10 Components of a Solid UX Design Brief. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.koruux.com/blog/components-solid-ux-design-brief/
If a company wants to maximize its investment in UX, it first needs to define what “maximize” means to them. Every UX design project stems from a different motivation. A vague and unclear design brief often means even the commissioning party isn’t sure what to expect. Whereas a well-written and articulate UX design brief gets the User Experience team excited and geared up to meet the challenge. Each Project Manager has their own approach to creating a UX design brief. However, as the requirements evolve, so does the template. A well-drafted UX design brief is able to generate the best results for the users, stakeholders, dev team, and designers alike definitely has these ten components. Here are ten components of a solid UX design brief:
Please take note of the following text: This section must clearly define the target audience for the product, solution, or service. It might consist of various user personas identified in the project. The aim is to focus on a specific group and understand their characteristics. Why is this important? It is essential so that in the future when teams from different departments are discussing ideas and envisioning ‘what the user needs,’ they can align their thoughts with those of the intended user and how it benefits them. For instance, a user persona for a banking application could be a Customer Support Executive whose responsibility is to promptly resolve complaints and service tickets.
It’s important to first understand who the product or service is for, and then determine why it is relevant to the user. This could be to solve a problem or to improve the user’s current experience. User goals that align with business goals often contribute to key performance indicators (KPIs). Therefore, it’s crucial to ensure that user and business goals are aligned in order to monitor how KPIs change when viewed from the users’ perspective. For example, in the case of a banking application used by a Customer Support Executive, the user goals might include resolving complaints and service requests quickly, while the business goals may be to increase customer satisfaction. A seamless user experience is achieved when the user and business goals are in sync.
Primary tasks are a subset of workflows that are a part of the user’s goal. These are the routine tasks that a user does across platforms to achieve their daily goal. These can either be granular and focus on every task the user does or have a more high-level focus on their work. Referring to the example above of a Customer Support Executive of a Banking application, the tasks may be broken as –
It is essential to know who would be the different people involved and in what capacity. The UX design process is much smoother when the design team knows whom they should reach out to and in what capacity they are involved with the application in concern. It is helpful to also know who would be signing off on the project, who can help with logistical issues, and among other things. This makes for better clarity and collaboration and reduces the scope of rework needed later due to lack of information. In the case of a banking portal, the key stakeholders can be the Customer, the General Manager, and the Executive Director.
This section states the business value of improving the user experience. It should be an extension of what has already been described under the user goals. It is essential to know what motivates the business and thereby focus the solution to cater to that expected value for the user and the business. Considering the example we have used so far, the bank would want to create an omnichannel customer experience and ensure that the Customer Support Executives are productive and that they resolve tickets quickly. This will keep the bank profitable and offer their customers a good service and experience.
If the user experience is improved, what are the business measures of its success? How does it impact the business? It is important that these questions are answered early on so that the team is aware and can create a strategy where the data is collected and compared to see a trend that can be reported. Some of the important success metrics of an improved UX for a banking application are Customer Satisfaction, Customer Lifetime Value, and Support Tickets Resolved.
While evaluating the current state, it is important to understand the technical infrastructure and its capability. If the product in question interfaces with another system on the network, it needs to be documented and brought to light. Understanding the technology stack gives the right assessment of the limitations and benefits of the technology in place. Examples of the technology used can be .net, Java, and Python, among others.
A good brief assesses the competitors so that the team can be inspired and learn from their innovation. It ensures that the team doesn’t waste time and resources reinventing the wheel and covers all the other basic ideas during the competition analysis phase. In the case of a banking portal, the competition can be other banking portals as well as third-party applications that offer Unified Payment Solutions.
Be it an agile project or a fixed-term project, having a realistic timeline always helps the team chart the best path forward. They can realistically scope the time spent on research, ideation, testing, iteration, design, and handoff. Clearly stated timelines consider the importance of each step of the design methodology and leave scope for exploration.
Last but definitely not least, the budget for each UX design project shapes the number of resources involved, the estimated timeline for the budget to suffice, and which technology or tool can be utilized in the process, among many other things. The budget depends on the scope of work, the business value of the project, and the consequent business generated upon achieving the success metrics.
