The goal of product design is to unite the interests of users and businesses. The product designer is focused on several tasks: a) the vision of the product; b) how the product makes money; c) how it solves user problems.

Roman Iminov and Aniya Ibadullina are product designers of the Kolesa Group. The company's design department participates at every stage of product development from the discovery stage to post-production. Below we will analyze each of the stages in detail.We asked Roman and his colleagues to tell us what they do in the company, about product design and its significance for users and businesses on specific cases. They also shared useful recommendations.

Roman Iminov, product designer of the Kolesa Group

About my work

I work in the Kolesa team.kz is the No. 1 platform on the auto market in Kazakhstan with a monthly audience of more than 5 million users. I am responsible for the experience of finding and submitting ads. I like to make products understandable and user-friendly. My task is to immerse myself in the problem as much as possible, and based on the data to develop a scenario that will give people a positive experience of using the product, and business — profit.

Why do I need a product designer

To enable the user to easily perform their tasks, in our case, to buy or sell a car. If the product is convenient and useful for the user, then he returns himself and recommends it to his loved ones — hence the benefits for business.

The biggest wow effect of participating in product development

I can't single out any one stage for myself. I enjoy the whole process and especially its result. The most exciting thing is that at every stage I can be useful by asking the right questions, digging into the essence of the problem and forming the right design hypotheses

How designers are connected with specialists from other departments

The product designer participates in the discovery and delivery stages.

Discovery stage

1. Collecting symptoms

At this stage, the whole team is looking for symptoms of problems and growth points. We rely on research, reviews, and appeals to the care service. I act as a "lawyer" for the user in the product, arguing why the current solution may cause a problem. Due to good arguments, these symptoms can be taken into further study.

2. Validation of the problem

At this stage, it is important to understand which problem is the most critical. Here I show why solving a problem in the user experience can increase our metrics and conversions.3. Idea generation, where the whole team builds hypotheses to solve the problem. I offer solutions related not only to interfaces, but also to other areas of the product. These can be technical, marketing and other solutions, because the answer does not always lie in design. 

Based on the results of discovery, the team has a set of hypotheses that need to be tested on users. This is where the work with "handles" begins.

Delivery stage

1. Focus

Gather all the information together and understand what you need to focus on. If there is not enough data, then go "knock" on other departments that can make up for them.

2. Draft layouts and hypotheses

I build design hypotheses and design draft layouts, in which I necessarily follow the design principles of the team:

a) consistency — all patterns and elements inside the product are homogeneous;

b) feedback — we conduct transparency with the user, inform about the current status (where he is, what is happening, what will happen, etc.);

c) focus on the client — we take into account the user segment and do not forget about other segments that may encounter this scenario.

Next, it is necessary to build high-quality and understandable hypotheses that will be tested on usability tests.

3. Research and usability tests

Usability test is a method of evaluating the interface from the side of convenience and ease of use. I always get involved in research: I listen to what people say and ask questions. It helps to be closer to users, to understand how they think and act.

4. Finishing layouts

It is necessary to work out feedback from users and prepare a final layout. To do everything so that anyone, even outside the context of the task, could go into the layout, understand everything and immerse themselves in the solution.

5. Design review

Checking the work of the developer for compliance with the layouts and the idea of the designers. Everything so that the user gets a high-quality product.

Post production

The feature is already in production, but this does not mean that you can forget about it. It needs to be closely monitored: to track analytics, user engagement and their appeals to the care service. After a while, take another slice and see how it affected the product.

Where to study for a specialty

I have always drawn knowledge from designers and from open resources. I didn't take the courses. Now I'm reading telegram channels from the UX/UI folder. I attend online and offline meetups.

Alania Ibadullina, grocery designer

About my work

I am developing a design in the Avtoelon product.uz is the No. 1 platform on the online car market in Uzbekistan. The monthly audience of the product is 1.5 million people. My task is to identify user pains and business problems, and solve them. I work in conjunction with the product manager to lead our team to implement the strategy, taking into account the needs of the market and technology.

