Scope

The creator of Swapjones mobile app wanted to explore the user’s understanding of the app’s essential functions.

40 hours

Flying Solo

Constraints

A contract engineer developed prototype was available for usability testing, but there was no option to make immediate iterations to the prototype.

Primary Skills Used

Heuristic Evaluation

User Interviews

Data Synthesis

Usability Testing

Problem

Swapjones is in the development phase and has yet to be put in front of any users. It’s imperative for success that Swapjones understands usability issues before its beta phase.

My Process

As the sole UX designer, I championed the vision and direction of focus, prepared for and ran in-depth usability tests, and produced valuable insights and recommendations.

1.

Heuristic Evaluation

Conducted a heuristic evaluation of the app’s 27 screens to analyze and identify potential user problems and pain points.
2.

Determine the MVP

Identify the top five most critical tasks to act as MVP.
3.

Competitive Research

Investigated trade transaction flows for similar companies, including Letgo, Swaptions, InstaTrade, and OfferUp.
4.

Anticipate Trouble

Established focus on two complex and critical screens that were thought to be trouble spots for users.
5.

Design Usability Test

Set goals & curated scenarios for usability tests.
6.

Participant Recruitment

Designed and circulated a recruitment screener questionnaire and scheduled 5 qualified participants.
7.

Usability Testing

Conducted 45-minute moderated and recorded sessions with each participant.
8.

Insights & Recommendations

Analyzed the findings (from the usability test sessions and the heuristic evaluation) and produced 68 insights and recommendations.
9.

Final Touches

Delivered an extensive & cohesive report and presented major findings, insights, and recommendations to Swapjones owner and CEO.

Solution

My goal was to identify changes required to improve user’s understanding, performance and satisfaction. I did this by first conducting the usability testing, then analyzing the interactions and experiences to develop insights and recommendations for Swapjones’ usability.

UX Researcher & Designer

(and I coded this here website)

Swapjones

Swapjones

- Usability testing -

Scope

The creator of Swapjones mobile app wanted to explore the user’s understanding of the app’s essential functions.

40 hours

Flying Solo

Constraints

A contract engineer developed prototype was available for usability testing, but there was no option to make immediate iterations to the prototype.

Primary Skills Used

Heuristic Evaluation

User Interviews

Data Synthesis

Usability Testing

Problem

Determining the areas of high priority (left), usability test session (right).

Determining the areas of high priority.

Usability test session.

My Process

1.

Heuristic Evaluation

Conducted a heuristic evaluation of the app’s 27 screens to analyze and identify potential user problems and pain points.

2.

Determine the MVP

Identify the top five most critical tasks to act as MVP.

3.

Competitive Research

Investigated trade transaction flows for similar companies, including Letgo, Swaptions, InstaTrade, and OfferUp.

4.

Anticipate Trouble

Established focus on two complex and critical screens that were thought to be trouble spots for users.

5.

Design Usability Test

Set goals & curated scenarios for usability tests.

6.

Participant Recruitment

Designed and circulated a recruitment screener questionnaire and scheduled 5 qualified participants.

7.

Usability Testing

Conducted 45-minute moderated and recorded sessions with each participant.

8.

Insights & Recommendations

Analyzed the findings (from the usability test sessions and the heuristic evaluation) and produced 68 insights and recommendations.

9.

Final Touches

Delivered an extensive & cohesive report and presented major findings, insights, and recommendations to Swapjones owner and CEO.

Playback of each test session, one screen segment at a time, to best analyze experiences.

Solution

A page from the final report; the Product Page was 1 of 2 screens that caused users the most issues.

Usability test findings for the Add Item page.

The Offers Accepted page was 1 of 2 most troublesome screens.