Why Forgetting Can Unlock Better User Experience: Design Insights

1. Starting from Forgetting

Design thrives on the willingness to "forget" previous solutions, much like the protagonist in the movie "Su Qi Er" who, after failing to master the eighteenth move, finally succeeded by letting go of past techniques.

2. What Is User Experience?

Various experts define user experience (UX) as "natural" (Zhang Xiaolong), "minimum cost to meet user needs" (Yu Jun), or simply "good" versus "bad". UX is highly subjective; the same product can receive 100 different evaluations, and an individual’s perception changes with context and time.

In simple terms, UX is the feeling a user has when interacting with a product.

3. Experience Needs Careful Design

Every life and work scenario contains experience, good or bad. The article presents several real‑world cases:

Car drivers feel tire noise on rough road markings, prompting safety‑oriented design.

Restaurants like Haidilao provide thoughtful touches (glasses cloth, warm towels, birthday services) to create a pleasant experience.

Office bathroom paper rolls are redesigned as small storage racks, freeing hands for urgent tasks.

Design files are shared via internal links instead of huge email attachments, reducing loading time.

Finance reimbursement forms are pre‑organized to speed up processing.

4. Key to Improving Experience: Understanding Scenarios

Designers must deeply understand user scenarios; needs are inseparable from the contexts in which they arise. A user who likes licking yogurt caps may not need that feature while driving or in a meeting.

Scenario + need = product shape; design adds personality and warmth.

5. Scenario‑Based Design Application

Examples of products that excel at scenario awareness:

WeChat captures multi‑tasking (reading while chatting) with floating windows and tailors features for various chat contexts.

Dazhong Dianping shows city‑switch cards that anticipate travel or business trips.

Moji Weather uses cute characters to suggest clothing based on temperature.

Ctrip integrates flight, transfer, and hotel booking into a seamless journey tab.

6. How to Do Scenario‑Based Design

Break boundaries and build scenario awareness: know who the user is and their real context.

Validate needs against scenarios, avoiding pseudo‑requirements; use models like KANO for prioritization.

Engage users directly to discover authentic scenarios through interviews and feedback channels.

Dig deep into scenarios and turn them into concrete design solutions, as illustrated by the "landlord publishing" upgrade.

Test designs in real scenarios, ensuring the final product feels natural to the user.

7. Final Thoughts

The proliferation of mobile and 5G, AR/VR, and omnichannel experiences creates ever‑more complex user scenarios. Designers must start by forgetting their own biases, focus on human‑centered insights, and let scenarios drive design, making products infinitely adaptable and valuable.