Map the User Journey: Design for Seamless Experiences

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This episode explores the critical importance of evaluating the customer's use process during concept development. 

Rather than focusing solely on what your product does, understanding how users will interact with it creates opportunities to design more intuitive, enjoyable experiences. By mapping out the steps users take from beginning to end using process flowcharts, development teams gain clarity on inputs, outputs, and the journey between them.

Quality engineers have long used flowchart analysis tools to improve manufacturing processes, and these same techniques provide tremendous value in product design. 

Whether you need to simplify complex steps, compare competitor approaches, or identify critical-to-quality elements, these analytical methods help prioritize design decisions based on what truly matters to users. 

The goal is creating products that feel intuitive and natural, preventing those awkward validation testing moments when engineers want to shout, "You're doing it wrong!" When we evaluate the use process early, we develop products others love while minimizing costly redesigns and user frustration.

Subscribe to Quality During Design and sign up for our newsletter at newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com to learn more about applying quality thinking to your product development process. Your users will thank you for it!

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ABOUT DIANNA
Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Quality During Design podcast.
I'm your host, Diana Dini.
I love watching videos onlineabout how things are made.
I think it's probably why Ibecame an engineer.
The other types of videos thatI enjoy is watching people
interacting with products thatare designed Clever products.
I really like the videos thatare about.

(00:20):
I was today years old when Ilearned this, and it usually has
to do with some sort of productthat we're using every day that
has a design feature thatpeople just didn't know about or
didn't realize that they coulduse.
Simple things like the ice cubetrays with the little square in
the middle.
That's, you pour the water onthe square and it fills all the

(00:41):
cubes in the same amount,instead of swishing your ice
cube tray from one side to theother underneath the spigot.
Or for our automobiles, when wetake the cap off of our gas
tank to fill it up, what do youdo with the cap?
Some of us have a littleplastic string or something that
it hangs from, but other modelsactually have a little holder

(01:03):
that's built inside the cover.
You can latch it right on thereand it holds it for you as
you're filling your gas tank.
Or sneakers that extra littlespot for laces on the top isn't
meant for lacing.
It's meant to help you tie yourshoe.
I love these videos becausethere's a lot of thought and
effort and consideration thatwent into those designs, but

(01:26):
people didn't really realize howto use it or how to best use it
to maximize their experience.
And I wonder if the engineersthat designed these products to
be used in this way find thesevideos and what do they think
about it.
And, on the other hand, what'sit like when you've engineered
something and your users aren'tdoing it right?
On the other hand, what's itlike when you've engineered
something and your users aren'tdoing it right, Not the way that

(01:48):
you designed it anyway, We'vebeen talking a lot about concept
development, how it's a timeduring a product development
process that's early in theprocess and a time that we can
use with our team to develop theconcepts themselves, and a time
that we can use with our teamto develop the concepts
themselves.
What are the benefits that wewant to target?
What are some of the potentialsymptoms that we want to avoid?

(02:10):
And these are things that wecan use not only to set the
direction for the concept, butalso to help us develop design
inputs that are directly relatedto customer experiences.
Well, today I want to talkabout the customer's use process
.
Yes, even at conceptdevelopment, when we don't have
things mapped out, if we have abeginning and an end and a vague

(02:34):
concept, we can evaluate theuse process.
Let's talk more about thatafter this brief introduction.
Hello and welcome to QualityDuring Design, the place to use
quality thinking to createproducts others love for less.
I'm your host, Diana Deeney.
I'm a senior level qualityprofessional and engineer with

(02:54):
over 20 years of experience inmanufacturing and design.
I consult with businesses andcoach individuals and how to
apply quality during design totheir processes.
Listen in and then join us.
Visit qualityduringdesigncom.
We're talking about evaluatingthe use process during concept

(03:15):
development to better developour concepts and our design
inputs.
At concept development, we havesome user needs.
We're better understanding ourcustomers.
We should have a little bit ofan understanding about them.
Through Concept Development,we'll probably get a clear
picture.
Take steps to get from wherethey start to where they finish,

(03:35):
from input to output, and eachstep can be an opportunity for
our design choices.
Since we're in conceptdevelopment, we're not focusing

(03:56):
on what the product itself does.
We're focusing on the way ourusers interact with the concept
product.
Our goal is to make it easy andenjoyable for our customers to
use while still achieving thedesired goal and outcome, and we
want to reduce or eliminate themistakes that they can make.
To examine the use process,we're going to use a process

(04:18):
flow chart.
That's, that chart with ovals,squares and diamonds that are
connected in a flow.
This is a very useful exercisefor a cross-functional team and
concept development because of acouple of things.
For one, we're getting clarityon our inputs and our outputs,

(04:40):
Even if it's four or five steps.
You're also defining a clearbeginning and a clear end.
If you've already worked outsome benefits and symptoms, you
have clarity on the end of whereit is you want your customers
to be after they've used yourproduct.
A flowchart will also help usanalyze the inputs.

