Application Design I: Task 2

| 22.10.2024 - 17.11.2024 (WEEK 5-WEEK 10)
| Tang Chin Ting [ 0366473 ]

| Application Design I/ Bachelor of Design in Creative Media

| UI/UX Document

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LECTURES

Week 05: Card Sorting

Lecture: The Card Sorting activity was conducted to understand user preferences in organizing app features for the Sushi King MYS app redesign. Participants were to categorize 20 app features into 5 predefined categories. This method conveys insights about users' mental models and expectations for the app's navigation. The findings highlighted a strong consensus among users for some features, such as the grouping of promotions and Smile Points. In contrast, features related to the menu and placing orders showed mixed categorization, hence a possible area of confusion. These insights provide valuable direction for improving the app's structure and usability.

Activity: We are required to do a card sorting activity with three people in a group. Based on the situation provided by Mr. Zeon, we need to categorize each card into each feature. As users of the app, they can also determine whether a card is in the correct category and create a new category for it.

Figure 1.1 Card Sorting Activity

Figure 1.2 Card Sorting Activity

Week 06: Introduction to User Experience Research

This week, we need to prepare for our survey and interview questionnaire design for task 2, so Mr Zeon will give us a briefing for this part. The lecture presents an overview of the user experience research process, emphasizing the importance of understanding user behaviors, needs, and attitudes to inform effective design decisions. The outline of this slide is the critical role of UX research in enhancing product development by employing appropriate methodologies at various stages, from concept validation to post-launch insights. 

Week 07: UI/UX Design Document

My topic of this task is redesigning the Sushi King MYS app, the lecture provides me a lot of insight to proceed with my work. The UI/UX Design Document articulates very specific user personas of various user groups, including heavy users, occasional users, and loyalty program members, by stating their goals, needs, and pain points. This document also covers the current pain points in a user journey map that include things such as confusing navigation and a lack of features; areas of improvement may involve incorporating a menu and streamlining the ordering process. Key findings from the card sorting highlight intuitive organization in the feature set: sharp patterns in how users categorize app functionalities. Taken together, these elements create the base upon which a more engaging, user-friendly, and efficient app design may rest.

Week 08: User Journey Map & Digital Card Sorting

Digital Card Sorting further elucidates how users group and categorize the features of the app. Whereas there was strong consensus on categories such as promotions and Smile Points, menu and order features demonstrated mixed categorizations, pointing to confusion in the placement of features. These findings emphasize the need for a more apparent and intuitive structure in the navigation design of the app.

Week 09: Site Map & User flow

The lecture slide focuses on UI/UX design, particularly emphasizing site maps and user flow diagrams. A site map serves as a visual representation of content organization and hierarchy, illustrating the relationships between various pages or app interfaces. In contrast, user flows visualize the interactions users have within a site or app to complete specific tasks, aiding in the design of efficient paths, identifying potential issues, and optimizing the overall user experience. User flows are crucial as they provide a clear sequence of steps for users, act as a shared blueprint for collaboration among team members, and facilitate user testing while allowing for proactive issue detection.

Week 10: MVP Features & Wireframe

The document outlines the process of designing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and wireframes for an application. It details a project timeline that includes stages such as creating a visual design concept, developing low and high-fidelity prototypes, and conducting usability testing. An MVP is described as the simplest version of a product that includes essential features to gather user feedback and validate the product idea, allowing for early testing and cost efficiency.

We also need to start our task 3, which is to design a lo-fi prototype based on the redesign strategy.

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INSTRUCTIONS

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SUBMISSION

Project 02: UI/UX Document

Instruction:

After locking down their App concept and idea, students are now ready

to proceed to UX design. The students are required to produce a comprehensive UX design document which will provide better directions for them to design the app.

Based on the information gathered in task 1, students will:

• Determine and verify their target audiences
• Outline the content element of their app, and exercise the card sorting method to achieve optimum information architecture
• Listing the app features and identifying the application's Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
• Create wireframes for main screens
• Plan the user interaction and interactivity (Flow chart)

Section 01: Card Sorting for The App

To start task 2, we need to figure out the feature of the app that we want to remove/add to redesign the app. The main feature that I want to add is direct ordering in the app and design a menu for users to browse the foods.

I would like to separate the features into 5 categories, which include:

1. Home
2. Order
3. Scanning Code
4. Promotions
5. Profile

I used Miro to do the digital card sorting and asked for feedback from our lecturer. Here is my digital card sorting:

Figure 2.1 Questionnaire Design

Section 02: Survey Questionnaire design

In this section, we need to prepare a set of online survey questions and also interview questions. I initially created 18 questions for my survey form, but Mr Zeon asked me to add more detailed questions, which let the respondent dive deeper into the app.

Quantitative - Survey Questionnaire

Target Participants: 50

Sections:

• Section 01: Demographic (3 Questions)
• Section 02: App Usage (3 Questions)
• Section 03: Design and Appearance (4 Questions)
• Section 04: Usability and Navigation (3 Questions)
• Section 05: Features and Functionality (4 Questions)
• Section 06: Feedback and Suggestions (4 Questions)

Quantitative - Interview Questionnaire

Target Participants: 3

Sections:

• Section 01: Get to know the interviewee
• Section 02: App Usage
• Section 03: Design and Appearance
• Section 04: Usability and Navigation
• Section 05: Features and Functionality
• Section 06: Feedback and Suggestions 

Figure 2.2 Questionnaire Design

Section 03: Refine the Survey Question

After the feedback from Mr Zeon, I refined the questionnaire and put it into Google Forms. After that, I started to post it on Instagram and also sent it to my friend to fill in the form.

