How to get your feet wet with user research
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A few tips and tricks I learned navigating the 2nd Course in Google’s UX Design Program: “Start the UX Design Program: Empathize, Define, and Ideate”.
As mentioned in my last article, I’ve recently been working through Google’s UX Design course to learn new principles and tools and immerse myself in different design projects.
In this article, I’ll give an overview of my experience with Course 2: “Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, and Ideate”. This course is broken up into 5 weeks with the main focus being understanding who your users are, how they operate, and how to establish a competitive edge in the market.
After finishing up foundations, I was pretty excited to get into course 2 and start my first project: Designing a mobile application. In the following sections I’ll walk through some of the tasks this course entails and my experiences with them.
Overview
Duration
2 weeks
Action Items:
- Choosing a prompt for your project
- Creating a screener survey
- Outlining interview goals and gathering participants
- Conducting user interviews
- Creating empathy maps
- Creating personas
- Crafting user stories
- Creating user journey maps
- Defining problems and hypothesis statements
- Determining a value proposition
- Creating a competitive audit and report
- Ideating with How Might We and Crazy Eights
Peer-graded assignments:
- Create persona
- Create a user journey map
- Create a competitive audit and report + use Crazy Eights
1. Choosing a prompt for your project
I have to admit this section was one of my favorites so far throughout this program. Google offers students a feature called Sharpen, a random generator in which you can choose whichever prompt you find most interesting.
It was difficult to choose a prompt as they were many unique and fascinating options. However, after a few tries I finally landed on one:
Design a virtual tour app for an art gallery in Mumbai.
I found this to be an interesting challenge as I had no experience with virtual tour apps for galleries and thought this would be a great opportunity to incorporate some nice visuals in my mobile design. I also didn’t know a ton about Mumbai, and was looking forward to possibly doing some research about the area.
2. Creating a screener survey
Creating a screener survey is just one component of the empathizing phase. The empathizing phase is the first of five phases in the design thinking process, and it requires stepping into the shoes of your users and trying to understand what they like and don’t like to create a better app experience. There are many different ways we can empathize with our users, several of which are featured as tasks in this course.
I collected a total of 30 responses for my survey, with participants from a diverse range of ages and backgrounds. In this task I utilized SurveyMonkey to collect quantitative information that would assist me in the design process. From my findings only 3% of participants (1/30) had ever downloaded a virtual gallery app before. This may create for a more challenging design process, as there is less opportunity for a point of reference then say a pizza delivery app, but nonetheless my survey helped to inform future steps for app development.
Featured below are more of my findings:
3. Outlining interview goals and gathering participants
Interview goals:
- I want to know people’s thoughts and opinions regarding art galleries.
- I want to understand the motivations, goals, and pain points of users when they search a gallery online.
- I want to understand how users feel about downloading a virtual tour app.
- I want to understand the difference between downloading an app or touring the gallery in person.
- I want to understand how to improve their experience.
For my interviews I recruited 4 participants from the screener survey.
4. Conducting user interviews
For the purpose of understanding my users better and creating comprehensive, effective empathy maps I drafted the following questions for my interviews:
- Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
- How interested are you in art galleries?
- When was the last time you visited a gallery or searched for one online? How was this experience?
- Have you ever downloaded a virtual tour app for a gallery? If yes, how was this experience?
- Can you describe what an ideal virtual tour app for you would be?
- What do you think would make a virtual tour app appealing to more people?
- Is there anything you’d like to add?
- Do you have any questions about the project?
5. Creating Empathy Maps
The responses from my interviews allowed me to create empathy maps for my project. An empathy map is essentially a snapshot of a user’s thoughts and feelings as it relates to using a product. Through this experience I learned that one of the biggest pain points of participants was the overpriced nature of many galleries and apps. Below are four empathy maps I developed:
6. Creating Personas
I created two personas using the feedback I received from my 4 interviews. Both were developed after analyzing common pain points of my interviewees. Several described frustrations with the cost of apps or gallery art, as well as an intimidation toward art because of a lack of knowledge on the subject.
