Design is ultimately about creating experiences for people. When considering solutions to common, albeit complex socio-technical problems, designers must give special attention to the interplay of the social and physical context, information, and user behavior.
The goal of this team-based assignment is conduct user research to understand problems and opportunities related to personal information feeds. An "information feed" is mechanism for users to receive updated information from data sources. Today's mobile device users encounter a wide variety of information feeds, including social feeds (e.g., Facebook/Instagram), news feeds (e.g., CNN/NPR), product feeds (e.g., Amazon/Walmart), media content feeds (e.g., Netflix/iTunes), and culture/fashion/food feeds (e.g., Pinterest/BuzzFeed). Your team will conduct user research around an information feed and for a particular user demographic (age/gender). This assignment emulates a client project where your team has been hired to discover user insights and to prepare a compelling presentation.
A3 will also serve as inspiration for A4 where teams will envision and build an interactive demo for a novel "information feed" experience for mobile devices. These two project-based assignments will provide you an opportunity to practice user research and UX skills that could serve you well in industry.
The instructional team will assign you to a team of 3-4 people based on responses to the Team Formation Survey. Teams will be provided ample opportunity to meet and work on structured activities during lecture and studio, but you should also expect to meet with your team outside of class times.
Doing online research to understand a problem
Analyzing video-based survey data
Cultivating empathy toward users and creating personas
Creating storyboards
Conducting semi-structured interviews
Framing a problem based on user research
Presenting user research
Applications
MindSwarm's Fabric service for analyzing survey data
StoryboardThat, Canva, or Boords for storyboard creation
Miro for online class design activities
Adobe Premiere, Microsoft Movie Maker, iMovie for making video summaries
Readings
QuestionPro on Secondary Research
Chris Wray on Better User Research Through Surveys
Theo Braden on Digital Ethnography in UX; guide to online ethnography
Rikke Dam and Teo Siang on Personas – A Simple Introduction
Nick Babich on Storyboarding in UX Design
Michael Hohl on Prototyping: Iterative vs. Parallel
Erika Hall on Interviewing Humans
Imagine you and your team have been hired by a Fortune 500 company to investigate the user experience of personal information feeds for a particular platform (e.g., Instagram) and user demographic group (e.g., women over 50). The company wants to understand how users interact with feeds and they feel about the experience. The ultimate goal is to design a new information feed experience that serves the needs and desires of your target user.
Each team will be assigned a particular information feed platform. These include:
Google/ CNN News
Tik Tok
Other
Each team will also be assigned to focus on a particular target user (i.e., a different age group and gender). You can specify your preferences for a platform in the Team Formation survey.
This will be a team assignment with teams of 3 students per team (some teams may have 4 people). The instructors will form teams as best as possible based on preferences specified by each student in the team formation survey. Please do your best to work with your assigned team. In industry, you often do not get to choose your team. When assigned to a team project, it's your responsibility to learn each other’s strengths and figure out how to perform together.
In this assignment, teams will conduct three different methods of User Research (online secondary research, video survey analysis, and storyboard interviews) and will present the findings in a User Research presentation in class on Aug 23. Here's an overview of the key activities with dates:
Aug 2: Fill out team formation survey
Aug 4: Teams announced. Create a team contract. Begin online secondary research.
Aug 9: Teams provided access to video-based survey data on information feeds. Begin analysis process.
Aug 11: Teams create personas, scenarios, and ideas.
Aug 16: Teams create storyboards and interview guides. Start interview recruitment by reaching out to contacts made in Week 1.
Aug 18: Teams share draft storyboards and interview guides in class for practice interview sessions. Iterate after feedback and then conduct storyboard interviews outside of class.
Aug 22: Slide decks with all deliverables due to Canvas by 11:59pm (only the team leader needs to submit deliverables).
Aug 23: User Research Presentations (~10 minute presentations and 5 minutes of discussion).
Stage 0: Team formation and preparation. This will be a team assignment and the instructors plan to form teams within your section based on preferences specified by each student. The first step is to fill out this team formation survey by Aug 3. The survey will give you a chance to specify interests and time constraints. If there is someone in your section you want on your team, you can both name each other in the survey and we will try our best to keep you together.
Teams will be assigned and will meet for the first time during the studio sections in Week 1. Take time to get to know each other through an “icebreaker” and share expectations for the project. As options for the icebreaker, you could have each team member give a virtual tour of their home, introduce a pet or a prized possession, or tell a story about how COVID-19 has affected your daily routine.
Each team should then:
Select a team name. This can change later in the quarter.
Create a slack channel for your team and add all members.
Decide on a weekly meeting time outside of studio/lecture time and set up a recurring meeting schedule with Zoom.
Set up a Google Team Drive for your group using UCSD email.
Make a copy of the team contract template and store a copy in your shared Google Team Drive. Fill it in together as a team.
Add these details to the Team Dashboard.
Get started on A2. You might start by adding all your preliminary Stage 1 secondary research into your team folder.
