The Manifest Names Create Ape as one of the Most-Reviewed Global Product Design Agencies

As a small business owner, I know how hard uncertainty can be. 

I also know the anxiety that comes from trying to make sure employee needs are met, client needs are met, this continues to come in, etc. After a successful IPO for TrueCar, a startup I worked with very early on, I launched my own design agency, Create Ape. Going from just myself to over 12 employees in the last few years. 

I know that with so many closures and quarantines now taking effect across the country that many small businesses (and large businesses) will have a very hard time during the next few weeks and maybe months. Hopefully things can settle down quickly and life will go back to normal soon. But if it doesn’t, I would like to share 5 tips that might help you in your small business during these troubled times.

1. Stay calm, and carry on. 

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I know it sounds trite because we see these internet memes everywhere but truly panic doesn’t help you or anyone else. I can’t tell you how many times over the last six years of running Create Ape, a UX Design and development agency,  that I’ve had to literally get up, leave my office, and walk around outside and just breathe. After a few minutes I notice the sun on my face, maybe a gentle breeze, I see the trees and flowers, and I’m able to refocus on the tasks at hand. During this crisis we really need to make sure we are practicing self-care and being gentle with ourselves. A lot of these things are unprecedented and we should acknowledge that it may take some time for us to get used to how things may be for the next couple of months. Don’t be too hard on yourself! 

I remember in my early 20s there was a local bakery that created the most delicious chocolate chip cookies I have ever tasted. Getting a fresh batch was such a treat. During a particularly difficult college year, I had been dealing with large amounts of stress and anxiety. I remember running to the grocery store that evening and seeing a fresh batch of cookies. Not sure why, but I was so happy. After going to Blockbuster (who else misses Blockbuster!?) to re-rent a comedy, I went home and settled down to enjoy. As I watched the movie and had these cookies, I realized how happy I was. And I had an epiphany that has stuck with me since then:

“No matter how hard life may get, remember the milk and cookies that make you happy. “

Everybody has something that they love to do. Some of that may be limited now during this crisis, but try to find the things that you can do that make you happy and do them for yourself. It will help you and your loved ones as you’re able to recharge and refocus on the tasks at hand.

2. Technology is your friend and innovation often comes through adversity.

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CreateApe has largely been a fully remote agency for most of its life. Utilizing tools like Zoom, Skype, Basecamp, and most recently Figma (if you’re a designer and not using this you are missing out big time), we have been able to engage clients locally, nationally, and globally. And guess what? We’re pretty darn successful at it. Why? Because we don’t let the limitation of not being colocated slow us down. Now I realize that’s not for everybody but maybe there is something that you can do to pivot your business during these times.

For example, if you’re a bakery, could you use video technology to showcase your wares real time or post online? Or post wares through social media/website  and then offer a delivery service with a fee to customers who are unable to come to you? If you had those cookies I would be a repeat customer for life!

If you are a hairdresser, maybe you could be doing at home appointments (while obviously taking the necessary sanitary precautions). And maybe going above and beyond to reassure your customer base of your own health would help them as well by posting a picture of your temperature, that you are symptom-free, and that you have gloves and masks (or a scarf, or anything) to ensure your safety and theirs?

Just because people are quarantine themselves at home or staying away from large gatherings doesn’t mean that they stop wanting the things that they normally purchase or do. In fact during this time, many of them may want those things even more. I overheard my wife talking the other day how she wishes she could go get her nails done but feels it would be an unnecessary risk since she’s asthmatic. Perhaps people like her would be more open to an at home appointment if proper precautions are taken.

The big take away here is that we should look to technology that already exists to help “virus proof” our business models wherever possible. While you may not double or triple your yearly business (and maybe you might), at least you can try to maintain income until the crisis passes. And this will pass! 

3. Maintenance, updating, and reinvention.

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So often we become too busy with everyday work and life that we tend to promote ourselves last. If you look at the CreateApe portfolio page right now, you will see a small fraction of the projects we’ve done over the last six months and quite frankly some of it is already outdated. The problem is we are often focused more on our clients work, and we lack the time or the resources to update these marketing avenues in a way that would best reflect our brand. But every now and then, usually around the Christmas season, things slow down just enough for us to start doing some maintenance on our site, brand, and services. I was looking back at this recently and realized that some of the best ideas we’ve had as a company have come during this time.

Sometimes when things slow down, it provides you an opportunity to rethink what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and what you can be doing better. By analyzing and updating your services, brand, website, blog, social media, etc., you may find yourself in a better position then you were before and in the years to come. In fact by doing these things you might realize that this was a blessing of sorts in disguise.

Now may also be a good time to do some of the things that you have been holding off on because a lot of companies are in the same boat as you and are offering large discounts to keep the lights on. Maybe there is opportunity for you to trade services with other small businesses as well.

