Introduction

The present project was undertaken in collaboration with four other Web Design & Development students. As part of our 'User-centred Organisational Systems' module, we meticulously conducted user-centred research methods and conceptualized a platform based on our analysis. The project will present both my soft and hard skills in terms of teamwork, collaboration, organisation, design, research and testing.

Data-gathering methods

Our approach involved a rigorous application of three data-gathering methods - Questionnaires, Interviews, and Unmoderated Usability testing . The questionnaire was instrumental in providing us with critical insights into the anticipated platform features, as well as how other stakeholders, including University staff, IT staff, Alumni, and buyers, might potentially interact with the platform. By utilizing the questionnaire findings, we could enhance our low-fidelity sketches and incorporate new ideas into our features.

Through the use of interviews, we were able to obtain in-depth information on users' experiences and expectations regarding the platform. Finally, we implemented high-fidelity wireframes and conducted usability testing to ascertain users' ability to navigate easily throughout the app.Collectively, these three methods helped us establish, improve, and upgrade our project, ultimately culminating in an evidenced user-centred organizational system.

The team & my role

I was part of a team of five people - Junko Smith, Cristian Zennaro, Karolina Lencina, Catherine Campbell, and me. As for the roles, we decided that each would practice the methods to gain better insight and learn more about data gathering individually. However, there were tasks that each of us felt more comfortable doing and took responsibility for delivering them on time. For example, as I was most experienced in working with Figma, I took care of the file organisation, used the low-fidelity wireframes the team designed and turned them into high-fidelity prototype ones and structured the Usability testing.

Quesionnaire

A questionnaire was developed to understand the online marketplace experiences and preferences of various stakeholders including IT staff, who are responsible for platform maintenance. The task involved crafting questions to gauge their strategies for platform maintenance and ensuring user privacy and confidentiality. The initial questionnaire was more suited for developers, leading to a revised version that focused on typical IT responsibilities. This revision was aided by team collaboration, proofreading, and pilot testing with external feedback. Despite limited responses from university IT staff, reaching out to external companies yielded valuable insights. Key findings included preferences for communication methods, response times, prioritization of tasks such as account investigations and technical support, and suggestions for a reporting portal and strict terms & conditions. The process highlighted the importance of targeted audience research to avoid unnecessary revisions and the value of piloting and team feedback in refining the questionnaire. It also suggested that a more focused approach on fewer stakeholder types might be more effective in future research endeavors.

Interview

Learned from Interview Research Method:

The interview process provided valuable lessons in communication with potential users, structuring interviews, and analyzing results. Key takeaways included:

1. Thematizing: Understanding the importance of thematizing helped in identifying the topic, objectives, and purpose of the interview.
2. Question Refinement: Collaboratively reviewing the interview schedule was crucial in critically reflecting on and omitting irrelevant questions.
3. Participant Sampling Challenges: Finding willing participants was challenging. Initial efforts of randomly emailing students were not successful, leading to a strategy of personally inviting known students. This highlighted the need to allocate sufficient time for participant sampling and communication.
4. Interview Preparation and Ethics: Lessons from lectures and practical classes on ethical considerations, communication manner, analysis, and documentation were instrumental. These included the importance of active listening, avoiding assumptions, controlling the interview, conducting technical checks, ensuring a distraction-free environment, and secure data storage.
5. Creating a Comfortable Interview Environment: Learning to maintain an interviewer's attitude that makes participants feel comfortable was crucial.

Results from Interview Research Method:

The interviews with students provided critical insights for refining the platform:

1. User Preferences: Users preferred having options in receiving/requesting feedback, choosing between private/public profiles, and selecting filter types.
2. Interface Adjustments: Insights revealed that the positions of "favourites" and "notifications" buttons were not optimal, leading to their relocation.
3. Service in Exchange for Payment: The idea of accepting service instead of payment was favored, especially among first-year students looking to build their portfolios.
4. Delivery Location for Printed Works: It was concluded that the best location for delivering printed works for Napier students would be the JKCC lab, as it's open 24/7.

These insights were instrumental in refining the mid-fidelity prototypes and aligning the platform more closely with user expectations.

Usability Testing

Initially, the team planned direct observation for prototype testing, but later opted for unmoderated usability testing using Maze due to remote team members. Simultaneously, moderated testing was conducted during practical classes. The main tasks involved turning mid-fidelity wireframes into high-fidelity ones and structuring testing in Maze for various user flows like purchasing a product and editing profile information. The testing aimed to evaluate the user experience and interface user-friendliness. Challenges encountered included missing connections and components, small font sizes, and incorrect labels. Despite limitations in Maze's free plan, the team managed to pilot test, refine, and publish the test, inviting students to participate. Moderated tests recorded screen and audio, with participants asked to verbalize their thoughts, facilitating a deeper understanding of their behavior and feedback.

