Social event app

We were asked to create a social app that would help improve students’ social life experience at GA.

I initially wanted to add a social channel on Slack and thought it was such an easy solution, but once I really started to put everything together, I realized that it was not something that could satisfied my need (well, it wasn’t what the instructors had asked us to do either).

User Interview and User Research:

Then I began to work on my users interview. I have interviewed 5 people. It was the first interview I have ever done in my entire life. I thought it would so hard because I am not quite the person who would go reach out people first, but it was actually not as hard and uncomfortable as I thought it would be. I found it also to be a very good opportunity to get to know your cohort members without being too awkward. Another thing I found really interesting and helpful is that how much more information I have gotten out of the user interview. I came up with so many ideas just by reviewing all the interviews. I truly put myself into users’ shoes and found it so much easier to see which path I should choose for my project. At the beginning, I did not understand the importance of user interview, now I would definitely say that this is the part where you should probably pay most attentions to.

Affinity Map has helped greatly in organizing, it helped me see the issues more clearly, and prioritize the problem faster. Also, the affinity map has definitely accelerate the process of generating the persona.

Lo-fi prototype and Usability Testing

Drawing is not my expertise, but I didn’t think it was hard for me to sketch out my first lo-fi prototype. Although during my lo-fi prototype usability testing, some very minor issues came across (e.g. some symbols weren’t clear enough, the page looked too busy), all my users were able to complete their tasks. After each testing, I adjusted or added in some of details to the prototype, because we were too familiar with using mobile apps that sometimes we forgot about small details, such as add a “x” button on top of the pop-up window, or to have a < button to go back to the next page. Also, lo-fi prototype usability testing was when most of my new ideas on how to further improve the add merged.

I also helped several classmates with their usability testing, and I am really glad that I did it. By looking at their prototypes, I realized what I want to adopt and what I would like to avoid in my prototype. I had the chance to see the project as an “outsider”.

Mid-fi prototype

This was the part where I felt most excited about. I couldn’t wait to learn how to use softwares to demonstrate my ideas and to create a LEGIT prototype that somehow makes me look like a pro. Though everything I have learned so far in the first project was still very basic, I am very looking forward to exploring more.

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