For example, Create Ape is offering other small businesses our lowest rate for the month of March and April without any requirements (we usually require a commitment to be on a retainer rate). This is a significant discount and the ability for businesses that otherwise might not be able to afford our services the chance to utilize award winning design and development for their brand during this time. It helps us and we think will help them. Think outside the box and see what happens!

4.Reach out to your local, state, and federal government. 

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I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of taxes. But I pay them and appreciate the things they provide such as roads, schools, security, etc. As things have been progressing and continue to progress it seems that the government is reacting positively to help people financially during this time. This will likely be a slow process. While many things are still being figured out, now would be a great time to reach out to your local mayor, congressman, etc. to ask what help they can give.

It could come in the form of tax relief, business incentives, etc. While I don’t know everything I do know this: you won’t know unless you ask and the more people ask, the more help there will most likely be.

5. You are not alone.

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Over the last couple of weeks you’ve probably seen examples of panic, ridicule, anger, etc. But I have also seen a lot of people come together as a community and offer to help others, and it’s made me realize that we are all in this together.

My hope is that regardless of our political affiliations, sex, creed, religion, etc. we will come together in these trying times as a nation. As Americans. As members of humanity. 

Recently I saw videos of quarantine Italians singing on balconies, and ingenious gym owners doing free  exercise classes on rooftops, and even military jets doing patriotic maneuvers over the skies of cities. I thought to myself: if they can do that, we can too. 

Everybody has talents and gifts that they can use to help their neighbors and friends. Maybe it’s positive social media posting (Lord knows we sure have enough of the negative), or maybe it’s picking up the phone and asking how others are doing. If you’re religious maybe it’s praying for those in need, and if you’re brave (and young) maybe it’s delivering food and medicine to those who are stuck at home and unable to leave. Maybe you have a gaggle of kids at home who are no longer in school and can enlist their help in drawing pictures, creating funny videos, etc. and sending them to elderly neighbors who could use a lift.

At the end of the day, we’re going to get through this. But how we get through it is up to us.

My hope and prayer is that we can come together as a community and nation so that when our children and grandchildren look back at the pandemic of 2020 they will see that we rose to the occasion. That they would see the same resolve and goodwill that we saw in our grandparents and great grandparents during the world wars of the 20th century. 

Hopefully this helps some of you. Below are links you might find useful and feel free to reach out with any questions. Stay safe and God bless ? 

Health & Safety:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

Government:

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Business: 

https://www.uschamber.com/co/start/strategy/business-owner-tips-coronavirus-pandemic

With recent news coming in about the potential Facebook data hacks (overshares, breach of trust, etc.) we thought it was a good time to start talking about the safety of our individual (and business) footprints.

A person’s digital footprint is all of the things they do online, from posting a blog to commenting on social media to buying something from an online business. Your digital footprint can say a lot about you.

It can be used to gather information, compromise your identity and either make or break your reputation. Here are 8 different tips that will help you manage your digital footprint to make certain the tracks you’re leaving aren’t later used against you.

1. Know what’s out there

You can’t effectively manage your digital footprint if you don’t know what it looks like. Take the time to Google yourself and see what comes up, because you know potential employers, creditors, and even love interests certainly are! See what they can find. Do you see mostly neutral or positive results? If so, your digital footprint is pretty good. But do you see anything negative? If so, take steps to have it removed if you possibly can or, if you control it (such as with social media), remove it yourself or restrict it from public viewing.

2. Make sure your private posts are private

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Make sure any posts you wouldn’t want your employer, a lender, or your mother to see are locked down. Some social media sites change their privacy controls from time to time, and when they do, some things slip through. That drunken selfie that was only available to a few close friends may suddenly have become public, so be sure to always double-check the settings. But remember, these settings may not always protect you. What’s private on a social media site may still be accessible to search engines, and once it’s out there, anyone can take that photo, video, or other content and repost it to sites that you have no control over.

3. Keep your software up to date

Nothing can destroy your digital footprint more than having a virus steal all of your information and using it to spam others. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your antivirus protection software, VPNS (virtual private networks), malware scanners, and other important programs are up to date. This includes your operating system. Make sure you have downloaded and installed the most recent security patches.

4. Use strong passwords

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Likewise, you need to make sure your online accounts are secure by using the strongest passwords you can. A good password has the following:

• Capital letters
• Numbers
• Symbols

You want a password that isn’t easy to guess, so avoid common things like family members’ names or birthdates, etc. A good program to use to create and store strong passwords is 1Password.

5. Split your footprint

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Some people are very hesitant to shop online, so they have one dedicated credit card that they only use on the internet. That way, if that card is compromised, it’s the only one they have to cancel. This helps split your digital footprint and make it more manageable. You can do the same with emails—create an email that you only use when you have to sign up for a mailing list, one you only use for work, and one you use for social media. Yes, it might be a pain keeping up with all of these emails, but in the end, it can also make things more compartmentalized and easier to control.

