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Frustrated with complex design problems? Create a hypothesis

Define all aspects of a design problem to make it easier to solve

Kai Wong
5 min readOct 8, 2024
A woman writing something in a notebook while the laptop, also on the table, remains unused for the time being
Photo by Judit Peter: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-writing-on-a-notebook-beside-macbook-1766604/

Design isn’t always easy. Sometimes, you’re asked to design with incomplete information, vague requirements, or complex subject matters.

If you’re having trouble understanding the problem, the design requirements, or the basic aspects of a particular project, creating a hypothesis may help.

After all, if you’ve ever watched Netflix on your TV or game console, you’ve benefitted from a design hypothesis.

Design hypotheses, or how to break new ground

Back in 2010, Netflix had a problem. While Netflix.com was up and running, they wanted to expand Netflix to game consoles (and later Smart TVs).

As a result, they needed to develop a new interface for the PS3. However, this was the first time anyone had ever done this. They had no one else to reference, which was problematic because game consoles use different navigation than computers.

A screenshot of Netflix on PS3, circa 2010. There is one row of titles that are a wide variety of different shows, genres, titles, and more.
Netflix’s first design iteration was NOT good

With a mouse and keyboard, it was easy to type in the name of a movie or click on whatever interested a user. On the other hand, game controllers (and remotes) had a limited range of motion, and touch-typing text on one was tedious.

Eventually, they came up with four specific ideas they wanted to pursue:

  • Netflix on TV should show the entire catalog, with different sections accessible through the menu
  • Netflix on TV should mimic the website experience with a simple, flat design
  • Netflix on TV should prioritize search and ask the user what they’re looking for before showing box art
  • Netflix on TV should replicate channel surfing, with a small selection on screen and preview videos of each

To test these ideas, they turned them into hypotheses.

Hypotheses: what you learned in 5th grade works for design

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Kai Wong
Kai Wong

Written by Kai Wong

7xTop writer in UX Design. UX, Data Viz, and Data. Author of Data-Informed UX Design: https://tinyurl.com/2p83hkav. Substack: https://dataanddesign.substack.com

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