UX Design: A comprehensive project summary

30/8/2023 - 29/11/2023
Edwin Choo Quan Rong / 0348305 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) In Creative Media
GCD 62304 / UX Design
A comprehensive project summary

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INSTRUCTIONS

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Task 1: Individual Report (Exercise 1 & Exercise 2)
6/9/2023 - 18/10/2023

The individual report consists of two exercises that aims to improve our understanding of UX elements of a fashion app. These exercises will prove useful later on in the project as this module is one continuous order of tasks to develop a high fidelity prototype of a fashion application.

Fig. A - Individual Report: Exercise 1 and 2

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Week 1

We are briefed in class regarding the overall process of this module with the end goal of creating a high fidelity prototype of a fashion application. The theme and product it sells is of our choice but it is our challenge to maintain a strong product identity throughout the project while adhering to UX practices.

As this is a group project, we formed a group and proceeded with the brainstorming process in Miro.

Fig 1.1 - Fashion app idea brainstorming

After a brainstorming session, we ended up going with the idea of a skateboard streetstyle app with graffiti elements. The fashion niche we have with skater attire and its visual aesthetic is to create an app that is visually clean, cool and refined, providing a juxtaposition to the rough, expressive and free-forming nature of graffiti and skateboarding culture in general.

Fig 1.2 - Further brainstorming for fashion niche

After deciding a fashion niche, we brainstormed its potential visuals and design aesthetics of what a skateboard app could be. 3 things we had to consider was: the visual design aesthetic and theme of the app, what type of clothing would we sell, and how to execute it while ensuring good UX.

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Week 2

We proceeded with more research to attain some background knowledge of a fashion app. Our group leader tasked each of us to research multiple fashion apps of different genres: Slick, Edgy and Funky.

Fig 2.1 - Fashion App Research

After conducting our own mini design audit, we had improved clarity of how fashion apps work, taking into account aspects like layout hierarchy, color theme, use of empty space, unique and cool elements that meets niche user needs. Down below is the problem statements, potential ideations and features we brainstormed for our app:

Fig 2.2 - Problem Statements

Fig 2.3 - App Ideas

Fig 2.4 - Features 

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Week 3

It was during this week where our team finalized the name of our fashion application. Ollie: a foundational trick in skateboarding that requires a solid base, strength, and faith in your abilities. These captures the spirit of progression, simplicity, and empowerment that we aim to inspire in skateboarders and beyond.

The name "Ollie" holds deep significance for our skateboard clothing brand, and it was carefully chosen to encapsulate the essence of skateboarding and the values we want to convey to our audience.

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Week 4

After being briefed about user personas in class, we decided to make 3 user personas for our group with each one of them targeting a different kind of user type as diversely as possible. The users in summary are all in tune with skateboard culture:

• Tony Jones - An avid skateboarder that is in college but has a passion for skateboarding, although low income makes it difficult to afford desired streetwear
• Jessica - A single mother with 2 kids that wants comfortable and quality clothing for her children
• Howard Anderson - A seasoned and experienced skater that would like to be in tune with the current youth but find it difficult due to the generational gap

Here are the user personas created for these individuals:

Fig 4.1 - User Persona 1 (Tony Jones)

Fig 4.2 - User Persona 2 (Jessica)

Fig 4.3 - User Persona 3 (Howard Anderson)

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Week 5

In this week, I went with another groupmate for the site visit at 3 different stores: 

Hype Vault at Publika Mall, Showroom KL and Vans at KL Sentral.

These stores are chosen based on their relation to skateboarding culture, as well as providing a range of skatewear variety for us to explore. Here is the compilation of images from our site visit:

Fig 5.1 - Site Visit Image Compilation

The purpose for the site visit is to input our experiences into the user personas that we have created to make their own user journey maps according to their scenarios and circumstances.

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Week 6

On this week, we developed our user journey maps for our user personas, amassing a total of 6 journey maps, each user persona having a scenario for both offline and online experiences.  We assigned each user to a store for both their journey maps:

• Tony Jones - Hype Vault
• Jessica - Showroom
• Howard Anderson - Vans

Here is the Miro Link to view the content of user journey maps.

At the same time, we have started with the development of the low-fidelity wireframes in Figma. 

Figma Link to the Lo-Fi Wireframes here.

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Week 7

This is the week where we had our proposal presentation for our fashion niche. The slides are presented with content that has been accumulated for the past 7 weeks:

Fig 7.1 - Ollie Prototype Proposal Presentation Slides

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Week 8

During the independent learning week, we continued the development of the lo-fi wireframes as well as creating the user experience survey ahead of time to start gathering respondents as time will be a potential issue later on after considering the busy schedules of our groupmates as well as the interviewees. 

Here is the survey link: Ollie User Experience Survey

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Week 9, 10 & 11

These 3 weeks were used to continue the development of our wireframes, now progressing towards the high fidelity prototype and finalizing it near the end of Week 11. 

Here is the Figma link to Hi-Fi prototype of our app: Ollie Hi-Fi

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Week 12

After completing our Hi-Fi prototype of our fashion app, we conducted user experience surveys with a total of 7 participants. A face-to-face interview was done with the users which follows the process of trying out our Hi-Fi prototype in Figma, then followed by the survey questions as well as follow up questions we asked our users. 

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Week 13

The data gathered from user experience survey is then analyzed and broken down to discover user opinions, findings, and their experience with specific sections of the app. The knowledge gained is used to provide a summary of user experience findings in the final presentation slides on Week 14, as well as providing proposed amendments and refinements of the prototype based on user testing feedbacks.

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Week 14

This week marks the end of our project with our final presentation slides being presented during class. Here lies a documentation of our slides:

Fig 14.1 - Ollie Final Presentation Slides

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Reflection

UX Design has been an insightful course for my development as a UI/UX designer. The course has provided a variety of practices for me to enhance my skills. Although the module is directed towards creating a final Hi-Fi working prototype and presentation for a niche fashion app, the experience gained from the practices of this module can be applied in other areas of UI/UX Design as well. 

The individual report was pretty cool as I got introduced to new terminology of UX as well as learning how to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of existing fashion apps thoroughly. This in turn aided with the progression of developing both Lo-Fi and Hi-Fi wireframes. The site visit element was great as the method of creating user journey maps by first being in their own shoes (or getting as close as possible) made the process of creating an authentic user journey map easier.

As this is a group project, there's no group that comes without its own troubles. This time around, I was grouped with people that I was unfamiliar with at the time as acquaintances were made on the first day of the project. Despite that, I made an active effort to ask questions and inform people in the group to be the bridge that opens others up to start talking. Over time, we had a communication flow that helped us to plan and execute in a timely manner. 

However, we had issues later on with unresponsive groupmates and late updates. Thus, we sadly have to sacrifice our own time that can be used to do our personal projects, to do instead the portion of the group project that was dedicated to other people. This in turn led to some elements being rushed and not as satisfactory as what we envisioned, so we dedicate more time to refine and polish up any rough edges.

Despite all the troubles and emergency lifebuoy situations that occurs as per every group project thus far, this experience has taught me personally to be more assertive and communicative with the tasks at hand, whether it is handing them out or planning with other groupmates, ensuring an idea with clarity was shared among each other is essential to efficiently complete the tasks swiftly. 

Overall, I am satisfied with the outcome of the project as well as the things I had learned from my groupmates in regards to the contents of this module. Since all of my groupmates are my seniors, I was able to learn plenty of information and practices from them which aided in developing my own skills and understandings of UX as well.