How I Design The Product That Simplifies Every Other Product
As technology rapidly evolves, so do consumer demands. A well-designed product today might feel cumbersome and outdated tomorrow. So we had to stop and ask ourselves, how does a product designer keep up with all these changes?
Dan, a product designer at WalkMe, answers just that. He gives us a sneak peek at the toolbox his team uses to consistently push the product design envelope.
WalkMe Team: Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at WalkMe.
Dan: After graduating with a B.A in industrial design, I started my career at some of the leading advertising agencies in the world. Now, I’m a product designer at WalkMe, a role that combines both UI & UX design.
WalkMe Team: What professional resources do you read? Favorite blogs/websites/magazines?
Dan: There are tons of professional resources out there but there are only a few that I keep track of. They include Medium, Smashing Magazine, and 2 blogs named Hacking UI and Pixel Perfect Magazine. In addition, I follow 2 thought leaders in the digital design field with vast amounts of knowledge, Sagi Shraiber and Lior Yair.
WalkMe Team: What’s been keeping you busy in the last month?
Dan: We are currently working on redesigning WalkMe’s core product, the WalkMe Editor. It’s a super challenging and time-consuming process, but it’s also very exciting. Stay tuned!
“For me, a well-designed product is one that gets me emotionally involved. I love design that can create a strong reaction…”
WalkMe Team: How would you describe good product design?
Dan: For me, a well-designed product is one that gets me emotionally involved. I love design that can create a strong reaction, and of course should always have great usability and value.
Try WalkMe today to effortlessly boost your UX.
WalkMe Team: Where do you get your ideas/inspiration from?
Dan: For inspiration and ideas my go to’s are Dribbble or Muzli (they are both on my homepage).
WalkMe Team: How do you go about personalizing design for a large audience?
Dan: Personalizing design for a large audience is always a challenge but if you can successfully keep your users in mind when designing a product, you are sure to come out ahead. At WalkMe, we do this by creating different personas that represent our user base.
This process is critical because each persona helps us stay focused on our customers’ needs as we create new features.
WalkMe Team: Technology is evolving so fast. How do you manage these changes and use them to your advantage when it comes to design?
Dan: Staying on top of design trends, UX methods and new technology is not an easy task with the pace technology is evolving. However, I try to read often and attend community meetups where new ideas are shared. From there I am able to gain an outside perspective.
WalkMe Team: How do you gather customer feedback in order to improve your product and its design? Do you work with other departments to gather this feedback and implement the results?
Dan: One of the great benefits for product designers at WalkMe is that we have a lot of power users inside the company (professional services, customer success managers, sales), which makes the process of iterating design and new ideas very easy and quick.
In addition, we try to make contact with our customers at least once a week in order to learn and share the insights and feedback with each other.
At the end of the day, the design of the product is for the user, not just the visual aesthetics for you and me.
Leverage WalkMe’s on-screen guidance to get perfect UX. Try it today for free.