#scenario map

[daiserocha]

“Visited Cities” App Redesign (Part 3)

PERSONA

The finding from the survey and user interview were enough to validate the empathy map assumptions and create a persona for the project.

Meet Rita….

Rita is a 31-year-old Marketing Executive who loves travelling. She has visited 32 countries and travels at least 5 times per year. Rita’s decision on where to go on holidays is normally based on the number of days off she has and on the trip costs; she creates these on a piece of paper; and when she is in the destination she is constantly trying to take notes on things she does and share her experiences on social media.

AS-IS SCENARIO

A few days later Rita is back at work and tells her colleagues about her trip and gets frustrated when she realises she has started to forget some details and she wishes her boxes of notes and brochures were there to help her to share her experiences.

Rita gets really excited when there is a new trip coming up, especially when she starts learning about the destination, things to do, to eat, to see. She gets busy doing the research to create the itinerary, she spends most of her time reading travel magazines, blogs and websites. She keeps notes of her findings in different formats, some on pieces of paper, others on her phone, printed pages, etc.

During the trip Rita gets confused with her notes, she has a lot of pieces of paper in her hands and cannot organise it in a way that she can understand and follow the itinerary. She is afraid of missing something important, so she stops at the tourist information to make sure she is covering most of the sightseeing around the area.

Every evening before going to bed Rita tries to recall her day and to write her experiences in her journal. She feels stressed when she realises that she can not remember important details of her day. So she starts to take notes of place names on a piece of paper and to keep all the receipts and tickets in case she forgets the details later in the day. She also takes pictures of street signs in case they are needed.

When Rita gets back home from the trip she is completely overwhelmed with the number of notes, brochures and paper she has accumulated on her trip. She doesn’t know what to do with all these papers, so she looks for an app that she can use to store this information. She downloads many different apps but none of them does what she is looking for - an app she can enter all the trip details and have access to at any time in the future. She gives up looking and puts all the paper in a box and goes back to her daily life.

A few days later Rita is back at work and tells her colleagues about her trip and gets frustrated when she realises she has started to forget some details and she wishes her boxes of notes and brochures were there to help her to share her experiences.

NEXT STEPS

'Visited Cities’ APP Analysis

Competitor Analysis

'Visited Cities’ Task Analysis

[daiserocha]

“Visited Cities” App Redesign (Part 1)

PROJECT BRIEF

The aim of this project is to analyse and redesign “Cities Visited” app based on user research findings and user testing feedback.

It is believed that well-travelled users need an easy way to learn about destinations, to take notes and to list the places they have been to, so they don’t forget any important and memorable details about their trips

DISCOVERY (RESEARCH)

Research is really important in the design process, it helps designers better understand and empathise with users, and as a result build more meaningful products. “There is a full range of possibilities of data collection, analysis and interpretation that researchers propose for their studies” (Creswell, 2013). There are more than 100 research methods that can be applied to different phases (Planning, exploring, concept generation, evaluation and launch) of the project (Martin, 2012).

DESIGN THINKING

To start the research two design thinking exercises were done - Empathy Map and As-is Scenario Map - to get most of the assumptions and questions listed to be later validated with surveys, user interviews and user testing. Empathy maps help to put the team in the user’s shoes (IBM Design Thinking Field Guide, 2016). It shouldn’t be done alone as more people involved will mean more observations are generated. So for this exercise, a potential user was invited to collaborate.

The exercise took about 40 minutes, we empathised with Rita, a 34-year-old accountant who loves travelling, history and culture. What does Rita Do, Say, Think and Feel before, during and after a trip?

Gets inspiration online - reads blogs, travel websites and friends posts;

Wants to know places friends have visited - to get recommendations on where to go and what to do;

Takes notes - writes journals and blogs to track places and things done;

Shares on social media - to get friends and family updated about trip;

Easily forgets trip details - on returning home, it is hard to remember details about places and things;

Pins physical wall map - to keep record of countries visited;

Tries different applications - to have an online record of places visited.

Once the basic empathy with the user was created, a second design thinking exercise was needed - an As-Is Scenario Map - to help understand the user’s current workflow, this can also be useful for future idea explorations.

The Scenario Map was divided into 3 main Phases: Before, During and After a trip.

What are the main things Rita does Before, During and After travelling?

BEFORE

Rita is thinking about going on holiday and is deciding where to go. She looks to get inspiration and ideas on places to go. She checks on social media, travel blogs and magazines. She’s starting to feel curious and really excited about the prospect of a trip to somewhere new.

