1 – Bookmark Redesign

This project was a full user-centered design (UCD) research project.

The project was based on the poorer user experience smartphone users have bookmarking web pages, compared to the experience of users on desktop computers.

The author had created over a thousand bookmarks on his PC and Chromebook, but created very few on his smartphone.

Prior attempts to add and retrieve bookmarks using his mobile phone proved a poor user experience.

The decision to redesign the bookmarking process was based on a number of factors, including:

  • The bookmarking redesign was a better match for the scope of the project.
  • The prevalence of smartphone users who use their web browsers regularly, offered a much larger pool of research participants.
  • Users are experienced at the process of bookmarking on personal computers, meaning user testing would require less induction.

1 – Problem Identification

Problem Definition / Statement

The problem statement identified was:

“It can be difficult for users of smartphones to add and retrieve bookmarks. The project goal is to make this process easier for users, by identifying the major pain-points and eliminating them through an iterative redesign process, and user testing”

3 – Personas and Empathy Maps

Data from all three forms of research were fed into the personas and empathy maps, these personas would become the voice of the user throughout the design process, allowing a better understanding of which problems to solve, and how, as seen through the eyes of the user.

The personas were to be primary users. Two distinct personas were chosen, with different needs: Read On >>3 – Personas and Empathy Maps

4 – Task Description

4 About

The task description is used to help identify the actions and cognitive processes required for a user to achieve a distinct set of goals – goals which have already identified as core functionality during earlier research phases.

4.1 Task Description 1

“A user should be able to bookmark a web page in a single click”

4.1.1 User Job Story

“When I am visiting a web page, I want to be able to bookmark it, so that I can revisit it later” Read On >>4 – Task Description

5 – Wireframes

Using data sourced from earlier stages, including user surveys and interviews, task analysis, and personas, the next stage undertaken was wireframing of design concepts. This included ideation of designs, and creation of low-fidelity wireframes to be used for an early-stage interactive prototype, for user testing.

5.1 Design Ideation

Both team members, again working in parallel, agreed to produce separate designs.

The design concept by the author was based on word clouds, as popularised by blogging software, WordPress. A word cloud is “an image composed of words used in a particular text or subject, in which the size of each word indicates its frequency or importance.” (Oxforddictionaries.com 2017) Read On >>5 – Wireframes

9 – References

Section 1

Ideation (creative process). (2017). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 18 April 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideation_(creative_process)

Benjamin, A Design: How to define the problem. – Prototyping: From UX to Front End. (2017). Prototyping: From UX to Front End. Retrieved 18 April 2017, from https://blog.prototypr.io/design-how-to-define-the-problem-5361cccb2fcb#.vzy05lkr7 Read On >>9 – References