Case Study: Wham Bam Homeland!

Introduction

So, first day of UXDI at General Assembly. We are just going to ease into it right? Just feel out the world of UX before jumping into any sort of project right? Wrong. Shortly after introducing ourselves and meeting our instructors, we were introduced to Project 1 and assigned partners.

The project was meant to initiate us on the concept of rapid prototyping and honestly, I was thrilled. So, lets jump right into it.

User Research

The Interview

To kick off our user research, we split up into pairs and set out to interview our intended user which in this case was a fellow classmate. My partner and intended user for this project was Courtney.

The interview began with the usual questions about her background and progressed to TV-related questions and desired app features. Courtney is from San Diego, runs triathlons, and loves the show Homeland. She loves the show for its depth and realism and is always left wanting more when the episode ends.

Among the desired features she described were recaps, previews, in depth content, and a second screen experience. She knew all the content she craved was out on the internet somewhere, but she wished she could have it all in one place.

Card Sorting

With my interview information in hand, I set out to further clarify the features of the app by conducting a cardsorting exercise with Courtney. Post-interview I thought I had a pretty good idea of what Courtney was looking for but we had just learned about the cardsorting technique and I was eager to give it a try.

I began the exercise thinking Courtney was looking for a IMDB-type app for Homeland. However, the cardsorting revealed that I was very wrong. I set up a list of features on post its stuck to the wall and asked Courtney to arrange them in their order of importance in the app. Surprisingly, Instead of having the informational features of the app at the top of the list, she chose the second screen feature as the most important.

My big takeaway was that although she would love to have in depth content available to her within the app, her main priority would be the consumption of content without interrupting her viewing experience.

Interesting…

Market Research

The user research got the gears turning in my head and I was eager to find out what was out there already. To do this I set up a comparative and competitive analysis spreadsheet to summarize my findings.

What the analysis revealed was that although many apps had similar features desired by Courtney for her app, none of them had it all.

Synthesis

Concept Map

After conducting the user and market research, it was time to synthesize the data. To help me visualize the app, I scribbled up a concept map.

This actually helped a lot and helped focus the direction of the app in my noggin.

Persona

Utilizing the information I learned about Courtney and the app she desired, I set out to summarize that information in the form of a persona.

Scenario

In keeping with the persona, the following is the scenario in which Courtney would use the app:

“Courtney finally comes home after a long day of kicking butt at work. She wants to watch her favorite show “Homeland” but does not want to lose the focus and mental stimulation she has built up during the day. She would also like to involve others in her viewing experience.”

User Flows

Aside from the concept map, creating a user flow helped visualize the user’s progression throughout the app. After a few iterations, I decided upon a userfow and set out to create the prototype for testing.

Design and Iteration

Sketching

Previous to GA I had never really enjoyed drawing out my ideas with a pen and paper. But with the presentation looming and in a time crunch, I decided to try my hand at sketching out my design ideas before mocking them up on Blasamiq. Keeping with the theme of my first project at GA, I was glad to be wrong. It turns out sketching my ideas before mocking them up was exactly what I needed to design the basic structure of the app.

Paper Prototyping

Even after sketching out the majority of the screens, I still needed to find out if my intended user, Courtney, would find the app easily navigable and if it catered to her needs.

We decided on testing using a paper prototype and got right to it. I allowed Courtney free reign to click through the app and think out loud about what she saw and felt. It turns out she really liked the app. However, after discussing it further she mentioned that one gripe she had was that she felt like the in depth content was a little more hidden away than she had expected.

With that knowledge in hand I set out to rework the pages so that the content she wanted was front and center. I also began to mock up the pages in myBlasamiq to create a higher fidelity clickable prototype.

Iterations

Once the clickable prototype was done, I set out to once again test it out on Courtney, hoping the iterations that were made worked for her.

I was a little nervous the app would still not meet her needs but the words of our instructor Jill rang through my ears and got me refocused.

“Don’t be married to your designs, the user is the one that matters.”

With that thought in mind we ran through the test. To my delight she noticed the iterations and overall loved the app. Hooray!

Next Steps with WBH!

● Improve usability via testing

● Create similar app for other shows

● Improve social media integration

● Feature exclusive content

Presentation

Presentation day is finally here! My classmates were extremely supportive and excited to hear about my process. My time here at GA is off to a great start!

Links:

Prototype: https://goo.gl/WyIk0N

Presentation: https://goo.gl/EAEJ0h