6. Are you using that app?

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Most apps on your smartphone are collecting information about you. While theoretically you can control what these apps have access to, who really knows what an app does once it’s installed? That’s why it’s a good idea to go through your apps and delete any of them that you don’t really use. This way, you know they’re not collecting any information about you, plus it frees up space on your phone for other apps, pictures, etc.

7. Check your cookies

Did you know you can see what sites your browsers have accepted cookies from? You should check this regularly to see if any strange sites are sending you cookies. If so, you may be able to block them in your browser’s settings. If you can’t, there are a number of different plug-ins available that will help you control cookies better.

8. Know that whatever you put out there is out there

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Even if you delete something from the internet, realize that it’s still stored in databases and archives and is likely to be forever. In many cases, even if you’ve deleted it, it can still be accessed. There’s no taking something back once it’s online, so think twice before you click on submit!These are just a few different tips you can use to manage your digital footprint and make sure it doesn’t get out of control. Do you have any tips we’ve forgotten?

If you’re curious about how to become a UX designer, then you’re in the right place!

Though it’s a new(er) position, UX design has quickly become in demand because it adds a human touch to tech. It’s driven by numbers and research, but still gives you room to be creative while helping users solve a problem.

After a record number of people changed careers because of the pandemic, you may have wondered if a career in UX is right for you. Becoming a great UX designer will not happen overnight, but knowing where to start is half the battle. 

So if you want to know how to become a UX designer, CreateApe is here to help! We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to get you on the fast track to mastering UX.

How to Become a UX Designer in 7 Steps:

• Study Hard!
• Mastering Design Thinking and UX Best Practices
• Learning the Tools of the Trade
• Your First Project
• Practice, Practice, Practice!
• Build Your Portfolio
• Finding Your First Job

But First, Some Basics

What is a UX Designer?

So, what is a UX designer, and what makes the job so attractive? They’re like a web designer, but so much more! Instead of just making cool designs for a website, a UX Designer creates everything the user experiences from end to end. 

Think about the last website you visited that was super easy to use. There’s a good chance a UX designer was behind it, planning everything out meticulously.

UX designers base their design choices on several hours of research, evaluation, and user testing—finding that sweet spot between what their client wants and what helps the user through conversion.

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What do I Need to Become a UX Designer?

A computer and an internet connection…and that’s it!

About 82% of UX designers surveyed by the Nielsen Norman Group hold a bachelor's degree or higher (according to this March 2022 article from coursera.org), but you don’t NEED a degree to become one. UX design is so new that there’s not really such a thing as a bachelor’s of UX design (although a degree in graphic design or a similar field definitely wouldn’t hurt).

Chances are that the quality of your portfolio will matter more than your education level when searching for UX designer jobs. 

Skills

Like with any job, the hard and soft skills you bring to the table make a big difference. Anyone can learn the UX process, but these qualities (along with design prowess) separate the wheat from the chaff.

• Curiosity

You love thinking about why humans do what they do and what drives their actions on a website.

• Empathy

Your ability to understand and empathize with your users’ needs will leave them feeling satisfied with your designs.

• Perceptive

From research to the actual design, recognizing patterns and certain user behaviors will help you identify potential problems before they happen.

• Communication

UX design is usually a client-facing job, so communicating ideas and finding compromises will make the UX design process as smooth as possible.

• Adaptable

Your initial design WILL go through several stages of iteration until you get an MVP, so be open to new suggestions and prepare for an odd curveball here and there.

• Creative

Not every project is the same, so always think about simple, but innovative ways to help your user.

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How to Become a UX Designer in 7 Simple Steps:

If you’ve read through everything above, meet all the criteria, are truly passionate about UX, and can stay patient and persistent—then your path to becoming a UX designer starts here (congrats!)

Follow these 7 steps to learn how to become a UX designer.

Study Hard

We hate to sound like your math teacher, but research and studying are a HUGE part of the job. You can prep yourself for all the research you’ll be doing by learning the ins and outs (and the not-so-fun parts) of the job. If you really enjoy reading and reporting about user experience, this is the perfect job for you!

Thankfully, there are a plethora of resources out there that’ll help you dive deep into the world of UX. Books are always a good place to start but you have a variety of multimedia options to choose from.

CreateApe’s Picks for UX Design Books and Sources

• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover
• The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
• Designing Products People Love: How Great Designers Create Successful Products by Scott Hurff
• Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
• Designing User Interfaces by Mike and Diana Malewicz
• User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play by Cliff Kuang with Robert Fabricant
• Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services by Jon Yablonski
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
• Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
• Rework: Change the Way You Work Forever by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

These resources will show you how to become a UX designer at the ground level—helping you learn the basics of UX, methodology, and how it applies to everyday life. Give yourself a solid foundation of knowledge to build off.

As always, networking is a great way to get ahead in any job. Take a chance to expand your professional network early on by asking for advice and making friends in the UX field. Chances are there is a UX-pert out there dying to share their wisdom with you!

