User Experience Design
basic UX incubator pack
The purpose of the basic UX incubator pack is to provide you with a starting point to learn basic user-experience design methodologies and practices. The pack attempts to expose you to the skills you need to work as an individual or on a team, as well as the resources to further develop your aptitude in these skills. This incubator is structured around reading material that will prepare you to complete practical assignments in which you will complete a basic UX process step-by-step as you work through the modules.
Outcomes of the incubator
SECTION 1
Contextual Inquiry
Personas
User Journeys
TIME ALLOCATION
4 - 6 hours
3 hours
3 hours
SECTION 2
Wireframes
Working Prototype
TIME ALLOCATION
3 hours
3 hours
SECTION 3
Usability Testing
TIME ALLOCATION
4 - 6 hours
Pre-reading material
In order to understand the basics of User Experience Design and the UX Design Process please read the information and articles on:
- UX Process - https://uxmastery.com/resources/process/
- Creating a UX Strategy - https://designshack.net/articles/ux-design/7-steps-creating-a-ux-strategy/
- UX Research Techniques - https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/7-great-tried-and-tested-ux-research-techniques , http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-design-research/
Additional Reading:
Getting into UX Design - https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/the-ux-design-process-an-actionable-guide-to-your-first-job-in-ux/
Initial setup
There is no initial setup required to complete this incubator.
Choose a Scenario
Complete parts of the incubator using the scenario you select from below:
- Choose a website or app of your choice that most of your friends use e.g. FNB Banking, Nu metro movies etc. and identify where improvements can be made through interviewing different users.
- Pick a product that you have identified as having a bad user experience (in your opinion) and conduct a contextual inquiry to learn what other users think….remove all of your opinions of the site, focus on what the users you are interviewing have to say don’t sway their opinion.
Section 1
Part 1: Contextual Inquiry
The purpose of the contextual inquiry module is to provide you with a starting point to interacting with and understanding your users through user interviews and observation. This module attempts to expose you to the skills you need to work as an individual or on a team, as well as the resources to further develop your aptitude in these skills. This incubator is structured around reading material that will prepare you to complete a practical assignment in which you will conduct a contextual inquiry with actual users.
Outcomes
Upon completion of this part of the incubator, you should be able to:
- Conduct a contextual inquiry with users
- Summarise findings from your research to use as a foundation for the rest of your UX process
- Understand the benefit of interacting with users
Pre-reading material
In order to understand the basics of Contextual Inquiries please read the information and articles on:
- Contextual Inquiry - https://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Contextual+Inquiry
- Conducting contextual enquiry - https://uxmastery.com/conducting-contextual-enquiry-or-site-visits/
- How to handle contextual interviews - https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/contextual-interviews-and-how-to-handle-them
- More about Contextual Inquiries - https://chaione.com/blog/contextual-inquiries-what-how-why/
Step-by-step guide
Choose from the scenarios in the beginning of the incubator and perform a contextual inquiry with at least 3 users.
Completed deliverables
To complete the practical, you will need the following:
- Completed consent form
- Interview/survey questions
- Audio/video/photos from your research sessions
- Notes taken during the session
- A summary of your findings
Part 2: PERSONAS
The purpose of the personas module is to enable you to create user personas in order for you and your team to have a better understanding of your users through visuals. This module attempts to expose you to the skills you need to work as an individual or on a team, as well as the resources to further develop your aptitude in these skills. This incubator is structured around reading material that will prepare you to complete a practical assignment in which you will create user personas based on the contextual enquiry you completed in the previous module.
Outcomes
Upon completion of this part of the incubator, you should be able to:
- Establish patterns in user demographics, behaviours and characteristics and create personas based on those patterns
Pre-reading material
In order to understand the basics of Personas please read the information and articles on:
- How to create UX Personas - https://uxmastery.com/create-ux-personas/ , https://unamo.com/blog/general/how-to-create-ux-personas
- Persona Examples - https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-examples
Example courtesy of Xtensio
Step-by-step guide
Create personas based on the users you interacted with during the contextual inquiry module. You can use the free online tool - https://xtensio.com/user-persona/
Completed deliverables
To complete the practical, you will need to create the following:
- At least 2x user personas
Part 3: User Journeys
The purpose of the user journeys module is to enable you to create user journeys depicting the journey users will take to complete a task when interacting with your product.
