Project Pizza — Project 1 Concept Review
The objective for my first independent project at General Assembly was to develop an app that addressed a problem in the food space. In order to navigate the ambiguity of this topic I decided to narrow my scope to focus on a product that is democratic, ubiquitous and cheap — pizza.
Since our campus is situated in the pizza capital of the world, I had no doubt my research would point me in the right direction.
With a two-day deadline looming over me, it was imperative to move quickly but not to lose sight of the pillars that define the lean UX process.
So, where to begin?
People have no idea what they want. It’s our role as UX designers to extract insights through research, identify a problem space and create a product that explicitly services that need. In order to establish these needs and pain points I had to complete several user interviews as a way to discover my problem space.
I created an air-tight question guide which allowed me to explore the user’s habits, preferences and behaviors. In our first week we learned to avoid compounded and leading questions as a way to give the interviewee the ability to expand on a desired topic in an open, free form fashion. Using interviewing techniques such as these allow us to identify strong, emotional themes across the participant pool.
Now on to the fun part — synthesis! Through the creation of individual interview profiles, I was able to assemble a list of likes, dislikes, behaviors and pull quotes from my transcribed interviews. Next, I transferred each bullet point onto a whiteboard so I could visually group user insights and have a better idea of how to proceed.
“The why behind the data is always more important than the what.”
After a lot of shuffling and a much needed coffee break, I established categories based on preferences, nostalgia, location, community, health risks, and found my problem statement hiding in the delivery section.
High quality pizza is not as tasty when delivered.
“When you order it to your house it’s just not as good, but when you dine in it is the best pizza in the world”
It was clear to me through my insights that artisanal pizza drastically declined in quality when users opted for delivery.
Now that the what and why were outlined I needed to define who I was designing my application for.
Matt is a 26 year old graduate student who gets nostalgic when he thinks about our nationally beloved Italian export. Pizza reminds him of childhood pool parties and he always thought the slices at his school’s cafeteria tasted like cardboard. He believes true flavor lies in the simplicity of ingredients and is always keen to follow through with pizzeria recommendations from friends and family. A major pain point for Matt is his apprehension towards delivery because quality always seems to be compromised en route.
Matt is my user persona.
User Personas are a UX tool that allow outsiders to empathize with the platform by visualizing a target user. I created this narrative by converging my synthesized data from my key users as a way to make my design less subjective.
My next step was to create and combine a series of low fidelity paper wireframes into a clickable prototype. It was necessary to expand my concept by illustrating the steps of how a participant would navigate my platform. Prototyping is an effective and cheap way to test different ideas, consider different solutions and convey an idea with your audience.
But I was stuck. How is a novice like me supposed to create a unique and compelling visual experience? How do I solve a problem that exists in such a saturated space?
After clearing my head and receiving some words of wisdom I put pen to paper. My objective was not to disrupt the pizza delivery industry, it was to create a product through trial and error that tested the skills I had been developing over the past few weeks.
Link to Marvel Prototype:
https://marvelapp.com/863b1f1?emb=1
After multiple design revisions I settled on a format based on the Slice platform (https://slicelife.com/). My differentiating quality was the ability to notify the user when his artisanal pizza would be at its’ optimal quality. The next step was to test my artifact’s navigability and utility through usability testing.
Through usability testing I was able explore a wide variety of topics relevant to my prototype such as feature interaction, engagement, learnability and efficiency. I recruited four participants from my class and prompted them with a simple user scenario and task.
User Scenario:
“You just finished a long day at General Assembly and have a craving for pizza”
Task:
“Your friend mentioned Lucali’s is really tasty. Navigate the app and place an order for a cheese pizza.”
When conducting usability testing, we learned to place participants in a contextual scenario and instruct them to complete a task through the lens of the provided user persona. As the designer, I had to avoid giving quick direction or feedback when observing testers operate my product. It is imperative to let the user intuit the process, and even struggle or fail to preform the objective. Therefore, we can observe whether or not the artifact is effective at addressing the problem statement identified in our research synthesis.
I received both positive feedback and constructive criticism after one round of testing with a participant pool of four testers. A major need was to establish a time frame within the prototype so the tester can know both exactly when to leave to retrieve his pizza as well as what time the application would prompt a reminder to begin the trip. In addition, I also considered the potential benefit of adding a navigation feature in order to offer the ability to visually pin point nearby pizzerias.
I missed the opportunity to explore my insight linking a strong nostalgic connection to pizza. Human centered design is the core philosophy of UX and as I develop my skills I hope to find a way to create more sensitive and robust design solutions for my audience.
