Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium cheehuat

My 90 yo mom surprised me with her observations on design

After completing my course in UX Design at General Assembly, I tried to explain what I had been studying to my 90-year-old mother.

I got schooled, instead.

Me: Actually, the course I have been taking for the past 10 weeks is called ‘user experience design’.
Me: 其实我这十个星期在读的课程是叫‘用户体验设计’。

Mom: The wishes of users?
Mom: 用户许愿?

Me: Something like that! It’s mainly about learning how to make a product or service better so that let users can have a better experience. Just take it as attempts to make the wishes of users come true.
Me: 差不多啦！主要是学怎样能把一个产品或服务做得更好，让用户有一个更好的经验。就算是让用户对产品或服务的愿望实现。

Mom: I get it now.
Mom: 我了解了。

Mom proceeded to demonstrate her understanding…

Mom demonstrated why the design of one bottle was better than the other.

Mom brought out two bottles of sauces and asked me to spot the difference. One doesn’t leave any residue around the bottle’s opening while the other one does. This reminded me of an article I came across — Scientists claim to have designed the perfect, drip-free wine bottle (http://bit.ly/2nmpb0R). Mom said she understands that if a product is well designed, it would bring joy to the user. Not bad for a nonagenarian!

Lesson 1: Make sure your solutions delight through real benefits

Looking behind her, I asked mom why she leaves the little pots for the oil to the left of the stove instead of to the right. I noticed she always uses the burner on the right. So doesn’t it make sense to have it closer to her rather than away?

Mom demonstrates her user flow

She explained that it was not natural to have it on the right as she had to either put down her turner to get the oil pot or crisscross her arms to get at it. She said that if something didn’t felt right for her, she would try to solve it. That explains why she is so territorial about her kitchen.

Get anywhere near my mom’s kitchen and she will protect it like a lioness protecting her cubs

Lesson 2: Understand user flow to meet user needs

Later in the day, I observed mom trying to turn on the TV with the remote control. Despite the number of times I have taught her, she still struggles.

Trying to turn on the TV with the remote requires both hands

The numerous buttons (choices) on the remote overwhelms her, casuing her to fear that she might do something wrong. My assurances do nothing to reduce that fear. I’m just going to get some stickers in the form of small dots and stick them on the buttons which she would likely need.

However, I have noticed that when I bring her to the casino for her favorite game of video roulette, it doesn’t take her more than five minutes to learn how to tap the screen and start playing the game. I’m not sure if the UI for the video roulette is easier to understand or because she wants to play it bad enough to learn it. Motivation can be an amazing push factor. Or perhaps, there is immediate feedback from the machine and she simply feels that she can’t go wrong.

Example of the kind of interface she deals with at the casino

Lesson 3: Reward the user with feedback to motivate further usage

Conclusion

Looking at mom going about her daily life, I realized that she will continue to use a product or service because she is used to it. Maybe she does not realize that there are other options.

From a content creator’s perspective…

The user may not know what she wants until she encounters it.

From the angle of a UX researcher…

The user knows her user experience can be improved but never knew that someone would be interested to listen, let alone do something about it.

This informs me that opportunities for improving products or services are all around us.

As Buddhists would say, we only need to be in the moment to realize it.

Great reminders about UX Design from mom was originally published in Prototyping: From UX to Front End on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Great reminders about UX Design from mom

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