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Matt LaVoie discusses the differences between developing user interfaces for yourself and being a servant designer, empathizing with customers.

Matt LaVoie is a User Experience Designer at PowerDMS, and founder of the Downtown UX Meetup group in Orlando, FL. He enjoys teaching and learning about UX, gardening and building things.

Key Takeaways

So many times we solve problems for ourselves, we need to solve them with other people in mind
Empathize with customers – be a servant designer
It doesn’t matter if you know how to use it, you developed it
Conduct usability sessions and have everyone on the team sit with the customers, including developers
Always keep in mind that there are real people you’re writing this code for
Watch people use the software you build
According to Forrester Research we are officially in the age of the Customer
It’s no longer good enough to solve a problem, it needs to serve the customer well
Have a human centric development process
Lean startups are about failing faster, but you dont have to launch to fail – use rapid prototyping
- Drawing on a napkin
- Balsalmiq
- Invite people to use it and watch them use it
Are you actually building something that somebody wants?