 Mastering Design Thinking and UX Best Practices

You’ll hear the terms Design Thinking and UX Best Practices a lot. Let’s break down what they mean and show where they overlap.

Design thinking is a strategic, but human-focused process where UX designers draw up concepts after getting to know their users. This is how they create solutions that work for real people.

Design thinking is the iterative process of how you’ll approach your designs. Basically, you’ll rinse and repeat until you have an MVP (minimum viable product.)

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UX best practices act as guidelines for building the actual design. Think of these as general rules for building a usable website. 

Tech advances and UX trends may shape best practices as time goes on, but there are always a few consistent rules you can fall back on.

Evergreen UX Best Practices

• Know the difference between UX and UI
• UI-Everything users interact with on the page
• UX-How users feel while interacting with the page
• Know your audience
• Keep content short and scannable
• Simplicity and clarity are paramount
• Consistency between screens=intuitive navigation
• Make your designs accessible for all your users

Learning the Tools of the Trade

Coming into UX design with some software knowledge isn’t a bad thing, but you’ll have plenty of UX design tools to choose from (and a bunch of free video tutorials and crash courses online.)

The trick is to choose the software that works best for your skill level and gives you the biggest bang for your buck.

 At CreateApe, we’re pretty big fans of Figma because it’s a web-based app that allows for real-time collaboration. But it’s an excellent option for beginners because it’s cheap, easy to use, comes with plenty of tutorials, and lets you do anything from wireframing to prototyping.

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CreateApe’s Favorite UX Design Tools:

• Figma!
• Adobe XD
• InVision
• Sketch
• Canva
• Proto.io

There’s no shortage of video tutorials for these programs on YouTube, or you can take a crash course on LinkedIn learning. But if you really want to sharpen your design skills, sign up for a Boot Camp so you can get hands-on experience working with these popular UX design tools.

Your First Project

Once you've brushed up on design methodology, learned your way around some UX design tools, or finished a Boot Camp, you’ll probably be eager to take on your first project and start making money. But, like all things, practice makes perfect!

Start your professional career by taking on a personal project, making sure you’re following the design thinking process from start to finish. This also shows that you understand UX best practices and can apply them in real-world situations.

Do you have an awesome idea for a mobile app? Now would be the perfect time to put your user research skills to the test and create a prototype around your findings.

Or maybe you noticed a significant roadblock in navigating a website. Come up with a solution to make it more intuitive and user-friendly, then do some A/B testing to see which works better.

Use this hypothetical project in your portfolio. Recruiters/potential clients will be impressed with your creativity and ability to follow the UX process from start to finish.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

We may sound like a broken record…but the more hands-on experience you get, the better designer you’ll become. And the better chance you’ll have at landing some awesome UX designer jobs.

Try to get experience with as many different clients in different industries as possible. This will test your versatility as a designer, and you’ll learn to build solutions that work for all different kinds of users.

A 60-year-old Grandma and a 21-year-old computer programmer don’t have the same set of capabilities or knowledge of online platforms. Knowing how to cater to different personas will help you with both niche products and products with a wide range of users.

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Plus, a diverse list of clients in your portfolio shows your adaptability and overall understanding of the user’s needs.

Building Your Portfolio

Building your UX portfolio goes a little deeper than just showcasing your finished product. Your potential client wants to see HOW the final product came to be. 

Don’t be afraid to go into detail and show them how you applied your research and testing to the design. Cherry-pick through all your projects to showcase your best work, then explain why you chose that project in particular. 

Did you turn a complex concept into something streamlined and easy-to-use? Were you designing a web app for a group of users that weren’t very tech-savvy? Or did you get INCREDIBLE feedback from user testing sessions on a particular project?

When showcasing your design choices, don’t be afraid to talk about a hurdle you encountered and how you overcame it. After all, UX design is all about solving problems.

View a Web Design Case Study

Make Sure Your Portfolio Includes:

• UX Research
• Product Evaluations
• User Flows
• Wireframes
• User Testing
• Information Architecture
• Different Versions (and where/why you applied changes)
• High-Fidelity Mockups
• Prototypes
• Graphic Design Work (Especially if UX research went into it)

Finding Your First Job

Now that you’ve studied hard and built a solid portfolio, you’re ready to start applying for UX designer jobs!

The good news is that UX design is super in-demand, so you’ll likely have plenty of open positions to choose from. The bad news is that all those positions with a really high UI/UX designer salary will probably require a lot of project work before they hire you. 

But don’t despair just yet! There are plenty of freelance job boards out there for you to get some client work under your belt. Hundreds of exciting projects are posted every day on websites like Dribble and Behance (where you can also showcase your designs on your profile.)

Who knows…maybe you’ll impress your freelance clients so much that they’ll bring you in for ongoing work (hopefully with that super high UI/UX designer salary we mentioned  )

You can also look into open positions at your current company. Show your employer some initiative by doing a redesign of their website, and how this new position can really benefit their company in the long run.

