JULIA DEBARI
Designer Doer
AUDIENCE MARKETPLACE
Project Background:
This was an internal project for the consulting company. Its intended use was to allow marketers to quickly go through a lot of data on different audience segments in order to more easily target their products and services. Since this was a prototype it was only going to be designed for the iPad and then in the future roll out to desktop and mobile.
Project Challenge:
Was this a viable project? Would anyone use it and buy it? Did we have the resources to create this product for our customers?
Role & Team:
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Lead UX Designer: Myself
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Copywriter: 1
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Visual Designer: 1
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Project Stakeholders: 2
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Project Manager: 1
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Developer: 1
Getting Started
I received the requirements from the stakeholders of what they wanted out of the application. Working closely with the stakeholders, I created some concept maps to understand the ecosystem of the app as they saw it.
First iteration of the concept map
Final iteration of the concept map
I was really excited about this project and because we were a small team we were able to move fast. I did a brainstorming workshop with everyone sketching ideas, even the stakeholders. Here are some of my sketches.
Once some solid ideas were nailed down we needed to check out some technical feasibility. I did a lot of research on chart functionality, video, and animation for the iPad. I met weekly with the developer to go over my ideas.
Within 2 weeks, I began wireframing. The stakeholders and Product Manager had done some research and had some proto-person data for me to work with.
I wanted to do some Usability Testing during the wireframe phase, but the stakeholders were too nervous about anyone seeing the project. Instead, we moved on to the visual design and prototyping.
I was really proud of myself for finding a chart library that was easy for the developer to use and for us as a team to create the kind of look and feel we wanted. That took two solid weeks of research while working on wireframing. We were all quite happy with the results.
REFLECTION
At the time of the project, I was really focused on "stickinesses" of the app. However, upon reflection, I think a "get in, get what you need, and get out" mentally would have been better. I was so focused on making the interface and design cool that I worry it became a little to pretty and not as usable as it could have been.