Rapid Paper Prototyping & Marvel
Hire-Monize Me iOS App
Background
I decided to experiment with rapid paper prototyping and the mobile app, Marvel. I wanted to attempt this process with a mobile app idea for musicians who are looking for work and employers who are looking for talent.
Research
I needed to begin my research in order to identify the real problem, design the solution, test the design, and make iterations.
First, I put together a set of interview questions that included the topics: Jobs, Music, YouTube. With that, I conducted five user interviews and received applicable feedback that would further help me with my designs.
Synthesis
Next, I incorporated insight that I had gathered from user interviewing into my synthesizing process. Here is what I learned:
- Job specific search engines are more consolidated.
- I need the resources in order to be considered interesting.
- Too many people have access to the same resources.
- Social media is a huge part of the music industry.
The Real Problem
Using my research and synthesis gatherings, I was able to uncover the real problem that I needed to solve:
How might I design a social networking app specific to musicians looking for work and employers looking for talent?
Prototype
My Thoughts on Marvel and Rapid Prototyping
From my experience, I feel that Marvel is a very useful app in many ways. It is easy to use, efficient, quick, and a great way to test an idea. However, do I think that it is necessary to conduct usability tests with paper prototypes? It depends, really. If a UX designer is really unsure about an idea in his/her design studio phase, than sure, why not test a paper prototype? Nonetheless, I do feel that the feedback a UX designer will receive on, at least, a block-level wireframe will be far more effective. Yes, rapid prototyping does leave room for improvement and saves time. But the amount of time it takes to build block-level wireframes and putting them into a site like InVision do not take much longer than having to sketch up screens, photograph them, and link them together. In my opinion, it is worth the bit of extra time!
