User Researcher & Experience Designer

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Sahil Dhir

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PREPARED FOR THE INTERVIEW AT MosaicML

I’m Sahil a User Researcher, Experience, and Visual Interface Designer with over 3 years of experience performing quantitative and qualitative research and creating improving simple and user centric designs for web and mobile applications.

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I am skilled at sketching, wireframing, prototyping, user flows, and visual design. My product development and years of experience has helped me become an expert in design, user research, and helped me understand the importance of planning designs. It also helps and enables me to create experiences which receive positive responses for the users.

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My experience as a product manager has been integral to how I extract stories from my research participants and how I to help communicate the insights in a meaningful way to stakeholders and team members.

WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR

I’m based in San Diego and I'm seeking a full time remote/hybrid role on a highly collaborative product team that values design thinking, communication, and collaboration to build intuitive designs

My Skills & Experience

Understanding user behaviors, wants, needs, and motivations by performing quantitative and qualitative research methodologies such as user interviews, surveys, and usability studies. Some tools I use are Usertesting.com, Surveymonkey, Excel, and Figjam

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As a mid-level User Researcher & Experience Designer I'm skilled in 3 key areas:

User Research

Experience Design

Creating easy, user centered, and straightforward user flows for different personas in form of sketched, diagrams and wireframes based on research results. Tool I mainly use to design experiences are Figma, Figjam, Visio, Miro, and Trello

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Interface Design

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Preparing low and high-fidelity mockups and Interactive prototypes to present to stakeholders. The tools I used were Figma, Adobe XD and InVision.

My journey to UX Design

I’ve worked with B2B and B2C companies in the health, finance, and travel industries.

My Projects

Some of my work!

Reimagining the Parking Experience for Drivers & Property Owners

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SpotNow

These are some of the projects I'm most proud of and that demonstrate my key skills of user research and experience design

AR App

Dwell

Research & Experience Design For Financial App

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PaePoint

Project Summary

SpotNow is an IOS mobile application that believes in stress-free parking solutions for drivers. We envision a world where drivers are connected and empowered, where they no longer have to worry about wasting time, money or energy on parking search.

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Responsibilities

• Quantitative research study
• Experience Design
• Prototype & usability testing

Reimagining the Parking Experience

for Drivers & Property Owners

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Company: SpotNow

Timeline & Team

Currently 8 months working with designers and offshore developers

Results

• Prototype landed in the top 10% of scores on the SUS curve according to (MeasuringU) with an A letter grade and an average of 85 based on 5 usability test participants.

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• 90% of usability participants expressed that the app was user friendly and easy to navigate while successfully completing their tasks.

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Project Goals

• To identify and clearly define a problem, by uncovering users needs/pain points and establishing business goals.

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• To offer creative solutions by utilizing the human centered design methodologies to achieve a user friendly solution that motivates users to engage and helps the business grow customer loyalty and monetize the product.

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SpotNow Goals

• Grow an online community of drivers that actively feed parking availability data into our system based on their activity and in return are rewarded for their participation.

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• Give property owners the power to rent out their driveways on our secure platform to earn passive income while providing more parking options for their community.

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• Alleviate parking pains to help drivers relax and promote positive driving attitudes.

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Overview

I started SpotNow as a startup collaborating with other designers and multiple offshore developers.

Before starting with our process I identified our problem and why I choose this.

My personal experience!

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On February 20, 2020 I was headed to Dallas to attend a Meetup. It was my first time visiting the office and my drive was about 45 minutes long. The parking instructions said to park in one of the blue highlighted parking lots shown in the image below. I arrived almost right on time and immediately pulled into the parking lot (lot #1), but it was full. I then drove in front of the office but their on-street parking spots were also taken. It took me 30 minutes to find parking and I was late to the meeting.

Problem

Identifying the Problem

Over the years, technology has managed to offer a great deal of advanced solutions to help solve many of today’s automobile related urban problems. Drivers today simply use their smart devices and GPS systems to avoid congested roads, car accidents and getting lost.

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While data-driven solutions are doing a great job to alleviate the stress of navigation, surprisingly there still isn’t enough real-time information out there for the end-user (the driver) to utilize when hunting for a parking spot that meets their needs.

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With the increasing percentage of vehicle ownership in the United States, one of the more frequent stressful experiences we encounter in dense urban areas is looking for parking. Finding the right spot that meets your needs can be time consuming, costly and worst of all very frustrating!

Hence, the problem was identified.

Problem

Once I discovered the problem, I started to come up with opportunities and the solution. ​​

Opportunities: How might we help drivers have a seamless and stress-free parking experience?

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The Solution: A mobile platform that allows drivers to join a live online community, where they are able to view available parking options nearby, reserve in advance or list their properties to help add more convenient options to their parking community.

