Over the course of five weeks, I conducted research and iterated on prototypes using a variety of methods.
I drafted a project proposal, analyzed competitors, recruited study participants, conducted semi-structured interviews, and generated affinity diagrams in order to produce a Needs Finding Report. Report components include a detailed description of Users’ Needs, Users’ current practices, functional requirements and constraints.
I generated personas to highlight user needs, scenarios to contextualize key tasks, and storyboards to illustrate key interactions. Using a lo-fi prototype, I designed and conducted a small-scale Usability Test. Analysis of interview question responses and Users’ performance on Task Scenarios contributed to a med-fi prototype (wireframes).
I performed a Heuristic Evaluation on the wireframes and used the resulting recommendations to generate a final, interactive prototype. Using the interactive prototype, I conducted a Remote Usability Test and synthesized the results into a final User Test Report.
I created a Final Report (including documentation of process, key findings, and next steps) to conclude the project.
Information overload. A sea of notifications.
Digital media plays an increasingly central role in modern life, but it's hard to know what’s what.
How do we know what deserves our attention? How do we keep track of what is important? Separating signal from noise can prove difficult.
-
Users face numerous challenges in navigating and filtering digital media content. The nonstop pace of the modern media landscape makes it hard to “zoom out”, and users have few tools to help facilitate a macro-level understanding (‘big picture”) of their own media consumption.
Help build a contextual understanding of personal media consumption by empowering users with tools for managing, navigating and analyzing online media content.
Showcase UX methodology skillset (Prototyping, Semi-structured interviews, User Testing)
What types of tools will best enable users to navigate and contextualize their digital media consumption history?
How do users in my target population organize and keep track of media content they consume online?
What goals, values, needs and constraints inform how and why users in my population save and organize online digital media content?
What tools or techniques, if any, do respondents use to save or keep track of information they find online?
What tools or techniques, if any, do respondents use to share content they have found online with others?
What types of things do respondents do with content they find online and save for later?
Miro, Balsamiq, Temi, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Quicktime, Skype, iPhone Voice Memos App, Adobe Illustrator
- Empower users with tools for managing, navigating and analyzing online media content.
- integrate with and complement existing user practices for sharing, storing and saving.
- Provide functionality that is above and beyond that of existing services in adjacent product categories.
- Improve signal-to-noise-ratio.
- Simplicity
- Accessibility
- Compatibility
- Narrative rather than raw data
1. Small sample sizes for the Needs Finding Study (N=4) and Usability Tests (N=6) made it difficult to judge the prevalence of users’ perceptions and extrapolate findings
2. Convenience Sampling resulted in feedback biased by previous relationships. For the same reason, sample composition was likely not representative of target demographic. (8 of 10 participants were male, for example.)
3. Limitations of Balsamiq PDF prototype format influenced users’ test experience
4. Interactive prototypes failed to work in one session.
A comprehensive project report, including documentation of process, task flows, key findings, and next steps.