During this project, I designed 4 iterative prototypes (lo-fi, mid-fi, hi-fi, front-end) and produced 11 UX artifacts guiding design decisions. I also contributed to UX research by conducting 2 usability tests, identifying a user insight and reframing it into a problem statement, and constructing a user flow highlighting potential roadblocks for our target users.

We conducted 6 remote interviews, synthesizing our findings into an affinity diagram to identify key user needs and pain points prioritized based on frequency of occurrence. Our findings revealed a value of time and money spent on shopping, a desire to know whether items are in-stock, stress when there are too many people in the store while shopping, and difficulty finding or approaching store associates for assistance.

We also conducted a competitive analysis of five diverse shopping solutions, identifying common areas for improvement including a lack of store busyness tracking, live customer assistance, or store maps with real-time product inventory tracking.

From this data, we developed a user persona named Eli Young and an empathy map illustrating her thoughts, behaviors, and actions, providing an actionable depiction of our users.

After generating ideas using the “I Like, I Wish, What If” method and organizing and evaluating them with an affinity diagram, we used a prioritization matrix to identify three features with low technical complexity but high user impact: a searchable product inventory, an indication of store busyness, and the ability to request assistance from store associates via live chat.

To guide our design decisions, we created a user scenario and journey map, as well as a user flow to identify any potential roadblocks or confusion Eli Young may experience during the process of acquiring or using our product: Buy&Seek.

We used sketches, wireframes, and interactive prototypes to produce multiple versions of the interface. The lo-fi prototype, which digitally combined voted features from team members' sketches, allowed us to test Buy&Seek's navigation and interactions with users. The mid-fi prototype adhered to iOS’s Human Interface guidelines and incorporated user feedback, as well as a style tile based on mood boarding. The hi-fi prototype, which followed a more comprehensive style guide, was used to code a front-end solution functioning as an interactive user flow. Overall, the prototyping process emphasized iteration based on testing and enabled us to create a final product meeting our target users’ needs.

By facilitating remote guerrilla user tests over Zoom and Google Meet, we conducted a lo-fi prototype test of five users with a 93.3% average task completion rate, and a mid-fi prototype test of four more with a 100% completion rate. Based on user feedback, we evaluated our designs and made iterative changes addressing issues of informational hierarchy, visual cues, and user flow. The result was a final hi-fi prototype, as well as a coded front-end prototype, our team presented and demonstrated to our UX cohort.