And finally, don’t limit yourself to just UX design! There are a lot of jobs that fall under the UX umbrella, and the skills you’ve learned could translate well into another position. 

Other Similar Positions:

• UX Researcher
• Usability Analyst
• Information Architect
• UI Designer
• UX Writer
• Product Designer
• UX Strategist
• UX/UI Developer

So, What’s Next?

Like anything else, you’re not going to become a UX-pert overnight. But UX design is a useful skill to have in our new, tech-forward world—and it’s more than worth the time and effort.

Learning how to become a UX designer could be your next move towards a more meaningful career, and there’s a wealth of information online to help you along the way. 

Want to work for CreateApe? We don’t blame you. Check out our job openings!

Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for more tips on how to become a UX designer!

We often discuss how pivotal user insights are to the UX process. Heck, it’s called USER experience for a reason. You can’t conduct the UX process without their input.

To create a game-changing digital product, it needs to be two things: usable and viable. What do we mean by viable? We mean that it needs to “work” for the target audience while being intuitive and easy to use.

In short, UX designs can’t exist without users expressing interest in the product and validating its solutions. However, there’s no one-size-fits-all digital product that every computer, smartphone, or iPad user finds value in.

The best products on the market are tailored to their target demographics. But how do you figure out who’s in your target demographic? And when you do, how do you get the information you need out of them?

The success of your digital product begins and ends with the people you interview, the questions you ask, and the qualitative and quantitative research you gather from their feedback. We’ll show you how to find the right user research participants to make discovery a breeze!

How To Find the Right User Research Participants

• Clearly define your research goals
• Select criteria for participants
• Decide how many participants you need
• Develop a recruitment strategy
• Offer incentives
• Screen participants
• Keep communication open

Start By Segmenting Your Research

Let’s begin by defining what qualitative and quantitative data are. Before you scoff at us and call us nerds, just know that you need these two to understand how to find the right user research participants.

Qualitative data: Non-numerical data that is descriptive and conceptual.

Quantitative data: Data that can be quantified and measured with a numerical value.

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So, while UX/UI design is primarily a creative field, it’s still a numbers game. But this numbers game helps you better understand and empathize with the people you’re creating for.

Gathering quantitative data requires a larger pool of participants to get the most accurate results. For this type of research, it’s best to gather plenty of subjects and create smaller sample groups within that population to produce more ample data.

On the other side of the coin, qualitative data doesn’t require as many participants. But the usefulness of the data relies on how much feedback the participant offers and how informed their opinions are.  

Qualitative data isn’t about gathering too much or too little information, it’s about getting just the right amount of information to make strategic decisions.

Recruiting Your Participants

Now that you know what kind of data you need to gather and how much of it, it’s time to start searching for answers. Recruiting the right participants can feel like finding a needle in a haystack — but when you know what to look for, it’s much easier to sift through the straws.

Clearly Define Your Research Goals

It’s not enough to know what you want to do with your digital product. To turn a profit, you need to know if it will succeed with your intended audience. You need to define the purpose of your research and let that statement inform the questions you’ll ask the participants. 

As we’ve discussed in our “What is Lean UX” blog, the UX process and the scientific method overlap quite a bit. User research is your chance to form a hypothesis, test out possible solutions, and gather information to guide your “experiment.” (Okay, now you can call us nerds).

You don’t have to stick to one hypothesis. The goal is to feel out your future audience and gauge their reaction to your theories. You’re going to ask them plenty of questions during the actual research process, so you can define multiple goals and see how the participants respond.

Select Criteria For Participants

It seems so much easier to cast a wide net when it comes to recruitment. But imagine you’re posting a job with no information about qualifications. You’ll get a lot of applicants, but very few of them will be the right fit for your company.

During your research phase, defining the criteria for your ideal participant is a must. Getting as detailed as possible will lead to more fruitful discussions around your product and user needs.

So, if you’re looking for college students aged 18-25, get granular so you can better tailor your product and features. Are they undergraduate students or in a graduate program? Do they live on-campus or off? Are they active on social media? Are they single, dating, or married? And so on.

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Decide How Many Participants You Need

Narrowing down your participant criteria means that it might take a little longer to find qualified subjects. It becomes more time-consuming when you’re looking for a large group of people to test with. 

But Rome wasn’t built in a day. Like all good things, user research takes time. It’s best to find as many willing participants as possible to gather more qualitative and quantitative data.

Plus, when you’re working with a large group of participants, you can divide them into smaller sample groups to test different hypotheses. This makes your research more focused, so when you’re building your product, you can build it piece by piece before incorporating everything into the whole project.

Develop a Recruitment Strategy

Once you understand who you need to research and how many, it’s time to figure out how you’re going to recruit them. Developing a recruitment strategy will guide your efforts and make it easier to find participants that match your criteria.