Figure 2.3 Google Form

Google Form Link: https://forms.gle/dxAoy4ze62xnuUNQ9

Figure 2.4 Final Google Form

Interview Questionnaire

Introduction: I am gathering user opinions on the Sushi King MYS app to inform a redesign strategy. Your response will be kept confidential and the interview will take approximately 10 minutes.

Section 1: Introduce The Interviewee

1. How old are you?
2. Where are you from?
3. What is your employment status?

Section 1: General Usage

4. How often do you use the Sushi King MYS app? Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Rarely, or this is your first time using it?

Follow-up: What features do you find most useful for this purpose?5. Can you tell me what prompted you to download and use the Sushi King MYS app initially?

Section 2: User Interface and Navigation

6. How would you describe the app’s interface? Is it easy or difficult to use?

Follow-up: Can you give an example of any part of the app that you found confusing or hard to use?

7. Are there any features that you find particularly helpful or convenient in the app? If yes, can you show me about it?

8. Are there any features that you rarely or never use? Why?

Section 3: Performance and Reliability

9. Have you experienced any issues with the app’s performance, like slow loading times or crashes? If yes, can you show me about it?

10. Do you find it easy to access information about Sushi King promotions or discounts through the app?

Section 4: Visual Design and Appeal

11, Do you feel the app’s visual design (colours, fonts, images) aligns well with the Sushi King brand?

Follow-up: Is there anything you would change about the visual design to improve your experience?

Section 5: Overall Satisfaction and Suggestions

12. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your overall experience with the Sushi King MYS app? Why?

13. If you could suggest one improvement for the Sushi King MYS app, what would it be?

14. Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience with the Sushi King MYS app?

Conclusion

Wrap-up: Thanks for your time and insights. It is really helpful for my project.

Click HERE to view the recording

Section 04: Create User Persona

In this section, we were required to create 3 user persona for our task 2. I would like to use the portrait that I found online for my user persona who are Sarah Tan, Mark Johnson, and Amanda Tan (quite good names)

Figure 2.5 User Persona 01

Figure 2.6 User Persona 02

Figure 2.7 User Persona 93

Section 05: Digital Card Sorting

For this section, we need to finalize our digital card sorting and create a digital one for 7 users to do the sorting. Since we can't use the Optimal Workshop for the card sorting, we only can change to use UXtweak to complete the work.

Since this platform can only add 20 cards, I just picked some important ones to let the user sort them.

Figure 2.7 Final Digital Card Sorting

Section 06: Architecture Map & Flow Chart

After analyzing the result, I start to do the architecture map and user flow chart.

Architecture Map:

Figure 2.9 Final Architecture Map

User Flow Chart:

Figure 2.10 Final User Flow Chart

Final Presentation Slide

Click HERE to view my slide

Figure 2.11 Final Task 2 Presentation Slide

Final Presentation Video

Click HERE to view my presentation video

Figure 2.12 Final Task 2 Presentation Video

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FEEDBACK

Week 06: You need to do 2 card sorting at first, one is for the original features that are included in the app and another one includes the features you want to add to the app. Separate 2 card sorting will be clearer and can do the comparison.

Week 07: 

• Overall, your survey question is okay, but maybe you need to add some explanation to the words like "navigate." Since some of the respondents might not know what "navigate" means, this will make them confused and answer the question randomly.
• You can also add some interface of the current Sushi King MYS app design, this makes it easier for the user who hasn't used the app before.
• The interview questions have the same problem as survey questions, add more elaboration to make the interviewee understand the question. Besides, for question 04, you can add some options like "Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Rarely, or This is your first time using it" to let the interviewee answer the question easily.

Week 08: 

Week 10: 

1. Double-check the document cover; the title should not be "Survey Questionnaire."
2. Ensure there are "input" and "output" elements in your user flow.
3. Review the flowchart carefully—every linear process should include "End" as the final step. For example, the "Checkout Order" process should conclude with an "End" label.
4. The "Can't Redeem Voucher" step appears disconnected; ensure it logically connects to "Redeem Voucher."

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REFLECTION

Experience

The card sorting activity was most revealing because it showed how users create clear patterns in grouping features such as promotions and Smile Points while exposing confusion around other features, like menu placement. Watching these categorizations helped me understand the importance of intuitive feature organization to match user expectations. Additionally, working on the user journey map and site map allowed me to visualize user interactions and identify critical areas for improvement, such as better navigation flows and performance optimization.

Findings

This task underscored the centrality of user-centered design in the development of effective digital solutions. It further reechoed how proper research and iteration in design are core to solving user needs, thus improving the usability of an app. These observations will drive my future work in application design, ensuring a balance between functionality, aesthetics, and user satisfaction.

Observations

This task has been a great learning in the analysis and redesign of the Sushi King MYS app. I was able to get deeper insights into how users perceive and interact with the app through user research, including surveys, interviews, and card sorting. I found that though the respondents appreciated the system of Smile Points, the scarcity of functionalities in the current version meaning no menu and no ordering-along with navigation difficulties, were major pain points. These findings presented the need for an enhanced, more user-friendly design.