User interviews
Users interviewed were graduate students at University of Michigan. Data from five user interviews suggested that priorities for graduate students in the realm of U-M events are:
- efficiency in finding events
- increasing awareness of interesting events
- meeting other grad students
- attend 1-2 events/week
brainstorming & sketching
Brainstormed 8 possible solutions to meet user needs. Sketched all eight ideas to aid in idea development, understanding physical design limitations and opportunities, possible services each design would provide students, and ways in which each design would meet user needs.
competitive analysis
Researched companies and University of Michigan services that provide similar services as my designs in order to ensure I was not creating a redundant solution. Competitive analysis research indicated that no product met the same user needs that user/need-finding interviews identified.
personas & empathy maps
Developed 3 personas and an anti-persona for the design problem. Each persona illustrated different user needs, priorities, and motivations. Creating personas provided perspective on how users would use the design product and increased empathy with users.
QOC: Decision time
"Question, option, criteria" was the tool used to evaluate user needs met by three of the eight original designs. These three all had the most potential to solve the problem students were facing. The design that met the most criteria was the design that was developed into a prototype.
narrative storyboard
Sketched a narrative storyboard to illustrate how users would use the design product.
scenarios
Developed use scenarios for each persona. Based on each persona's motivation, behavior, and needs, the scenarios flesh out in prose a few moments of the persona using the product. Details such as where the user clicks, how they are feeling, and what their goal is for interacting with the product are included in the scenarios.
low-fi wireframes
Low-fidelity wireframe sketches pushed the design into a usable product, was the crux for more detailed design decisions, beginning to develop an idea of user flows, required interactions, and key features.
user flow
Based on the completed scenarios for each persona, a user flow was developed. User flows were instrumental in highlighting interaction minutia, exactly how a user would move throughout the digital product.
prototype
Final deliverable for the project is a mid-fidelity prototype, developed in Figma. The prototype has 30 distinct screens and 20+ interactions, and additional micro-interactions. Four rapid user tests were completed halfway through prototype development and significantly aided in prototype refinement by illuminating missing interactions, confusing text or layout, and providing ideas for additional ways to meet user needs.
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