Application Design Task 2

Eric Chang (0378298)

Bachelor Of Design in Creative Media

Application Design. Task 2 (Week 6-9)

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Instruction:

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Lecture:

Week 4: What is Card Sorting?:

Card sorting is a UX research method used to understand how users naturally group and categorize information.

It can help designers:

• Create intuitive navigation menus

• Structure app or website architecture

• Build effective content strategies

Types of Card sorting

• Open Card sorting
• Closed Card sorting
• Hybrid Card sorting

Remote Card Sorting is useful for a large and diverse participants and remote card sorting also means that Users can sort cards using online tools such as:

• Miro
• Optimal Workshop
• UXtweak
• Trello
• UserTesting

Pros and Cons of Card Sorting,

Pros:

• Very low cost
• Fast to conduct
• Direct user involvement
• Leads to more intuitive and user-aligned designs

Cons:

• Focuses only on categorization, not task flows
• May miss functionality issues
• Results can vary widely due to participants’ backgrounds
• May overlook deeper complexities in user tasks

Week 5: UX Research

Why UX Research Matters:

• 50% of potential sales are lost because users can't find information they need
• 3 out of 5 users value positive UX more than strong advertising
• The research process itself is more important than the final deliverable

Core Principles

Good vs. Bad UX Research:

• Good: Involves end users, avoids biases, actively engages with personal involvement
• Bad: Excludes users, relies only on personal testing, outsources without involvement

When to Conduct Research? UX research should be done throughout the entire product lifecycle—from initial concept through iterative design to launch and beyond.

How to Conduct Research?

1. Define Research Objectives - Identify knowledge gaps and problems
2. Pick Your Methods - Choose qualitative, quantitative, behavioral, or attitudinal approaches
3. Find Participants - Recruit target users, competitors' customers, or churned users
4. Conduct Research - Use interviews, surveys, personas, and competitive analysis

Week 6: User Persona

What's the Purpose of User Personas?
User personas serve three critical functions:

1. Understanding User Needs - Essential for crafting clear problem statements that address real user issues
2. Design Decision-Making - Guide strategic and intelligent design choices
3. Product Development - Influence key product decisions through data-driven insights

The impact of user persona on Product Decisions

1. Increased Adoption:

• Combines insights from multiple research sources
• Designs products that align with user preferences and solve real problems

2. Increased User Retention:

• Documents and addresses user pain points
• Reduces user churn through targeted improvements

3. Better Prioritization:

• Uses persona-feature matrices with scoring systems
• Prioritizes features based on impact on each persona

What to Include in a User Persona?

Header: Name, age, occupation, location, photo

User Description: Brief narrative overview

Personal Characteristics: Attitudes and values (e.g., adventurous, budget-conscious)

Motivations & Goals: What drives them and what they want to achieve

Needs & Pain Points: Challenges they face (e.g., information overload, time constraints)

Scenarios: Real-world use cases

User Quotes: Direct statements reflecting their perspective

Week 7: User Journey Map 

What is a User Journey Map?

A user journey map is A visual representation documenting the step-by-step experience users have with a product or service, showing actions taken to accomplish goals in chronological order.

Benefits of User Journey Map:

Encourages Organization: Helps designers and developers consider user experience comprehensively

Fosters Empathy: Allows teams to relive the user's journey and understand emotions/frustrations

Identifies Pain Points: Reveals problems users encounter when interacting with the product

Global Overview: Provides stakeholders with a complete view of the entire journey

The Value of User Journey Maps:

Capture User Behavior - Collect data on how users interact with your product

Identify Steps - Map out all actions users take to complete tasks

Define Emotions - Understand what users think and feel at each stage

Identify Content Needs - Determine high-level functionality requirements

Define Flow - Establish a logical, intuitive sequence of steps

Identify Awareness Points - Note technical constraints or potential user errors

Illustrate Vision - Provide a visual representation of the product vision

Creating a User Journey Map - 3 Main Steps

Step 1: Setting the Stage

A. Define user persona (who the map is about)

B. Define what will be mapped

C. Define scenario

D. Define goals

E. State the process

Step 2: Define Phases

Typical phases include:

Discovery Phase, Research Phase, Planning Phase, Booking Phase, Pre-Trip Phase, During-Trip Phase, Post-Trip Phase.

Step 3: List Actions

Document actual steps and behaviors taken by the user in each phase

Steps 4-7: Complete the Map

Week 8: Sitemap & User Flow Chart

What is a Site Map?

A visual representation showing how each page relates to the web/app's hierarchy, like a footprint of content organization that guides user attention meaningfully. The purpose of a site map is to organize content in a way that makes sense to users and shows the structural relationship between different sections of a site or app.

What is a User Flow?

The user's path to finish a specific purpose, including each step from the starting point to the endpoint—a visual representation of all interactions a user has on your site/app.

Why Use User Flow Diagrams?