7. Crafting User Stories
Next, I applied my personas to create user stories. A user story is a description of a potential problem a user may encounter and how that problem could be solved. For example, my user Dexter wants to plan dates with his wife with enough time to clear his schedule and find a caretaker for his children. An appropriate solution to this problem is an app that notifies him of gallery events in advance so he has ample time to schedule his date.
8. Creating user journey maps
I wanted to understand situations my users may encounter when trying to book tickets on the gallery app as I was developing my user journey map. The map allowed me to investigate potential frustrations or blocks my user might meet at different stages during the process and what the app could offer to accommodate users.
9. Defining problems and hypothesis statements
For my next task, I defined a problem and hypothesis statement. Both helped me to imagine issues my users might face and how the app could combat them.
This was the first task in the defining stage, in which I began to define user problems and needs so I could ideate appropriate solutions later in the process.
The course defines two possible formats for hypothesis statements;
- “If…, then…” and
- “We believe that…for…will…”.
I chose the first format for this task.
10. Defining a value proposition
Creating a value proposition allowed me to brainstorm how I could market my product, specifically what features stand out and appeal to potential users.
First, I created a visual of the product’s advantages:
Next, I organized these features into appropriate categories:
11. Creating a competitive audit and report
Action item #11 takes us to the final stage in Course 2, the ideating stage. This stage is all about brainstorming creative solutions for the app.
Analyzing the competition is an essential method for ideating solutions to user problems and establishing an edge in the market. This section of the course consists of 5 steps:
1. Outline audit goals
2. List competitors
3. Determine the specific competitor aspects you want to compare
4. Research each company
5. Summarize your findings in a report
Steps for Audit
- Outline audit goals
The goal of my project was to investigate how other galleries are advertising themselves on virtual tour apps and what features are and are not working for their users.
2. List competitors
As virtual tour apps for galleries are pretty limited as it is, I could not find an exact match for one in the Mumbai area.
I chose Houghton Revisited as my direct competitor, a gallery tour app showcasing Houghton Hall in Norfolk, England. This app has a rating of 5 stars in the App store and multiple positive reviews.
The app I chose to analyze as my indirect competitor, WANDR, offers tours of both galleries and museums in cities across the world. WANDR has no ranking or review on the App store.
3. Determine the specific competitor aspects you want to compare
For this section I used the examples that Google offers, therefore I am judging my competitors based on these categories:
1. First impressions
2. Interaction
3. Visual design
4. Content
The information for these categories can be found later in my official audit.
4. Research each company
In order to get a feel for each company, I downloaded both apps and visited each website. I was able to compare and contrast the mobile vs. web experiences to see if the apps were responsive as well as investigate the brand’s identity.
While WANDR had a decent web experience, their app definitely needed work. Many of the features, such as scrolling, did not work as quickly as expected and overall the app appeared to be glitchy as if it had not been updated recently.
On the other hand, Houghton Revisited had both wonderful mobile and web UX. The design choices were reflective of the brand’s sophisticated image, with blue and gold tones as well as clean, stylish fonts. The platforms were less cluttered WANDR’s, allowing for better user flow and credibility as each bit of information was clear and purposeful.
5. Summarize your findings in a report
This report was helpful in defining strengths and weaknesses of both apps that I can be aware when designing my own.
Feel free to check out my official audit and report.
12. Ideating with How Might We and Crazy Eights
For this section I chose to work with the following problem statement from earlier:
Dexter is a financial advisor with two children who needs an app that notifies him of future events because he likes ample time to plan dates with his wife.
How Might We
How might we notify users in a fun and useful manner?
How might we create a way for users to miss events?
How might we make a way for users to plan out their day in the area?
How might we help users schedule their gallery event? How might we help them check out other spots in the area? How might we help them with traveling?
How might we make it possible for users to refund their tickets without a charge?
How might we make buying a ticket like using Google calendar?
How might we use location services to help users buy a ticket?
