Users' Perceived Needs vs Users' Actual Needs; A Design Lesson From The Movie, The Outfit
I’m an ardent movie watcher who watches almost everything I can lay my hands on. This weekend, I took out time to see Choose or Die, The Celar, Sex Education 2, and then The Outfit.
"I’m not a tailor. I’m a cutter."
Classic line.
Or maybe it should have been, "I’m not a tailor. I’m a UX designer."
Think about it. A tailor is a UX designer, after all. There’s research, sketches, brown paper prototypes, empathy with button, zip placements, inner adjustment, etc.
The Outfit surrounds the story of a tailor who tries to leave his old criminal life behind only to fall back into habit.
Enough already.
This isn’t a movie review blog. I have a blog for that.
During one of the intense plot, the tailor narrated a story to a crime boss. This story immediately got me thinking about user research, opinions and a designer’s guts feeling.
It’s one of those stories that make you wonder if the user truly knows what the user wants or even needs.
Story time.
As usual, I’m quoting and paraphrasing the lines in the movie.
"A man comes to my shop to complain about his jacket. He says he loves the jacket, but it’s too big.
"I tell him it’s the shoulder and he says, no. 'The shoulders I love. They’re perfect. It’s the sleeves that’s the problem. I want them cut.'
"I reply, 'No, it’s the shoulders. The sleeves are just fine.'
"He insisted. 'I pay you to do what I want. It’s my jacket, and I know what is wrong. It’s the sleeves.'
"What do I do?
"He leaves the shop, and I cut the shoulder.
"He returns to the shop, wears the jacket, and sighs in relief. 'This is exactly what I wanted; I told you it was the sleeves. Thank you.' "
Hmm. Very intense story.
Let’s break it down.
User problem: oversize jacket.
User perceived reason for problem: long sleeves.
Main reason behind problem: big shoulders.
What would you have done in his shoes? Cut the shoulders against your better judgement or do what he did?
Cutting the sleeves would have been abiding to user needs, right? But that would have been going against the tailor’s better judgment and would have led to very bad user experience because we know the user would rant and curse.
So, is user research not always right?
Are there times when ignoring user opinion solves a product problem?
As a designer, your duty is to come up with products that solve a problem. Right?
The users are supposed to benefit from whatever you design and their life is supposed to get better.
Right?
But what happens when the user doesn’t really know what the user wants, or they tell you one thing is the problem meanwhile it’s a whole different issue?
You could be having a user research with your product and the user insists that the rectangle in your product is their major issue, but you look at the issue and realise it’s the text size.
You dialogue back and forth and the user insists it’s the rectangle and not the text size.
What do you do?
A majority of the time, diplomatic logic is what is required to resolve a problem.
Can you imagine how the tailor would have felt if he had cut the sleeves and got a lashing?
Definitely a lot of had-I-knowns.
It’s a troublesome Catch-22.
Users sometimes think one thing is the problem, but in reality, it’s another.
So, the million dollar question is what do you do?
Here’s it.
Sometimes you have to stick to your guts as a designer and tackle the actual problem and not a perceived problem.
A good way to tackle such matter is to run A/B split testing in designs.
With A/B split test, you present two variants of the ideas or concepts based on research and present it to users who give their opinion and why.
Unfortunately for physical products, A/B split testing involves more than replicating a design on Figma and sharing a file.
The tailor stuck to his gut and did what he knew was right. He did resolve the user problem, but not by listening to what the user said but paying attention to his feelings
I honestly pray never to be in such a complex situation where I have to fight between my gut feeling as a designer and the user’s perceived needs.
By the way, the plot in this movie is just crazy and mind-blowing. One lie leading on to another and another until the thread is pulled to the core.
I learn from everywhere and anything. Wouldn’t have believed this movie would hold such a moral lesson, but here we are.
A weekend movie spree hinted at a serious design issue.
I’ll be looking more into this and will definitely update it with people’s view.
What’s your take?
Have you ever found yourself in such a complex situation where your client, user, customer, etc., points out a fault which you know is entirely unrelated to their problem?
Did you go with their feelings against your better judgement, or were you insistent on what you knew would work.
I would love to hear your experience.
By the way, this is what I think would be a good solution, not an expert take on the matter.
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