Where to start a UX/UI Design
This past week, I have been compiling research, conducting user interviews and empathy maps, as well as creating personas all with the purpose of an app redesign. I found an app called Planty, which is a gardening app that helps keep track of when to water your plants. It also has a feature that allows you to scan and identify the names of plants you have. It currently has 1.8 stars and pretty poor reviews. From studying the app myself, both the UX and the UI could be improved drastically.
After using the app and reading the reviews, the next step I took was looking into the other gardening app competitors that are on the market. I downloaded the apps myself and examined the UI and UX in comparison to Planty. The three apps I spent the most time researching are Planta, Vera, and WaterMe.
Planta, by far, had the most reviews. Vera and WaterMe were pretty equal in their amount of reviews and all the apps had above 4 stars. I look further into the individual reviews and what the users had to say about their experiences with the apps.
After examining the competitors, I created and conducted user interviews. I first had the users download and navigate the app, using it for a day or so, in order for them to test out the reminder notifications. After that, I sent them eight questions to answer.
The questions I included were:
Are you interested in plants?
Do you have any plants?
Have you ever had issues keeping plants alive?
In your experience with Planty, is it an app you would continue using? Why?
What would you change or add to the app if you could?
How would you rate the functionality of the app? Why?
How do you feel about your experience using the app?
Is there a gardening app you like better?
Next, I tracked someone’s experience on the app through an empathy map. While they were navigating the app, I had them share their thoughts and feeling out loud and as they were doing so, I was writing everything down.
Lastly, using all the information I compiled, reviews, interviews, and empathy maps, I went on to create a user persona. The point of a persona is mainly to help the designer connect more with the user and be as empathetic and understanding to their needs, as possible. Personas can help “gain a perspective similar to the user’s” and “identify with the user they are designing for.”
Some characteristics of a good persona include:
Reflecting real user patterns, not different user roles
Not just fictional guesses, instead, based on real data
Focusing on the current state of how user interact and not how they will interact
The bottom line is, no matter what you are designing, if there is a user involved, you need to put on your UX designer cap and get to work researching. The information I have found out through my research this week has already drastically impacted my ideas and plans for my future designs with this app. This work is so insightful and necessary to create a better, more user-friendly, design.
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