Case Study: Designing the bridge
“We spend a lot time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.”-Prabhjot Singh
I’ll start you off with a quote from Prabhjot Singh. I encourage you to read my first ever UX case study done with Growth School teams help and to give your valuable thought on how we could help shape the lives of others through design. Being a Graphic designer and Fine artist for more than 10 years I always wanted to learn something new in design concept. So I enrolled myself in a course in February by Growth School and was assigned my first ever project to work upon.
In the beginning..
Among 120 people we all were divided into groups of five. Every member of the group was assigned one room of a house (living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and dining room). I was assigned Bedroom as my area of study. I need to consider the remaining members of my group as sample users to complete this Design Thinking project
And since we were already defined a part of a room we were not given any problem statement and need to put up questions to our users based on the area of the house defined.
It felt a little difficult in the beginning but as they say “ Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.” and yes starting with the basics always help so I started with the process
Our Mentor Anudeep’s support was always there and they did clarified all our doubts right from the start. At this stage typically ideas that win are translated into design experiences. We were given an editable PDF where we have to write down our findings of interviews and research and then have to drive a solution. It provided us with a simple, inclusive and reusable process using the basic principles of Design Thinking.
Design Thinking
In this course we learnt about what exactly ‘Design thinking’ is. Design Thinking is an innovative problem-solving process rooted in a set of skills. It is a great tool to figure out real problems that require solutions and help channel creative thinking to identify and come out with out of the box innovative solutions to problems that you may not have been aware before.
- Empathize with the users (learning about the audience)
- Define the problem (identifying the users’ needs)
- Ideate (generating ideas for design)
- Prototype (turning ideas into concrete examples)
- Test (evaluating the design) Find the best one or iterate back to Step 1.
Stage 1 in the Design Thinking Process: Empathize
The first stage (or mode) of the Design Thinking process involves developing a sense of empathy towards the people you are designing for, to gain insights into what they need, what they want, how they behave, feel, and think, and why they demonstrate such behaviors, feelings, and thoughts when interacting with products in a real-world setting.
Below are some of the questions I prepared to ask to my users, I tried keeping them open ended so as to get elaborative answers.
- General information from the user.
- How big is your bedroom?
- How many electronic gadgets are there in your bedroom?
- Do you have enough bedside switches?
- What kind of artwork you have in your bedroom like painting/sculptures?
- Where do you keep your alarm clock?
- Do you work from bed?
- Is your bed comfortable enough for you? Do you suffer from backache?
- Which is your favorite bedroom color combination?
- Do you like listening music in bedroom? For that have you made any arrangements?
- Is your bedroom table/ study table organized? If yes how you keep it organized?
To gain empathy towards people, we as design thinkers often observe them in their natural environment passively or engage with them in interviews. Also, as design thinkers, we should try to imagine ourselves in these users’ environment, or stepping into their shoes as the saying goes, in order to gain a deeper understanding of their situations. This was a wonderful and fun activity. It was a great way to know my classmates and gain empathy towards my users.
Interviews are an important part of the UX designer’s skillset for empathizing with users. However, an interview will yield only minimal results if you are not prepared to conduct it with genuine empathy.
Stage 2 in the Design Thinking Process: Define
So after I gathered and organized the information which I got from users… well, I dig deeper for some more.
In the UX design process it is the time when we collect as much information as we can, to get the knowledge that we could not get during the kick-off.
User Problem Analysis..
User 1: User works from home. Want to charge multiple devices but have only one plug pin in his bedroom.
User 2: User likes to work while sitting on bed comfortably but gets backache.
User 3: User likes to work on the study table but it is not well organized.
User 4: User likes to work on study table but having space issues.
Why this was important to users?
So I revised my interview notes taken down and short listed 3 Problem statements which are as follows,
Problem 1:
Nowadays in this pandemic situation everyone is working from home. Every family member is dependent on an electronic gadget like mobiles, laptops, tablets etc. It is important to keep these products well organized and charged.
