Research User Experience User Interface
Duration: 2 weeks
Team: Ajay Puthran, Vijeta Bhat, Elisha Anthony
Role: Secondary research, Primary research
Tools used: Wireframes, Figma
Identifying the problem
To understand how people behaved with the app, I conducted interviews with people who used it. The first step here was asking them to perform the task of placing an order through the app, while I shadowed them. At each and every stage of the process, I would ask them how they felt about the operation and what their experience was like. I would also notice their behavior and facial expressions as they performed the task and note them down too.
Tools for organizing and understanding insights from the interviews
Customer journey mapping
Once the interviews were conducted and the insights were noted down, I began creating a customer journey map to note down the steps taken to complete an action and also their experience at various touchpoints.
It showed me another perspective on completing the said task. In this way, I was able to realize that people have different ways of doing things.
User Personas
Next, I created user personas based on the information received via the interviews and the shadowing.
These personas helped me understand the audience I was designing for. By understanding their needs and pain points, we were able to define the problem and proceed with designing solutions.
Empathy mapping
Post creating user personas, I went ahead and built an empathy map of an aggregate of the users interviewed.
It was important to create an empathy map in order for me to understand exactly where the problems lie in the app. This is another tool that helped me and my team define the problem statement.
Service blueprint and information architecture
It was also essential to understand the ecosystem of the service and the structure of the app by developing a service blueprint and the information architecture of the app.
Defining the problem
After gathering all the insights and structuring them with the help of different tools, I was able to locate the problems and define them.
Reflections so far
Discovering the problems faced by users made me realize my biases toward my work as a designer.
This project has helped me understand the diversity in us humans, how each one of us looks at things differently, and what we would like to see. It has been a mind-opening experience for me, as I made sense of how understanding the feedback from users helps designers identify new insights.
Obstacles faced in research
A challenge that I faced was the limited amount of time assigned to conduct adequate user research. I believe that we require a lot more interviews and plenty of research to understand customers better. I was not able to gather enough insights that would help me in designing better.
It would also have been helpful to conduct interviews in person, rather than doing it over video calls and screen-shares.
Ideation
Competitor analysis
The team began the ideation phase by first conducting a competitor analysis to understand where the D-Mart app stands in the e-commerce market. We compared it with several other e-commerce/grocery shopping apps
Sketching out wireframes
Low fidelity mockups
All mockups shown below were created by the team using Figma.
Style guide
Prototyping
High fidelity mockups
After creating low-fidelity screens, we built high-fidelity mockups of the same and also created a prototype of the application.
Onboarding screens
Home page and Categories screens
Cart, payment, and successful-order screens
Reflections
I learned how to work in a team to improve a service's user experience. When it comes to design, the team's diverse backgrounds provided fresh perspectives. While I was better equipped to conduct user research, the others were good at creating visually appealing graphics.
I also learned that developing a style guide is essential when working in a team because it establishes the criteria to be followed while designing ideas.
This project helped me get better at using Figma to create wireframes and mockups. I was able to learn a lot of features required for building mockups and prototyping.
Limitations
We were unable to undertake user testing for the prototypes, so the designs may be improved. We would be able to identify the experience people had while using the prototype we produced by doing user tests, and if adjustments were required, changes and iterations could be developed.