The platform we used generated a report that included detailed metrics like heatmaps and usability breakdowns, which helped us make an in-depth analysis even for the unmoderated testing. The testing usability score is 76%, measuring the ease of the test (19 participants). The testing has seven tasks, consisting of 3-7 screens. The average miss-click rate is 22%. There were two tasks in which the participants experienced difficulties. The other five tasks have minimal miss-clicks and almost no bouncing. The participant had issues with the task asking the users to find switch off their email notifications. The heatmap showed us that some of them searched for it on the user profile (Figure 1).Other respondents reported that they knew where the settings button was because of the previous tasks.

The most challenging task required removing the oldest portfolio item they had saved. When asked, the participants said that they found the task description confusing and the sorting component small (Figure 2).

Overall, they commented that they liked the interface, and the app was easy to navigate.

Based on the testing analysis, we decided that the settings should be in the user profile section. The research showed us that we need to increase the font size and the dimensions of the buttons. We realised the description of the "favourites section" task was confusing. I believe the issue occurred as this task did not go through piloting. While conducting this research method, I enhanced my skill of analysing user behaviour and drawing insights that help design user-centred interfaces.I boosted my critical reflection skills as I found gaps in the design stage that resulted in issues in some tasks. The unmoderated (remote) testing saved us time and effort and enabled us to test different types of stakeholders. However, we could not discuss the difficulties they experienced and had to assume things.

On the contrary, the moderated testing enabled us to ask questions after the participant completed all tasks. Moreover, we could record their mouse movement and voice, which helped us analyse their behaviour. The disadvantage is that the moderated one required more time to find participants and schedule the sessions. As for the research stages, I noticed that structuring the usability testing is time-consuming and realised the importance of piloting and proofreading.

View Analytics Report

Do Usability Testing

Logo

The app logo was created by Cristian. The logo forms the letter “A” of Akindo while recalling Japan for the origin of its name. It has white, red, and black colours, which are the colours of the Japanese flag as well as Napier logo, representing the relation of the app and the institution. Each member of the team really liked it, and we did not want anything to be changed.

Colour Scheme

We decided on a colour scheme for our creative student mobile app platform that includes a primary accent colour and several neutral colours. The accent colour, #4F9A95, was chosen to draw attention to key areas of the app, such as the students' feed and creative works. The neutral colours, including #292929, #828282, #F2F2F2, and #FFFFFF, were chosen to provide a clean and modern aesthetic while also allowing the accent colour to stand out. By using a limited colour palette, we aimed to create a cohesive and consistent user experience throughout the app. Overall, this colour scheme was chosen to emphasize the importance of the students' creative works and provide a visually appealing and user-friendly platform for their expression..

Mid-fidelity Prototype

The mid-fidelity wireframes were created by me. There were two discussions during our practical and online meeting when I presented them and received feedback. I refined some of the sections and created other needed ones. Catherine took the initiative to create the requesting service feature, which we also discussed together and refined. Overall, each member of the team was satisfied with the result and approved that it visualised everyone’s vision of the platform.

High-fidelity prototype

The high-fidelity prototype presents all sections of the app. By building a high-fidelity prototype, designers can identify potential usability issues and make necessary adjustments before the final product is launched. This process helps to reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction, ultimately leading to a successful product launch.

Interactive Prototype

Key lessons

1. Structuring, refining, and analysing data on research methods takes time that need to be considered




2. Always ask for consent and do piloting step in all research methods




3. Alwyays do specific research on the target audience and look through the existing literature




4. Always do technical audits before interviews and practice appropriate interview behaviour

Conclusion

It was a pleasure to work with such creative and hard-working individuals. Each of us contributed by giving ideas, researching, and presenting insights that made the overall process smooth and consistent. One of the things that I believe helped us deliver broad research was that we are all from different countries (Scotland, Italy, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and China), which gave us access to more information and system examples. I enjoyed our online meetings, where we critically reflected on each other’s work, which helped us learn and grow.We used our personal strengths like creativity, organisation, research, and communication to contribute to the project deliverables and took equal responsibility for the research methods.

I enhanced crucial soft and hard like teamwork, organisation, time management and research. What I could do better was to practice my leadership skills and straight communication. I acknowledged that with good organisation and a hard-working team result in delivering the project objectives on time. The research experience showed me the most promising path to creating a user-centred design, which is to design with people, not for people by conducting research.