Crazy Eights
Crazy eights was so far my favorite activity of the course. I’ve never really had a knack for drawing and my handwriting is pretty much chicken scratch, but still I appreciate that Google suggested this activity before prompting us to wireframe online. This section of the course emphasizes quantity over quality, and with a pen to paper strategy it is much easier to generate a mass of ideas quickly. There’s less pressure to create something visually appealing, and more of a focus on generating raw and meaningful ideas.
The exercise asks students to fold a piece of paper into 8 sections and within a time frame of 8 minutes, create a sketch for each section at a pace of 1 sketch/min. Once again, my persona Dexter’s desire to schedule a date with his wife in advance was the context for this activity. Below I will demonstrate how this sketch informs the app’s user flow for Dexter.
User Flow
To start, I drafted a notification for Dexter alerting him of a gallery event 2 weeks in advance, giving him ample time to consider buying tickets and planning a day for him and his wife.
In the next box, Dexter views a calendar within the gallery app with a mark for the event, allowing him to visualize how this will fit into his schedule in the next two weeks. The CTA “Book?” gives Dexter the option to book tickets. When Dexter clicks “Book?” he is prompted to pick a time for his event. *In prototyping I may change this CTA to “Buy Tickets?” for more clarity on the action.*
In this example he has chosen 5 pm. When Dexter clicks on 5 pm, he is taken to a new page in which he can choose to add the event to the calendar in the app.
Once Dexter has bought his ticket, he is taken to a screen that reads “While you’re here, check out more fun attractions in the area ->”
After Dexter clicks on the arrow in the bottom right, he is shown a page titled “Plan your trip” with 2–3 restaurants nearby. Additionally, he can see how far they are from the exhibit and he has the option to call and book a reservation. In this screen, it could also be helpful to add customer reviews of the restaurants.
Including restaurants nearby posits several advantages. For starters, this could be a potential source of profit for the app as it would be advertising specific restaurants as well as encouraging the process of booking a reservation.
Another idea I had is that if a user plans activities around the gallery they may be less likely to try to refund their tickets as they would have to cancel two reservations rather than just one. Allowing users to imagine the gallery as just one adventure in a day filled with activities motivates them to feel more excited about buying the tickets. We want users to experience as much positive feedback as possible, so the idea that they may plan not one, but two fun activities in a day poses a potential increased feeling of user satisfaction. And obviously: More satisfaction= Better chance our users will return to the app.
If users choose to make a reservation, they have the option to add this to their calendar as well so they can keep track of their schedule.
In the last sketch I drafted a page in which users can plan their commute to the gallery by entering their address. Once again nearby restaurants are advertised as potential locations they may be leaving from. In this situation users can plan their commute, or leave the app and navigate toward the gallery using a navigation tool.
This step eases the process of traveling for users and makes them feel more relieved and aware of how much time they have to get to their destination.
In drafting my crazy eights, I kept my target personas in mind. As the gallery app is appealing to an audience of busy professionals, adding simple features like a calendar or navigation tool is critical to reducing stress and improving a user’s mood during their in-app experience.
Conclusion —My take on Empathize, Define, Ideate
In my opinion this course was executed very well. Some sections tended to drag a bit, especially in the emphasizing stage but overall it was helpful to have to keep positioning myself in the eyes of the user.
Progressing through Course 2 gave me a better appreciation for the wide variety of skills required to be a UX researcher. This is definitely a process that demands a lot of creativity, as well as great people skills to conduct interviews and develop empathy maps. Patience is key as well. At times I’d get working on a project and find it hard to take a break because I was in such a rhythm. That being said I’m looking forward to trying projects like these in a collaborative setting, especially those that focus on ideating. Though it was fun analyzing competitors, my favorite task was brainstorming my own ideas and running with whatever worked. I can imagine that this can be a exciting thing for a group as it is so fast-paced!
Next, I’ll head towards Course 3 — Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes — to continue putting design theory into action.
If you have any questions about the course or if you just want to chat — feel free to drop a comment, message me on LinkedIn, or reach me on my personal website!
