[User . . . (descriptive)] needs [need . . . (verb)] because [insight. . . (compelling)]
A Point of View (POV) is an articulation of the problem that you are trying to improve for the end user. It should be well defined in order to allow for a thoughtful reflection or ideation to meet your goal. Your POV encompasses your design vision by defining the challenge to address and overcome. Your POV should be an actionable problem statement that will drive the rest of your design work.
To put together a POV statement, you use three components – user, need, and insight. To communicate your POV statement, you will begin by understanding information about your user, the needs and your insights in the following sentence:
[User . . . (descriptive)] needs [need . . . (verb)] because [insight. . . (compelling)]
The POV is a problem statement which should drive your design efforts in which you incorporate into the design the needs and requirements of the user in order to create the best user experience. By creating an actionable design problem statement, you will be able to inspire the generation of ideas to solve the problem.
Venmo app review example
The Venmo app allows users to pay or request money. Some examples of when the app would be used are:
- Splitting a lunch bill
- Paying your friend half of a cab fare
- Sending your roommate your half of the rent
- Using Venmo as a payment method in some apps
When reviewing Venmo, I was able to identified three user reviews: one as positive, one as negative and one as suggestive. These user reviews identified problems and challenges from a user’s point of view which were then included into the POV statement.
The POV statement is:
USERS of Venmo NEED a safe application to send/receive money which provides user feedback on transfer status and excellent customer support BECAUSE in this fast-paced world, being able to securely and quickly pay for services/items is important.
In short, the POV statement is the focus of the UX designer’s problem-solving efforts and will inform all the decisions made throughout the design process.
Holly Checchia 