User Study 1: Synthesis Model of Pre-professionals
From raw data to the synthesis model
Process
Interview Timeline
To better organize our interview raw data, we created Interview Task Timelines as our Analysis Artifact1. We tracked the interviewer, interviewee, and the notetaker’s name in that timeline. Three columns were designed for timeline and task; actions or words the interviewee took; and the photos during the interview.
Task Timeline Template
Affinity Diagram
An affinity diagram was used to help us group data into groups based on natural relationships. We used different pen colors to represent our four different interviewees. We finally grouped all the stickers into four main categories: Challenges; Goals and Motivations; Organization and Workflow; Tools. Within each category, we also did some small grouping.
Ideate and Design
From our Affinity Diagram and User Profiles, we figured out that our four interviewees are all interested in UX design and had many similarities in personality. Besides, the data we collected actually uncovered the core values of young preprofessional UX designers. As a result, we built an Identity Model which could show a UX designer’s personal identity. Our model was built on the Identity Model provided by Holtzblatt, Karen, and Hugh Beyer (2017), which showed the three main sections “I am”, “I plan”, and “I like”. Based on that, we also added an “I struggle” section, and changed “I plan” to “I do” in order to better represent our interviewees.
The Identity Model
Design Critique
We brought our user-profiles and our model for a class critique. Many different models were created by other teams and we were inspired a lot. Specifically, we were inspired by one group who also came up with an Identity Model. Different than us, they didn’t use the model to represent a highly-generalized personality, instead, they divided each section into smaller sections. For example, in the “I like” section, they had people who were willing to share their work through GitHub but they also had people who were not willing to make their work open to the public.
We had a discussion about how to use the Identity Model correctly. We figured out the reason why our teams came up with two different Identity Model was that their team had four interviewees from different walks of life while ours were all UX designers. As a result, their model focused on breadth while ours focused on depth. There’s no absolute right or wrong, it all depends on our data. However, in order to make the model more reasonable, we would like to make the personality identity clearer.
Final Model
Finally, we came up with this Identity Model representing a UX designer’s common values, activities, and challenges.
User Study 1 Insights
1.The difficulty of keeping track and organized design pieces
Professionals struggle with tracking what they have done in time order and compiling them after the project ended to compel them into a portfolio piece and tell a complete story. They agree upon the importance of documenting while making but still struggle at organizing them locally and finding and fetching relevant materials when it comes to portfolio creation.
2. Reflection is mindful but also stressful.
Experts value the experience of reflection and thought it is mindful. However, the process of reflecting back during the portfolio making process is painful and stressful. They lack the motivation of reflecting but still have to do it for the purpose of application and job searching.
3. Time-consuming and not easy to recall for showcase and portfolio creation.
Even experts documented along the way and organized design pieces, they claimed that it is still a time-consuming process to create the portfolio and one of them said she wishes she can use this amount of time to learn other skills.
