UX case study: A digital experience for Riyadh Front
Personal Notes
It’s Sunday night and I’m overthinking about writing this article so I have got my cold brew to focus on writing with a good mood, After 3 weeks of hard work with my amazing team I can present to you the project. Now I have mixed feelings it’s been 6 weeks since I started my UX immersive journey that provided by MISK, and I loved all the stress and enthusiasm that I have been dealing with, this is my three project and I’m really glad of my commitment. However, In this project, I tried to make sure to contribute with my teammate in all the processes to discover my strengths and weaknesses. I learned and developed my skills by being present in all phases we are going through, and I can say now that I enjoyed all the processes but the Research part was my strength point also the UI phase.
Project overview
Duration: Three weeks
Project type: Group project
Role: Involved in all of the processes
Tools: Figma, FigJam, maze, Google Slides, Canva, Zoom.
UX Research Process
Generative Research goals
Riyadh Front is an extraordinary urban experience in the heart of the capital that re-imagines how we work, play, dine, shop, and share space. is situated in the very city I reside in, and a quick note–I’ll be relocating to Dammam soon, which brings a tear to my eye. This cozy spot has always been my go-to destination, so conducting extensive research about my favorite place was thrilling! However, I’ve never truly focused on the overall experience, including what I love and dislike the most about the location. Thus, we embarked on a generative research journey, delving into user reviews on social media to gain insight into their perspectives. This allowed us to identify pain points, needs, and behaviors, all with the aim of enhancing the user experience during visits to Riyadh Front.
Research Goals
- Understand the Business, their details, goals and visions, services they offer.
- Understand users needs, attitude and behavior, interaction and experience at Riyadh Front and what difficulties they may face, motivation of visiting Riyadh front and satisfaction.
Experience Goals
- Time-saving
- Improved customer experience
- Increased customer satisfaction
- Marketing opportunities
Why Digitize the Experience?
Research Methodologies
- Contextual inquiries : To observe our users to gain more insights.
- Interview : to obtain more insights from the respondents according to the objectives.
- Usability testing: A method of testing that assesses the ease of use and user-friendliness of a software application.
- Competitive study: comparing Riyadh Front and its competitor to see the pros and cons of both features.
Business Research
C&C Competitor analysis
In order to give Riyadh Front a competitive advantage over its rivals, six similar businesses were selected based on their digital presence as a digital experience. These businesses include:
- Mall of Arabia
- King Khalid International Airport
- Dubai Mall
- City Walk (Dubai)
- Doha Festival City
- Bicester Village
The best competitors were:
- Doha Festival City because they have an amazing guide map.
- Dubai Mall because their website’s features and organization is great.
User Research
Contextual inquiry
So CI was such a great method and serve the project a lot how planed for this method we put a couple of questions for the employees who worked there and security also the visitor when we asked those questions me and my teammates we start to observe people to see if this is actually happened and I believe that’s the power of CI, So we start found patterns that give us crystal clear vision about visitors attitude and what observed, I’m going to walk you through what found
So after long time of observation the facilitates and services at Riyadh front what we found out there is a QR code for a map at Riyadh Front that’s nobody knows about!! and there is a multiple services the visitors themselves did not think to use it such as RedBox, However there is also misuse of services such as the board at desk information I observe visitors using it as if it’s a map to show them Riyadh Front places while it’s just a website controlled by information desk employee, So clear navigation was absolutely a must need for visitors!
So we start using the QR map that we found to showcase the most crowdedness places from the observations we did there, so you can see visitors loved to site near fountain located gate 3 also they consider it as main gate, restaurant and caffe zones were full, Vox area less crowded, A lot of people don’t know about gates 6 and 10 and the parking near it these were the key findings
So here started to observe what visitor doing from the minute entered until the last destination of her journey I wrote every single move she did in case we won’t miss anything that could help us, so here is the findings:
- She asked a lot about places and that’s exhausted her
- She loved to know her way by herself
- she misused some services
Interview
in terms of user interviews our goal was to understand user experience at Riyadh front thire attitude and behavior also know what users motivations to visit the place and find what satisfies them and what frustrate them, we did interview 11 users and the questions that we asked was 8 questions, Now we start analyzed the qualitative data using an affinity map, where we divide the affinity mapping to before visiting Riyadh Front, During and the Impression of the user really helped us grouping similar data. In this way, we are able to find out the pain points, needs, and also user behavior while visiting Riyadh Front.
Key findings from affinity mapping
Persona
After analyzing our findings, we created user personas based on the results of interviews and CI to help us understand more about the users and solve the problems they are experiencing.
Problem Statment
Jumana is a tech-savvy who visits Riyadh Front, especially before her flights. She needs a digital solution and a visual map of Riyadh Front to easily access all the information she needs, locate places and facilities, and find the closest gate to park before going to save her time and efforts.
Solution
Journey Map
Want to really know how she feels about RF?
Here’s how her visits to Riyadh Front look like:
Desktop or mobile design?
Mobile Website vs Application
So The Winner is? Mobile Website!
Wireframes mid-fidelity
Starting wireframes to test it with users and see their feedback if is it clear easy on them or we need to make changes and do enhancement on it
User Testability
Unmoderated test using Maze
Task for users was: You want to visit Riyadh Front Shopping Area to dine at White garden restaurant (Near gate 9)
1-Check the parking availability and its nearest gate
2-Choose White Garden restaurant and check info and directions for its location Test
Enhancement
- We have added a map that shows two parts of the parking area.
- The availability of parking spots is now displayed with colors, making it easier for users to quickly find available parking.
Annotation
Wireframe annotations serve the purpose of providing clear instructions to anyone viewing your wireframes
Final Prototype
Now that we have completed the UX Research Process, I would like to share a final prototype, Enjoy your Riyadh Front mobile website! You can find the link to the video in the caption below.
What Next?
- Conduct a second round of user testing.
- Iterate on the the design based on a second round of user testing.
- Contacting the business for stakeholder interviews and get to know more of their needs.
- Develop further features like Online shopping, Rewards Program, Trending Cafes/Restaurants, and Restaurants/Cafes reviews.
- Filter restaurants by cuisines.
- Add the Arabic language.
Conclusion
In general, my experience working on this project was fantastic. We went through many iterations to achieve the level that I’m presenting to you today. Through these iterations, I learned a great deal. First and foremost, I gained a deeper understanding of the importance of patience. Additionally, I had the opportunity to collaborate with a grate team. I would like to thank each member of them Rafal Basaqer, Nr Mog, Rana Hummusani, Shatha Alyazidi.
