Helping users with Compare/Choose tasks
MOBILE APP CONCEPT
Client
Student Project offered by UCSD - Interaction Design Specialization via Coursera
My Role
Entire product design from research to conception, visualization and testing
Project Time
3 months
Introduction
I noticed a problem when looking for services, whether that be a restaurant to eat at, a new dentist to make an appointment with, or getting your car checked out. The problem being that when your searching there isn’t really any help provided to narrow down your choices. Users are expected to take charge starting with literally everything in the world and tell existing systems (search engines and apps) what we are looking for, then they return all information to us. Most of that information is not relevant to how we would make a decision. It seems that we are making users do a lot of thinking and there might be an easier way to guide them to their decision.
Needfinding
Starting from that thought, I started to shape the question into an actionable format:
The initial idea is “there’s got to be an easier way for people to find and reserve time at a service”
There is a meaningful activity stated in “find and reserve time at a service”
Asking how and why I come up with “How and why do people find and reserve time at various services?”
Refining the question where we can implement a product “How and why might we build an easier way for people to find and reserve time at various services?”
How might we build an easier way for people TO find and reserve time at various services?
Interview & Observation
I began to observe how people gather information to reserve time at various businesses. I wanted to learn how they would go about gathering information and syncing with their schedules. I chose three different people and gave each a unique scenario, two being everyday tasks and one that could potentially exist.
Making a doctors appointment
Making reservations at a restaurant
Reserving time at a grocery store
I was interested in the grocery store due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While standing in line I noticed that people would leave if the line was too long. Normally stores did not have this problem but the landscape for the customer experience had changed, and it looked as if people’s expectations hadn’t caught up yet.
PERSONAS
IDEATION
After interviewing and observing I came into a few insightful opportunities:
There are many options to choose from which can feel overwhelming.
Sometimes, when people plan to go to a business the information changes. They need a way to access and be aware of the latest information across multiple businesses.
Each person looks for information that is uniquely important to them.
People have many things going on in a day and week, so they need to be able to compare openings in their schedule with the found information.
Connecting with businesses happens in many different mediums. Each way needs to be accessible for the unique person.
They also need a way to be reminded of their commitments.
Findings from Interviews - Point of View
There is so much out there it’s hard to make a choice and know that it’s going to work for me. Isn’t there something that can listen to my needs and make an educated recommendation?
The product concept looks to solve the problem of overwhelming options that make users indecisive. Let’s create an app that guides the user, step-by-step, into selecting a service, say choosing a restaurant to eat at for example. Instead of making users bear the cognitive load of inputting information, let’s break the process down into manageable steps. Each step will narrow the field for the user, based on what information is important to them and return first results displaying the fields they selected. Then give them the ability to compare options, look at a full field of information, and make a decision. After that, the product will compare their schedule to the services to suggest times. Then they can sync with their schedule and make a reservation/appointment.
PROTOTYPE
INSPIRATION/MOOD BOARD
Creative needs to feel Assisting, Informative, Organized, Helpful, Comforting, and Trusting
Information Architecture
Here the first 3 steps in the process breaks the information gathering process into bite sized chunks for users. This way we lead them into a decision based on what is important to them, limiting the back and forth in the decision making process.
paper prototypes
Multiple user dead ends were discovered that need to be addressed, perhaps a menu with location of steps that users can access at will or a back/next functionality always visible at the bottom? There were also multiple issues raised with users not knowing what certain items meant or how they should proceed.
UI LIBRARY DESIGN
Tools used: Adobe xD, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
FIRST PROTOTYPE
USER TESTING FIRST ROUND
With this I did a round of user testing. Here’s what was uncovered.
The icons can be interpreted as confusing, revisit them to ensure that they communicate the task appropriately.
Users have to move their thumbs across a lot of screen to progress, revisit placement of buttons to ensure they are not too far apart.
The reservation screen was confusing to all users in test, split reservation time and time selection screens.
Implement visibility of system status between those two screens, show that the system is comparing your schedule to the availability found in the service.
Revision after user testing
Additional User testing done at
TEST PLAN QUESTIONS FOR PROTOTYPE EVALUATION
Introduction
Imagine that you are looking for a restaurant to make reservations, but are indecisive and need help finding what's right for you.
Tasks
**Read all tasks out loud and remember to share your thoughts as you perform each task.**
You will be using a prototype: a design that's not completely finished yet. You can interact with it just like you would any other website, however form fill-out is not fully functional yet. If you reach a place where information needs to be filled out, go through the motion and continue on as if the information was input. If something does not work, explain what you would expect to happen and move on. **Verbally acknowledge that you understand the limitations of the prototype.**
Start by looking for places to eat.
Narrow your search of restaurants to Mexican and Burgers.
Sort by hours of operation and location.
Browse suggestions and view information to come to a decision.
Make a selection and move on to the reservation. Make a reservation for 2 people at 7:30pm.
Sync reservation to the phones internal calendar and send a confirmation to the phone.
What, if anything, was confusing?
I understood connect app was for and what I could do there. Explain your answer. [5-point Rating Scale: Strongly disagree to Strongly agree]
Questions
Share your final comments or thoughts on the connect app.
How likely are you to recommend this connect to a friend or colleague? 0 = Not At All Likely, 10 = Very Likely
FInal results
Without full functionality of the app, we are still unclear how users would fully use it in real life context. Sure it’s good now with limited options for food but what happens when users are looking for a new gym, or if they want to find out if a restaurant is gluten free? If there were more time and resources available to me I would build out the rest of the app and continue with more user testing. First making sure that the step-by-step structure of the app holds strong for other search categories. Secondly I would refine the screen where results were returned, perhaps adding in a swipe to remove functionality to assist in narrowing down options. Next I would A/B test existing methods of searching with the new proposed app, specifically measuring length of time to completion. Is this new method quicker? Does the user reach the end in a more confident fashion? Does the app remove the feelings of uncertainty and being overwhelmed by guiding through choices? Hopefully one day I will get to find out.