User Research and Competitors
This past week, a partner and I have completed the research and analysis process of our redesign for the app Healthy Juice & Smoothie Recipes (HJ&SR). We chose this app to design, because of both the failures in the UX and UI designs. It has 3.6 stars on the app store due to many issues, including limited functionality, options, and the use of advertisements. Our research started here, analyzing the reviews and features of the app.
Competitive Analysis
We then moved on to finding, researching, and analyzing the competitors. This is called competitive analysis. In this stage of research, we focus on not only identifying the competitors but also evaluating their strengths and weaknesses in relation to the current state of the app we are redesigning.
“If performed correctly, a competitive analysis can dramatically improve customer satisfaction and your conversion rates as well as provide assurance that you stand apart from your competitors.”
Mishra, Chandan
The main competitors we examined are Daily Blends Recipes and Simple Smoothie. Both of these apps had ratings over four stars and both good and bad reviews for us to examine their strengths and weaknesses, through the eyes of the users. We compiled reviews and features from these apps and then analyzed the results.
We found that the most common features customers appreciated were nutritional facts and the customization options, such as swaps, that were included in the recipes. Search filters were also greatly appreciated by the users, as they saved them the time of scrolling through irrelevant recipes. All of these are not features that are not currently included in the HJ&SR app, as it is now. These strengths really helped us figure out what the users are looking for and appreciate in the apps.
As for weaknesses, the most significant was in the Simple Smoothie app. The app does not allow users to add their own ingredients. This is a significant pain point for a user that is looking to see the nutritional facts of the smoothie, as a whole. This information was also very useful to us to know in regards to the features we will be including in our redesign.
User Interviews and Survey
After completing a competitive analysis, we used this new knowledge to help us build questions to conduct user interviews and send out a survey.
User interviews can be a great way to extract information from users for user experience understanding, usability understanding and ideation.
Interaction Design Foundation
For the interview, we aimed our questions at trying to understand the reasons why they drank smoothies, to further understand the purpose they would have for using the app. This helps us grasp what they are looking for and the reasons why certain features might be more important than others. In the interviews, we also had them walk through the HJ&SR app and observed them navigating it. Proceeding that, we asked them questions regarding the app, to help us figure out what the biggest pain points are for the user, and what features are necessary for it to have in order for a user to even want to interact with it.
After this, we created a survey that we sent out to people we know, as well as sharing it over our social media accounts. Through this, we received over 200 responses, which really helped us in understanding the different types of users. This will help us create more accurate personas that will represent these users.
From the user interviews and survey responses, we were able to analyze the pain points, objectives, and motivations of the user. All of this information will help us create an ideal redesign, keeping the user and their needs at the heart of it all.
Sources:
careerfoundry. “How To Conduct User Interviews Like A Pro (UX Design).” YouTube, YouTube, 18 Apr. 2019, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tVbFfGDQCk&ab_channel=CareerFoundry.
Douglas, Steven. “How To Do A UX Competitor Analysis: A Step By Step Guide.” Usability Geek, 8 Sept. 2019, usabilitygeek.com/how-to-do-ux-competitor-analysis/.
Interaction Design Foundation. “How to Conduct User Interviews.” The Interaction Design Foundation, http://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/how-to-conduct-user-interviews.
Mishra, Chandan. “A Product Designer’s Guide to Competitive Analysis.” Toptal Product Blog, Toptal, 13 July 2017, http://www.toptal.com/product-managers/freelance/product-designer-guide-to-competitive-analysis.