Problem 2:
While doing ‘work from home’ it’s really difficult to work on the study table for long hours. Lot of people don’t have study tables in their bedrooms either. People enjoy work while sitting on bed but they suffer from backache and shoulder pain so it’s important to have a good working setup in their bedrooms.
Problem 3:
Space issue is a big problem while working from home. It is really necessary to have space saving equipment in our bedroom.
Stage 3 in the Design Thinking Process: Ideate
The third stage in the Design Thinking process consists of ideation — or generating ideas. By this point, I know who my group users are and what they want from my product. I also have a clear problem statement that I am hoping to solve. Now it’s time to come up with possible solutions.
- Need of a desk Space saving equipment.
- A cushioned headrest for bed sitting while working.
- One charging station for multiple gadgets like phone, laptops etc.
- A Multi purpose bed table.
- Bed Table with a height adjustment facility to ease backache.
- Handy bedside table organizer.
- Bed table with special design for laptop working.
- Heat proof bed table with wooden body.
- An gadget organizer with a handy touch light in it.
- Gadget organizer with a small multipurpose drawer.
- Device wires organizer.
The ideation phase is a judgement-free zone where our group was encouraged to venture away from the norm, to explore new angles, and to think outside the box. We held ideation sessions in order to generate as many ideas as possible — regardless of whether or not they’re feasible! For maximum creativity, ideation sessions are often held.
Throughout this stage of the Design Thinking process, I continuously referred back to my problem statement. As I prepare to move on to the next phase, I narrowed down to a few ideas which I later turn into prototypes to be tested on real users.
Stage 4 in the Design Thinking Process: Prototype
In the fourth stage of the Design Thinking process, I turned my ideas from stage three into prototypes. A prototype is essentially a scaled-down version of a product or feature — be it a simple paper model or a more interactive digital representation.
The aim of the prototyping stage is to turn our ideas into something tangible which can be tested on real users. This is crucial in maintaining a user-centric approach, allowing you to gather feedback before you go ahead and develop the whole product. This ensures that the final design actually solves the user’s problem and is a delight to use!
Sketching
Being a fine artist I always start with sketching. It is the easiest way of visualizing my ideas. I usually force myself to create three different versions for solving a particular problem. It makes me think so I won’t get lazy. I always show everything to the client. Always. Even the sketches, because it helps my clients understand the evolution of the process and my way of thinking.
Prototyping
When I have a few good ideas and know how the main structure of the application will look like I start building a wireframe and the prototype. If I am in a hurry and the product is a simpler one, sometimes I draw the wireframe or just use the sketches, take photos of them, and use one of the prototyping on paper apps such as Marvel or POP.
Stage 5 in the Design Thinking Process: Test
The fifth step in the Design Thinking process is dedicated to testing: putting our prototypes in front of group users and seeing how they get on. During the testing phase, I observed my group users as they interacted with my prototype. I also gathered feedback on how my group users felt throughout the process.
The testing phase quickly highlighted design flaws that need to be addressed. Based on what I learnt through user testing so I can go back and make improvements.
User’s feedback and ratings:
User 1: Backrest support thing was and is a critical update that i would be making if i use my phone or laptop on bed. second thing the portable table design is awesome i have seen those in internet i have a small portable laptop stand to use in bed and it doesn’t have all the accessories slot in it so the laptop table will be my second pick.
User 2: Very very very well written.
User 3: I liked your idea of making our experience more comfortable. But I just think it should be straight instead of inclined to keep our spinal cord straight. I would be willing to use something like this.
User 4:
Learnings:
- An idea is not supposed to be fancy but something that works even if it’s straightforward and obvious.
- Think about the feasibility of your idea and what could go wrong. Be a self-critic.
- Dig deep to find out the core reason for the problem.
- Ask open-ended specific questions.
- Don’t try to impose your idea on the user because you like it.
- Find out the root problem that the user is facing by asking more questions.