You cannot not have a user experience
I have found that all we do is about the experience and naturally we want that experience to be the best possible within the constraints that bind us.
the following is a look into that personal experience
Summer 2015 - the client required a 3 week objective to ensure the client and her 2 colleagues were suitably entertained whilst at their dads house in France.
Research
- Understanding the user
- Persona building
- Competitor Analysis
- Stakeholder Interviews
- User Interviews
Research: Persona building
The first thing i needed to do was to understand the user... what do they want? why do they want to do it ? Do they really know what they want?
From various interviews & meetings with my client i was able to better understand the users needs, pain points and start to put together a persona from which i can address our objective.
Along side this research the key stakeholder requirements were also investigated and understood and naturally played a part in driving the user experience
As mentioned there were key stakeholder requirements that needed to be met, as these will play a part in molding the user experience,
- Safety - kids will be kids
- Budget - this holiday could cost me a fortune
- Is it reusable - if i made it out of hay, i could use it for the chickens bed when its finished
Based on what we have uncovered so far, its clear we need to keep the user cool in the summer heat, be of a sufficent size for several users and most of all - be fun !
Options
- Defining Priorities
- Budget
- Establishing Requirements
There was a month before the client arrived and based upon user needs and requirements, some options were put forward for testing. These were based on user research and competitor analysis, various insights into what the user expereience could be.
maybe if it was in the water ?
potentially out of budget & scope, a great MLP
appealing, but the heat could be a problem
in budget and scope, but is it fun?
Design
- Paper Designs
- High Fidelity Wireframes
- Prototyping
Planning: Paper Designs
Designs on paper remain indispensible. Their inherant roughness focuses the designer on layout, and they can be interacted with tangibly....
based on key stakeholders information and the business requirements laid out we can start to sketch out
understanding the restrictions for the user and their needs whilst maintaining an understanding of the business requirements helps define the direction of the experience
Prototypes
Prototypes are a critical tool to get a feel for what it looks like and to show how it will work. Prototypes can also be built so they are reusable, if your team has the skillset, you can build a prototype in the same medium as the product , it cuts down on time and costs.
so with tools to hand we can start to build the prototype to get a feel for how its going to work and what it will look like
after several iterations, ongoing consultations with key stakeholders, and it starts to take shape
User testing
So, in creating a minimum viable product, we satisfied key stakeholders criteria and met the users expectations.
finally gets built and released
undergoes thorough user testing
works as it should
user satisfaction
There were some sweat and tears, mistakes were made and lessons learnt but the focus remained user centred. Useful, usable and just maybe a little beautiful.