UX Design Challenge — Part 2: Define
Welcome to the 3rd post from the documentation of my personal UX design challenge, an app that helps you achieve your goals by public commitment. To better understand my approach for this project, please read the first and the second post.
In today’s story, I’ll be presenting the 2nd phase of Design Thinking, the Define phase, where we define the main problems we are trying to solve by synthesizing the information from the Empathize phase.
Let’s begin!
Design Thinking Phase 2: Define
According to Interaction Design Foundation, in the Define phase ”you analyse your observations and synthesize them in order to define the core problems that you have identified up to this point.”
To do so, I will use the “How Might We” method, where you take notes in the form of a question starting with “How might we…?”, so that it will be easier to look for ideas for solutions in the next phase of the Design Thinking process, the Ideate Phase. The HMW method is also an important part of the Design Sprint Process, because it shows the problems you need to address and enables discovering solutions for each step of the user’s interaction with the product.
Before starting the HMW method, I redid the Journey Map, but this time a bit different. On the left side of the map I listed the Actors (the important characters of the story), which in this case are the user and the friends with which he shares his goals. On the right side of the map is the end of the story, in this case the user completing the goal. And in the middle there are the steps the actors take until the end of the story.
This method is also an essential part of the Design Sprint process, as it sets a first draft of the user’s flow through the app. It is simply called The Map.
The Map
After redoing the map and adding all the actors, it was time to do the HMW method, by using a sticky note for each question.
“How Might We” Questions
After placing all HMW questions in one place, it was time to organize them in groups, based on discovered common themes.
After giving the HMW questions an organized order, the next step was to prioritize the questions that were the most important to address.
After selecting the most important HMW questions, it was time to place them on the map, to the corresponding step in the story.
At this point, I now had a clear understanding of the problems that I need to address at each important step of the app, and I also had a good starting point for the next phase of the Design Thinking methodology, the Ideate phase.
Next Step
The next step of the design process will be the Ideate phase, where you come up with ideas for solutions to the discovered problems.
I hope you enjoyed my post. Till next time!