Stage 1: Online “Secondary” Research. Get to know your particular topic inside and out. Identify online communities where your assigned target users communicate about their challenges and desires. For example, you might search for Reddit forums to read and summarize perspectives from individuals and communities. Search broadly and deeply to better understand the potential goals of your target users related to your assigned "feeds" platform. Make sure to capture a list of all resources (ie., URLs, journals, conference papers, forums) so that you can cite them later. If you can't find resources immediately, think like a detective. Who do you know or where might you go to ask about where these groups or communities might be? You can also join a community and let them know about your research. This is an easy way to get real users to test your concepts.
As part of your secondary research, create a list of potential contacts or communities who you might recruit for the Storyboard Interviews. The goal is to interview 3-4 people, so you might create a list of 10-15 potential communities to reach out to. We will work on recruitment messages later.
Stage 2: Video-Based Survey Analysis. In parallel with your secondary research, your team will conduct a systematic qualitative analysis of video-based survey data. Thanks to a partnership with the company Mindswarms.com, our class will have access to a large-scale video-based dataset on information feeds collected in early 2021. So rather than designing a survey and finding respondents, our class this quarter will focus on analyzing an existing rich dataset. (Technically, this is secondary research since you did not gather the data yourself, but you can treat it like primary research.)
All teams will have access to video-based survey responses from ~50 diverse individuals who have answered short open-ended questions about their experiences with information feeds. Within this data, each team will be assigned a different demographic age-gender group corresponding to your assigned target user. Your goal is to conduct qualitative data analysis on at least 6 respondents in your target age-gender group and to compare that with 4 respondents in a different age-gender group. Choose the contrasting group to be either the opposite gender, or the same gender in a different age group.
Qualitative data analysis is the process of examining and interpreting qualitative data to understand what it represents. Work with your team to systematically analyze the video data from at least 10 respondents (6 that match your target and 4 from a contrasting group). Teams are welcome to view and analyze more that six respondents.
You can use various techniques to analyze video responses (see the required reading The Essential Guide to Coding Qualitative Data by Delve for options). Typically the process involves watching the clips (and/or reading the transcripts), tagging the most interesting/relevant quotes, and then performing an affinity analysis to gain a holistic sense of what people are saying. The objectives are to create an interpretation of the data, to gain a deeper understanding of your target user and how their perspective might differ from other target users, and to raise new questions that require further investigation.
Stage 3: Personas. Based on insights from the team's user research thus far, create two personas that illustrate archetype stakeholders in your problem context. The primary persona should focus on providing background, attitudes, and contextual details for your assigned target user. A second persona could focus on a different demographic who might also be interested in the same feed experience. Or you might consider your secondary users to be the people who will be moderating and facilitating the information feeds behind the scenes (e.g., content moderators, content producers, community managers). Your scenarios and storyboards in Stage 4 will focus on the primary persona, but you may also think about they will interact with your secondary persona.
Upload your draft Personas HERE for the class critique.
Stage 4: Scenarios and Storyboards. Based on your personas, write at least six scenarios that describe problematic situations with (or opportunistic moments for) information feeds within your assigned genre. Your scenarios explore situations or moments when users might need or want information in a mobile setting. Generate ideas for how feeds could be designed to deliver information in a dynamic, personalized, and context-aware manner (e.g., based on time, location, interaction history, activity, etc.).
Then portray these six scenarios as illustrated storyboards that will be presented during online interviews. These storyboards can be hand sketched or created using one of the digital storyboarding tools listed above. Each storyboard should include a title that summarizes the situation and four frames/panels that cover 1) the context (persona, setting, activity, etc.), 2) the problem or desire that the user faces in that context, 3) the proposed solution for an information feed that adapts to that situation, and 4) a resolution that illustrates how your persona(s) feels after interacting with the feed. Teams will share storyboards during lecture/studios and will get feedback on how effectively they communicate the concepts.
Upload your draft Storyboards HERE for the class critique.
Stage 5: Storyboard Interviews. Starting back in Stage 1, your team could start recruiting potential interviewees for this part of the assignment. As best as possible, you want your interviewees to align with your target user. Aim to conduct at least one online interview for each member of the team (3-4 interviews total).
Write a recruitment message that you can adapt for different channels. Your message should say who you are, what you are trying to learn and why, and what you might offer in exchange for a 30-minute interview on Zoom. Offers of small gifts (e.g., a coffee or gift card) are not required, but can be a very helpful incentive for people with limited time. After getting feedback on your recruitment messages from the teaching team and peers, send out the messages through multiple channels (e.g., emails, forum posts, social media, etc.). Make sure the people who respond fit your target demographic and then go ahead and schedule the interviews at a convenient time for your interviewees.
Create an interview guide with open-ended questions for your intended stakeholders. This should include general questions about the interviewee’s feed-related habits and activities. Towards the end of the interview, you will show your storyboards and ask questions related to these.