(05:02):
Help us analyze the inputs Atthe input.
This is where we can considerour assumptions and
understanding of the useenvironment and our customers.
Our customers also approach ourproduct with their own
assumptions and expectations.
By examining the input from thesystem's viewpoint, we evaluate
what we know about ourcustomers and how they'll use

(05:24):
our product.
Another way that a flowchartprovides value during concept
development is that we're betterunderstanding at least the
basic steps that we're going tobe asking our users to take with
our product to achieve theirgoal.
This allows us to better thinkabout the user experience of

(05:45):
whatever it is that we'redeveloping.
This is also going to help usprioritize things, because some
use process steps are moreimportant than others.
We prioritize use steps thatare critical to quality or add
value.
By breaking out our customers'experiences and examining what
is important to them and theirsuccessful use of our product,

(06:07):
we can more easily prioritizedesign decisions.
I can tell you from myexperience as a quality engineer
on the manufacturing floor thatprocess flowcharts are a really
useful thing to be able to useare a really useful thing to be
able to use.
Quality engineers have a lot ofdifferent ways to evaluate

(06:28):
process flowcharts depending onthe goals that they have, and we
can apply these same tools tothe use process for design to
better prioritize and understandthe use process of whatever it
is we're developing.
If the process steps areconfusing, then we may need to
create another flowchart with anarrower scope.

(06:50):
We can break out the confusingsteps and do a sublevel process
flowchart and do what you needto do with your team to better
understand your use process.
I call this an alignmentflowchart.
If we have competitor productwith elements we like or don't
like, we use a comparisonanalysis.
This helps us decide what'simportant to implement.

(07:12):
We may want to learn about theinterfaces and inputs that
affect the use process.
In this case, we use a criticalto quality analysis.
If we want to understand wherewe need to simplify things, we
can use a value-added analysis,and if we need to better
understand who's doing what atcertain points in the process,
we can use swim lanes and adeployment flowchart.

(07:34):
So we're exploring a concept.
So, like other things indevelopment, the more we learn,
the more detailed we can get.
We can focus on the prioritiesof the use process at concept
development as we figure out howit detailed we can get.
We can focus on the prioritiesof the use process at concept
development as we figure out howit is we're going to meet the
needs of our customers.
We can further refine designinputs and do more detailed
flowcharts as we need to.

(07:58):
This is not my story, but I'mgoing to share it anyway.
A product was in validation andyou're doing the last minute
checks for safety and usability.
In this case, a test was beingperformed with users and the
rest of the team was justobserving.
And users were using thisalmost finished product and they

(08:21):
were having difficulty.
They didn't understand howsomething worked or they wanted
to do something and they weren'table to do it.
And they were referring to theinstructions and the
instructions weren't helping andgeneral the team was gaining a
good understanding of where theycould make improvements or
where their design fell short.
But part of the team that wasobserving was the engineer that

(08:43):
designed it.
The team could tell that he wasgetting more and more
frustrated the more that theseusers were fiddling around with
the product.
And he got so frustrated thathe burst into the room yelling
you're doing it wrong.
And he interrupted and heshowed them how it is that they
were supposed to use it.
So the person running the testwas upset because the test was.

(09:08):
Results were tainted, I guess,by the interruption.
Relations with the customersthat were willing to take their
time to evaluate and validatethis product were a little more
strained, and I can alsounderstand the engineer's point
of view.
To help avoid this kind ofsituation, think about the way
your users use products.

(09:29):
In concept development it's nottoo early, especially if you
think about how the users aregoing to interface with your
product and not how your productis going to work to achieve the
results.
If you focus on the users,using flowcharts and other
flowchart analysis tools, you'llbe able to gain a better

(09:51):
understanding of your customers,identify what's important and
develop those design inputs thatare going to create products
others love for less.
If you like this content or youfind this kind of content
useful to you, please subscribeto the podcast and if you're
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(10:12):
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You can also visit the websitefor the show notes and
additional links and otherresources.
This has been a production ofDini Enterprises.
Thanks for listening.