Week 5

Our lecture this week was on understand users: creating user profile for designing.

Understanding the users is about finding out about the users through;

• Introspection
• Observation
• Interviews
• Questionnaires

These are 4 simple ways of finding out specific information about the users. 

When you have understood the users it is time to analyse the information. Analysing the information is where you collect critical information from interviews and observations and put them into a graph or table. 

The next part is to create resources for design. There are 3 main parts to this section and they are;

• Use scenario: A realistic description of events of one or more of the users. 
• User profile: A description of the characteristics and needs of the users
• Persona: An imaginary person who represents a member of the target users.

User profile

When thinking about user profiles you need to consider;

• Who is the audience for the system you are designing?
• What are the key problems to solve?
• What are the users most important, relevant characteristics? 
• Which of the users needs will you address 

And when building a user profile it is Demographics versus Psychographics.

Demographics is categorised by the target users, based on factors such as age, gender, race, profession, education, income and geographic location. 

Psychographics is categories by the target users, based on personalities, behaviour and lifestyle. 

Persona

When talking about Personas it is about having a multi-dimensional understanding of people, and it is the key to designing the products and services that people will want to buy and they they will find useful and enjoyable. 

There are three types of personas and they are; 

• Primary users: These users are the main focus, this is who we have designed the product for.
• Secondary users: These users also use the product. These users goals are different to those of the primary users but some of their needs overlap with the primary users.  
• Exclusionary: These users are people we have not designed the product for. Its often useful to specify this to prevent nonusers from creeping back into product development discussions. 

This lecture was finished with our homework for the week. Our homework this week was to finalise the proposed solution. Define what problem it is you intend to solve. List all the requirements of the product and how it addresses needs of the target users. Prepare our target user profile: who are your primary users and what defines them?

The problem I'm intending to solve is students wanting to put their studies before socialising. Socialising is a great thing but when you have an assignment coming up, it is very important you choose that first. The app I have designed is used to not annoy first year university students living on campus but to encourage them to want to put there education before socialising and using their time wisely. The product is just a simple app which requires you to upload your timetable and assignment dates. This will ensure that the app reminds you of classes that need to be attended and assignments that are due. This app addresses the needs of the students by helping them time management studies and socialising. Once you attend your classes the app will encourage you to go and have some fun for a few hours, and when assignments are submitted you will receive points and these points are added together to eventually get food vouchers. These vouchers will help the students relax and clear their heads and have some fun, just before they need to do some more of their studies. This app is not about forcing students to study, study, study but rather time management with study and socialising, and showing them its important to have both. The primary users will be the students that are having trouble with time management skills and are looking for some encouragement.

I have struggled with coming up with an app that will both be fun and engage the students but also will work. I had a basic idea of what I wanted, from observing my focus group. I have done interviews and questionnaires about the app I have designed and they have provided me with great feedback. The app i have designed its easy to use, and will hopefully encourage students to properly time manage between studies and socialising.

Referencing 

Gudur, Raghavendra. (2015). 9291 User interface and experience. Lecture 4, week 5: creating user profile for designing. [Powerpoint slides]

Hack design. (2015). Understanding the user. Retrieved from https://hackdesign.org/lessons/12