Crafti
Crafti
Project Overview
The Summary
Crafti is a social app to share and learn exciting craft techniques nearby. It connects crafters with similar minds and nearby talented enthusiasts.
The Problem
Artists/crafters with limited crafting experience, need mentors and a community to learn and grow from, because crafting can be challenging, and the online resources are overwhelming.
The Goal
Our goal is to connect artists & crafters with their other local community members and mentors with the same interests.
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Project Overview
My Roles
Project Duration
Week 1 - UX Research & Storyboarding
Week 2 - Wireframing & Prototyping
Week 3 - User Testing & H-Fi Prototyping
Tools Used
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Team Roles (5 Designers Total)
Design Process
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
IDEATION
STARTING THE DESIGN
USABILITY TESTING
REFINING THE DESIGN
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Understanding the user
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Proto Persona
To kickstart the project, we created a proto persona which describes the target users and audience of our product. Since this persona was developed using the preliminary knowledge and assumptions of our team members, it will be updated with new information gained during the project (for example, from surveys and user interviews) to create a final User Persona.
Goals
Motivators
Pain Points
Sources of Information
Age: 21-26 years
Gender: Female
Profession: Barista
Income: 28-24k/year
Location: Tulsa, OK
Marital Status: Single
Name: Clara Anderson
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User Research Plan
As user researchers, we wanted to understand the user’s thoughts about expanding their social circle with people who share the hobby/interests.
A survey was conducted (using google forms) to collect quantitative data to gives us an idea about the following:
Eight user interviews were conducted based on the results of the survey, to collect qualitative data from participants and understand user pain points. The ideal participant list consisted of people who were passionate about art and craft.
These participants helped us understand the following:
Research Objective:
Methodology:
Research Questions:
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Survey Data & Insights
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Survey Data
We conducted an online survey, using Google Forms to observe the patterns and similarities in what the potential users may want.
Would you be interested in being a mentor/mentee for your hobby?
How long have you been practicing your hobby?
Are you currently a part of a local community for your hobby?
What are you Hobbies?
How many hours do you practice your hobby per week?
How do you like to practice your hobby?
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Key Insights
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Interviews
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User Interview Plan
Here are a few general questions that we asked them!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fblpseLcqWE09dQIGzALpdTGyEif3aab?usp=sharing
Interview Goals:
Interview Questions:
Target Participant Characteristics :
Interview Transcripts:
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User Interview Insights
We interviewed some family and friends who are/were passionate about art and craft. We interviewed them over phone, zoom and did some live interviews as well. In total, there were 8 participants who helped us gather qualitative insights about their challenges and motivations. Next, we gathered all the data from the user interviews and wrote them onto sticky notes—one idea per note.
Link to the Miro Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOnd48UI=/?share_link_id=929096223446
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Affinity Diagram
We had a lot of research data to sort through, and it can be overwhelming to hunt for patterns and plan for iterating on our product. Creating an affinity diagram helped us group together interview insights so that we can draw conclusions about them build a viable product and design.
Link to the Miro Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOnd48UI=/?share_link_id=929096223446
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Empathy Map
We used empathy maps to refine our understanding of our users from research and interviews. In this process we broke down the information we learnt about our user into four categories, says, does, thinks, and feels. It also helped us understand the user’s pain points from a product or feature.
Link to the Miro Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOnd48UI=/?share_link_id=929096223446
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User Persona
The purpose of user personas is to create realistic representations of our key user segments. We created our User Persona based on the qualitative and some quantitative user research conducted in our product development process.
Age:
Location:
Profession:
Status:
21 years
Tulsa, OK
Barista
Single
CLARA ANDERSON
Known Habits
Pain Points
Clara is a young creative female who loves nature and learning new craft techniques. She lives in the city and would like to find other young creatives that share her interests. She would love to find mentors that she can learn from. She is having difficulty finding her crafting community because she is the only one in her current social circle that’s passionate about crafting.
About
Goals
Favorite Brands
Preferences
KNITTING/CROCHET
NATURE HIKES
YOGA
HEALTHY FOOD
SHOPPING
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Ideation
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Problem Statement
Problem statements provide a clear description of the user’s needs that should be addressed. We formed a problem statement based on our empathy map. It provided us with some clarity about our users’ goals and helped identify constraints that prevent our users from meeting those goals. Problem statements will also help our team measure success at the end of the project.
