First Encounter: The UX Design Process

First they smiled at us. Then they grabbed us by both hands, dragged us to the edge and threw us head first into freezing cold water. Fortunately, we emerged to the surface again, only slightly gasping for breath.

The most poignant things I learned during this first project — our introduction to the UX Design process at General Assembly:

• Ambiguity is inherent. Deal with it.
• It’s not necessarily about the “right” answer, but rather it’s about iterating on data-driven ideas.
• At least at first, it’s about getting used to the process and practicing. Don’t aim for perfect. The more you simplify, the easier the task will become. Simplifying lets you focus on learning the process and how to tackle these problems instead of getting caught up in unnecessary details.
• Facebook’s old “move fast and break things” motto definitely still applies to prototyping. The faster you can begin to get ideas down on paper and then test them to find what doesn’t work, the more time for improved iterations.
• Every step of the process links directly to human psychology. It’s fascinating. But you therefore need to be deliberate about every nuance.
• Food for thought: is it possible to create a successful solution to the problem if the user is unaware of it?

A couple thoughts from specific steps in the process:

(The prompt was “create a mobile app that supports the GA student social experience”)

Hypothesis

• I struggled with how specific to be without having any context (we had only been on campus one day). Ultimately I created two hypotheses: one that was very broad (basically just matching the question prompt), and another that was very specific but had little basis on anything except my experiences in previous organizations.
• I think there is a happy medium of specificity that I have yet to find.
• The metric or KPI used to measure the hypotheses also alluded me as I don’t have experience with “feeling” surveys or how to quantify social experiences.

User Interview Documentation

• The user interview process was enlightening! I learned that consistency across interviews can be hugely helpful, so it’s important to stick to the script where possible.
• When going off script, I found it very difficult to avoid Yes/No questions as well as leading questions.
• After 4 interviews nearly back to back, I could feel that I was becoming less disciplined in my open-questions and script. It’s important to space interviews out to give yourself a chance to reset.
• The Otter app was very useful for recording & transcription, but is way better when used in a very quiet place. Both interviewer and interviewee need to speak up for best results.
• I created a table with which to compare the different interviews across one another and identify observations for the affinity mapping. I find it easier to look at things in one place. Ideally, this table contains more than just direct pasting from the transcript and is rather another form of synthesis, but if time is short, it’s still useful to simply paste the transcript answers.

Research Synthesis

• I find framing “I statements” a little tricky, and I’m not always sure when to use them versus direct insights or other phrases.
• There were definitely additional observations from the interviews that I didn’t write down — I was not sure where to draw the line. Five twenty-minute interviews produces a LOT of data!

Affinity Map

Problem Statement

• There’s a fine line between including too many of my insights in one problem statement and aiming to solve a multifaceted problem. Again, simplification is probably the name of the game here.

“Immersive students at GA have a lot of coursework and little time for social events.

Jason wants more interactions with GA students studying disciplines other than his own. How might we create fun opportunities for him to spend time with non-UX students, while still respecting his limited time?”

Paper Prototype

• Just dive in. The water is cold, but it’s bearable! Start putting the ideas on paper as fast as you can. The more and the sooner you do it, the more time you’ll have to iterate and change your mind and develop better ideas. And the rougher it is, the better. Because the more YOU care about it, the harder it is to give it up if it’s not working. So don’t spend too much time on it. Don’t let yourself care about it (too much). At least until you’ve begun to prove the concept with users. Then you can start getting excited.
• This is DEFINITELY (one of) the fun part(s).

Clickable Prototype

Sketch

• Annotating can be a little tricky in Sketch. I used Google Slides and Mac’s Preview. They are fine. It would be great to find an “infinite canvas” space to do the annotating…

Invision

• It’s buggy. It’s ok.

Chat overlay

Usability Testing & Reporting

• Testing doesn’t take very long! 5–10 minutes max. And is crazy enlightening to see how people interact with your app. Be cognizant of how you frame things and who you have test it. Even slight differences in testers’ backgrounds or your introduction of the scenario/task can impact how the tester perceives the app and how they interact with.
• Try to be as neutral as possible.
• In the report, think about WHY as much as possible.
• I wrote a summary section at the beginning to explain my thoughts and then dove into the screenshots and data. My summary may have been too wordy — this will likely depend on the stakeholders involved.
• Use user quotes!

“I think you really hit the core of what we needed: to be more comfortable with walking up to a person to say hi. Without a reason to, it’s kind of hard. But this is a great ice breaker.” -User 4

Test Summary & Analysis
From my observations during prototype testing, I realized that users consider this app as a gaming app rather than a way to make new connections. However, this is not necessarily a problem; so long as it facilitates fun, authentic interactions, it still addresses the user need whether the user is aware of it or not.

I deduced this user sentiment due to a number of observations:
Firstly, how users confronted the first task — “chatting”: although the task instructed the user to see what their opponent had communicated, nearly every user jumped directly into playing the game. I believe this was partially due to the visual interface, and partially due to how I introduced the app and the test.
Secondly, enjoyment of game play. From their body language and words, it was clear that users really enjoyed submitting a word and watching as their “opponent” (a ghost in the machine) guessed it. I believe humans quite simply love games and competition. As one user said, “I don’t know why it felt so rewarding.”
Thirdly, relative lack of interest in the opponent. No users mentioned that they noticed the word “Today’s” in the opponent’s profile. And only one user clicked on the Opponent Profile link in the menu bar.

In the current instance of the app, I believe that the balance between a “fun and easy” app and a “way to meet people” app is skewed too much towards fun. Yet, I think there is a benefit to having users believe the app is intended for gaming. Two key insights I gathered from initial user interviews were that (1) networking felt like a chore and (2) GA students greatly prefer authentic, fun relationships. Hence, if this app introduces people in a natural and enjoyable way, it will address the user need whether the user is aware of it or not.”

Presentation

• Start building it from the beginning of the project.
• Don’t spend too much time on any one slide. Get all the major points down and THEN start the formatting — otherwise it will take too long.
• Always consider your timeframe for the presentation. All the hard work counts for nothing if you aren’t able to fit it into your allotted presentation time. So make sure you can convey everything you need to convey in the time you’re given.
• I went over my time, and since my solution was a little outside the box, I wasn’t able to provide a conclusion that connected the dots. So in some ways it didn’t seem like I’d properly completed the assignment.
• Use user quotes to drive a point home.
• Make an interesting “hook” opening slide!

Presentation “Hook” Slide

Overall, have FUN with it!

“That was fun!” — User 4