1. Design Precision - Maps the exact sequence of screens, ensuring a clear, logical flow
2. Unified Team Vision - Acts as a shared blueprint for designers, developers, and product managers
3. Refine User Experience - Framework for ongoing optimization
4. Proactive Issue Detection - Identifies pain points before they frustrate real users
5. Facilitate User Testing - Creates specific scenarios for testing and feedback

How to Create a User Flow - 5 Steps

Step 1: Research on Customers

Step 2: List the Purpose and Goal
Step 3: List the Possible Steps.
Step 4: Create the User Flow
Step 5: Review and Update

Common User Flow Examples:

1. Login Flow - Outlines decisions for new vs. returning users
2. Forgot Password Flow - Email verification and password reset process
3. Customer Support Flow - AI chatbot to human agent routing
4. E-Commerce Flow - Shopping and checkout process
5. Music Player App Flow - Navigation and playback controls

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Details of Task 2:

1. Problem statement
(can take back from assessment 1)
Explain in a few words what is the problem you're solving, for which company and which users

2. Market Research summary
(can also take back from assessment 1)
Where were we on the last project? What did you decide to work on based on research?

3. Interview & Survey
How did you create your questions? What did you want to uncover or find out?
How did the live interview went? Show pictures or link to recordings of your process with users.

4. Answers (transcripts) and Affinity Mapping
Show us the interview results and how you went from audio, to text, to notes, to I statements.
Explain your thought process. How did you choose?

If you have survey data, explain the results, what is your take on them?

5. Personas (x3)
How did you create your personas, which I statements went to which personas?

Who are they?
What matters to them?
What gets in their way?
Why do they need your help?

6. User Journey Maps (x3)
Personas in action. All needs and pain points should play out in their journey map.
Identify the highest and lowest points and show some range!

What's most important here is the 3+ opportunities for every touchpoint.
Yes, for all touchpoints, no shortcuts!

7. Card sorting 2 & Sitemap
Bring back the card sorting from the market study with the features from your app and their competitors.
Add in the opportunities from your journey map into the cards
Sort & Categorize them (card sorting ;P) 

Draft a sitemap of where they would be on the tree.
What grouping are they in, what comes first?
Bold the most important features, the core ones that make your app stand out.
Set a space for all the features that didn't make it to the sitemap (dustbin?).

8. User Flow Chart
Select the persona with the most interesting opportunities, and create their flow chart.
You can base on their journey map for reference, try to add branching paths & escape routes for what goes wrong.
Keep the happy path straight!

9. Summary
Same as last presentation, give us a final slide that summarizes this assessment.
Where are we, and what is going to happen next?

For This Task, we're required to compile the things above into a single presentation. To begin this task, I took back the problem statement and market research summary from my Task 1. After that, I need to come up with the survey and interview questions (the most important one is the interview), and we're required to interview 5 people.

Since I'm planning to integrate E-wallet to Apple/Google wallet, my interview question is more towards gaining their current pain point of using the E-wallet app, and I also asked their opinion about integrating international transfer to E-Wallet (to the participants who are studying in Malaysia).

Affinity Mapping

After I've done the interview and survey, it's time to find out the affinity mapping, for the affinity mapping itself i categorized it into what pain point they're facing right now, Why the love using E-wallet instead of cash, their opinion about integrating E-wallet to Google/Apple wallet, and their opinion about adding international transfer to the E-Wallet app itself. Below are the results

Fig 1.0 Affinity Map 1

And below is the affinity map for integrating E-wallet into Apple/Google Wallet and the international transfer feature.

Fig 1.1 Affinity Map 2

And I have also done the affinity mapping for what is the most important thing about the international transfer feature.

Fig 1.2 Affinity Map 3

Personas and User Journey Map:

Personally, I think that I didn't do a great job at making the personas and user journey map, simply because I lacked information on the interview questions. So for this part, I did my best to identify their pain point and provide the opportunity on the user journey map. So, for this part please refer to the presentation slides :D.

Card Sorting:

This part was my favorite; it was fun to identify the feature across the competitor app. And just to summarize, we need to find a total of 50 features from our own app and the competitor app, and since I have a total of 5 apps, I need to find 10 features per app.

Fig 1.3 Card Sorting

The feature that I'm planning to add is the yellow colored sticky notes, and for the feature that can be hidden inside the app, I've made the color purple to help me separate it more easily.

After I've done the card sorting next step is to actually sort the feature out, to help make our lives easier. And below is the final result of my card sorting. I separated the feature that is for payment convenience, the new feature, and the sitemap feature

Fig 1.4 Card Sorting

Sitemap

The sitemap is basically our app section. This part was also quite fun to do. Below is my draft sitemap. I might change it or add a new feature for the upcoming assignment.

Fig 1.5 Sitemap Draft

Final Presentation Slide:

App Design Task 2 by ERIC CHANG