Design Process

Affinity diagram is a method to organize and meaningfully cluster ideas and data. Each sticky note has a finding or observation from the user research, which is then clustered based on inherent commonalities. The clustering process is inductive - starting from grouping the notes that share similar details, it generates overarching issues and themes.


Benefits

• Helps identifying insights and pain points
• Stimulates new thinking patterns
• Builds a common understanding within the team

Affinity diagram from project Lightswitch
Related Projects
Lightswitch, Coway Total Care System

Paper prototyping is a very common low-fidelity prototyping method. Sketching the user interface on a piece of paper, designers can quickly communicate the idea and test the usability.


Benefits

• Quick iteration
• Easy and low cost to make
• Can receive constructive feedbacks on the usability itself, rather than being caught on the visual details

In the process of creating paper prototypes for ToDoShare
Related Projects
Groov, Lightswitch, Voicecook, ToDoShare

Storyboard is a visual narrative that illustrates the context of the user's product engagement. Storyboard links personas, user scenarios, and various constraints together and helps designers to walk through the scenario as a persona.


Benefits

• Helps understanding how, where, and why the product is used
• Helps envision the future
• Builds empathy for the users

A storyboard for project Capsule
Related Projects
Capsule, Lightswitch, Coway Total Care System

High fidelity mockup is more refined and visually polished mockups that convey how the final product will look like. Unlike low fidelity mockup, high fidelity mockup presents great details and communicate in pixel-perfect accuracy.


Benefits

• Users can interact with the realistic prototype
• Can test users with visual details and interaction design
• Gives estimation for engineering cost

Groov High fidelity mockup
Related Projects
Groov, Lightswitch, Coway Total Care System, ToDoShare

Concept map is a model that shows all components of complex problem space in one view. Concept map helps designers to explore the topic and understand the network of related ideas and associations.


Benefits

• Helps organize complex information
• Communicates complicated idea visually
• Fosters shared comprehension

A concept map of a reading (Barron,B., Darling-Hammond,L.(2008). Teaching for Meaningful Learning: A Review of Research on Inquiry-Based and Cooperative Learning. Book Excerpt. George Lucas Educational Foundation.
Related Projects
Capsule

Personas are embodiments of typical users of the product. Personas are created based on the researched information about the potential users to reflect the common behavior patterns. Personas are typically presented with a photo, user goals, challenges, background stories, etc.


Benefits

• Allows designers to refer to a concrete representation of users, rather than in an abstract level
• Serves as a summary of potential users
• Can be utilized when generating ideas, storyboarding, prioritizing features, or discussing trade-offs

Personas for Lightswitch
Related Projects
Lightswitch, Capsule, Coway Total Care System

Stakeholder map visually presents the network of people involved in the given system. Stakeholder map identifies all the key components who might have a stake in the design solution.


Benefits

• Helps understanding the extent and impact of the design
• Guides in planning future user research
• Not only the people who would benefit, but also those who would be affected adversely can be identified

Stakeholder Map of Portfolio Practice
Related Projects
Lightswitch, Capsule, Coway Total Care System

User journey map visualizes the user's experience with the product or service over time. It includes user's actions, touch points with the product or service and emotions. User journey map is often created alongside with personas and user scenarios after gathering rich and qualitative data from primary research.


Benefits

• Helps identify the important moments for the users when using the product or service
• Can shift the focus to be centered around the user
• Helps design considering the user's actual context of use

User Journey Map of a Family with a Working Mom
Related Projects
Coway Total Care System

User journey map visualizes the user's experience with the product or service over time. It includes user's actions, touch points with the product or service and emotions. User journey map is often created alongside with personas and user scenarios after gathering rich and qualitative data from primary research.


Benefits

• Helps identify the important moments for the users when using the product or service
• Can shift the focus to be centered around the user
• Helps design considering the user's actual context of use

User Journey Map of a Family with a Working Mom
Related Projects
Lightswitch, Coway Total Care System

Focus group interview is a structured discussion with a small group of users. Focus group interview is beneficial because people are more likely to share their stories in a small group of people. It is important for the facilitator to lead the group dynamics in a way that it is comfortable to talk frankly about the user's experience.


Benefits

• Can gather information on a personal level and the group as a whole
• Saves Time and resources compared to individual interviews
• Provides richer ideas and feedbacks through group discussion

Focus Group Interview Session
Related Projects
Coway Total Care System

Survey can be conducted in early phase of the design process. But here, the survey is conducted at evolution phase to get feedback from the users after the product is launched. With a series of questions, designers can collect data from a large sample of users. However, the designer has to keep in mind that the survey data may not always be accurate.


Benefits

• Efficiently collects a large amount of data in a short period of time
• Result can be statistically processed
• Screening survey helps selecting the users to conduct other research

Introduction of a Screening Survey for Interview Participants
Related Projects
Groov, Coway Total Care System, Voicecook

Wizard of Oz Technique is used to simulate the expected experience to make the user believe that they are testing a working prototype, when in reality, the designer is simulating the system to make it seem real. Wizard of Oz method allows the users to experience how the system works even before the system actually gets built.


Benefits

• Easy to test the validity of a concept
• Low cost than actually building the system and testing
• Especially useful when designing products that lack established design patterns.

Wizard of Oz Technique used to test the concept of Googly
Related Projects
Googly, B-Side,

Think aloud is a method that guides the users to verbalize their thought process, actions or feelings in using the product as if they are alone and talking to themselves. It is important for the designers to not step in or guide through the task even when the users get stuck.


Benefits

• Inexpensive and fast
• Can even be conducted in early stage of design
• Directly provides information about exactly what the user finds trouble with

Think Aloud Session for CMU SIO Website
Related Projects
Voicecook

Experience prototyping is to realistically simulate the experience of the product and to test the system. During the experience prototyping session, it is important for the participants to think how they would react in reality instead of acting it out.


Benefits

• Users get to take active role by experiencing the design
• Inexpensive and fast method to test out ideas
• Helpful in testing out the experience that requires time and resources to make fully working prototype

Experience Prototype Session of Check-in Process at a Hotel
Related Projects
B-Side, Acee

Cultural probes is a method to gather inspirational ideas and data from people's lives, environments, and thoughts. Cultural probes oftentimes utilize various artifacts including photos, postcards, maps, cameras, and others to guide the participants in providing information. Cultural probes is an open-ended method that helps the designers to understand the cultural surrounding of the users.


Benefits

• Provides good understanding of the context to design
• Enhance user involvement

Photos Gathered from Disposable Camera Study
Related Projects
B-Side

Contextual inquiry is a method that combines interview and observation. The designer goes to the actual working place of the user and observe how the user is accomplishing everyday tasks. The designer can ask questions and further explanation of the user's action during the observation to clarify.


Benefits

• Can experience the real context of the user's work
• Can understand the work flow, tasks, and artifacts involved in the work
• Results as an extensive amount of user data

Photo taken during contextual inquiry with a restaurant worker
Related Projects
B-Side

Fly-on-the-Wall method is to install a camera at an unobtrusive place and observe the user's behavior. This design method on purposely removes the designer from direct involvement with the user.


Benefits

• Low cost method compared to the vast amount of result data
• Can observe candid behavior of the users
• Minimizes potential bias or influence from the observer

Installing fly-on-the-wall camera
Related Projects
Coway Total Care System

A/B testing is to provide two different versions of design and find out about the users' preference through statistical data. One downside of A/B testing is that it is difficult to know the reason why the users prefer one design over another.


Benefits

• Easy to test and get the result
• Quick and inexpensive method to test the users' preference

A/B testing the background of Groov channel page
Related Projects
Groov