Siebel Center for Design

UI/UX Design • User Research

Role
UI/UX Designer, User Researcher

Team
Myself, Maxine Tam

Timeline
June-August 2023

Tools
Figma, Figjam

Problem
The absence of a dedicated SCD app results in missed opportunities for engagement and limits the center's ability to showcase how innovation and creativity may be fostered in these spaces amongst a variety of fields.


Our approach
The SCD Tours is a self-guided experience allowing guests to learn about SCD on-demand, whenever they walk into the building. The goal of this experience is to encourage visitors to explore SCD and inform them about how they can use the space for their interests.

Overview

RESEARCH & UNDERSTAND

Competitive Analysis

Features we liked

  • Choose your own adventure

  • Gamification

  • Advertising for local businesses, events

What we learned

  • GPS feature can be difficult for a multi-level building

  • Include an incentive to download and use the app

  • Make the competitions fun and not impossible

Interviews

We conducted 13 interviews with a variety of people ranging from undergrad students, SCD full-time and student staff, as well as prospective students in high school.

Our interview goals:

  • Gather experiences with SCD from all levels

  • Assess the current building tour design and flow

  • Identify pain points and frustrations

  • Explore technology preferences

  • Discover user needs and expectations

  • Learn about first impressions with SCD

Findings:

  • Successful experiences with SCD

  • Pain points

  • Tour structure insights

  • First impressions

  • Content to highlight in the tour

  • FAQ from tour visitors

Affinity Mapping

After conducting user interviews, we analyzed commonalities and developed design features based on pain points and successes.

Design features:

  • Choose your own adventure

  • Interactive map

  • Incentives

    • Missions

  • Post-tour feedback

  • FAQ

  • About staff

IDEATION

Personas, User Journeys, User Stories

Using the pain points and successes discovered from our affinity mapping, we created 3 personas and corresponding journey maps.

Information Architecture

Using our findings from interviews and personas, we mapped out the pages and content for the self-guided tour.

Wireframe Sketches

After establishing the content in the info architecture, we sketched each page to lay out the features based on pain points from our interviews.

High-Fidelity Designs

Due to the fast-paced timeline of the summer, we went straight into high-fidelity designs to speed up the final deliverable.

Reflections

This was definitely a growing experience to become aware of all of the logistics it takes to develop an app.

Finding people to interview, organizing our findings, turning findings into design features, developing a style, executing the actual design, and finding a platform and developers to bring the app to life.

The most challenging part was defining our goal.

After developing the designs, we received feedback that made us realize we might have to go back and define the specific pain point and what we wanted to achieve for our audience.

Next steps

With this project continuing into the fall semester, user testing and design revisions are needed before moving forward with development. We may also go back and conduct additional user research to solidify our audience, ensuring our designs are working towards a specific goal.

Next

Mindful