I'm decisive
UX Case Study
Overview
Are you an indecisive person who tends to say “I’m okay with anything” when making a decision?
‘I’m decisive’ is a mobile app designed for helping indecisive people
by making the decision-making process more manageable and less troublesome.
Role
UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher
Timeline
Jan - Mar 2022 (10 weeks)
Platform
iOS Mobile App
Tool
Figma, InVision, Procreate
Process
Secondary Research
Interviews
Persona Development
Experience Mapping
Sketching
Wireframing
User Testing
UI Research / Development
High-Fidelity Prototype Production
Discover
Problem Space
Making decisions with indecisive people can be frustrating,
especially when planning activity as a group.
Unfortunately, it can negatively affect people involved in the repetitive
and time-consuming process, such as friends, colleagues, partners, and family.
Secondary Research
I conducted further research to identify the current state and detailed information regarding the problem space.
20%
Indecisive
of Adults are
-
Having too many options leads to the indecision of people.
-
Indecision leads to anxiety, worry, regret, shame, and negatively impacts one’s quality of life and social life.
-
Starting with small decisions, adding playfulness such as flipping a coin, drawing lots can reduce indecisiveness.
Interview Findings
By conducting interview and synthesizing the data, I acquired the insights.
Reason for Indecisiveness
There are two main reasons that cause people’s indecisiveness:
1. Having too many options make people confused and not know what they truly want.
2. Being considerate and caring about others’ satisfaction causes people’s indecisiveness.
Frustration
People find the discussion tiresome
when it gets longer than 20 minutes,
and it can become a reason for an argument amongst a group. Such delayed group decision for dinner plan leads to familiar options for members and limits the opportunity to try new places.
Helpful Method
An indecisive person feels comfortable making simple decisions depending on probability, such as flipping coins or random drawings, and they find it helpful by accelerating the decision-making process stress-free, easy and fast.
Organizing all the insights helped me determine a good area to focus on for this project.
I decided to concentrate on the insight ‘Helpful Method’ for a particular social event among groups of people and came up with the question:
How might we
make decision-making easier for indecisive people
in order to streamline the group dine-out planning process?
Define
Persona
By synthesizing and analyzing the research data, I created a persona that can represent my user segment, for whom I will design the best possible experience.
Click on the image above to enlarge
Experience Mapping
From the perspective of Claire, I made the experience map of her when deciding for group dine-out to get a more precise idea of the frustration, goal, and opportunities to improve the experience for her.
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User Stories
To define and design features that reflect the user’s needs and pain points,
I wrote user stories and chose the epic ‘Getting options’.
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Have fewer restaurant options to choose from so that I get fewer things to consider for making a decision.
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Get recommendations for the restaurant so that I can consider that option first for a decision.
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Have the option to get a random result so that we can skip the group discussion and make the process the simplest.
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Have filtered restaurant options so that we can make more friends satisfied with the result.
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Receive available suggestions only so that I don't need to waste time checking the availability of the place.
As an indecisive person, I want to...
Epic: Getting Options
Task Selection
From Claire’s perspective, I translated the user stories into tasks and created the task flow diagram to describe the user’s product flow logic visually.
Her task is to choose the area and set other criteria for group dine-out,
get random suggestions, and check detailed information for each option before sharing them with the group.
Click on the image above to enlarge
Develop
Exploratory Sketches
I visualized the product's functionality into initial sketches based on user stories, a task flow diagram, and a UI inspiration board that I created to acquire inspiration from other applications.
Solution Sketches
By comparing concept sketches, I decided on the final solution sketch to turn into the initial prototype.
Wireframes
I translated my solution sketches into mid-fidelity greyscale wireframes using Figma.
Click on the image above to enlarge
Deliver
Usability Testing (1st Round)
By using the initial prototype, I conducted the first round of usability testing
with 5 participants. Through the user testing, I could confirm whether
the tester can complete the following tasks:
-
Task 1 - Adding a new decision for group dine-out
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Task 2 - Searching and selecting the area on the map
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Task 3 - Setting preference filter
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Task 4 - Checking details of each option
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Task 5 - Exiting and going back to the landing page
Task Completion Rate
100%
Opportunities
-
It can be confusing what task to do on the map screen without a title and clear instruction.