Clara is a young artistic woman with limited crafting experience
who needs a mentor and community to learn and grow from,
because crafting can be challenging, and the online resources are overwhelming.
user characteristics
user limitation
user need
user insight
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Hypothesis Statement
We believe that a connection to a local crafting community
for Clara, a young artistic woman with limited crafting experience
will help her improve her skills, meet others with mutual interests,
and encourage one another as they are cultivating their crafting abilities.
A hypothesis statement is an educated guess about what you think the solution to a design problem might be. We got to know the challenges the users were facing, so we considered how our designs can alleviate their pain points. It helped us narrow down our research insights into goals for our product, so we can stay focused on the wants and needs of the users.
Performs specific action (what)
Describes who the action will affect
Describes how the action will positively affect users
Describes why the action will positively affect users
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Value Proposition
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I Like…, I wish…, What if… Ideation Method
This is a brainstorming tool that helped us look at ideas that users like in the present, would like soon, and what they would love in the distant future. (Note that the “I” indicates our user persona). We then casted a dot vote to identify the strongest ideas in each category.
Link to the Miro Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOnd48UI=/?share_link_id=929096223446
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Feature Prioritization Matrix
Next, we created a feature prioritization matrix, which is another way of prioritizing the features we could produce—to see what matters most.
Link to the Miro Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOnd48UI=/?share_link_id=929096223446
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Value Proposition Canvas
This is a tool that can help ensure that a product or service is positioned around what the customer values and needs. The square features the value map by listing products and services, as well as describing pain relievers and gain creators. The circle refers to the customer segment, describes the motivation to buy the product, and consists of “jobs to be done,” “gains,” and “pains.” This part explains why the customer needs this product.
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Jobs to be done
Gains ☺
Pains ☹
Customer Segment
Value Proposition
Products & Services
Gains Creators ☺
Pain Relievers
“Your hobby mentor, next door!”
Value Proposition Statement
User Story
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Storyboard
A storyboard is a series of panels or frames that visually describes and explores a user’s experience with a product. Telling a story through visuals is often more effective than using words. So, we created storyboards to envision how a user like Clara might interact with the product.
Clara recently began crocheting and is trying to make her own stuffed animal
Clara looks online for videos for beginner crochet tips for making the shapes she needs
Clara is overwhelmed with the amount of videos and gets frustrated and wishes someone could just teach her in-person
Clara downloads (APP) and begins looking for someone to meet up with and learn from
Clara learns of a local group for crocheters and decides to join
Clara joins the weekly meet up group she found and meets others like her and learns how to crochet her stuffed animal
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User Journey Map
We created user journey maps to identify key interactions with the app and talk about the user's feelings, motivations and questions during each of the touch points. Gained a clear picture of where the user is coming from and what she’s trying to achieve.
Age:
Location:
Profession:
Status:
21 years
Tulsa, OK
Barista
Single
CLARA ANDERSON
Clara Anderson is a crafty young woman looking to build on her beginner crocheting skills. She does not know anyone else who crochets around her. She has spent many hours looking at videos on YouTube, but it is too hard to follow, as she must keep pausing the video. She is looking to get together with another fellow crocheter to help her with things she does not know how to do.
UX Scenario
Goals
Experience
AWARENESS
INVESTIGATE
REGISTRATION
COMMIT
Ability to send out curated recommendation alerts to each user.
Opportunities
An online communication forum and zoom for meetups or for finding equipment, studio space etc.
Ability to pair up mentors with mentees with similar interests and hobbies.
Ability to filter and curate content towards each user.
Clara looks online for videos for beginner crochet tips for making the shapes she needs.
Clara downloads (APP) and begins looking for someone to meet up with and learn from.
Clara continues to go to the crocheting meet up each week to build her skills and learn new things.
Clara completes her first stuffed animal crocheting project and starts to make more for a local preschool.
Clara learns of a local group for crocheters and decides to join.
Clara learns from members of her group how to crochet the stuffed animal part she was stuck on.
Clara is overwhelmed with the amount of videos and gets frustrated and wishes someone could just teach her in-person
Clara joins the weekly meetup group she found and meets others like her who also crochet.
Clara recently began crocheting and is trying to make her own stuffed animal
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Competitive Audit
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Competitor Analysis (SWOT)
A competitive audit is an overview of your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. We spent some time analyzing the brands and products of our direct and indirect competitors, or the companies who offer similar products as we intend to do. It gave us a well-rounded foundation of knowledge about the market our product will enter. That knowledge will carry into our designs and help us create a product that’s helpful and unique for users.
