Say you are a movie buff, and your buddy asks to review a movie that you watched last week to learn if it is a must watcher. Now, what runs in your mind? Apparently, a mental model is inherently running in your brain, which amalgamates all the various aspects of the movie and, finally, enables you to give your viewpoint. The multiple elements under consideration could be the storyline, screenplay, actors involved, Action, songs etc. All these influencers helped you to take an objective view of the movie. Of course, the perspectives could differ if the same question is put to another person, but there is essentially a mental model behind every view.
Reviewing a digital Product is no different, just that the model’s constructs could be slightly distinct. In this piece, I tried to outline a framework for thinking about digital Products.
Here is a 3-step framework that can help comprehensively assess any digital product to a reasonably good level.
1. Outline the thinking criteria – dimensions & sub-dimensions
2. Present Points of View (PoV) for each of the criteria and assign a score with a rationale
3. Assign weightage for each criterion and arrive at a final score at the Product level.
Step 1: Outline the thinking criteria:
This is the first step in the framework where you define your yardstick. Broadly, a product can be dissected into three dimensions – Overall design, UI/UX and Strategy. Each of these dimensions can be further broken down into sub-dimensions/questions.
- Overall Design
- What problem does this product solve? How significant is this problem to you? (Assume a persona)
- Is the issue at hand a high-magnitude and high-frequency?
- What is the level of uniqueness of the solution?
- UI/UX
- How does it look visually?
- How does the interaction feel?
- How good is the Information Architecture?
- Strategy
- How strong is the product’s Vision/Mission?
- How powerful are its collaborators and partners?
- How conducive is the operating environment/domain?
Step 2: Present PoV, Score & Rationale:
In this step, you illustrate your PoV for each of the criteria laid out in Step-1. Since PoVs are qualitative in nature, it becomes tedious when you want to compare these other products. Hence, the PoV needs to be translated into a quantitive figure, say for 10 points, what’s your score. You could also consider using a Likert scale and translating that to a score. And, it is always reasonable to present a rationale for assigning the score.
At the end of step-2, you will have a score available at all sub-dimension levels, which can be rolled up to the ‘dimension’ level.
Step 3: Weightage and a Final Score:
By the time you arrive at step 3, you have individual rolled up scores available at the ‘Overall Design’, ‘UI/UX’ & ‘ Strategy’ levels. You can average the score and arrive at a final score at the ‘Product’ level.
Now, if you want to make the score more accurate, weights can be assigned to the dimensions, and a weighted average is a way to go.
E.g.: ‘Overall Design’ – 40%
‘UI/UX’ – 30%
‘Strategy’ – 30%
At the end of the 3 points, you have a final score for the product you chose to assess alongside the rationale. This approach should present a fair assessment of the product.
The final score can be considered a baseline when trying to compare with similar products in the market.
Trade-offs:
As users, we may not have the full knowledge of the product at hand. Hence, it is always fair to make some logical assumptions while you offer the rationale for the dimensions & sub-dimensions. Assumptions are the key to any assessment; call out them upfront.
There is always an element of bias, especially when a human is involved in the assessment. Therefore, the framework may not lead to a 100% accurate assessment. For that matter, there is never a 100% precise solution in most cases.
This framework may not be entirely beneficial for complex products operating in niche industries as there could be a need to assess with a much broader yardstick objectively.