REEL: Case Study
We often forget about the loss protocols of having a DVD of film collection. With the growth of technology and applications like iTunes and Netflix the experience of going to your friend’s house and viewing their DVD collection to have a glimpse into their personality is Long Gone
This is my story of creating the app film collection which is an app that replicates the Nostalgia set up with the long-lost protocol Of shelving your DVD collection.
This first took place at the GA; it was the first UX Project which we had to do, and we were from right in the deep end creating an app for our assigned user period
THE PROBLEM
Most of us are bombarded with request to watch the latest film or TV series. Stefano is no stranger to this and has trouble managing his time and who to trust when it comes to watching a new tv show/series. He like many of us has a nostalgic feeling towards his film collection and misses the physical DVD/VHS collection we all have grown up with.
THE SOLUTION
Create an app which will replicate the physical experience of having a film/tv collection.
What I produced
An interactive prototype of your current design iteration based on hand drawn sketched interfaces
‣ Photo documentation of the artefacts you’ve created during the design process, including:
‣ User flows (1 to 2 final flows, plus any previous versions)
‣ Notes from user interviews
‣ Sketches (rough and final)
Design an app that allows Stefano to find movies and tv series based off of trust worthy recommendations
Conducting User Research
I Began the project by interviewing the user Stefano part of this interview included
I was reading https://www.nngroup.com/articles/interviewing-users/ buy JAKOB NIELSEN and use part of the process written in this article to craft my interviews and then build my concept. From reading this article I understood what interviews can do and what interviews can’t do and use these methods to formulate my interview structure period I was also mindful of the query effect comma which is where users can answer any question with any answer. As people tend to make their opinion up about anything period for example if I asked you would you go to the gym the generic answer to this question would be yeah I will would go to the gym so when asked for a specific day or time or whether you’re ready to sign up right now the correct answer would probably be no.
“The biggest improvements in user experience come from gathering usability data as early as possible in a project” — Jakob Nielsen
The Process
My user sat down with me for a one on one interview and quickly can familiar with the style of interviewing and found that more of a dialogue was needed to create the right environment for me to get most accurate answers. I had constantly reminded myself that I’m not the user, I should not assume his problems or expect that he will react as I expected him to. This was a liberating realisation and gave me more confidence in my design decisions.
Listen To Interview
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B386wkhNHsfzclFqMjFnYVU4bFU/view
Research goals:
To find a problem that could be solved with the design of a simple mobile app.
Research methods:
Interviews
Concept mind mapping with user
For a more holistic understanding of the wider challenges faced I used concept mapping. This approach was necessary to create a visual relationship between concepts. Able to find the essential characteristics, motivations and goals. My wider research expectedly revealed that the first problem found from the interview was, in fact, the main issue which needed to be solved. However, from this process, I discovered that using an array of research methods can allow you to determine the core problem by analysing the user in his entirety.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Aarron Walters, designing for emotion profoundly influenced my research process.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding was a huge time saver. I sketched out the user journey to help me communicate more complex ideas, processes and interactions. Knowing who exactly I was designing for allowed me to ask myself how the app worked for my user, Stefano. I imagined ideal experiences and focused on how our personas think and behave rather than getting into specifics about interfaces.
User flows
Before starting any design work or sketching, I spent a great deal of time making sense of user flows and existing content. Structuring my content into a user flow I was able to show how my user Stefano would get from the point of ‘Search’ to the end goal.
Iterations
Iterations found during this process that I had to make my first major change to the original idea. The initial investment in User flows helped me to validate the idea with perspective users. I found that thought the ‘Dating/Matchmaking’ idea was fascinating it did not work for my user’s core problem and in fact had the possibility of creating more problems for the user. The idea was to make a match based on your movie persona however with that being said this does not specifically mean that you would be able to match with that person. More research would be needed, and quite frankly I didn’t have to time to concentrate on a concept that would not solve my core problem.
I created my happy path and used I used Jesse James Garrett’s Visual Vocabulary to represent the architecture of the app.
Insights from my user research work indicated that the app replicates the Nostalgia created with the long-lost protocol of shelving your DVD collection. I always like to think that as UX designers we are solving problems at their core, and I enjoy the process of going deeper to find the root of the problem. I chose to use the visual metaphor of a physical DVD collection as this is the greatest signifier of a persons wealth in taste. This wealth in taste for good film and tv can be translated into trust, who better to trust than a connoisseur of film?
Low-fidelity prototyping
The sketches brought my ideas to life with more detail around layout and structure. Once I created my sketches, a simple low-fidelity prototype helped me test those ideas with users.
From there, i continued iterating the sketches on paper and cut them out for a paper prototype then moved to a digital prototyping tool Marvel.
Sketching Interfaces
Instead of wireframing, I opted to sketch my designs on paper. I used paper prototyping techniques to bring the designs to life and evaluate them with my users. This helped me work rapidly and led me to consider more ideas. Sketching many concepts helped me form a broader view of the app and ensuring a more cohesive ux.
Live prototyping
Marvelapp proved to be the best tool of choice for prototyping. Because of tight timelines I developed a mid‐fidelity prototype
Improving my experience
I would suggest that svpply add a feature within each users’ profile that says “number of influences”. This counter will count the number of time a user posted a product and someone else added it to their list of “wants” or actually purchased that product. This will give an incentive for users to upload more products in an attempt to influence people. People will consider this an incentive because everyone wants to be recognized as someone who is considered a big influencer.
DESIGNING REEL USER EXPERIENCE