COMPANIES | STRENGTHS | WEAKNESSES | OPPORTUNITIES | THREATS |
HOBIFY (Direct Competitor) |
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CREATIVEBUG (Direct Competitor) |
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MEETUP (Indirect Competitor) |
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PANION (Indirect Competitor) |
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Starting the Design
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User Flow
As UX designers, we needed to anticipate user needs when interacting with our product. A clear and simple way to outline this process is by creating a user flow. A user flow is the path taken by a typical user on an app or a website, so they can complete a task from start to finish. We outlined the user flow before starting the design to help us picture how users will move through the app.
Link to the Miro Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOnd48UI=/?share_link_id=929096223446
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Paper Wireframes
Onboarding
Beginner’s Guide
Community Forum
Mentor Match
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As UX designers, we created paper wireframes that were a basic outline of our app. As the name suggests, wireframes look like they were created with wires. They're mostly lines and shapes with some text.
Lo-Fi Prototype
Onboarding
Beginner’s Guide
Community Forum
Mentor Match
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Usability Testing
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User Testing Plan
These participants will help us understand the following.
Online Moderated User Testing
Research Objectives:
Participants:
Research Questions:
Methodology:
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User Testing Plan - Task and Scenario
| TASK 1 | TASK 2 | TASK 3 | TASK 4 |
GOAL/OUTPUT | Making an account and reach the homepage | The user searches for a crochet mentor and finds one | They will understand what is needed to begin crochet for tools, and see helpful/useful links for beginning their crochet journey. | Add Crochet Community Forum to user's forums |
ASSUMPTIONS | You're a new user and will be going through and signing up for the app | You're a beginner crocheter and are in need of a mentor | You've been interested in Crocheting and are trying to figure out how to get into it as a hobby and you're not sure where to start. | The user is looking for an online community |
STEPS |
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SUCCESS CRITERIA | The user makes it to the home page | The user finds Sarah Pierce's profile and messages her | The user will understand what is needed for them to begin crocheting, know what useful tips/tricks are as they are starting out their crochet journey, and know a few patterns to begin with. | User has joined Tulsa Crochet forum |
Link to the Testing videos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UoGb769WfYtec-satftoT3j8XId5OC2q?usp=sharing
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User Testing Insights (Quantitative Data)
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User Testing Insights (Qualitative Data)
Link to the Miro Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOnd48UI=/?share_link_id=929096223446
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Next, we gathered the data and grouped user testing feedback into an affinity diagram. Here, the data is sorted by the level of frequency of the following type of comments. Prioritized the issues based on how important we expect them to be to users and to our app’s bottom line.
User Testing Analysis (Prioritization Matrix)
Link to the Miro Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOnd48UI=/?share_link_id=929096223446
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Next, we gathered the data and grouped user testing feedback into an affinity diagram. Here, the data is sorted by the level of frequency of the following type of comments. Prioritized the issues based on how important we expect them to be to users and to our app’s bottom line.
Refining the Design
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Style Tile
Typography - Avenir
Colors
Master Component Set
Navigation Bar
Profile Entry Boxes
Profile Card
Post Card
Home Cell
Buttons
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Refining Process
Lo-fi —--------------> Hi-Fi
Lo-fi —--------------> Hi-Fi
Lo-fi —--------------> Hi-Fi
Lo-fi —--------------> Hi-Fi
Lo-fi —--------------> Hi-Fi
Lo-fi —--------------> Hi-Fi
Lo-fi —--------------> Hi-Fi
Lo-fi —--------------> Hi-Fi
To further refine our design, we applied the iOS Human Interface Guidelines (HIG)s and our design system to transform wireframes into iOS prototypes.
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Animation Process
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Hi-Fi Prototype
Onboarding
Beginner’s Guide
Community Forum
Mentor Match
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Hi-Fi Prototype (GIF)
Link to the hi-fi Prototype: https://www.figma.com/proto/jZ3TNqNFSDwHr6FloYjOLg/Dream-Team-Design-System?node-id=158%3A8688&scaling=scale-down&page-id=0%3A1&starting-point-node-id=158%3A8695&show-proto-sidebar=1
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Our group project made us realize that a clear and concise user experience process can sometimes define the quality of the product. It can easily be the make-it or break-it aspect. Without a solid UX design process, a designer could be completely shooting in the dark during this phase of a project. Some even argue that without a process, you are more of an idealist than a designer.
We were taken through this entire process in class, that helped us approach each phase once we got into the discovery and planning phase.
Main stages of the UX design process are broken down into:
Discovery + planning -> Research and strategy -> Conceptual design -> Testing and iterating -> Detailed design
Final Thoughts
UX CASE STUDY
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