Application Design 01- Assessment 2

LECTURES

WEEK 6 LECTURE — User Personas: Understanding Your Target Users

This lecture explains the importance of creating User Personas to better understand your target users. Personas help designers empathize with users by identifying their needs, motivations, pain points, and expectations.

What Are User Personas?

Fictional but realistic user profiles based on interview and survey data.
Represent different user types who will interact with the app.
Summarize user demographics, motivations, frustrations, and goals.
Guide decision-making throughout the design process.

Why Personas Are Important

Keep the design focused on real user needs, not assumptions.
Provide a shared understanding among the design team.
Improve usability and relevance of features.
Help predict user behavior and expectations.

Key Components of a Persona

Name, age, and background.
Goals and motivations.
Pain points and frustrations.
Technology habits and usage patterns.
Needs and expectations for the product.

How Personas Improve Design

Guide UI layout and interaction choices.
Help prioritize features based on user goals.
Support better design communication and decisions.

Key Takeaways

User personas strengthen user-centered design.
They ensure decisions are grounded in empathy and real insights.
Personas help designers create meaningful, effective, and relevant user experiences.

Class Activity

We worked on creating journey maps and card sorting in group.

Figure 1 Week 6 Class Activity — User Persona.

WEEK 7 LECTURE — User Journey Map & Digital Card Sorting

This lecture covers two essential UX tools: User Journey Mapping and Card Sorting. These tools help designers understand the full user experience and create a logical information structure.

User Journey Map: Understanding the User Experience

Visualizes the steps a user takes to complete a goal.
Shows what the user thinks, feels, and does at each stage.
Identifies key touchpoints and emotional highs/lows.
Reveals pain points and opportunities for improvement.

Components of a Journey Map

User goals.
Actions and steps.
Touchpoints.
Emotions and thoughts.
Pain points.
Opportunities for better experiences.

Why Journey Maps Matter

Help designers create smoother and more intuitive workflows.
Highlight where users struggle or experience friction.
Support better UX decisions through visualization of the entire experience.

Card Sorting: Understanding Information Structure

A method where users group content into categories that make sense to them.
Helps designers understand users’ mental models.
Shapes menu structure and navigation labels.

Types of Card Sorting

Open: Users create their own categories.
Closed: Users sort items into given categories.
Hybrid: Users sort but can also add new categories.

Key Takeaways

User journey maps highlight pain points and opportunities.
Card sorting builds intuitive navigation based on real user logic.
Both are essential for a clear and user-centered information architecture.

Class Activity

We worked on creating a user journey map of customer ordering food delivery.

Figure 2 Week 7 Class Activity — User Journey Map.

WEEK 8 LECTURE — Information Architecture: Sitemap & User Flow

This lecture introduces the fundamentals of Information Architecture, focusing on creating a clear sitemap and user flows. These tools guide the structure and navigation of your app.

What Is a Sitemap?

A hierarchical diagram showing all pages and screens in the app.
Represents how information is organized and connected.
Helps ensure that navigation is logical and easy to follow.
Reflects insights from card sorting and user research.

Why Sitemaps Are Important

Give a clear overview of the app’s structure.
Ensure users can find information quickly and easily.
Help designers plan screen relationships and content placement.

What Is a User Flow?

A step-by-step diagram of how a user moves through the app to complete a task.
Shows paths, actions, decisions, and screens involved.
Helps designers optimize usability and reduce friction.

Benefits of User Flows

Clarify how users interact with features.
Identify unnecessary steps or confusing paths.
Support the creation of smoother and more efficient user experiences.

Key Takeaways

Sitemaps define the structure of the app.
User flows define the movement and interaction within the app.
Both tools ensure a clear, logical, and user-friendly design before prototyping begins.

Class Activity

We worked on creating a user flow of rice bowl delivery.
Oval → Start or End
Rectangle → Process / Action
Diamond → Decision (Yes / No)
Parallelogram → Input / Output

Figure 3 Week 8 Class Activity — User Flow.

INSTRUCTIONS

Figure 4 Instructional — Overview of submission guidelines and requirements.

ASSESSMENT 2

Project Links

Research Guidelines

Problem statement
(can take back from assessment 1)
Explain in a few words what is the problem you're solving, for which company and which users
Market Research summary
(can also take back from assessment 1)
Where were we on the last project? What did you decide to work on based on research?
Interview & Survey
How did you create your questions? What did you want to uncover or find out?
How did the live interview went? Show pictures or link to recordings of your process with users.
Answers (transcripts) and Affinity Mapping
Show us the interview results and how you went from audio, to text, to notes, to I statements.
Explain your thought process. How did you choose?
If you have survey data, explain the results, what is your take on them?
Personas (x3)
How did you create your personas, which I statements went to which personas?
- Who are they?
- What matters to them?
- What gets in their way?
- Why do they need your help?
User Journey Maps (x3)
Personas in action. All needs and pain points should play out in their journey map.
Identify the highest and lowest points and show some range!
What's most important here is the 3+ opportunities for every touchpoint. Yes, for all touchpoints, no shortcuts!
Card sorting 2 & Sitemap
Bring back the card sorting from the market study with the features from your app and their competitors.
Add in the opportunities from your journey map into the cards. Sort & Categorize them (card sorting ;P)
Draft a sitemap of where they would be on the tree. What grouping are they in, what comes first?
Bold the most important features, the core ones that make your app stand out.
Set a space for all the features that didn't make it to the sitemap (dustbin?).
User Flow Chart
Select the persona with the most interesting opportunities, and create their flow chart.
You can base on their journey map for reference, try to add branching paths & escape routes for what goes wrong.
Keep the happy path straight!
Summary
Same as last presentation, give us a final slide that summarizes this assessment.
Where are we, and what is going to happen next?

Feedback

Week 5: Mr Slyvain gives feedbacks on my interviews questions. He said overall is okay but could go deeper.
Week 6: I completed live interviews and started to work on the affinity diagrams. Mr Slyvain said is okay and good to have different yoghurt answers cause I collect findings from different type of yoghurts not only frozen yoghurt.He then say the personas should have three different needs for example one persona want watery texture yoghurt, one persona want creamy texture yoghurt and the other persona have different needs.
Week 7: Mr Slyvain taught us how to do user journey map and must write 3 opportunities for each emotions.
Week 8: Mr Slyvain taught us how to create user flow.
Week 9: Mr Slyvain said should give a reason to third persona, why she need low sugar yoghurt. Mr Slyvain suggested to add reasons like becuase she have diabetes thats why she need sugar options when purchasing yogurt.

REFLECTIONS

This assignment proceed with assessment 1. I learned how to make affinity map, user personas, user journey map, user flow, card sorting and site map. I have gained a wealth of knowledge while doing this task. Besides that, I also explore a lot while interviewing and researching user experience while buying yoghurt. There are a lot of interesting reponses that I didn't thought about that.

I explore a lot on the user experience while working on this assessment. I discover their emotions, needs and pains points to improvise our Llao Llao Company App 2.0. I collect the findings from 5 interviewees and 20 participants in online survey and analyse into site map of the app.

In conclusion, I have learnt a lot about the stages involved in researching user experience and applying it into app development. Users have different needs and frustrations. We require numerous skills and features to help them overcome challenges and experience conveniently in their daily lives.

Emily Ong Su Yu 0365304

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