This week (01/31/2021-02/06/2021) I began my research on the app I chose to redesign as part of my mobile interaction design class, Tropical Smoothie Cafe. Being a former user of this app myself, I recognized the need for this app to be overhauled and immediately thought of it when given this assignment. The app itself possesses potential and can get the job done, but I want to make it so the experience is faster, easier, and more engaging.
I took the time to read through hundreds of app store reviews, starting with the positive, moving to the negative, then reading the reviews in between. I wrote down each criticism and compliment and took note when a point was mentioned by multiple users. I then sent the download link to a college group chat, consisting of 60% females and 40% males between the ages of 18 and 25. I asked each person to get the app, create an account, and have a look around. About half of them simulated placing an order, which was my goal, but to weed out my target audience, I did not ask them to do this. I asked each of them to tell me what they did, and what they thought. I did not specify what they were to comment on, just their general thoughts. I got feedback on design, content, and functionality, and used this feedback and the app store reviews to begin identifying the problems with the app and what changes are needed to satisfy the target user group. I also conducted a competitor analysis, in which I downloaded apps of a similar nature (smoothie and health food shops) and took note of the differences and similarities, as well as the app store reviews.
From the user research, I created an empathy map to understand my target user. With the empathy map, user research, and competitive analysis, I created two personas for the app. Each had its similarities and differences, but both embodied potential target users. I chose to include food preferences, a daily schedule, interests, and several personality traits in my personas to show why these specific personas would use the app. The overall tone of both personas was convenience and maintaining health.
As I continue to refine and make adjustments, as designers always do, I continue my research to get as close as I possibly can to identifying and understanding my target user group in an effort to make the redesign is as successful as possible. The following is a breakdown of each method and process I used to get to this point, taken from readings and personal experience.
Competitor Analysis
“With an almost limitless number of competitors out there all vying for attention, the heat is on to understand exactly what you are doing right (or wrong) to create an effortless user experience and a product that people enjoy using.”
Steven Douglas for UsabilityGeek, 2019
Competitor analysis is an important method of research in user experience design. ‘Step one’ is knowing your product, and ‘step two’ is knowing the products of the competition. In order to make your product the best it can be, knowing the competition, their strengths and weaknesses, and what makes them your competition, is vital (Mishra, 2017). Why would they use your product over theirs? What makes your product different? How can you use their product to improve yours?
In addition to product development and being able to observe your products standing against competitors, a competitive analysis can be used to identify what and where the weak points in your product are, and whether it fits and is needed in the given market (Mishra, 2017). Fixing what’s wrong keeps your user base happy and intact; ignoring the issues can and will prove fatal. Fixing what isn’t broken, and doesn’t need fixing, however, can be dangerous ground, as well (Douglas, 2019).
Competitive analysis provides you with important data that can help you make informed decisions, which can make or break your product. And while a competitive analysis won’t solve all your problems, and can even limit creativity if focused on too much, it can be extremely helpful (Douglas, 2019).
User Interviews
“A user interview will give you qualitative, self-reported data. The user will be telling you how they receive a certain concept or how they feel about a particular experience (…) You’ll gain an understanding of how your target users talk about the product or service you’re designing, or problems and pain points they mention.”
Jaye Hannah for CareerFoundry, 2019
User interviews are a great and easy way to understand how your target audience talks about your product, or how they talk about your competition’s products. All it takes is a few simple questions and you have a decent amount of feedback. While the users aren’t designers themselves, and their memories may not be 100% accurate, user interviews are not meant to give clear cut answers, but rather a starting point to dissect problems (Interaction Design Foundation, 2020).
A typical user interview starts with demographic and ethnographic data, which can be used to create personas and identify prominent user group, then progresses to questions pertaining to the product itself (Interaction Design Foundation, 2020). How easy was the product to navigate? Did they find the product useful? Why and when would they use it? What caused them to struggle? What did they like? Asking questions that give you insight into your product and its users is what a user interview is all about (“How To Conduct User Interviews Like A Pro”).
Empathy Mapping
“Empathy maps become treasure maps that can uncover nuggets of understanding about our user.”
Sarah Gibbons for Nielsen Norman Group, 2018
Empathy maps help designers understand users and prioritize their needs. An empathy map is a visual containing information about users that we already know. They are useful in decision making and allow designers to synthesize data gathered from research in a meaningful way (Dam et al, 2020). Most maps are divided into four quadrants, labeled ‘said’, ‘did’, ‘thought’, and ‘felt’. It’s not uncommon for ‘sees’ or ‘needs’ to supplement one of these sections. Some maps also have an area for ‘pains’ and ‘gains’, or ‘problems’ and ‘strengths’. The ‘gains’ section can also be used for ideas and potential solutions. Filling out the map is based on common sense, interactions with the users, and results from user tests and interviews. Inability to come up with something for any given category usually means more research is needed before proceeding (Gibbons, 2018).
Empathy maps can sum up the target users or be used for individual users. A one-user empathy map is based on the user interview or a study in which that individual user’s actions and observations were recorded. A multiple-user empathy map, or an aggregated empathy map, combines data from users with multiple similarities. Aggregated maps can be used to create a persona later on (Gibbons 2018).
Personas
“Creating personas will help you to understand your users’ needs, experiences, behaviours and goals (…) it can help you to recognise that different people have different needs and expectations, and it can also help you to identify with the user you’re designing for.”
Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang for Interaction Design Foundation, 2021
Using empathy maps and user interviews, personas can be created to represent your typical target user. Personas add a ‘human touch’ to data and help to solidify key motivations, goals, and pain points of target users (Dam et al, 2021). When creating a persona for your product, it’s important to take into account what really matters- if you’re selling a TV, does it really matter what their favorite type of cuisine is? Conversely, it may not seem like their daily schedule matters, but wouldn’t you want to know if and how often they’re watching TV? The information pertains to the product, and there’s no perfect, tell-all guide for making personas, but plenty of research and collaboration can narrow down what you can keep, what to toss, and what to add (Ellis, 2018).
As a guideline, personas usually always include a few things: demographic information (age, location, gender, sometimes income or marital status), a background or brief description, goals, motivators, and pain points or frustrations (McCay, 2017). The rest is based on the product goals and data from user tests. Popular additions include skills, preferences, interests, and their social media presence and habits. Personas are a useful part of the design process, and they’re pretty fun, too!
Recap
While it seems like a lot, every part of the design process is special and complex in it’s own way, and it all results in either the success or failure of your product. Simply put, trust the process. Everything that must be done is done for a reason, and your product will be so much better for that. These steps are critical, but it’s important to remember to get creative. Innovation doesn’t happen because you followed all the rules. Design is not a science experiment- the results will never be the same twice. Step outside the box, but remain on the path. Success is never guaranteed; you must make it yourself.
brandi pinette 
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