Share your interview questions and storyboards in lecture on Aug 18 and refine based on feedback after practice interviews.
Conduct your interviews through a video conferencing software (e.g. Zoom). When possible, you should record the interviews so that you and your team can watch it afterwards. Zoom and Skype can record video calls; test these features before your interview. Make sure you get verbal consent from your interviewees to record the meeting and to potentially use the recording in a class presentation. Consent should be obtained both before you start recording and after you start the recording (so that you have it on record).
Watch the recordings afterwards to reflect on the interview. Share the recordings with your team so that other team members can watch and contribute their perspectives. To distribute learning better, have a different team member watch and take notes on other teammates’ interviews so that everyone has a chance to both interview and analyze an interview. As a team, summarize the key insights you've learned about the problem and the stakeholders. We recommend using Dovetail or EnjoyHQ to code and analyze your interviews. These real world tools are used by industry professionals, and practicing them now will give you a head start. Include excerpt short clips of the videos to highlight your findings in your user research presentation.
Stage 6: User Research Presentations. Create a presentation that articulates your team's User Research. Include insights from the secondary online research, the video survey data, and interviews. Show your final personas and selected storyboards. Include video clips from the survey data and interviews. At the very end, frame a mission statement that your team will tackle in A4. Prepare a professional looking slide deck that draws on the visual design principles from A1 and A2 and that includes:
Introduction to motivate and define your topic
Key insights from online research, video survey data, and online interviews (supported by evidence: quotes, stats, images, video clips, etc.)
Personas (primary and secondary, informed by your research).
Selected storyboards (1-2 at most because of time constraints) and reactions from your interviewees.
A short and clear mission statement that your team will tackle in A4.
An appendix that includes citations, additional data, all six storyboards, and any additional materials that help to illustrate your process
Team presentations will happen on Aug 23 and should be about 10 minutes with up to 5 minutes for Q&A. Teams also have the option of pre-recording their presentation and showing the video during the live presentations. You may do this with any software, but a simple way would be to record a team Zoom call where you share slides during the call. If you prerecord your presentation, include a link to the video in the appropriate column in the course dashboard. All teams should include a link to your slide deck and embed comments with questions you want the audience to consider. Audience members will be able to view and comment on other team's slide decks (which will count as a point towards your Participation grade).
By 11:59pm on Sunday Aug 22, the group leader will upload all the A3 materials as one single PDF to Canvas. Make sure the first page shows your team number, name, date, pIDs and names of all group members. The PDF should contain the following:
User Research slides (as presented in class)
Appendix slides as described above
Link to your team's Google folder
Make sure your team's Google folder is viewable by the instructors. Name all the files in your folder with the corresponding stages (e.g. "Stage 1 Secondary Research", "Stage 2 Video Analysis notes", etc.) in case the instructors need to take a look at your team folder. We will examine all the stages, and provided a combined grade as described below.
Also by 11:59pm on Aug 22, students can get credit for providing feedback on other teams during the Aug 22 presentations. Keep your critiques civil and helpful. Take a screenshot your comments on other teams (at least 2-3 across peer teams) and submit them as part of the "A3 Crit Participation" assignment.
Also by 11:59pm on Aug 22, all members of a team should fill out the "Team Peer Evaluation" for A3. Everyone is required to do this, but this will also count as a Participation Point towards your overall participation grade.
Grades will be based on the following:
Online “secondary” research (10%)
Did the team exhaustively search about the problem space, including statistics, user stories, competitors and other related information?
Did the team observe a variety of different online communities related to their topic?
Does the team extract out any interesting observations, concerns, issues etc?
Did the team adequately and clearly summarize their findings?
Did the team provide citations for all resources?
Video survey analysis (20%)
Did the team systematically analyze video data from at least 10 respondents?
Did the team draw out interesting comparisons between their target user and a contrasting group of users?
Does the team come up with a meaningful interpretation of the data that drives further questions for user research?
Personas (10%)
Are the personas informed by preliminary user research (questionnaire and interview)?
Are the personas coherent, plausible, and credible?
Do the personas clearly communicate the primary and secondary stakeholder goals, needs and desires?
Scenarios and storyboards (20%)
Does the team create at least six scenarios and storyboards?
Do the storyboards clearly communicate the context, problem, solution, and resolution for each scenario?
Do the storyboards improve with iteration based on feedback?
Storyboard interviews (20%)
Does the team understand the context and prepare effective, open-ended questions to guide the interviews?
Does each member of the team conduct at least one interview?
Do the interviews yield useful feedback from stakeholders? Does the team adequately summarize the lessons learned from interviews?
Presentation of user research (20%)
Is the research topic clearly defined?
Do the insights relate back to the topic in a meaningful way? (how do your insights inform the direction of your research?)
Did your team effectively synthesize user research across online research, observations, questionnaire, and interviews?
Does the team support key insights with evidence such as quotes, images, and audio/video clips?
Does the team offer a clear point of view and mission statement?