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The order of preference filters may need to be rearranged.
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Having all preferences settings on one page looks crowded.
Wireframe Revision
I revised the initial prototype by reflecting feedback from
the first user testing session and the design prioritization matrix.
After the modification, I ran another round of user testing with 5 more testers.
Usability Testing (2nd Round)
Task Completion Rate
100%
Opportunities
-
Wording on some screens can be confusing.
-
The visual hierarchy of the map screen can be confusing due to the ‘Adjust Pin’ button.
Wireframe Revision
I revised the prototype by reflecting feedback from
the second user testing session and the design prioritization matrix.
Brand Development
Mood Board
As a part of the brand development process, I first started coming up with adjectives that can describe the atmosphere of my product
and created a mood board.
"Playful"
"Bright"
"Youthful"
"Happy"
"Festive"
"Hopeful"
"Colorful"
Click on the image above to enlarge
Color Palette & Typography
Based on all the inspiration I got from the mood board,
I decided on the brand colors and typography that would best match
my product while providing the expected user experience.
Click on the image above to enlarge
Wordmark
As the product is about decisiveness, I wanted the wordmark to look powerful and straightforward. Then I sketched my brand name in different styles, weights and sizes and edited it to add uniqueness.
High-Fidelity Prototype
I applied the brand typography and color palette to turn
the mid-fidelity prototype into high-fidelity.
When users open the app, they will
land on the ‘Previous Decisions’ screen. This page shows them what kind of decision they needed help with previously and lets them revisit the options they received anytime.
Responsive Marketing Website
As a part of the marketing strategy,
I designed the responsive marketing website for 'I’m decisive' app.
The website is designed for desktop view for over 1024px width
and mobile view for between 320 to 767px width.
It introduces the app by telling who might need it, its features and testimonials.
Multi-Platform Challenge
I'm decisive Smart Watch App
As an additional challenge,
I considered what other platform can people find 'I'm decisive' useful.
Among many options, I chose to incorporate my application into
a wearable device like Apple Watch, so that users would be able to use the app when they cannot access their mobile phones.
I created several static screens from the same task flow, including a landing screen, preference selection screen and place details screen.
Retrospective
Design Impact - Does Claire Find 'I'm decisive' Helpful?
Claire tried ‘I’m decisive’ for the upcoming group dinner.
She appreciated the simple steps to receive suggested options from the app and could easily share them with friends so that they could make the process faster. The app narrows down possible choices, and it helps them make an informed decision by providing the place details. They can even consider a restaurant they have never been to before. Claire is happy that she no longer feels guilty for
not participating in group decisions.
Next Steps
For the following steps, I would like to conduct further usability testing,
using my high-fidelity prototype to figure out opportunities to improve the application. Personally, I would like to conduct A/B testing by adding more preference filters for
the group dine-out decision-making process that can narrow down the range of options so that the app can bring more satisfying results for the users.
In addition, I want to start considering other task flows such as
‘making a personal decision’ and ideate on how users can complete it efficiently
by creating accessible and practical screens.
Key Learnings
As this was my first long-term individual project, I learned many things.
First of all, this project’s problem space has a broad spectrum of possible subjects, but secondary research and interviews helped a lot to find an area to focus on. Creating a persona and making experience mapping based on them helped a lot think about problem space and its best possible solution from the user’s perspective. Furthermore, the user stories and task flow helped me a lot to keep myself on track with the subject especially as the project process gets longer.
Secondly, multiple user testing sessions and feedback from testers are really constructive and valuable since they make me realize what I didn’t notice or miss. Another thing that I learned from the usability testing sessions is that even though testers from the user testing sessions could successfully complete the given task, there are many opportunities to improve the user experience through iteration.
Lastly, this project made me realize that UX design is not a linear process.
Sharing my project idea and work procedure with others during the process gave me chance to look back on my strategy or design to modify it to bring out a better user experience. This may mean giving up part of the current work and going back several steps, but ultimately a profitable choice to enhance the entire process.