UX Academy COMPFEST 13 CAMP 2: Know More about The Techniques and The Best Practice!
COMPFEST 13, Jakarta — User Experience Academy Camp 2 was held on August 28–29, 2021. Just like the previous camp, camp 2 was held online via Zoom. There are five teams participating in this UX Academy, each consisting of four people. Are you curious about Camp 2 UX Academy’s activities? Let’s take a peek at the following article!
Day 1 — User Journey & User Flow
The first day of camp 2 started with an explanation about User Journey and was delivered by Geriska Isabelle. Geriska is a UX Researcher at DANA. Before discussing the material, Geriska started by giving a parable about the User Journey. According to Geriska, the user journey is related to the experience felt by users when they interact with a product/software. User Journey visualizes the process the user goes through to achieve a goal.
She then went on to talk about the objective of the user journey. The objective of the user journey is to align the views of the company’s stakeholders to product users so they can empathize with them. After gaining a better knowledge of product customers’ perspectives, the company can improve its product to make them more impactful.
Next, Geriska explained the elements of the user journey map. According to her, there is no ideal template for a user’s journey map. But, a good user journey map should include some basic elements.
After explaining the basic elements of the user journey, Geriska explained how to map research data to the user journey. Then she also explained how to find problems, insights, and solutions from the user journey. Finally, Geriska closed the material session with User Journey Do’s and Don’ts.
After the material session ended there was a Q&A session and then it was continued by a hands-on user journey session. In this hands-on session, academy participants practice changing the results of research data in camp 1 into a user journey. There will be mentors that accompany each group for this task.
The next material session discusses user flow. This session was presented by Fahmy Habibullah, a UI/UX Design Manager at Dekoruma.
Before entering the core material about user flow, Fahmy first explained the product design process. According to him, the product design process is an iteration that is carried out continuously. In general, there are three processes in product design which include discover, explore, and analyze. These three processes are found in every design framework including design thinking, design sprints, and double diamonds.
Next, Fahmy discussed the exploration process in product design. He stated that exploration is important in the design process because usually, problems in the real world have various solutions. There are two types of exploration, that is the conceptual exploration and visual exploration. Conceptual exploration focuses on the structure, while visual exploration focuses on visual details such as color selection, and typography. 80% of the time in the explore process is usually used for conceptual exploration, while the remaining 20% is for visual exploration.
After discussing the process of exploring in the product design process, the core material is about user flow. “User flow is step by step when our customers/users do something to achieve their goals,” said Fahmy. There are two types of user flow including task flow/flowchart and wireflow. Flowcharts are usually used to map the steps taken by users to achieve their goals, while wireflow is a low-fidelity design of the product to be made. After the material session was over, there was a Q&A session about user flow and then continued with a hands-on session about user flow.
Day 2 — Sketching, Wireframing, and Prototyping
The second day of camp 2 opened with a session of sketching material presented by Rahman Abdul Razak, a UX Designer from Tekom Indonesia. This material session is unique because Rahman sketches his own presentation material. He opened this material session by explaining the difference between drawing and sketching. According to him, the term sketching refers to quick and rough drawing.
Next, Rahman explained a simple guide for sketching. “Think about the most important character in a visual that we want to convey,” he said. For example, if we want to draw a train that has the characteristics of a long carriage, then show these characteristics in the sketch that we will make. We can also add small annotations/notes to the sketch we have made to avoid ambiguity.
Rahman also explained that sketching is not about drawing something realistically, but rather a way to articulate our thoughts into ideas that can be accepted by others through visuals. Next, he explained the characteristics of sketching, the advantages of sketching, the importance of sketching for UX Designers, techniques for doing sketching, and tools & apps for doing sketching. Finally, the material session closed with an explanation of one of the sketching methods, namely Crazy 8’s sketching.
After the material session was over, there was a Q&A session about the material and then it was followed by a hands-on session. In the hands-on session, UX Academy participants did sketching with their mentor using the crazy 8s technique. The hands-on session was quite challenging for some participants because they were still new to the crazy 8’s technique.
The next material session discussed wireframing & prototyping. This session was presented by Dara Adhelia (UI Designer at Blibli.com). Dara opened this material session by explaining the stages of UI Design.
Six stages should be done in UI Design. At the understanding stage, we must know basic information about the project we are going to work on, including the problems/challenges faced, stakeholders (including their expectations/goals), users of the product, etc. Then, the wireframing stage is the stage of making a low fidelity design. Next, there is the moodboarding stage, which is the process of gathering design inspiration (such as determining style & color). Then, there is the High-fidelity stage, namely making the final design of the product. After that, enter the prototyping stage, which is the process of realizing high-fidelity results into a prototype model that already has a flow. The last is testing, which is testing the prototype and asking for feedback from real users or teams.
Next, Dara explained the fundamentals of UI Design including typography, color, spacing, and visual hierarchy. Finally, the core material, namely wireframing & prototyping. In this section, she demonstrates directly how wireframing and prototyping are applied to an example of a case study. Starting from understanding the problem and goals, then making a list of needs, making wireframes, and finally making prototypes.
After the material session was over, there was a Q&A session and then a hands-on session. In this hands-on session, participants make a wireframe of the product features that will be made, and then this wireframe will be converted into a product prototype. After that, the participants made a group presentation about the progress of each group from the beginning of camp 1 to the formation of a product prototype.
After the camp 2 event was over, we had the opportunity to interview Dara Adhelia. According to her, the UX academy COMPFEST is an impressive and perfect event because the entire design process has been covered in this event. The event is also well structured, and the materials provided are all meaningful. In addition, this event also succeeded in collaborating in the UX field with several well-known technology companies in Indonesia.
Dara also shares tips for fellow students if they want a career in the UX field. According to her, the most important thing to prepare is a good portfolio. Portfolios can be created by conducting a self-study case of a technology product. “A good portfolio has a complete design process, starting from the initial research until becoming a prototype,” said Dara.
Furthermore, we also had the opportunity to interview one of the UX Academy participants, Muhammad Abiyyu Habibi. During the two weeks he attended the UX Academy, Abiyyu admitted that he had gained a lot of knowledge and insight in the UX field, including theories in UX, best practices in each stage of UX as well as the frameworks & tools used at each stage. According to Abiyyu, one of the most interesting activities in camp 2 is when making user journeys. In the hands-on user journey session, Abiyyu admitted that he got a lot of insight on how to process the collected data into a user journey.
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