Introduction

[00:00:00]
>> Thank you very much for joining me for this course on the product design, where we're gonna also look at prototyping the role of design systems, all that kind of good stuff. And I think probably a good place to start is for me to introduce myself a little bit, and why I've decided to do this particular workshop.

[00:00:18]
So my name is Paul Boag. Now, the next bit is going to be really hard for you to believe, but trust me, it's true. I've been working in the industry 30 years now. I know I don't look like I would have been born 30 years ago, but what can I say?

[00:00:36]
I've aged very well. So, I've spent 30 years working in digital and primarily focusing around user experience and that side of things. But when you've been working in the industry this long, you have done development too, and you have done pretty much everything you can imagine over that time.

[00:00:53]
But I've also got extensive experience in designing web apps, which is really the heart for product design is about, and where we're gonna be focusing today. So, I've worked with all kinds of different companies for all different kinds of things. I've worked on enterprise web apps before. I've worked on B2C, SaaS companies, and worked with across range of different sectors.

[00:01:19]
I'm everything you could possibly imagine, some of my clients include people like Shopify, Puma, UK government, UNICEF. So as you can see, pretty much quite a wide range of different projects and different work over that time. So, I'm hoping I tell you this not to show off, although obviously I'm amazing, but [LAUGH] primarily to say that what I'm gonna talk about today will apply in almost all circumstances, right?

[00:01:50]
So, whether you work on government procurement applications or whether you work on the trendy latest Silicon Valley start up, then hopefully there'll be something here for you. So, what are we going to look at? Well basically, this workshop breaks down into kind of five different sections that we're gonna work through over the day.

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We gonna start by looking at Product Design Fundamentals, right? Answering basic questions like, what is product design? Cuz you'd think that be an easy question to answer, but no, it's, people can't agree on anything these days. So, we're gonna talk about that a little bit. We're also gonna talk about the role of Use Cases and understand your audience, and understanding what they're trying to achieve through your applications.

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And for those of you who've seen my course on user research and testing, you might recognize the term top task, where we talk a little bit about how to identify the main things that somebody wants to do through your application, and how to build around those. Then we gonna spend a bit of time talking about Figma, and prototyping in Figma, and the role of Figma.

[00:03:07]
Increasingly Figma has become the go-to tool when it comes to creating prototypes for SAS applications. And prototyping is a crucial part of the process of creating any kind of web app. So, we're gonna look at that. We're then gonna explore testing our prototypes, and which is obviously fundamental to the success of any kind of web application, putting in front of real people, and getting their real reactions to it.

[00:03:35]
And then finally, I'm gonna circle back down around to the subject of design systems. Now, design systems are useful in all kinds of scenarios, but particularly when we're talking about a web application, as you're adding new functionality and new things to your application over time, having a good and easy way to prototype those things and then build them is crucial for success.