If you already have an established digital product and want to research your existing users for a new feature, your social media followers may already match your criteria. You can put a feeler on your pages to see if your followers are willing to answer your questions and offer opinions.

But if you’re building a product from scratch, this is a golden opportunity to network with your target demographic. You may need some extra help finding them with a recruitment agency or analytics software. You should also offer some kind of reward for their time. Speaking of…

Offer Incentives

When you’re asking someone to help with user research, you’re essentially asking them a favor. And when you ask someone a favor, there’s always a “What’s in it for me?” aspect. Offering incentives shows them you care about their opinion and respect their time.

Incentives can be monetary or not. Gift cards are always a good go-to, but think about how incentives could relate to your product. If the user has an account with your product, you can offer a free month of premium membership or 100 free credits (however your membership model works).

Screen Participants

The success of your research begins and ends with the quality of your feedback. You could find a participant that meets all your qualifications and agrees to give you their time. But if they’re hesitant to give their honest opinions, how does that help your research?

After you’ve gathered a group of participants, it’s time to separate the wheat from the chaff. You can give your participants a short survey to gauge their demographics and level of interest in the research process.

Now, just because they’re not as talkative doesn’t mean they’re useless. Opinionated users are great for qualitative data, but you can always have your soft-spoken users perform a few small tasks to gather quantitative data.

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Keep Communication Open

No-shows will happen, that’s just a fact of life. Maybe your participant lost interest and didn’t want to show up, or maybe they forgot the date and time of your research session. Finding your participants is half the battle. You should be openly communicating with them during and outside of your meetings.

The key is to increase the visibility of your research session and availability to make your participants feel supported. Sending them a confirmation helps them save the date, but a reminder of your upcoming session never hurts.

It’s also completely okay (and even expected) to follow up after your session. Thank the person for their time and reassure them that their feedback is valuable. Keep this line of communication open if you need to ask them follow-up questions or re-recruit them for user testing.

Finding Your Research “Unicorns”

Building the perfect product requires time, strategy, and (of course) lots of research. Finding the right participants for user research seems like a daunting task at first glance, but when you know what to look for and how to find them, the process becomes much more manageable.

Remember, the quality of your final digital product rests on your user’s input. Everything you design needs to be tested and validated by your target audience. If Joe Schmoe isn’t who you’re designing for, his feedback isn’t going to be super helpful in creating/improving the user experience.

Take your time, define your goals, and ask the right questions to find the right participants. Who knows, they could become your most loyal future users!

User research is our bread and butter here at CreateApe. Whether you have an existing product or just an idea, we can help you identify your target audience and find solutions that help them get the job done. Start a project with us today!

What is in a user persona template? Why are they absolutely essential to an effective UX design strategy?

Think back to kindergarten when your teacher told you that everyone’s special in their own way. As much as adulthood tries to tell us otherwise, it’s actually true. 

Each person you encounter has unique wants, needs, thought processes, and problem-solving methods. This is why there’s no way to create a digital product that solves the needs of every person on the planet.

We’re all too complex for a catch-all solution that works for everyone. But, with a good user persona template, you can find out how to satisfy the needs of a specific audience.

A user persona puts a human face to the data used to build digital products. They help designers visualize the person using the finished product and create solutions suited to their abilities. But what kind of information does a user persona template cover?

What’s in a User Persona Template?

• The basics
• Goals
• Pain points
• Personality
• Scenarios
• Quotes
• Fun facts

What is a User Persona?

A user persona is a fancy way of saying a profile of your intended user. It contains different sets of information, from basic demographics to nuances or quirks. When you use all that info as a guide for building your product, you can find a way to cater to your target user’s most basic wants, needs, and instincts.

Pretend you’re buying a gift for someone. Think about how much easier it is to shop for your best friend instead of that uncle you only see once a year during the holidays. That’s because you understand your best friend on a deep, emotional level (which helps you find a gift that’s super meaningful to them).

That doesn’t mean you have to take your user out for beers to get to know each other better (unless you want to…we won’t judge). But you need to go straight to the source to find out who they are and how they solve problems.

Read more about UX personas in our blog!

UX Personas vs Buyer Personas

This one’s for our marketing friends…

Another term you’ll probably hear used interchangeably with user personas is buyer personas. And it’s easy to see why the two get confused. A buyer persona covers all the same ground, but with a different end goal (sometimes).

The endgame of a buyer persona is to get customers that closely match the profile to buy the product. For example, if your company sells hard seltzers, you probably wouldn’t tap into a scotch enthusiasts club to figure out what your next delicious, fruity flavor should be. 

Instead, you’d probably survey the customers at places that sell lots of White Claws (nightclubs, beach bars, etc). That’s not to say there aren’t scotch drinkers that enjoy the occasional seltzer, but you’ll want to cater to your most frequent, loyal customers.

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With the vast digital marketplaces online and an e-commerce store for every product under the sun, your buyers can ALSO be your users. This is why you’ll see the two terms used interchangeably so often.

