402: What problem does a new UI design tool for non-designers solve, plus CX – with Tarek Slimani

The value of prototyping for product management You’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, and perhaps the Lean version, a prototype is worth a thousand meetings. Prototypes help us convey our product ideas and gain critical feedback from customers. Being able to create prototypes quickly is an important capability for product teams. In this discussion we’re exploring a tool for prototyping digital products, which is Uizard. I enjoy exploring tools that can help us be more productive and understanding the problem they solve, and I expect you’ll find the discussion valuable too. Joining us is the Director of Customer Experience for Uizard, Tarek Slimani.  Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [2:27] What problem is Uizard solving? We bridge the gap for non-designers to easily ideate a product design. Typical design tools have very steep learning curves. Our platform is designed for ease-of-use and simplicity. We empower non-designers to ideate based on whatever they have in their minds. They can easily use our platform to construct an interactive prototype they can share with others. [6:13] What are some use cases for your product? Founders who have ideas but don’t really know how to create a prototype use Uizard. A product manager can design a flow test for customer experience and show it to the development team who can then perfect it. Marketers use it for landing pages. Students and teachers use it for courses. [7:47] Can you take us through a story of a customer who used Uizard in creating a product? One guy created an augmented reality mobile application that helps people explore how objects would look in their surroundings. His company’s core product was already built, but he and his team needed a tool they could use to quickly design and iterate the processes that go into a mobile app. They used another tool originally, but it had a very steep learning curve, and they didn’t get too far, so they switched to Uizard. They used our beta product, which uses AI to convert hand-drawn wire frames into editable mockups. They had a quick turnaround in ideating and editing their screens. [9:49] Tell us more about using Uizard to sketch ideas. When you’ve drawn wire frames on a piece of paper, it’s very difficult to edit something. You can take a picture on your phone and upload it to Uizard, which converts your wireframes into high-fidelity mockups that you can edit. The ideation process becomes much more rapid. You can share your mockups with your team and show the interaction in the platform, which is difficult to show on paper. [11:27] How do you add the flow logic of a user experience to your mockups? You can use our Interact options. If you want a button to go to a profile section, you drag a node from the button to the profile section. You can preview the buttons and screens live and have a look at the how the interaction works. [13:28] Are people using Uizard in design thinking workshops? Definitely. Design sprint facilitators and UI/UX designers use the platform. They embed Uizard into their websites to get feedback from users. [17:01] How else can Uizard be used? We’ve created predefined project templates and templates of components you can quickly put in your product. If you have an idea, Uizard is very easy to get into and start using to create a new project. You can start with a template or from scratch. [18:51] Have you encountered a creative use of Uizard you didn’t expect? A cybersecurity teacher used our platform for an interactive course. She created a prototype of a website with different options you could click on that would lead you through a journey to learn about cybersecurity. At the end, she could share the prototype live on stage in front of about 100 participants.