UX Laurier Design-O-Thon
Wise Monkey
Overview
Design Prompt: “How might we intentionally explore what matters to us? ”
Wise Monkey is a mobile application that provides users with access to a variety of courses, discussions and goals to explore their curiosity.
Role: UX/UI Designer
Timeline: 48-Hours (2021)
Team: Solo
Design-O-Thon: Day 1 of 2
Internet Research
Since this was a 48-hour design-a-thon, I had to mainly rely on the internet to gather user insights on the topic of curiosity. One of the bigger questions I researched was…
“What habits do curious people have?”
Listen without judgement
Ask questions relentlessly
Willing to be wrong at times
When they get bored, they look into something new
They make time for curiosity and stay motivated
User Personas
Based on the extensive research I did on this topic, as well as turning to social media polls for input I created a couple of user personas.
Identifying User Pain Points
Lack the confidence to ask questions
Lack the motivation to keep growing and reach new depths of knowledge
Lack the diverse resources to learn new things
Target Market
The content level is directed towards ages 16+ but all ages are welcome to be curious with us!
People who are interested in learning more every day with the correct resources
People who strive to be more curious in their everyday lives
The Problem
How might we design a product that fosters a safe and motivating environment for users to explore their curiosity, ask questions confidently, and access diverse resources for continuous learning?
Key Features
I then went on to outline some of the gains I would want my users to experience from the use of my app. This included 3 different features that would ensure I solved the specific pain points mentioned above.
Questions
The ability to ask questions and see different perspectives with a valuable reward
Growth
Being able to grow through your curiosity within desired topics
Low Fidelity Mockup
Using the main features I created some low-fidelity screens. Below are a few snippets from the overall user flow. I made sure to prototype these screens in order to prepare for user testing.
Design-O-Thon: Day 2 of 2
User Testing
I then wanted to get a view from our potential users. I gathered a number of volunteers and had them do a walk-through of my screens. I essentially gave them a task and asked them to navigate their way through the app themselves. I noted down what each user struggled with and any ideas they had that could potentially improve their experience with the app.
Main Takeaways:
No Banana points are earned for answering questions. Implementing gamification for both asking and answering questions will encourage users to expand the curiosity of others.
No restriction if a field is not filled in. I can still continue if a field is not filled in the challenge request form. [solution: box turns orange when not filled and an alert is given notifying the user it was left empty]
No way to see recently viewed topics and discussions. [solution: add this feature to the home page for easy access]
No chat feature. A private chat feature will allow users to go into a deeper discussion one on one about certain topics.
High Fidelity Results
Results & Takeaways
User testing is so important. Since this was a 48-Hour event, I had limited time to test my product. I found that the optimal number of users was 4-5. This is because once it exceeds 5 users, a large amount of the feedback is repeated.
There is always room for improvement. The app only gets better as more people look at it and more ideas are added.
Don’t assume. The key to a good user experience is to conduct research and empathize with your users before designing the user interface.
Why Design This Solution?
I believe that creating a safe environment for our users, will allow them to be more comfortable asking questions about courses/topics they are interested in.
We’ll know this to be true when there is a high engagement rate on our discussion boards, with a keen interest in asking/answering questions.
Key Takeaways
With limited time, it required rapid wire-framing sessions, before these sessions I made sure to prepare the list of features required.
It is human nature to feel curious about interesting topics
Gamification is a strong feature that highly encourages users to participate in discussions
In the future, I would like to implement a private chat feature, as it was a popular user suggestion within my user tests
Overall, I really enjoyed this design-o-thon and I would love to participate in one again as it helped me develop stronger rapid ideation skills.