It’s the small things that matter

We are currently getting feedback on some new designs (using Lookback – a great product if you have not tried it) as part of the cart and checkout redesign I am working on for WooCommerce. During the sessions, in the final step, we ask the person testing the prototype to view what the new checkout page (which they have just made changes to) would look like for their customers on ‘their’ live site. Simple enough right?

Well, considering this is a prototype of static design files (using Figma) – and the person testing it is not actually testing it on their live site – it’s obvious that they are not going to actually get to see what the new checkout literally looks like on their own site – so for the sake of the prototype and tests it would have been easiest to just insert a ‘generic’ logo in the header of the ‘prototype’ site and expect the person testing it to imagine they looking at their own site right? Maybe.

As we began the first session I thought – what if I tried to create a small moment of delight during the test (beyond the new designs obviously 😆 ), and take it from being ‘just another test’ to something a little different.

So, while the first test was running I quickly went to the url of the person’s existing site and copied their logo across to the prototype (which automatically updates, thanks Figma!) so by the time they got to the last step – when they opened the ‘live preview’ – the first thing they saw was their own logo – in the prototype. The very first comment as they opened that screen was:

Oh, there’s my logo!

Which was followed by a big smile. Win!

Needless to say, on every test thereafter it got nothing less than an immediate smile and in one case a series of questions on how did we actually manage to do that in a prototype and an acknowledgement of how something so seemingly small created a moment of delight for them.

So – don’t stop at good enough, push for moments of delight – even in your prototypes if possible.

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