Adventures in User Experience Design: DVC Spring 2020

So I finally got my test run completed and emailed it to my class. I got nine responses out of a total of twelve people from the class, which amounts to 75% (a pretty good descent number, if I do say so myself). They found that my mission objectives were easy to follow, and 75% of those 9 people would consider buying the full-version of the app if I should ever make one available to the market. That's the good news. The bad news is most of the test studies that were done had a circle which you could navigate and it wouldn't change screens on you if you got the answer wrong, only for a right click will it allow for a screen change. Mine doesn't do that as it has a clickable arrow and changes screens whenever the answer is right or wrong. I gotta play with this feature more, or maybe next time I enroll in another of Bennett's classes.

I talked with my teacher on an issue regarding Maze and how to get a user testing run via Figma (from the Figma Website) as I might be doing something wrong. Talking through him, I think I realized my problem: I have been clicking the “Share” button by it, but somehow I thought there was a faster way. I thought hitting the play arrow button on the top right corner would allow me to instantly hook up with Figma. I tried this over the weekend, but couldn’t as FireFox (one of my two web browsers) wouldn’t allow me to use it as it would open additional pop-up windows. He went over the steps again and I took screenshots. The first step he said was to go the user testing portion of the home page and to click the ‘create a new project’ link, but after that I told him that I think I might know what the problem was. The problem wasn't that I was doing the steps wrong: I was doing them right. In fact, it had to do with which web browser I was using. I had Firefox opened, and that sho...

In this week’s reading I learned about creating a user flow diagram. The user flow lays out the user’s movement through the product, mapping out each and every step the user takes— from entry point right through to the final interaction. It is a visual representation that lays out every possible scenario or outcome in order to achieve its desired end goal. Each touch point is represented by a visual image or shape. People use user flow designs in order to help them understand how heir app will be navigated in the hands of the actual consumer. There are several types of flowchart/diagrams used for creating good user flows: task flows and wireframes (or sometimes, people can combine them in order to show the multiple outcomes produced) The quote I really found useful comes at the end of Cameron Brown’s online article “What Are User Flows In User Experience (UX) Design?” by emphasizing that “The mark of a successful app or website is in the intuitiveness of its design.” I tak...

We did our group presentation on DVC InSite this week! Now onto our individual projects (which the teacher also discussed that we can do groups as well if we want.) I read the handout that Troy gave us on Wednesday regarding the 112 Brilliant Mobile Application Ideas, as the class is readying for our second and final major project. I did this type of work before when I took one of Troy’s classes. Last year my project was an app based around County Link: an app which tells people if they would like to schedule a ride, add money to your account, and a location tracker where you can track the progress of the bus. A few months later toward fall semester, County Link was just bought out by another transit company known as Transdev. They created an app that was similar in concept to mine (to which I’m still waiting on my royalty fees, lol) Flash forward to now… I originally came up with eight ideas for class while reading the handout, but ended up nixing one of them after realizin...

Our group finalized our wireframes over spring break, as we are going to give our reports when class resumes again after spring break. Here is what our new updated DVC InSite webpage should look like Our group (once again) consisted of Christopher Walker (me), Christian Cozart, and Paul Edmiston and he put it where we all collaborated. I got the ball rolling with the layout, but Paul did a better job with the finalized design as mine was going to group them all by the color (i.e. all blue files go with blue, green files goes with green, and red goes with red.) We did our user questions and sent them out to different people, either from our class or current DVC students we know. We combined all of our data together and created our own user persona off it; Laurel Ebsel was our model student and I uploaded a picture to go with Laurel, to which I took from a former student and one of myy friends. Paul compiled the presentation format and now we're ready to present once the Zoom school ...

(I read the final two chapters of the class textbook over spring break. For all intent and purpose, I will add these dot my journal sometime during the respected weeks that the teacher assigns the material) Chapter Eight is all about the the last of the four stages of UX: the design (and development) , which is all about the details of your product’s design. It is a continuous cycle of design and development that will eventually see the product get finalized and eventually launched. This process is continuous, starting at the highest level with your design problem; then drilling into the details as you work from your prototype, turning it into a developed solution. I was surprised to learn that even though this is the last stage, one is always following a process of elimination and simplification. Beta testing is also explored. It helps someone to fine-tune the design, correct any last-minute development and system issues, and gather feedback on a working model of your entire product, ...