Developing wow products
From the speech at the Bangalore Design Meetup
It’s a written truth that if you want to develop a product which others want to call Great or a sound like ‘WOW’ you have to work really really hard. It’s not a miracle or merely an accident
I really wonder about people who ignore UI aspect when they develop a product. Ofcourse engineering is important. But equally important is usability. You have to put money and effort to make a fantastic user experience when people use your dear product. It’s not an easy job
I have a chance to work with best engineers available in India especially when I was a consultant to many companies. But the truth is truth. They are having a very little understanding in user experience design. I think our technical institutes must look into it very seriously when they develop curriculum for engineering. Ofcouse our engineers are very good in developing models which aim at implementation. But users always look at models from a conceptual point of view
I found people who are all confused about Visual design and interaction design. Both will fill up the core idea of usability. Visual design is designing the application and interaction design is developing the flow , navigation and information architecture.
There is a close relation between the functionality of the application and product user experience design. You have to ensure a smooth user experience to achieve product functionality without frustration and making the user think too much.
I just love making sketches and developing wireframe using PowerPoint if I stuck with an idea. Also there are lot of online wireframe making software there you can quickly make mock ups to give your ideas flesh and blood. The core idea is that if you have a working wireframe you can test it whenever you want. You have to test your product again and again on various platforms and systems. You have to test it early. You testers must be the users who must be you’re the people you are looking forward to buy it. Then only you can develop a good user exp.
Before we move ahead with engineering we have to test the usability aspect of the idea and you have to find out how feasible the idea to get a business and to what extent the customers willing to shell out some money to buy the product you develop.
To be continued..
Manoj Pillai has 11 years experience in the field of IT product development and management and worked as a consultant to Cisco for their top clients like Verizon, Singapore Telecommunications, Dubai Government and Cisco’s own HR management system. Manoj holds MBA in Systems from the prestigious University of Mumbai. Currently he lives in Bangalore, India. He can be contacted at mmpillai_2000@yahoo.com