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Solution

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By adopting the design thinking methodology I created a roadmap to help focus on the tasks within design process.

Process

I started to research and look at how others approach the same problem. The pre-existing information helped me understand what the product will look like.

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U.S. National Average vs. Average in Dallas, Texas

Pre-existing Research

We quickly started to scan what has been done before to validate as well as tackle this specific problem. We set out to search for hard data and solutions obtained by reliable sources in the industry to help us get started.

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According to The Impact of Parking pain in the US, a research study done by INRIX in 2017:

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30% OF URBAN CONGESTION is caused by drivers searching for parking

20 MINUTE ON AVERAGE - Time spent per driver to find parking every day

$20.4 BILLION A YEAR - The amount drivers overpay for parking to avoid fines

$2.6 BILLION A YEAR - The amount drivers pay in parking fines

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Explore

I continued my discovery with user insights to see what I can take away from those key insights.

User Insights

Key takeaways

• Currently, drivers struggle to find parking in urban areas because parking is scarce and unpredictable.
• In a perfect world, drivers would be able to check parking availability in real time.
• This would allow for a stress-free parking experience, by saving drivers time, money, and reducing overall traffic.

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Explore

To better understand our users, I conducted an empathy map workshop with the objective of looking for themes of user pain points and desires.

Empathy Map Scenario

You are going to a concert at the House of Blues in San Diego and you have to look for parking. It’s rush hour and you only have enough time to get there. Making it on time to the event is crucial to you.

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The empathy map allowed us to identify 57 data points in a short amount of time. We then studied the patterns and clustered them into 7 themes (Location, Risk, Time, Money, Assistance, Traffic and Negative feelings) as shown on our hot pink sticky notes.

Empathize

Pain Points

Money - Overpaying for parking.

Time - Searching for parking is time consuming.

Assistance - Who can assist with parking?

Negative Feelings - A negative parking experience affects the overall journey and event you are trying to reach.

Location - Getting lost.

Traffic - Full parking garages create more traffic.

Risk - Chance to have a negative experience.

Gain Points/Opportunities

Provide affordable parking options.

Provide parking availability.

Provide parking assistance.

Provide a positive parking experience.

Provide parking directions

Empathize

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I conducted a User Survey that reflected our interview questions in an online questionnaire.

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Quantitative Analysis

83 out of 100 respondents were located in the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) area which is where we decided to test our concept before thinking about other cities.

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The participants were 65% female and 35% male.

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Age range: 12% (16-21),

71% (22-30),

9% (31-40),

6% (over 61)

Empathize

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After completing Quantitative analysis I then conducted Qualitative analysis Qualitative Analysis and concluded my user research.

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User Insights

Once we listened to what our users had to say, we were able to uncover valuable insights and validate our empathy map assumptions with real users.

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Pain Points

Drivers in DFW reported,

• Searching for available parking is stressful.
• Fear of getting towed or fined.
• Safety is a concern.
• Wasting time and being late.
• Traffic Anxiety.
• Parking too far.
• Overpaying for parking.
• Getting into an accident

Opportunities

Drivers in DFW want,

• To be able to check parking availability in real-time.
• To be able to reserve parking ahead of time.
• To be able to filter parking options by distance, price and availability.
• To learn from others about best parking options.
• To feel safe where they park.
• To save time, money and gas.
• To avoid stressing about parking.

Empathize

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I developed personas based on the clusters of captured user data to help us foster empathy for and easily remember our target users as we move forward in our design process.

Empathize

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Empathize

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Persona #2

Competitive Research

We examined 4 both direct and indirect competitors to help us identify opportunities and gaps.

We asked 3 main questions when looking at the competition,

1. What makes them unique? (Differentiator)
2. What does it lack? (Opportunities and Gaps)
3. How do they generate income?

I started off with Market Research by conducting Competitive analysis on some of our competitors such SPOTHERO and SPOTANGELS

Market Research

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No Brainers

• 1. Parking Information
• 2. Booking

Differentiators

• 3. Parking Host Platform
• 4. Parking Community
• 5. Data Collection
• 6. Reward System

Performance Payoffs

• 7. Color Coded Parking Availability on Map
• 8. Saving Vehicle and Payment Information

Unwise Ideas

• 9. Supply the Technology for Accurate Information (ie. Motion Sensors)

To prioritize our bid ideas, we evaluated them as a team using the Impact/Feasibility chart, to help us eliminate low hanging fruit and only focus on differentiators and performance payoffs.

Market Research

Product Vision & Goals

Vision

By making parking information easily accessible via an active community, we aim to ease the stressful experience of finding parking for the everyday driver.

