Trust and User Experience

This article was originally published on the Nesta UK blog.
Design and user experience are absolutely critical in building a successful and distinctive Collaborative Consumption platform and strong community of early-ambassadors, yet it is often overlooked in favour of optimum functionality or speed-to-market.
Here are my key takeaways (and insights shared by Jonathan Simmons from www.publiczone.co.uk on the topic) in figuring out what users want, and designing the right experience around it:
Figure out what users really want: What role will it play in their lives? How do you want them to talk about it? What is the value and values you deliver? People will often say one thing but want something else. So…
Listen, watch, adapt: Simply watch people using your product and service in their normal environments (i.e. outside of your office). Continue to get feedback formally, informally and frequently, but be sure to tell and show your users how you have acted on their suggestions.
Focus on your ‘minimum viable product’ to test basic ideas – determine the least you could do to have a working model but not spend time working on unnecessary features. Check out ‘The Lean Startup’ for more on this process.
Do one thing really well when you are testing your initial product. Even something as simple as creating an easy sign-up process or delivering something unexpected like a personalized note to users will get people talking.
“100 people that love you are more powerful than 1000 who like you.” believes Joe Gebbia a co-founder of Airbnb. I could not agree more. If you want evangelists that love you, don’t make decisions or assume you know what they want. Ask and involve them in the process!
Use your own idea! Sounds so basic but the number of teams that stop using their own idea is frightening. It’s one of the best feedback loops available on what is and is not working.
To read the full article, please visit the Nesta UK blog.