Pumping it up - Using product design to grow usage
Why would I have perennial dry skin if I could treat it quickly with a moisturizer? The answer lies in user experience design.
Here’s the messy story. Moisturizing cream works better than lotion because my dry skin needs long-lasting protection. But the user interface doesn’t work well. Unlike the lotion counterpart that comes in an easy-to-use bottle with a pump, the cream comes in a cream jar. To use the cream, I feel like I have to first wash my hands before I can dip in my fingers. After usage, I end up washing my hands again to remove the cream from my nails. This messy multi-step experience contributes to my staying dry most days.
Well, there’s a silver lining to this dry story. The newer packages (at least the one I bought at Costco recently) have a pump attached to the cream jar. With this improved user experience, I’m all pumped up to use the product more frequently than before!
In the software world too, the question of how to design the right user experience for a user persona is an essential product decision. When product managers envision the customer experience, they must consider APIs, CLIs, and GUI (a browser-based console or a mobile app). If your target user is a developer, APIs are almost always necessary. If your target user is a non-developer (e.g., security, sales & marketing, product managers, technical directors), a GUI almost always offers the best user experience.
A product experience design based on developer vs. non-developer user adoption is only the starting point. You can make finer product design choices to increase product usage and conversions.
Building an additional product interface for your existing target users can increase product usage. In the moisturizer example, the modified cream jar continues to target the same users who need long-lasting moisturization but offers an additional choice of interface. Another example is the AWS management console. While developers almost always use services like S3 in production through APIs, they opt to use the management console to implement management policies quickly, modify bucket configurations, or try out new storage features in dev environments. The flexibility and ease of use translate to increased product usage.
Building a new interface for a secondary user persona can increase product conversions. For example, if you’re managing a SaaS application that targets sales and marketing teams, you can build developer APIs needed for security or data engineering technical buyers to review and approve the product faster. Likewise, if you’re managing a developer tool that targets developers, you can build GUI features for product leaders to evaluate the product ROI, so they can sign off on a broader company-wide purchase as an economic buyer faster.
So, what more can you do with your user experience?
