Why do we use the UX design process?
Being a newcomer to the world of UX design I was constantly hearing industry jargon such as key stakeholders, user interviews, problem statements etc. and it felt so abstract and nebulous to me. Later, I was able to take part in a UX design project that cut through the weeds and walked me through the UX design process and I now see why we use it.
I will relay the project through the lens of the UX design process.
Quick background for this project.
Client: The Engineering Design Technology program at Utah Valley University. The Engineering Design Technology (EDT) program principally prepares students for drafting (mechanical, architectural, structural, civil, and electrical electronic) and surveying careers.
Key steps in the UX design process:
Stakeholder Interviews:
Stakeholder interviews are incredibly important for understanding your client and the problem. They allow you to gain insight into business goals, technological restrictions and other important user information specific to your client and the project.
How it went:
The department chair Bob Price had several concerns with their current student facing website. He felt that it did not convey the quality and variety of experiences offered by their program “Their website does not communicate their story”. He also identified who he thought their main users are:
• High school/college students
• Prospective students trying to find information.
• Jr. High parents (secondary audience)
• Undecided majors
• Non traditional students looking for retraining.
User Research:
Once you understand the stakeholder’s point of view you will need to turn to user research in order to validate all of the insight from the stakeholder interview. Conducting interviews, surveys and user specific research helps your team identify and define a problem statement. The more information we have about a problem the easier time we will have creating a solution.
How it went:
We decided in order to get a better understanding of their user base we would conduct user surveys and user interviews. After we conducted our survey we saw that the vast majority of people going to the department page are college students. (Here is the link to our survey https://forms.gle/uZyfo2faGh3dHC5U9) After conducting the survey we help user interviews specifically focused on college students this was very instrumental in defining our problem statement.
“Students are having difficulties finding college information that responds to their career aspirations and financial needs.”
Strategy:
Now that you have both key stakeholder information and user information you are ready to start convergent thinking as you create the user problem statement which influences design decisions. After brainstorming and reviewing all of the data you are ready to create a project brief which will indicate to the stakeholders what your plan of attack is and why. This level of validation will increase buy in from your stakeholders.
How it went:
Armed with our findings from out user research we put together a project brief that started with our vision statement:
“We hope to use the data from our research to improve the Architecture and Engineering Design program’s website. Students and parents will be able to easily access information they need to better prepare for their college education and career goals.”
We then created personas in order to communicate the main anxieties and habits or our users to the stakeholders. Afterwards we validated our decisions and direction with the data we collected. The project brief was well received by our stakeholders.
Information Architecture:
With your information and direction you will establish the information architecture of the project which means to identify, add and organize the most important content for your users. If you are working from an existing site it is necessary to verify if the existing information architecture is helpful or not helpful to the user and to remove it from your designs.
How it went:
We used our user data to organize a hierarchy of information for the website. Creating site maps like the one above are extremely useful for getting a broad understanding of the site.
Wireframes:
When you have organized your information architecture you can work on wireframes which are an extremely helpful tool for framing your designs. The goal here is not beautiful aesthetics but rather a straightforward layout to help communicate the major elements of each page. What will the copy on each page be? What interactions with the user have on the page? These are questions that wireframes help us address.
How it went:
Our wireframes went through many iterations. We would often propose several different wire frames for one page and then pick out the strongest layouts of information and visual cues.
Testing and Revision:
Testing should be conducted throughout the design process from sketches to high fidelity mockups. One piece of advice that seems to be popular in the UX community is “test early, test often”. When working on a design solution our vision becomes too familiar with the product to evaluate its ease of use and accessibility. By conducting user testing we are able to gather invaluable data about how users will actually use your product.
How it went:
Conducting usability tests is an eye opening experience. First we had to craft user testing scripts which guide us when we are giving tasks to a user. Then we had to prepare a prototype and get the users consent to be recorded while they are being tested. I learned the more prepared you are for a user test the better the insights you will get from it. Each test offered invaluable information that we synthesized and deployed in our next round of ideation.
Final result:
Prototype: https://xd.adobe.com/view/ac20eb0f-1962-4cbf-baa3-8fa867447d3e-f973/?fullscreen
Conclusion
I learned that the UX process is so powerful because it relies so heavily on research and validation. These two tools help craft and refine a solution that best addresses the problem. I am looking forward to applying the methodology in my future projects.
Jeremiah Bradshaw is a student in the Digital Media program at Utah Valley University, Orem Utah, studying Interaction & Design. The following article relates to (UVU AED Project) in the (DGM 2240 Course) and representative of the skills learned.
