“Making a career switch requires commitment”
This was one of the first few pieces of advice I got when I left my job. I thought to myself: I’m intentionally leaving my comfortable 8–6 public sector job for a 12-week full-time intensive User Experience (UX) Design course, against the backdrop of a global crisis and a volatile economy. I was more than committed!
Ah, if only I knew how much commitment and effort that might entail.
This article features the highlights of my first 2 weeks at the General Assembly’s UX Design Bootcamp. Our first project was to work on a mobile app of our own choosing. 11 user interviews, 5 introductory to Sketch videos and 8 usability tests later, I designed my first mid-fi prototype! Here’s an overview of what happened in the past 2 weeks.
Background
I decided to embark on a passion project — you know, jump straight into the unknown as a way to find inspiration. Back in my old job, I liked thinking of ways to translate boring briefings to exciting activities that got people up and participating. That, and I wanted to design something that was relevant to the COVID-19 situation. So I set out to design a mobile teambuilding/ice-breaker app to better help (a) Managers /HRs connect with their staff during the WFH measures, (b) Teachers conduct facilitation activities during their online classes, and (c) Individuals to stay connected with one another.
User Research
The first stage in the UX process was to develop empathy and understand our end-users’ motivations, goals and attitudes. I did this through 11 user interviews, where I went to find out more about people’s experiences in staying connected during the WFH/safe-distancing period, and their views and experiences in teambuilding.
My prior exposure to career coaching & counselling was a surprising help in this stage. Skills like open-ended questioning, using silence, and summarising came in handy when I was talking to my interviewees. Some questions I asked were:
- How would you describe your social circle?
- What are some ways you tried to engage your friends/colleagues during the COVID-19 situation?
- Recall a memorable video call/zoom/skype session with your friends — what happened?
- What is your view towards teambuilding/icebreakers?
- Recall your worst teambuilding experience — what happened?
Synthesis of Findings
With the findings from the user interviews, I looked out for common themes in the data through sorting out insights on digital post-its, a process known as affinity mapping. I used Mural, a visual collaboration tool, to work on this. I chose to colour my post-its according to the interviewee, where each colour represented a unique interviewee. As one who enjoys conceptual, intuitive thinking and connecting-the-dots, I fell in love with the affinity mapping process!
From the clusters, I identified 6 key themes from my users:
- I enjoy having a good laugh with friends
- I like to bond with others over food
- I like short and simple activities to cater for time and energy constraints
- I value inclusive games that have wide participation, to bond with others more organically
- I know of and try games through friends’ recommendations
User Personas
With the research insights, I developed 3 sets of user personas. User personas are a profile of your users' patterns, goals, needs, stories and frustrations. The graphic elements serve to also help your stakeholders remember and arrive at a common consensus on the target audience.
Problem Definition
We learnt several ways to go about this, through crafting user stories and “how might we” statements. Using my user personas, I further narrowed my problem statements to the following:
- Manager Mandy needs a quick and inclusive way to connect with staff from diverse backgrounds because she wants to encourage, show concern and support her staff’s well-being
- Professor Paul needs a quick way to get students to warm up to one another because it will help his students feel more comfortable and open to speak up in class
- Introverted Ivy needs a way to catch-up and laugh with friends because she wants to be able to get to know and keep in contact with her close friends
Sketching & Wireframing
Once we came up with our problem statements, it was time to let our minds run wild with ideation! Despite my poor drawing skills, I found that paper sketches were a great way to conceptualise and communicate initial ideas.
Once the ideas were more well-formed, I started on the wireframing process. I did this through Sketch (available only on Mac), though some of my course mates used other design tools like Adobe XD and Figma (both have free versions!).
Prototyping & Usability Testing
Prototyping and testing were the next stages of the UX phase. As new UX designers, this was one of the most exciting moments where we got to see our app come to life! Using Sketch, I created a clickable prototype (mid-fidelity) through InVision — a great and easy-to-use tool (no coding required!) for creating interactive prototyping.
My test goals were to understand users’ ease in navigating the app, their understanding of certain tabs and icons, and the relevancy of the game information. I then created a usability test plan where I observed how users performed these 4 tasks:
- Accept a friend’s invitation to join a game using a game code
- Choose a game that suits their preferences
- Invite friends to the game they have selected
- Start and play the game
After testing with 8 users, here are some insights I found, illustrated through the plus/delta assessment.
The Final Prototype
& thus concludes week 2!
Following the usability tests, I adjusted my prototype to include the following features. You can check out the full prototype in this link!
- Besides a game passcode, I added a sharing URL to allow a more direct invitation for friends to join the game
- Added a filter button to help users better sieve and sort through games based on difficulty level, age suitability and etc
- Incorporated the game instructions upfront, with instructional prompts placed throughout the game
That concludes my past 2 weeks at the UX Design Bootcamp! I’m hugely excited that there’s so much more to learn, but here are 3 lessons I gained from my first 2 weeks.
- Be acutely aware of your biases
Young designers tend to make the rookie mistake of clinging to an idea in the early stages of research. They end up navigating the research process with tinted lenses, prone to cherry-picking data that favours their ideas. While it’s natural to have your own ideas at the start, be extremely wary about your biases. Avoid being too attached to your ideas, and instead, let the user insights and research take on a louder voice in your design. - Develop an innate curiousity about human behaviour
When gathering insights from users, it’s easy to translate a couple of interviewees’ comments like “it’d be good to gamify this” into a frantic rush to include gamified activities into your design. Don’t. Don’t settle for surface suggestions or comments. Instead, ask lots of ‘whys’ and you’ll be surprised to uncover deeper motivations and underlying needs that often lead to better solutions. - Cultivate the habit of learning on your own
The skills of UX/UI aren’t found in a fancy credential. Design tools are constantly evolving, and the role of a UX designer is to keep in pace with new trends and technologies. The internet is full of advice on good UX/UI practices and how to navigate software like Sketch/XD/Figma. Those tools seem daunting from afar (still seems a little scary!), but all it takes is a smidge of courage and a dose of curious exploration to overcome the initial inertia.
If you want to be really good at something, know that you have to go through a phase of being really bad at it. Persist, practice, be patient with yourself, and you’ll get there someday. — Advice from a wise friend
