Project Overview

Client: Kahila, a startup Apple Watch case company

Role: Project Lead & Content Designer

Problems/Goals:

• Limited understanding of potential users

• Hard market to enter into, because of the big names already established

• Need a website to coincide with launch of the product

How I helped:

• Lead user research with ethnographic interviews to study how potential users would interact with a product like Kahila

• Conducted market research and competitor analysis to gain a better understanding of the niche industry

• Designed two documents that outlined the findings from our preliminary research and gave formal recommendations to Kahila of what to do with the discoveries

• Designed preliminary wireframes and crafted creative copy for the website

Project Requirements

This project was for my Interactive Design class needed to complete my master’s degree. Because of this, there were certain guidelines that we needed to follow.

Web Proposal:

We needed to submit an official proposal to our administration to provide substantial evidence that Kahila and our team were a good fit for one another, mimicking a proposal one team would give to their superiors when requesting to conduct user research for a client. The requirements for this proposal were:

#1 Interview with at least one key stakeholder

#2 Conduct background research

#2 Review at least two competitor sites

#3 Write a brief proposal for your website project, including the mission of the client, the current status of their digital presence, the purpose and scope of their website, and their target audience.

Ethnographic Interviews:

For our User Research Report, we needed to conduct ethnographic interviews to better understand Kahila’s target users. For these interviews, we had to:

#1. Apply one of the two qualitative research methods, ethnographic interview or focus group, to conduct user research: Interview at least four individuals. Each interview should last at least 40 minutes OR conduct at least one focus group discussion with six to 12 participants. Each focus group should last at least 1 hour.

#2. Audio-record the ethnographic interviews and focus group discussions.

#3. Analyze the transcripts and develop two main personas for your website.

#4. Write up a research report.

Web Design:

For our course, we also created a website prototype for our client. The website is hosted on Wordpress, and serves as a high fidelity wireframe. The guidelines of the prototype were as follows:
#1. Based on your previous research (e.g., user research, stakeholder interviews), create a medium-to-high fidelity prototype for your website on Wordpress.  

#2 Conduct a usability test

• Recruit at least two actual or potential users of your website to participate in the usability testing session

• Formulate two tasks and develop task scenarios

• Run the usability test

• Each test should last about 30 minutes

#3 Refine your website on Wordpress

Consumer Insights Report:

Along with conducting usability tests of our website prototype, we also wrote a Consumer Insights Report that synthesizes our observations. For this report, we:

#1. Project statement

• Restate the purpose of your website.

• Discuss how you apply different design principles covered in the class (e.g., interaction design, visual design, information architecture) to the website prototype

2. Usability test session

• Describe your usability test procedure in detail

• Include the written task scenarios used in testing

• Report the most serious usability problems that you found from the test

• Discuss what you did (or what you can do) to solve the problems

Client Formal Recommendations Report:

Though not a requirement for our class, my team and I designed a Client Formal Recommendations Report to synthesize our findings from the past three months of research, share important observations from our ethnographic interviews and usability tests, and shared recommendations for the design of the website and strategy for launching the company.

Deliverables

Web Proposal

The website proposal not only gives insight into Kahila’s current status as a company, but also serves as a market research document, highlighting major competitors and the environment Kahila is entering. As Project Lead, I took lead on conducting the market research and helped delegate areas of interest to research to my teammates, as well as wrote and edited the official website proposal.

User Research Report

For the User Research Report, my team and I conducted enthographic interviews and then developed a project statement, designed persona hypotheses, described our user research method in detail, defined two user personas, created persona-based context scenarios (also known as user flows), and finalized our design requirements for the website. I took lead at developing and editing the written content for this assignment.

Web Design

The website prototype we designed for Kahila, which can be found here, serves as a high fidelity wireframe for the finished website. After COVID-19 resolves, I will continue consulting individually with Kahila to provide them a more modern, cohesive website. To view our different stages of web design, view our deliverables deck below.

Consumer Insights Report

The Consumer Insights Reports adapts our findings from our ethnographic interviews and other user research methods in a client-facing document. Stripping it of jargon and convoluted language, this document was developed for those who aren’t familiar with the user research process.

Client Formal Recommendations

At the end of the semester, our team put together all our findings in a document meant specifically for Kahila. We wanted to ensure that Kahila had a document to reference when reflecting on our consultation that will help them in the future when launching their product.