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

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

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”

A/B Testing

A/B Testing

Fig. 4: A/B testing (Optimizely.com 2017)

About

A/B testing is a form of quantitative user research, in which a control design is compared to a variety of slightly altered designs, to see which design is most effective in reaching the test goal.

Tests can be performed on most quantifiable metrics your site, including content, emails, and web forms.

A/B testing is also known as split testing, A/B/n testing, bucket testing, and split-run testing.
Read On >>A/B Testing

Tree Testing

Tree Testing

Fig 3: Treejack tree-test interface for participants (Cardello J. 2014)

About

Tree testing is a research technique used on websites in order to understand the topic hierarchies a user perceives, and to evaluate content findability, with a goal of optimising that website’s information architecture (O’Brien D. 2009). It can be both a quantitative and qualitative method of research.
Read On >>Tree Testing

Diary Studies

About

Diary Studies are a type of qualitative longitudinal user research (Lallemand, C. 2012) used to record organic behavioural insights. Participants of diary studies self-report data about their experiences and activities, over a period of time. During this period participants will log data, collected in in a natural context, using a prescribed recording method. (Palen L., Salzman M. 2001)

Diary studies are also known as experience sampling or EMA (ecological momentary assessment) methodology (Wikipedia 2017, Experience sampling method.).
Read On >>Diary Studies

User Research Methods

This study explores a range of research methods that may be employed during a UX project. These methods may be used: at the beginning of a project to gain an understanding of the needs of the user and the tasks they need to perform; during a project to evaluate the current design iteration; and after a product has shipped to gain an understanding of how well it is performing relative to the product goals

Introduction

For this report three different methods of user research are being examined.

One method has been chosen from each of the three different phases of the product development lifecycle – Strategise, Execute and Assess.
Read On >>User Research Methods

7 – Evaluation

In order to uncover any  usability problems in the UI, so that they can be addresed during the iterative design process, we undertake a stage of product evaluation using  Nielsen’s Heuristics. These heuristics are a set of 10 user interface design guidelines applied to a UI, and evaluated by usability experts. Read On >>7 – Evaluation