Overview
An imaginary organization, we call it Daily Ability Institute, recently bought new office chairs for its twenty employees. After three months of employees using the chairs, the management requested reviews from them about the chairs. Below are their comments:
Employee 1: I cannot imagine anybody using this type of chair in this stone age. It is stiff, hard, and immobile.
Employee 2: I like the chair because it is a change from what was. At least, it is clean and strong. It will help my back pain.
Employee 3: It is a change, but the color is awful. Purple! It makes me feel cheap like in ‘Sales.’
Employee 4: It has no wheels; moving it around will be difficult. Again, my body cannot even fit into it.
Employee 5: I like it. It is perfect. I can see myself doing my job comfortably.
We experience things differently. We feel them; they are strong or durable. We love them; they are beautiful or pleasing. We dislike them; they are unattractive or uncomfortable.
User experiences cause us to change the nature or appearance of a product, environment, or service. If a product, service, or environment does not work for a greater majority or everyone, we change it to something usable and useful. We make a product fair to make it accessible to everyone. Users recommend changes that can improve the quality of human life through their experiences of products, environments, or services.
The belief of the user’s situation is the reason for the high usability of a product or service because the user’s pain points, desires, context, and goals are built into the product or service.
To have a better user experience, it is paramount to understand who the users are, their needs, desires, pain points, behaviors, and opinions. Recognizing the 5W1H that is, Five ‘Ws’ and One ‘H’ is crucial to designing an all-around positive product, service, or environment.
Therefore, this writing will base its investigation on the following:
- 5W1H Awareness
- User Experience
- Better User Experience
5W1H Awareness
The 5W1H also known as ‘The Kipling Method’, ‘Five Ws and One H’, ‘5W2H’, or ‘6W1H’ and more are different variants of this problem-solving approach that can help provide basic information about a situation. Depending on the intended situation or problem that requires a solution, applying the six keyword questions of either ‘W’ or ‘H,’ such as ‘Who,’ ‘Why,’ ‘What,’ ‘Where,’ ‘When,’ and ‘How’ can help extract the fundamental needs or yearnings, or pain points of users.
5W1H is a technique that relates to a variety of disciplines. Such a technique is often adopted by journalists, project managers, investigators, interaction designers, and accessibility specialists.
5W1H awareness refers to the drive to prioritize the needs, wants, and limitations of users from the design of a product or service and throughout the development stages for a better user experience. This awareness calls for questions are framed under these six keywords:
Who?
Looking to find out who are their potential users and their different contexts, such as abilities, disabilities, age, language, culture, limitations, desires, and needs. Finding the key or relevant users is a propitious way to create a usable and useful design.
Why?
Looking to find out the motivation for adopting a product or service and the problem it will solve for the users. It also underscores the reason for the product or service.
What?
It is important to find out what the product will do for the user. That means focusing on what the user’s needs are and the significance of the product to the user and not the designer.
When?
The product or service’s effectiveness or efficiency may depend on weather, time, or season. Will the product or service be in demand during the day or night? Is the product or service seasonal, that is when is it best in use, winter, summer spring, dry season, harmattan, snow, rain, and more? Also, consider the length of time the user will use the product. Create a strong and durable product so that users do not have to change and learn new products now and again.
Where?
Investigate different contexts and social milieus to ensure that the product is suitable for diverse cultures, languages, and orientations. This ensures that it is acceptable to various cultures, regions, and demographics.
How?
As you gather information on the 5W, consider the born-accessible approach. The information so far will enable you to apply the international standards for accessibility as well as engage with any accessibility issues you meet and propose techniques to remove or end those barriers.
The image below is a brief analysis of a simple project to help a young couple navigate the problem of carrying and holding their young child while they are about.
They could not afford to buy a car of their own, but they were planning for the new arrival to the family. Therefore, applying the 5W1H will help in the consideration of various proposals that apply to their needs before deciding on which to choose.
In the case of this young couple, the procurer is well-informed about their interests and leverages such interests during procurement when they realize who the users are, why the product is needed, where the product is needed, when the product is needed, and how the product will be used, and the resources or budget for the product. Gathering such basic details is one way of ensuring a better user experience.
What is User Experience (UX)?
User experience is how a person feels when interacting with a product, device, or service. It is the overall experience a user gets from using a product or service. This includes the time the user is aware of the product, followed by all angles of the user’s interaction with the organization, its products, and services. Therefore, user experience aims to increase user satisfaction and loyalty by ensuring the product is usable, flexible, enjoyable, and fair.
According to the International Organization for Standardization, user experience is “A person’s perception and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service.” (see ISO 9241-210, Ergonomics of human-system interaction – Part 210: Human-centered design for interactive systems).
It could be argued that user experience starts from the time a user makes inquiries about a product or service.
Better User Experience
5W1H awareness stands between accessibility and user experience. It can be argued that it is a connection to either a good or bad user experience. Imagine this large cargo ship trying to go under the bridge as shown in the diagram below.
Diagram one. Ship-bridge-dock.
The cargo ship wants to dock to deliver its goods. But it must go under the bridge before it can dock. However, the bridge is narrow, and the ship is large. The bridge was not designed for such a large ship. Because the ship could not get to the wharf and deliver its goods, the captain was sad as well as the ship crew, and the owners of the goods were frustrated because they could not get their goods delivered.
A user experience designer must aim to create ease-of-use products, environments, or services that are efficient, enjoyable, and produce all-around positive experiences for the user. To achieve this, it is recommended that the 5W1H approach be applied which will bring about a better user experience.
Source:
CIToolkit Content Team (n.d) The 5W1H Approach: Asking Simple Questions For Great Results, https://citoolkit.com/articles/five-ws/
Letizia Zappau (n.d) Usability in User Report. https://userreport.com/blog/usability/
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