Let’s say your brand of handmade, craft ingredient seltzers isn’t sold in most big box retail stores. You’ll need to figure out how to market your brand to your target demographic and come up with the easiest way for them to buy your product online. This is where these two personas become one.

The Value of User Personas

As a UX design agency, we love user personas because they give us insight into what we don’t know. Since we aren’t experts in the fields our clients come from, we rely on heavy research to build our user-friendly designs.

We can understand quite a bit about industries and best practices from talking with our clients. But we find out everything we need to know about creating the product itself from user personas.

User personas have a huge impact on the success or failure of digital products. In fact, according to this recent marketing blog, user personas made websites 2-5 times more usable than before.

When you understand how the user thinks and how they go about achieving their goals, you can tailor your product according to their needs and get rid of pain points before they become big problems.

Now, you probably think this means that all you have to do is some googling to create this fictional person, right? HECK NO!

UX design without robust user research isn’t UX design at all. It’s just design for the sake of design. And the biggest part of that user research is the face-to-face time you get with the user!

The feedback you get from user interviews is the heart and soul of your product — the human touch that technology needs to resonate with real people.

So, say it once more with feeling…A user persona is not a replacement for user interviews!

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What's in a User Persona Template?

A user persona template dives deep into the traits of your future users. Instead of just focusing on their basic information or buying habits, you see what makes them tick. Not every user persona template covers the same ground, but here are a few ideas to help you build one.

The Basics

Probably the least interesting ground to cover, but important nonetheless. Every user persona template should establish some basic demographic information like:

• Name
• Age
• Occupation
• Location
• Marital Status
• Family Life

This quick snapshot of your user doesn’t get super deep but it gets the wheels turning. It lets you imagine what their day-to-day life looks like and the role digital products might play in it.

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The Goals

We all have hopes, dreams, and aspirations for ourselves. You probably can’t help your user become the next President of the United States, but you can certainly help them by creating a digital product that helps them accomplish smaller goals and tasks.

Your mission is to find common goals and jobs to be done amongst your target demographic and narrow down which ones are attainable with your product.

Let's say some potential users we interviewed were single women in their late 20s living in a major metropolitan area. Some of their goals were unique to them, but there were a few that overlapped:

• I want a promotion at my job by this time next year.
• I want to travel the world and make interesting new friends.
• I want to find a way to make data entry less boring at work.
• I want to get VIP access to the exclusive club that opened downtown.

Now, you probably can’t help these ladies with that special promotion or get them into the hot new nightclub. But, depending on what kind of company you work for, you can probably create a product that streamlines data entry or finds cheap flights to anywhere in the world.

An effective method of shaping out persona goals is to treat it like the user is “hiring” your product to help them complete a job. Why should they choose yours? The job that needs to be done using your product should be an exact match for the user’s needs.

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Pain Points

No matter how much your users have in common, that doesn’t mean they think the same way (or follow the same path to reaching their goals).

For your product to serve its purpose for the user, you need to consider the roadblocks they may encounter along the way. Ask yourself: What keeps the user from accomplishing their goals?

Let’s go back to our late-20s career girl. Data entry is easily the worst, most time-consuming part of her day. But why is that?:

• Outdated technology
• Bad mobile experience
• Complicated data integration
• Repetitive entry

Think about how your product could fix these problems, speed up the process, and make her more productive at her job.

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Personality

How does someone’s personality affect their problem-solving skills? And how can you use those nuances to guide your product design? Pay attention to how the user behaves when you interview them. 

Were they ready and willing to give their open and honest feedback or were they sugarcoating everything so they didn’t sound too harsh? Were they more focused on ease of use or the look and feel of the product?

Building your product around these aspects will make the user feel like you’re catering to their most basic instincts, making it much easier to incorporate the product into their everyday lives.

• Introverted vs extroverted
• Left-brain vs right-brain
• Active vs passive
• Analytical vs impulsive
• Ambitious vs modest
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Scenarios

The circumstances around the reason that a person is using your product play an important role in user psychology.

For example, the desktop version of your product could be a dream to use. But if the mobile version was an afterthought and the user is ALWAYS on the go…that could pose a big problem.

Carefully consider when and where your target users are interacting with your product and how they are feeling while using it.

Looking at our 20-somethings career girl again, we already know she’s dreading the tedious data entry at her job. You may not be able to change how she feels about the task, but you can certainly empathize with her feelings and cut down on as many steps as possible.

Similarly, how might she feel while looking for flight prices to her dream destination? Excited, nervous, curious? How can you amplify those positive feelings and reduce the negative ones?

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Quotes

You can glean a lot about a person from their self-reported personality traits, but quotes let you see those traits in action.

Quotes are the best supporting information for your personality profile because they give you a sense of how your future user thinks and communicates. The more unfiltered the quote, the better.

Take a look at this quote:

“I just want to buy something. Why do I have to log in? Why do I have to find a stylist? I just want to buy the damn thing.”

