Today we have Jane Portman from UI Breakfast, her expertise is about UI, and we have a ton of questions for her. Jane has been in the industry for a long time, she started as an illustrator and then switched to user interface design. She was in Russia, and needed to get noticed, so she wrote her first book as a starting point. Then she became a consultant and now she is working on a product model and helping SaaS businesses with amazing design.

Onboarding is different for a SaaS business as compared to a consulting business. For SaaS, it’s about getting acquainted with the eco system of the UI. For consulting, it is processes, talking to people, and the type of deliverables. It is also about asking the right questions.

Designing for a user’s first experience, everything needs to be super simple, obvious and transparent. Use the user’s language and invite them to the system. If the app is well designed onboarding shouldn’t be an issue.

A design process for a new feature for an existing app, includes qualifying questions of whether the feature should be implemented. Does it take the load off of the user or add more tasks to their workload? The best way to introduce new features is to just place them where they would naturally fall. Users are busy, don’t make it a big show. Instead make it a natural discovery.

Breaking things into steps can be necessary when there is a logical need to break it down and have a sequence. Jane’s system believes that everything should be focused around the user. Approach decisions about what the customer is trying to accomplish using your tools. Focus on a few tasks and the objectives. User experience is everything, break it down and make it simple and intuitive.

PDFs and having procedures written down helps to implement procedures and helps the customer to manage their expectations. This process should begin at the sales page. Be consistent with the process and the way clients are dealt with.

Jane’s new book UI Audit is a no-fluff manual that will teach how to optimize and audit a web application. Her tips for creating in depth manuals include getting material and research such as interviews out of the way as early as possible, because it takes a long time to organize the data.

Her UI Audit launch went from pre-orders to March 31st. She made around 5K, mostly about $3500 from pre-orders. It may not be about a huge amount of cash, but it was great for expanding the network. Jane also has a podcast, she is about 17 episodes in and it mostly focuses on UI. You can find out more about Jane and her UI projects on her website UI Breakfast.

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