UX vs Design Thinking vs Design Sprint

As a UX designer who employs design sprints, design thinking and deep UX research and design methods, it's mind-boggling why the industry is becoming so fragmented. Perhaps it's because of the sudden rise of varied methodologies and toolkits to experience design, but a lot of UX folk (especially junior designers) have been confused about what's the difference and what's the right thing to do. While all of these methods result in the user experience, the questionable bit is how good that experience will be. In this video, I'll quickly unpack the key aspects between the methods and why you as a UX designer or UX researcher need to know about it.

🙌 If you like this video, you'll definitely like what comes next;

🚀. I started this channel in 2018 to upskill my design team on user experience methods, rapid UX prototyping, service design, and more at a scale. Gladly the material I use is also relevant for other people across the globe (like yourself).

🧔 Who am I: UX research and design team manager, experience design lead, strategist, and design educator. I love complex services, enterprise UX tools, human decision support and AI tools.

[aysepersona]

I really cherish this channel. Im a junior UX Researcher and learn so much from your videos. Thank you

[mnyshp]

Design Sprints and Design Workshops are IMO best used to directly involve skeptical stakeholders and show them that there is a structure to the whole UX process. A lot of times companies think that they do UX but their "perfect" solutions are usually hypotheses straight out of a single person's mind.

[henrythomas]

I am learning so much from watching your videos. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing source of information. This one is quite helpful.

[MrRobotoDomo]

This is so true. I've been practicing UX for more than 10 years now, and recently I've been working with Design Thinking practitioner who is clueless about UX (it's fundamentals, or heuristics). And when we get into ideation, we always get stuck into the the fundamentals of design thinking mindset as design thinking practitioners always move in linear process. If there's anything ux designers should learn, is the fact that there are 1000 ways to skin a cat - basically a ton of ways to approach problem solving. Tunnel visioning to a specific pipeline will only lead you to analysis paralysis specially when you decided to pick a process first before getting your feet wet with the problem. As Don Norman once said, designers break the rules, sometimes they just go build right away, because then you can learn fast.

[thatfilmydude]

@vaexperience can you create a video on the specific use of ux processes in all stages of the projects. For example, when to draw user journey maps, when to do empathy mapping, when to do storyboarding.

[jannevalkeapaa]

I've been making just a bit of UX and have studied my masters related to it. I made once Google's design sprint and that was quite confusing. On the other hand I learned that things can be done very fastly. That's a good lesson. On the other hand it was quite strange to rush forward before even doing proper research about the services current users and without defining the problem properly. Sprints are good, BUT the problem is people don't realize their limitations. They expect that what the sprint gives can be the best solution. No need for further study... That's the problem.

[memoinanci]

Hey @vaexperience! Love your insightful videos. I watch them every day. I'm just a bit confused about your explanation of UX right now. UX is the user's experience itself, right? And as you said design thinking and sprint are tools to design a product to create a good User Experience. Are there any other methodologies to create a UX-proofed Product? UX is not a methodology, correct? And why should a UX Designer feel threatened by Design Thinking? What does traditional UX mean? And of course, there are UX Laws to follow while designing. So many questions, I hope it's ok. Thank you for your Wisdom :)

[redrrivera]

Love this video! I was frowning when I first saw the concept of the moving button and now I understand why 👀

[spamailer]

Buttons that change positions is a bad idea and doesn't really solve the problem. We typically want the users to learn the pattern and use the platform seamlessly. This just forces the users to look for the button every time they shop and it's quite annoying. Also eventually, with enough customers, the the whole screen would've been touched so it becomes pointless.

[bakkerjulie]

After watching some of your previous videos my first thought about the first project was: why don't you just have sanitizers beside the cash desks 😆 saves money time and lack of consistency

[chichi-buxu]

I researched this after taking several weeks of the google ux course. I have some background with UX/UI design but I lack the foundation. I thought it was strange that the course focuses on design sprints.. I was wondering about the core principles of UX.. this video helped clear things up for me. Glad that I have other courses to balance out the information

[ikalennyy]

How do I know if I’ve empathized enough so I can start solving the problem?

What is the measurement for reaching a point of “ just enough empathy” to start moving onto the next step?

[frankatwestern]

Well said! Appreciate the work my friend, subscribed

[swarupkbagul]

After pausing your video - I think solution is confusing for repeat consumer who will set his expectations next time for the checkout/payment button. User will have to look for the position of button every time and this could be frustrating, even though we place any note/hint for them.

[МоникаКараиванова-дж]

Hi, I watched a few of your videos and love them! As someone who is beginning their career in UX, I want to understand the difference between Stanford design thinking and double diamond. I feel they are different, but at the same time, they are quite similar. Would you explain how are the two different so as to understand which one to choose to work and follow? Would really appreciate it! Thank you!

[fernwehtwl]

@vaexperience, can you do a video of service design? :) I would love to learn about this from you!

[Albino_Paleta]

Yeah the design would be confusing, I do agree. If it was Intergrated to our way of thinking when we go out to stores then great. Great concept at first, but to me, it would be a challenge for anyone over 50 to find the button to continue. Plus the employees would have to clean it Maby after every 3 -5 users. Giant all ready cleans thier screens after every person. So I see why this would be better but i think it’s complicated and confusing and a lil more effort than needed . To me at least

[MrRyanIsle]

I'm confused now. For me Design Thinking and Design Sprint are both parts of UX as such. UX is not something you learn isolated from the other two necessarily but it's enveloping these two methods and more aspects.

[mylanpiccione]

I've been following your videos! I hope I make this time!

[samuthomi]

What's wrong with it?
1. I think this solution makes it difficult to place the checkout buttons in the most optimal position in the screen. This could slow down interaction time as its not what many users expect.
2. The solution doesn't support memory or learning. If I came back to the store I would be annoyed with the system because I would have to relearn the where the new menus and options are placed.