My First Research Project — The Nitty-Gritty.
This week at school we were all assigned a hypothetical product to do research for. Our teacher posted a list of products that we could choose from on a first-come basis. I was lucky enough to snag a great product idea. My product helps users choose where to eat when they can’t decide. This product resonated with me because I am a part of the mass population that also struggles with deciding where to eat when I go out. I also like to see visual progress of where I have gone out to eat, so I don’t lose track, which the product would give me the ability to do. Because of these reasons, I was very excited to start my research. While doing my research this past week, I grew as a UX (User Experience) designer in so many ways. To better explain how I have grown, I decided to answer four key questions that focus on the challenges I came across and the growth I have discovered.
What insights have you made as a UX (User Experience) designer?
From my previous weeks at Lambda School, I knew that UX designers do a lot more than just creating beautiful and functional user interfaces. I, however, did not realize the amount of time that goes into the research of a product. I spent at least 14 hours this week creating a screener survey, conducting a personal interview, breaking down possible issues/goals stakeholders may face, and creating a persona. And, after all of those hours, I still feel like I have only scraped the surface of the amount of work that goes into researching. This week gave me insight into how thought-provoking and challenging user research can be.
Which topics or deliverables have been easy and why?
The deliverable that was the easiest for me was creating the persona for our target audience. I felt more comfortable from the start because I was able to create something in Sketch. In turn, this was more of a strong point for me than other things we were doing this week. I also had prepared myself earlier in the week by doing detailed research with links that supported statements of who our target audience would be. Using that detailed information I had already collected, creating it was quick and easy. When putting together my persona, I felt very close to him and truly tried to empathize with him, even though he was made up. This deliverable seemed to flow easily for me because of how I am such an empathetic person.
Which topics or deliverables have been more challenging and why?
This week I think that I struggled with a couple of things. The first being, conducting the personal interview. I felt I did a very good job laying out important questions that I wanted to ask, but I could have done better on the execution. I found myself struggling with not repeating their answers back to them once they answered. I could have relaxed and let the conversation flow easier instead of asking a question and moving on to the next one right after. Moving forward, I want to practice the interaction with someone I know to help me when I hold a real personal interview. The second thing I struggled with was creating hypothetical issues/goals stakeholders face. I focused on issues a CEO, CTO, and Head of Product Manager would come across. I had a hard time getting into the heads of a CEO and the CTO. I didn’t have much knowledge into what each focuses on within the company, especially the CTO since I do not know any coding. This pushed me as a researcher to get to the root of issues they may face. It was challenging, but at the end of the assignment, I felt I had a better understanding of what these stakeholders think.
How do you believe you could improve your process going forward?
Going forward, I think I could improve my process by practicing more. This was all new to me this week, and I feel that as I continue to grow that it will get easier. I also learned things this week, that will apply to all my future research. Keeping what I learned in mind, and practicing more often, will help me improve tremendously.
Conclusion
This week I feel I grew and learned so much that will help me in UX design. As this project continues, since we are just in the first stage, I think that I will keep growing along with it. The past few days gave me insight into my strengths and weaknesses and how I need to work on them. Although designing interfaces is my strong point, I am confident by the end of this project, that it won’t be my only strong point.
