1
Project Overview
The idea of creating this user experience came to me
when I was travelling during my gap year and,
being an amateur runner, I was struggling to find
running routes and partners in other cities.
So I created myself a prompt for a new user experience:
designing a social network for runners.
Project idea background:
About 50 million Americans (or 15 percent of the U.S. population) participate in some form of running or jogging, according to to a 2020 report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. This is quite a huge number of people running in U.S. alone, there is even more potential user base in other countries.
To give myself a kickstart, I created user experience outline that will help in defining real user pain points and needs.
The main idea is to merge basic features of a running app and a social networking to create new user experience for runners or people who are considering to start running.
2
Understanding the User
Preliminary User Survey
To get the general idea about the user and create 1-2 personas, I created a survey using Google Forms and headed to local park to find runners for the interview. Despite it was very difficult to catch a runner during their workout. I spent 3 days looking for ones who either were about to start or already finished their run. In total I have interviewed 6 people and get some useful insights from their responses.
To get the general idea about the user and create 1-2 personas, I created a survey using Google Forms and headed to local park to find runners for the interview. Despite it was very difficult to catch a runner during their workout. I spent 3 days looking for ones who either were about to start or already finished their run. In total I have interviewed 6 people and get some useful insights from their responses.
You can access the survey (and complete it if you like) here - RUNNERS SURVEY
Survey results and insights
After examining user responses I have few insights that should be considered in preliminary design of the wireframes.
Insight #1 - One of the users was interviews in a cafe and she said that she doesn't like to run, however she is more into hiking.
Action - In order to get more users, it would be an option to include hikers into development and perform another user interview to create a "Hiker" persona
Insight #2 - 66% of users said that they share either their running stats or pictures they've taken after or during the run. In addition 83% of users said they would use the feature that'll allow them to share photos about their run and engage into social interaction.
Action - Develop a user experience for runners and hikers where they can share pictures taken during of after their runs, including such features as "Like", "Share" and "Comment".
Insight #3 - All interviewed users said that they would use "Route Search" function
Action - Develop a user experience for runners and hikers that will allow them to search and create running or hiking routes. Every route can have such info as length, ground type (tarmac, gravel, etc), pictures taken by other users, how many people took this route and overall rating with reviews (on 5 star scale). Route Search would use these filters to help users to find the route that suits them the most.
Insight #4 - Most of users would like to have a running partner, however they said that it's hard to find one who can follow up the pace.
Action - Let users search for a running partner(s) using filters that will help to find the best match.
Insight #5 - One user mentioned that, using APP Strava, he isn't quite comfortable with 2D route outline, instead he would love to see the 3D display of the route that would be more convenient to understand.
Action - Apple Maps has a very high quality 3D view, including the route outline, integrating Apple Maps would allow this feature to be implemented.
PERSONA 1
Name: Mylene
Age: 21
Occupation: Student, part-time photographer
Mylene is a student in university and part-time photographer. They love spend travelling and taking pictures wherever they go, however COVID-19 made tourism very complicated as every country has their specific rules for entry or visa issuance.
Mylene is very annoyed by choosing their travel destination by looking for entry restrictions of each country as it is sometimes unclear which website has latest an most correct information. It takes a very long time doing that and, eventually decreasing desire to travel.
3
PRELIMINARY DESIGN
Low fidelity wireframes v1.0 - raw ideas of the user flow
Low fidelity prototype v1.0 - link to the prototype
4
1st USABILITY STUDY
I have created an UX Research Study Plan to test low fidelity prototype and find any flaws in functionality and determine the ways how to improve them. I want to find out what difficulties users may face while completing the main tasks of our my app: filling in their information on start, checking their eligibility for travel and setting up notifications about entry status of countries chosen by the users.
Research questions
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How long it takes for users to complete sign up?
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Are there any parts of the flow where users are getting stuck?
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How quickly users can check their eligibility to travel?
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Is it helpful for users to navigate back and forth the app?
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Are all necessary functions and features easy to find and comprehend?
Parameters
Study type
Location
unmoderated usability study
Italy, Germany, Taiwan (all remote)
Participants
Length
6
45 mins
