1. Rob Gleasure R.Gleasure@ucc.ie www.robgleasure.com
IS4445 Principles of Interaction Design Lecture 5: Value curves and designing for qualities
Rob Gleasure

2. IS4445 Today’s session Online discussion Value curves What Why
How (a template)
When
Where
Value curve design exercise

3. Online discussion How did everyone get on?
What interesting journey maps went up?
Bug/interaction-ambiguity reports
Zooming may make pdf window disappear - outstanding
Need an option to change screen name and group name – outstanding
Week 4 page was locked - fixed
Anything else weird or not working?

4. The next next impossible problem
Having laid out multiple user-types with varying emotional drivers and interaction journeys, we must now narrow back into something that is both specific enough to address and broad enough to balance all that complexity
We need to distil our understanding of users into specific objectives

5. What is a value curve?
A value curve is a tool to help you understand the options available to your user when pursuing their stated goals, i.e. _____ wants a better way to ______ because ______
A value curve lets you lays out the features and qualities of existing systems and critically analyse the value of each of those features and qualities
Really important to avoid thinking in terms of a specific solution at this stage

6. Why value curves
Value curves synthesise the findings of different journey maps and bring us back to a product/market-view of our design
This completes our first major cycle of zooming in and zooming out
We zoom in to examine every interesting detail of our user’s needs and experiences
We zoom out so we can make the problem actionable and begin moving a specific holistic direction

7. Often used for ‘blue ocean’ thinking
Red Ocean Strategy
Blue Ocean Strategy
Compete in existing market space
Create uncontested market space
Beat the competition
Make the competition irrelevant
Exploit existing demand
Create and capture new demand
Make the value‐cost trade‐off
Break the value‐cost trade‐off
Align the whole system of a company’s activities with its strategic
choice of differentiation or low cost
Align the whole system of a company’s activities in pursuit of
differentiation and low cost
From Kim &

8. How to create value curves
The basic idea is very simple
We list out each competitive factor in our industry
We gauge each of these ideas according to customer needs and the capacity of existing competitors to meet those needs
Then we ask ourselves four questions…

9. How to create value curves
What competitive factors can we reduce?
What competitive factors can we eliminate?
What competitive factors can we raise?
What competitive factors can we create?

10. Problem-Abstraction: The Case of Radical Low-Cost Incubators in Nepal
Image from

11. Example of Nepalese Incubators
Reduce
Increase
Precision
Adjustability
Affordability
Ease of use
Eliminate
Create
Air control
Ease to maintain
Ease to store
Ease to transport

12. Our Nepalese incubators example
High
Low
Precision
Ease to maintain
Ease to store
Adjustability
Air control
Affordability
Ease of use
Ease to transport
Reduce
Reduce
Eliminate
Increase
Create

13. Example of a value curve for the Nintendo Wii
Reduce
Increase
Graphics
Narrative
Immersion
Accessibility
Fun
Social ‘living room’ gaming
Eliminate
Create
Sophisticated input
Extensive gated game progression
Gesture-based input

14. The Nintendo Wii continued
High
Wii
Mobile games
Games consoles and PCs
Low
Graphics
Living room gaming
Narrative
Immersion
Sophisticated
input
Gated game progression
Accessibility
Fun
Gesture based control

15. Example of a value curve for WhatsApp
Reduce
Increase
Connectivity
Visibility
Multimedia
Intimacy
Ease of browsing
Eliminate
Create
Profiles
Personal pages
Network compartmentalization

16. WhatsApp continued High WhatsApp Facebook Twitter Low Connectivity
Visibility
Multimedia
Intimacy
Profiles
Personal pages
Ease of browsing
Network compartmentalization

17. A template for value curves

18. When to use value curves?
Value curves are typically used during the defining stage, as they break a larger problem down into specific design-level objectives
They are also used to help position the new interaction against alternatives during the testing stage, as users can give feedback
The extent to which the new interaction design actually creates the target value curve
The extent to which that new value curve adequately represents their needs

19. Where to use value curves
Value curves are a way for the design team to bring all of their findings and ideas together and begin to agree on a high-level direction for the design
They also allow personas to be re-visited and trade-offs to be considered
Which personas are most likely to find the new value curve appealing?
Which personas are we trying to satisfice on reduced or eliminated qualities?

20. Building your report
Pick a key journey, ideally one that can be approached in multiple ways by a variety of personas
Sketch out a value curve
Remember the key questions
What should be reduced?
What should be eliminated?
What should be increased?
What should be added?
How does the new value curve appeal to different personas?

21. Reading
Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. A. (2014). Blue ocean strategy, expanded edition: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Harvard Business Review Press.
Fraser, H. (2007). The practice of breakthrough strategies by design. Journal of business strategy, 28(4),
Interaction Design Foundation: The Basics of User Experience Design (
More details on the incubator example