Once she has decided on her trip and where to go, she starts planning her itinerary. She searches for things to do online by joining online groups, forums and communities. Reads more travel blogs and magazines on the destination she decided to go. She feels a little unsupported as she doesn’t know if she can trust the recommendations she has found.

She feels anxious before she goes away as she is afraid that she hasn’t done enough research and there will be things and places she may be have overlooked.

DURING

While on her trip she tries to keep track of her adventures and experiences by writing a journal and posting her pictures on social media.

However, she feels a bit frustrated as taking notes can be time-consuming and she isn’t enjoying this experience as much as she should. It’s sort of a funny feeling as she can’t capture and share her experiences in a way she would like.

AFTER

When she returns home she feels a bit depressed now that her trip is over, however, once she starts looking through her pictures and notes, she begins to feel proud of her experiences. She starts to share these on social media but realises that she is forgetting some important details. She tries to find an app that will record not only the cities but more detailed information such as museums, parks, hikes, cafe’s etc, so she can update it was much as she can before she forgets more important details about her experience.

She tries four apps and none of them gives her what she is looking for, so she gives up and decides to update her physical wall map only.

NEXT STEPS

Survey

User Interview

[daiserocha]

Website Redesign - RESEARCH (1/4)

Employability Dublin South is a program funded by the Department of Social Protection, it aims to support and integrate people with a disability into employment in the open market. I was asked to redesign the website - dsse.ie -  by  the stakeholder, Kathryn, who gave me the following statement: “people open our website and they don’t know what we do, what services we offer, how we can support people with accessibility to get a job.”

The stakeholder initial concern was only the website’s visual design, so I suggested to step back from the website for a while and try to understand the real problem by gaining sympathy for the user, understanding its pain points, needs and tasks they are trying to complete while on the website.

However I didn’t know too much about Employability Dublin, so to start the research I ran a stakeholder interview to gain more knowledge about the services provided by the company.

The findings from the interview were:

I learned that Employability Dublin offers free services, providing one-to-one before, during and after the clients find a job. The support can last for 18 months, the clients won't lose their benefits while employed, and they can also stop sourcing work if they become ill again, no penalty will be applied.

According to the stakeholder, people don't understand what disability is, and people with mental health difficulties think the service does not include them.

After getting a better understanding of what Employability does, I proposed to use two design thinking methods, for this time, to understand the user better, they are: Empathy Map & As-Is Scenario.

Starting with the Empathy map, to get focused on the user and empathise with its feeling. It helps to rapidly put us in the user’s shoes and align on pains and gains.

How was it done? I drew the map and its four quadrants: Says, Does, Thinks, and Feels. The user was sketched in the center, we gave it a name and a bit of description about who the user is.

With the map on the wall the stakeholder and me started writing one observation per sticky note and applying it to the appropriate quadrant of the map. We annotated unknowns (assumptions and questions) for later inquiry or validation.

Having the sticky notes on the map we discussed observations and fill in gaps collaboratively. 

From clustering the stick notes we identified four main topics as the biggest user pain points, they were:

It is hard to find information, there is not much online;

They feel alone on the process;

Lack of confidence, users feel they are not prepared to work;

Technology issues, the companies are not adapted.

The next step was to do an as-is scenario map, it helps to document collective understanding of user current workflow and is best used as precursors to exploring new ideas.

For the as-is scenario I draw four rows and label each: Phases, Doing, Thinking, and Feeling. We filled the phases, one per sticky note and iterated through the scenario at increasing resolution until we were comfortable with the level of detail. In parallel, we annotated each column with what the user is doing, thinking, and feeling. Once again we labeled unknowns (assumptions and questions) for later inquiry or validation.

From the as-is scenario map I gained better understanding on the tasks users actually perform in order to accomplish their goals. The tasks are:

Users look for support online by googling for info;

They come across Employability and want to get more info about what the company can do to help them to find a job;

Once users can not find clear information they contact the company.

With the Empathy Map and As-is Scenarios in mind I could start creating the persona.

Meet Dolores...

Empathy map, as-is scenario and persona creation are good first steps to get the project started. All the observations and assumptions will be validated or invalidated once I get to talk to users. 

Now that I have a better understanding of the business services, user needs, goals, frustrations and pain points, I can move on to the next research steps before I start designing:

Current website analysis, to understand the current website

Survey, to gather more specific data about what user is looking for while on the website

User journey of the As-Is scenario, to map the struggles while trying to complete a task