-winning UX consulting from Experience Dynamics, Founder and Chief Experience Officer, Frank Spillers.

A piece of our mind / our blog

MVP vs. "Minimal Desirable Product"

By Frank Spillers

on May 29, 2020 - 5:08am
new car buyer taking keys to car

Summary: The MVP is a double-edged sword in that it focuses your engineering and product management priorities, but might steamroll user priorities. An MVP that misses 'desirable' will risk the unintended consequence of poor user adoption. Instead, MVP's should focus on what constitutes priority, need, and desire from an understanding of user context, behavior, and scenario.

Where MVP went wrong

The MVP concept comes from the Lean Startup (book by Eric Ries). Ries emphasized meeting user needs and failing fast. For Ries, this meant quick prototypes and rapid user testing. Unfortunately, like many Silicon Valley UX teams (and authors), his definition excludes the important user needs discovery process that is part of the ISO and industry-standard Human-centered Design method. 

WEBINAR: Designing for the constraints caused by social distance

By Frank Spillers

on May 27, 2020 - 1:11pm
designing for social distancing webinar

Let's face it, the fun factor in being online and being in consumer spaces has disappeared. 

Is social distancing the new social norm for the foreseeable future? If it is, we need to understand the problem space we are designing for with regard to what we know about social user experience, including collaboration, privacy, space, and expectation-setting. Already we have seen problems with adherence to post-COVID attempts to regulate social behavior. Without good user experience, this situation could lead to more COVID infection waves or the use of authoritarian rules, or "bad for the brand" methods of channeling consumer behavior in retail and public spaces. 

WEBINAR: Designing during times of Pandemics-How during COVID-19 you can spark resourcefulness + innovation

By Frank Spillers

on April 14, 2020 - 6:40am
webinar cover slide-designing during times of pandemics

You are in lockdown or almost there, or you are watching it on TV and your phone... As a creative person, or an aspiring designer or User Experience pro or ally, these are strange times, indeed.  Toilet paper, hand sanitizer and people stocking up on comfort foods make for interesting material, but at the core, you need to think about what all this means, and you need to find time to keep your creative, innovative edge sharp (and avoid depression and despair).  

During a time of pandemic and extreme systemic change happening before our eyes, it is important to not only keep learning but build resilience and inner resourcefulness. In this webinar, Frank Spillers walks you through a different way to experience the COVID-19 crisis. He will share ways you can keep your cognitive skills sharp and build on training yourself with tools to fuel your User experience designer journey-- during and after the pandemic ends. 

Can UX be done online? Yes AND No

By Frank Spillers

on April 6, 2020 - 10:00am
online user research

Summary: UX is made up of research and design activities on the whole. Most of UX can be done online, however, user research should be done in-person whenever possible-- for maximizing contextually-relevant insights, and strengthening user advocacy. In times of pandemics like COVID-19, most UX research can be handled online. We review key UX activities and deliverables to assess online strategies for maintaining your UX process quality when online is your only option.

View All Posts