Is the quote harsh? Maybe. But does it give you a clear picture of the type of user that frequents your product and what they’re thinking while using it? Oh yeah, it does.

Repeat after us again…Negative feedback is still usable feedback!

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Fun Facts

Because we’re all about making UX personas fun here at CreateApe 😉

The info listed so far gives you a pretty clear picture of what your user is like and how to cater to their basic instincts. However, there’s nothing wrong with getting a few extra tidbits of information for a more intimate view into their everyday lives.

Fun facts are also a great icebreaker during user interviews. Talking about themselves and their favorite things will make the user feel more comfortable during their interview and less hesitant about sharing their thoughts and opinions.

• Myers-Briggs type
• Brands they love/hate and why?
• Astrological sign
• Hobbies
• Favorite movies/TV shows
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So, How do I Build a Template?

There are plenty of premade user persona templates online covering all this information (and then some). We also have a CreateApe-approved version you can download here!

User Persona Template by CreateApeDownload

With all these ideas and pointers, building your own user persona template is a breeze! Face-to-face time with your future user is invaluable when creating an effective digital product. So use that time and the information you gather to your full advantage.

Remember that user personas are a small portion of your UX design strategy, and there are several moving parts when bringing a digital product to life.

Want some help creating a user persona template for your specific project? Need a guide for building your UX design strategy? Start a project with us today!

If you’ve been following our YouTube channel, we’ve been talking a lot about how to find a proper villain. If you’ve ever watched Oceans 11, I’m referring to the scene when Brad Pitt, playing Rusty Ryan, is walking with Don Cheadle’s character, Basher Tarr, and Tarr declares, “It will be nice working with proper villains again.” In the tech space, you know when you’re working with a proper villain. So what sets apart a standard UX/UI designer from a “proper villain”?

Know the basics of other specialties

A proper villain might be a designer, a developer, or even a copywriter, but they are a proper villain because they know more than just their specialty. If you can speak with authority and understand other disciplines in the tech space, you’re a proper villain.

If a UX/UI designer can speak to front end development, like what bootstrap is and why it can be important, you’ve found yourself a villain.

How do I find a proper villain in the UX/UI space?

The Portfolio

The first thing you’re looking for is a portfolio. If a designer has their own domain showcasing their designs, I can often get a feel of their personality and design work. I want to see they have an understanding of UX architecture, conversion, and mobile design.

Work should be curated and easy to browse. Showcase 3-4 detailed case study project that lead the viewer through a story about the start, difficulties, and outcome of a project. Simply, how did you get from point A to point B.

Keep it simple. The last thing you want is for a potential client or hiring manager to be looking at your portfolio and get overwhelmed by music and too many graphics. If you’re in the UX/UI space you want your portfolio to emulate an optimized, conversion-centric site.

Everything they present should work well, have smooth transitions, and look great. It doesn’t matter if you worked at Google in the past, if your portfolio isn’t up to par, you’re not a proper villain.

LinkedIn

A proper villain’s LinkedIn should be hefty. There should be skills, recommendations, a decent work history. Be wary of red flags. If you see that someone has 10 different positions in the course of 2 years, ask more questions.

When you’re working on many different products from a freelance standpoint, really big, complex, and robust web applications, eCommerce sites, and mobile applications will take a lot of time. If someone’s been working in that area for over 1-2 years if shows they’ve been able to hone their skills from that project and rub shoulders with key players.

Know industry tools/trends

If I ask a designer what they often use to create their designs in and they follow up with whether that is high fidelity design or low fidelity design, I know I’m in the right place.

Knowing the trends that are happening within the space gives you an advantage. Applications like Sketch, which allows you to wireframe and do prototyping, works well with developers. This shows me you keep up with the latest advancements in a tech driven field.

Are they a good fit?

Proper villains need to work well with each other. At the end of the day whether it be a bank robbery, a heist,… or designing a mobile application, it needs to be a good fit! After about 5 minutes into assessing whether they’ve checked all the boxes to be a proper villain, I’ll ask about culture fit. Do they have a sense of humor? Do they play video games? Seriously though. VIDEO. GAMES. It’s a almost a “must” at my company.

So you’ve found your villain…

Truth be told. You’re never going to know how someone really works until you start to work with them. You don’t want to be in the middle of a crime and have your partner screw it up by accidentally stepping on laser beams. That’s why sample projects are vital.

Sample projects

Sample projects let you know the things you never were going to find out in the interview. Give them a quick project like ideas around the homepage, designing a quick banner or social image. You’re going to see if they are responsive, communicate effectively, and what questions they’re asking. If they’re responsive and asking the right questions, you’ve found your proper villain.

Want to learn more?

Let us help get you situated for the Mobile First changes coming your way. It’s a jungle out there, click here so you don’t have to go at it alone! Let our CreateApe experts act as “jungle guides” and help you traverse the wilds as we take your project to new heights.