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I was asked to find a problem in an application, website, object, or process that needed to be fixed. I had no idea what to think or what had a problem but then I found one. The one thing that I find myself using the most is social media. Facebook popped up in my mind immediatly so I did some reasearch to see if other people felt the same.
So, I found this article here to help me understand Facebook a little more. Overall, Facebook has issues. Say what? To me that that is not shocker. One thing that is a problem is notifications that you should be seeing but, are stopped from seeing because they are hidden. I came across many people who were bothered by this issue of different comments.
Looking at how Facebook has things structured of course there will be problems. One of those is the messaging and the poor navigation of how things function. There are hidden messages and as users it is hard to use these specific features and becoming frustrated. There are so many different levels to Facebook and it takes a lot of getting used to. I am someone who has used Facebook for years now and it still has some mysteries.
Then I remembered I had just recently entered a contest and wanted to search for my comment. Well to my surprise there was no way to search for my comment. That led me to thinking about what ways that I could solve that issue and then that led to a Facebook Project.
As I started working on my project I got to use the Sprint Method by Jake Knapp. You can take a better look at that design book here.
This method really helps designers get their ideas out. This was a perfect way to start my research for Facebook. I originally had so many different ideas of what I wanted to do but they needed to be explored better. You start with a Map on day one which would be ‘Monday’ to springboard ideas refine. Then moving on to ‘Tuesday’ which is the solutions stage, using critical thinking over artistry. Moving to ‘Wednesday’ the decision stage, using honest assessments of the elements found in the basic sketches. Keeping on track with ‘Thursday’ the prototype stage, the goal is to take the ‘fake it’ philosophy to turn your storyboard materials into a realistic prototype. Then lastly is ‘Friday’ which is when you move to being curious about a problem and seeing if a new design idea has merit through interviews. Doing each of these different Sprints this leads to a very profitable outcome. I was able to come up with something that I think would make a great addition to Facebook.
So, as I went through each different day you can see my thought progression and ideas that came through below.
Sprint 1: ‘Monday’
The Map
On Monday, this was my first time using the Sprint Method and it was all about looking at the possibilities. I was able to work in a group where they gave me input on what kinds of ideas could possibly go into my project. Going through this sprint really helped me look at the possible situations.
Breaking it down to what I really looked at was the actual problem that I was facing. The main problem was that you can’t easily locate your comments. Then the Challenge will be to see what way will provide with the best results. I was looking at colors, highlighting, font size, and icons. Then I really needed to open my eyes to who would use this feature of searching for comments.
This lead to the possible situations that this commenting feature would be used in. Some situations this might be used in would be contests, editing comments, events/parties, and looking for your friends. I realized that I couldn’t just expect everyone to search in contests. So, this helped me broaden my search for what I needed to incorporate.
Sprint 2: ‘Tuesday’
Sketches
Tuesday was a day that was CrAzY all of my ideas got to “throw up” on some sketches. It was so interesting to see my ideas come to life in pages of sketches.
We worked on Crazy 8’s and these were when all of the different variations of what my project could potentially look like got to be written down. This was not the artsy part of the sprint process.
As you can see I wanted to see what icons, colors, interface, font, and other variations might look like. It was really hard to come up with other ideas when I already had a good idea in my mind of what I wanted it to look like. It turns out that I actually liked one of my ideas from my sprint better than my original idea. I was able to take elements from each part of this crazy 8 experience and apply them in my final.
I was also able to come up with lots of other sketches and ideas that I wrote down that also applied to the ‘Tuesday’ sprint idea. As you can see below they each helped me with getting all of the different ideas that I had out into a thought bubble. Nothing was too crazy! I was able to take every random thought of what might look good and place it down on paper.
Sprint 3: ‘Wednesday’
The Decision
After having all of my ideas and sketches thrown onto a page it was time to pick out what was the most important. I needed to take a hard look and decide what I wanted my product to look like. Was it going to have a ton of color? Was my font size going to be effected? Should I highlight the comments? What icon should I use? Each of these different thoughts were running through my head as I was trying to make my decision. So, I ended up with a decision that led me to where my prototype is now.
For the picture on the left you can see what I was able to sketch “pretty” and make some choices. I knew that I wanted things to be easily searchable. So, creating an icon for people to click on was key. I ended up using the magnifying glass icon because I feel so many people have associated that with searching.
Having things show up highlighted was one indicator that I wanted to be shown in my porotype. This way it would help people find what they were looking for in a more efficient way. So my sketched idea of what a starter prototype would look like is on this page as a highlighted portion of someone’s comment.
Sprint 4: ‘Thursday’
The Prototype
On sprint number four everything seemed to be coming together. So, on the prototype day everything was shaping up to go the way that I had seen it in my head. It was time to create a Prototype of a Prototype that would help me visualize my ideas. This was helping me get ready for a functioning prototype that could actually be clickable.
My first variation of my prototype still needed some help because I wanted to do a wireframe of a prototype. Then what it could potentially look like when I filled in with pictures and real content. So, with my Wireframe prototype ready to Rock’n Roll I was set to go on an adventure.
So then my prototype elevated to the next level.
This is my prototype elevated to the next level of adding images and making everything look like Facebook. I wanted people to really feel like they were in Facebook. I felt like people would really appreciate the fact that there were real comments, likes, replies, and other factors made everything flow. I wanted to make sure that everything was a consistent feeling between the real application and between this prototype so they didn’t get confused. I also thought this would help people recognize what changes were made and what they could do to click or activate the new features.
Sprint 5: ‘Friday’
Testing
The final day of the sprint was the best day. I was finally able to see my prototype out in action. People would be testing out my prototype to give me feedback that could help me in the future. I won’t bore you with the details of what questions I asked but if you want to view them you can find them here.
I wanted to start everyone out with a simple taskt to read through the Facebook post. Then they had to locate the “That’s what she said post” the longest it took anyone to find the post was 44 seconds. Lastly they had to just read the comments. It was such a simple task that everyone was happy with their end results.
In the results things seemed to flow so simple with the prototype that everyone really loved the new feature. The only thing that people might enjoy is customizing what color you highlighted text will show up. So as you get more involved with the app I think that could be one of the features in your profile. This way you are pleased as you look through the application. Other than that minor detail of color each participant found the search icon with ease.
Conclusion
After working with Facebook so much you might think that I am sick of it. Well that can’t be! There are just too many funny videos to watch and it’s so nice to stay connected with friends and family.
Working with this Project and creating my own prototype was so fun. It was so nice and refreshing to get something that people actually liked. I was worried that people would think it is a dumb added feature. Unlike I predicted people really enjoyed this Prototype and they thought of ways that they would like to see it in the real application.
I really loved working on this project because I was able to have freedom. This sprint method is one that I will be using again. It was so nice to get all of my ideas out and in an organized way. This sprint method helped me collaborate with other students and see what would work or not. Then creating a prototype and testing it on actual users was great real-life work experience.