Why do I need a product designer

Create a product that is not only functional, but visually attractive and easy to use. 

We focus on improving the user experience. This leads to increased user satisfaction, improved business metrics, and customer retention.

We are constantly exploring the market of Uzbekistan, always in touch with our users. We travel a lot around the country. It is important for us that the product is convenient, simple and technically accessible.

The biggest wow effect of participating in product development

To see that people use the result of our work, that it benefits them. It's incredibly cool when you do research in the field yourself and hear the comments "Thank you, it's very convenient. Sold the car in 2 hours!". 

I am very pleased to see the involvement of the product team while working on the functionality. When developers, QA engineers, analysts, UX researchers offer solutions that improve the user path.

The influence of a product designer on working examples

In work tasks, we go through all the stages of discovery and delivery, which Roma described above. Sometimes we go back to individual steps and move iteratively. Each task is unique: it allows diz to pump skills in different directions and sometimes brings unexpected results.

Case 1

Flow of adding photos to Avtoelon.uz

Problem

The script for adding photos from the gallery was long, extra windows popped up. The process of choosing a photo was complicated by a small click area and inaccurate translations.

Goal

Reduce the number of steps in the script. To make them more native for users of each of the platforms in order to improve the conversion to the passage of screens.

How the work was built

1. The UX researcher talked to real users. Prepared a presentation with conclusions and recommendations.

2. We additionally conducted a UX audit of the script, identified all the problem points. 

3. We studied the data and analyzed the ways of adding photos.

4. We looked at the script patterns in other products and guidelines.

5. We put up design hypotheses and prepared a prototype with a draft solution for the study. 100% of respondents successfully passed the scenario.

1. We worked out the comments and prepared a final layout for the development team.

2. After the layout of the screens, a design review was conducted.

3. Sent to production and monitored the indicators.

Result

1. Improved UX: 

a) made the flow more native;

b) reduced the number of steps in the script;

c) reduced the time to the desired action.

2. Influenced the numbers:

a) the conversion from the photo screen to the price screen increased by 2%;

b) conversion to successful photo addition increased by 12%;

c) the conversion from the photo screen to the successful submission increased by 4%.

Case 2

The functionality of saving cards during payment

Problem

Users had to re-enter all card details when paying again. As a result, there were technical errors due to additional requests, and not everyone could pay. 

Goal

Increase the number of successful payments and increase the conversion to a successful payment.

How the work was built

1. There was no doubt about the need for a functional, but it was important for us to understand what numerical results we could achieve. The product manager and analyst conducted the research and provided the data.

2. We evaluate the impact of the created design on users and business. We consulted with managers, requested additional calculations..

3. We conducted an analysis of financial applications that our users visit most often.

4. Based on all the conclusions, two design hypotheses were prepared for research in the form of prototypes.

5. According to the results, one of the hypotheses worked better. We made minor changes to it and handed it over to the development team.

Result

1. The conversion to successful card payments increased statistically significantly by 2%.

2. Reduced the payment path with a card by two screens: it takes less time to make a payment.

3. The functionality brought additional revenue for the company.

Where to study for a specialty

I recommend trying yourself on real tasks. It is not necessary to create another delivery application or a social network. It is better to go to friends, find out what problem they are facing and try to solve it through design. It will be cool if the designer finds like-minded people in the face of developers and together creates a full-fledged solution. This will give you a complete understanding of the product development process and teach you how to interact with other team members.

The design team and I have prepared a selection:

Books:

- "Design for the real world", Victor Papanek

- "A mental hospital in the hands of patients", Alan Cooper

- "User Interface", Ilya Birman

- "Typography and layout", Artem Gorbunov

- "User Experience Design" by John Whelen

- "Universal Design Methods", Bruce Hanington, Bella Martin

Courses:

Tilda: Jobs To Be Done

Band Bang Education

Useful resources:

Kolesa Design

Design Glory

About product awareness

Who is a grocery designer?

UX Journal

jvetrau.com

Projectorate

hardclient.com