Outcomes
Upon completion of this part of the incubator, you should be able to:
- Create user journeys
Pre-reading material
In order to understand the basics of User Journeys please read the information and articles on:
- Beginners guide to User Journeys - https://theuxreview.co.uk/user-journeys-beginners-guide/
- Another beginners guide to User Journeys - https://www.appcues.com/blog/user-journey-map
- How to create a customer journey map - https://uxmastery.com/how-to-create-a-customer-journey-map/
Step-by-step guide
Based on the contextual inquiry you completed in part 1, determine ONE pain point experienced by users when using the system and construct user journeys depicting possible solutions.
Completed deliverables
To complete the practical, you will need to submit the following:
- User journeys
Section 2
Part 1: Wireframes
The purpose of the wireframes module is to enable you to create wireframes and provide you with an understanding of low-fidelity and high-fidelity wireframes and why we use them. This module attempts to expose you to the skills you need to work as an individual or on a team, as well as the resources to further develop your aptitude in these skills. This incubator is structured around reading material that will prepare you to complete a practical assignment in which you will create wireframes for the screens users will interact with to complete a task.
Outcomes of this section
Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:
- Create low-fidelity wireframes
Pre-reading material
In order to understand the basics of Contextual Inquiries please read the information and articles on:
- Wireframing for beginners - https://uxmastery.com/wireframing-for-beginners/
- Learning to wireframe - https://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/design/learning-to-wireframe-10-best-practices
Free wireframing tools
In order to understand the basics of Contextual Inquiries please read the information and articles on:
- The best free wireframing tool is pen and paper!
- https://wireframe.cc/
Step-by-step guide
It is important to keep our users happy and provide them with an excellent user experience. Based on the user journeys you created, create low-fidelity wireframes for ONE journey depicting the screens a user would interact with to complete the task.
Completed deliverables
To complete the practical, you will need to submit the following:
- Low-fidelity wireframes (hand drawn or digital wireframes on web platforms)
Part 2: Working Prototype
The purpose of the prototype module is to enable you to create a working prototype of your wireframe solution. This module attempts to expose you to the skills you need to work as an individual or on a team, as well as the resources to further develop your aptitude in these skills. This incubator is structured around reading material that will prepare you to create a working and interactive prototype from the wireframes you created.
Outcomes of this section
Upon completion of this part of the incubator, you should be able to:
- Create a working/interactive prototype
Pre-reading material
- What is a prototype - https://uxmag.com/articles/what-a-prototype-is-and-is-not
- Beginners guide to UX prototyping - https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2016/04/the-beginners-guide-to-ux-prototyping/
Free Prototyping tools
Step-by-step guide
Entelect is always looking for ways to keep our users happy and provide them with an excellent user experience. Create a working prototype of your solution from the wireframes you created.
Completed deliverables
To complete the practical, you will need the following:
- Working/interactive prototype
Section 3
Part 1: Usability Testing
The purpose of the usability testing module is to provide you with a starting point to validating the usability your design solutions using usability testing methods. This module attempts to expose you to the skills you need to work as an individual or on a team, as well as the resources to further develop your aptitude in these skills. This incubator is structured around reading material that will prepare you to complete a practical assignment in which you will conduct usability testing to validate the design prototype you created in the module 5.
Outcomes of the Incubator
Upon completion of this incubator, you should be able to:
- Conduct usability testing
- Summarise and analyse findings from your user testing sessions
- Use your analysis findings to drive design iterations
- Understand the benefit of testing
Pre-reading material
- Beginners guide to usability testing - https://uxmastery.com/beginners-guide-to-usability-testing/
- Observer guidelines - https://www.nngroup.com/articles/observer-guidelines/
- Usability testing guidelines - https://www.webcredible.com/blog/8-guidelines-usability-testing/
Step-by-step guide
Conduct usability testing sessions using the working prototype you created to validate your solutions usability.
Completed deliverables
To complete the practical, you will need the following:
- Usability Testing Script
- Moderator Script
- Completed consent and non-disclosure forms
- Audio/video/photos from your research sessions
- Notes taken during the session
- A summary of your findings
- Analysis of your findings
- A written conclusion about whether your solution was successful or unsuccessful in solving the problem.
Conclusion
If your solution needs more work based on your user feedback iterate through contextual inquiry, personas, user journeys, prototyping until you are satisfied that the users are happy with the system.