Rob Gleasure R.Gleasure@ucc.ie www.robgleasure.com IS4445 Principles of Interaction Design Lecture 5: Value curves and designing for qualities Rob Gleasure R.Gleasure@ucc.ie www.robgleasure.com

IS4445 Today’s session Online discussion Value curves What Why How (a template) When Where Value curve design exercise

Online discussion How did everyone get on? What interesting journey maps went up? Bug/interaction-ambiguity reports Zooming may make pdf window disappear - outstanding Need an option to change screen name and group name – outstanding Week 4 page was locked - fixed Anything else weird or not working?

The next next impossible problem Having laid out multiple user-types with varying emotional drivers and interaction journeys, we must now narrow back into something that is both specific enough to address and broad enough to balance all that complexity We need to distil our understanding of users into specific objectives

What is a value curve? A value curve is a tool to help you understand the options available to your user when pursuing their stated goals, i.e. _____ wants a better way to ______ because ______ A value curve lets you lays out the features and qualities of existing systems and critically analyse the value of each of those features and qualities Really important to avoid thinking in terms of a specific solution at this stage

Why value curves Value curves synthesise the findings of different journey maps and bring us back to a product/market-view of our design This completes our first major cycle of zooming in and zooming out We zoom in to examine every interesting detail of our user’s needs and experiences We zoom out so we can make the problem actionable and begin moving a specific holistic direction

Often used for ‘blue ocean’ thinking Red Ocean Strategy Blue Ocean Strategy Compete in existing market space Create uncontested market space Beat the competition Make the competition irrelevant Exploit existing demand Create and capture new demand Make the value‐cost trade‐off Break the value‐cost trade‐off Align the whole system of a company’s activities with its strategic choice of differentiation or low cost Align the whole system of a company’s activities in pursuit of differentiation and low cost From Kim & Mauborgne @ http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/downloads/bos_web.pdf

How to create value curves The basic idea is very simple We list out each competitive factor in our industry We gauge each of these ideas according to customer needs and the capacity of existing competitors to meet those needs Then we ask ourselves four questions…

How to create value curves What competitive factors can we reduce? What competitive factors can we eliminate? What competitive factors can we raise? What competitive factors can we create?

Problem-Abstraction: The Case of Radical Low-Cost Incubators in Nepal Image from http://leadershiplearning.org/blog/natalia-castaneda/2010-11-30/learning-and-having-fun-design-thinking

Example of Nepalese Incubators Reduce Increase Precision Adjustability Affordability Ease of use Eliminate Create Air control Ease to maintain Ease to store Ease to transport

Our Nepalese incubators example High Low Precision Ease to maintain Ease to store Adjustability Air control Affordability Ease of use Ease to transport Reduce Reduce Eliminate Increase Create

Example of a value curve for the Nintendo Wii Reduce Increase Graphics Narrative Immersion Accessibility Fun Social ‘living room’ gaming Eliminate Create Sophisticated input Extensive gated game progression Gesture-based input

The Nintendo Wii continued High Wii Mobile games Games consoles and PCs Low Graphics Living room gaming Narrative Immersion Sophisticated input Gated game progression Accessibility Fun Gesture based control

Example of a value curve for WhatsApp Reduce Increase Connectivity Visibility Multimedia Intimacy Ease of browsing Eliminate Create Profiles Personal pages Network compartmentalization

WhatsApp continued High WhatsApp Facebook Twitter Low Connectivity Visibility Multimedia Intimacy Profiles Personal pages Ease of browsing Network compartmentalization

A template for value curves

When to use value curves? Value curves are typically used during the defining stage, as they break a larger problem down into specific design-level objectives They are also used to help position the new interaction against alternatives during the testing stage, as users can give feedback The extent to which the new interaction design actually creates the target value curve The extent to which that new value curve adequately represents their needs

Where to use value curves Value curves are a way for the design team to bring all of their findings and ideas together and begin to agree on a high-level direction for the design They also allow personas to be re-visited and trade-offs to be considered Which personas are most likely to find the new value curve appealing? Which personas are we trying to satisfice on reduced or eliminated qualities?

Building your report Pick a key journey, ideally one that can be approached in multiple ways by a variety of personas Sketch out a value curve Remember the key questions What should be reduced? What should be eliminated? What should be increased? What should be added? How does the new value curve appeal to different personas?

Reading Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. A. (2014). Blue ocean strategy, expanded edition: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Harvard Business Review Press. Fraser, H. (2007). The practice of breakthrough strategies by design. Journal of business strategy, 28(4), 66-74. Interaction Design Foundation: The Basics of User Experience Design (https://www.interaction-design.org/) More details on the incubator example http://extreme.stanford.edu/projects/embrace