Design for today, solve for tomorrow

A user centered approach to solving the needs of users and the business is at the core of how I tackle problems.

My team and I always start a project by getting into the mindset of our users. Whenever possible, we grab quotes from real users that have been collected from feedback forms, surveys, moderated research sessions, etc. We blend user feedback with a healthy amount of personal judgement and instinct — after all, we’re users, too. We request qualitative and quantitative data to gain a deeper understanding. We also evaluate what other sites do, looking beyond our own industry. This isn’t about keeping up with the Joneses. It’s about understanding what kind of experience our users expect. We take the research, the competitive audit, and our own ideas, and begin sketching out rough ideas.

Through feasibility discussions with product, engineering and other stakeholders, we determine the shortest path for the biggest win.

During the initial design stage, we develop a strong point of view of where we want to take this experience — this is our vision — and it’s based on the ideal solution we want to create to solve user’s needs. The vision informs further conversations with Product and Engineering to figure out what the MVP is — a constant balancing act of designing for today’s requirements and constraints while allowing flexibility for the experience to grow. Sharing the vision with engineers lets them figure out the best way to build for scalability.

Copy plays an important part in these early designs. I encourage my designers to avoid using “Lorem Ipsum.” Copy is a key part of the usability of a design. It’s hard to evaluate the usability without understanding the words that will be there to help users. We take our best stab at writing copy (which will be cleaned up later by a copywriter). If the designer doesn’t feel comfortable writing copy, I recommend writing an “intent statement.” This is a sentence or two that describes the intent of the copy. For example, “The user needs to understand that by pressing CONTINUE, they won’t be able to go back and edit their changes.” This is also extremely helpful to the copywriter.

Through moderated research and usability testing we refine the experience.

And, once it’s live, we closely monitor the performance and line up ways to improve it.

There are, of course, shortened and elongated versions of this process. But, in general, these are the steps I take my team through.

Some selected accolades

Ticketmaster Masters Award: Team of the Year, 2018

NYTimes Punch Award, 2012

NYTimes Publisher’s Award, 2011

NYTimes Publisher’s Award, 2010

INMA: Ad Sales & Promotions, 2010