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Goals

• Collect credible data to provide reliable parking results.
• Create a community that will help alleviate the stress of parking.
• Provide real-time parking availability information via community interaction.
• Create a reward system within the product to increase user engagement.
• Create a platform for parking lot hosts to list their spots.

Product Clarity

SpotNow connects drivers and parking space owners to improve the quality of the parking experience.

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Differentiators:

Parking Host Platform - Members can list a parking space as small as a driveway in front of their home or as big as a multi-level parking garage in downtown DFW.

Community - Members are able to review and update the availability of parking to help enhance the experience of all drivers.

Rewards System and Gamification -To encourage drivers to engage with the product.

Data Collection - Valuable statistics to help inform businesses and drivers of parking trends.

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Revenue:

Charge a service fee for bookings.

Commissions from listings.

Incentivize business owners to run customizable ads.

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After completing thorough market research my team and I came up with our product vision and goal

Market Research

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We began to define the user experience by creating Epics (high-level features) and user stories ( Users goals) utilizing Trello.

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Ideation

Epics

Ideation

I worked on the user workflows on how our users experience and interact with the map, parking search and parking availability.

Ideation

Below are some of my initial sketches visually translating the workflow of a user searching for available parking to book.

Ideation

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The same workflow was then translated into a more concrete wireframe.

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Ideation

Product’s Look & Feel

Moodboard & Style Guide

We looked to nature for inspirational elements that promote a calming effect to tie our visual identity with our mission statement and goals of alleviating parking pains to help drivers relax and promote positive driving attitudes. Developing a style guide was an important step in our design process because consistency is key for a any successful design.

Before starting the prototype, I choose to make sure I brand product/feature correctly with the correct color, theme, and font I was using.

Visual Design

Here I created the the final screens of a user searching for parking to book workflow.

Visual Design

Home Search Parking time selection Map/List Selection List expanded - filters applied

Here are more High Fidelity Prototypes

Visual Design

Visual Design

I added patterns to address visual deficiencies. Red-green color deficiency is the most common form of color blindness.

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Accessibility

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Screener Questions

To ensure that the participants were ideal for our target audience, we asked screener questions such as,

• Do you prefer to use apps to find parking?

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• Do you reserve parking online?

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• How often do you go out to events that require you to use a parking lot/garage?

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• Do you usually lose track of where you’ve parked?

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• Do you share your parking location with friends when going to events together?

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• Do you use apps for rewards opportunities?

Remote Moderated Usability Tests

Part of the team was able to conduct 2 tests in person while the rest of the team joined via Zoom. The other tests were all remote due to Covid-19 restrictions. Each test had a facilitator, a moderator, two observers and lasted about 20 minutes.

My Role:

I moderated 2 remote tests utilizing Zoom’s video call and screen-share, facilitated one and observed/took notes of the rest.

I conducted usability tests with only 5 participants due to time constraints. Each participant tested 2 major workflows/scenarios and followed the test with a System Usability Scale (SUS) Survey.

Validation

Individual - Scenario 1

• Task 1: Create a new account as an individual.
• Task 2: Setup your profile by adding your vehicle info
• Task 3: Search for parking near Sundance Square, apply 2 filters (price & wheelchair accessibility) then book the available garage you can find.
• Task 4: Add reservation to your calendar then view your reservation and get directions.
• Task 5: Mark your spot when you get there to earn points.

Business - Scenario 2

• Task 1: Create a new account for your business for a residential driveway.
• Task 2: Add compact spaces in additional information and save the draft after you've added a photo. Go to your homepage.
• Task 3: Now access the listing you were working on and continue editing it.
• Task 4: Publish your residential listing.
• Task 5: Edit the pricing on your Sundance Parking Garage 02 listing.

Here are the task scenarios we came up with when conducting our studies.

Test Results - First Impressions

Test Results - System Usability Scale (SUS) Survey

SpotNow prototype scored an average of 85 based on 5 usability test participants. It landed in the top 10% of scores on the SUS curve with an A letter grade according to (MeasuringU).

Validation

After all of the feedback we got, we then implemented them into the Prototype Improvements

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Validation

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Lessons Learned

• Early stage team collaboration and clear communication is a vital key to minimize final design revisions.

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• Time is your greatest ally, an early project roadmap and well-defined high-level goals will help the team move faster and fail faster.

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• Testing with real users will teach you how to improve and sell the best needed version of your product.

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Next Steps

• Implement and test prototype improvements based on the usability tests findings.

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• Invest more time and effort on user research and testing regarding the business workflow.

Reflection

Project Reflection

Project Summary

I led a research study and creation of an interactive prototype for a AR feature for an furniture and decor based app.

Responsibilities

• Quantitative research study
• Experience Design
• Prototype & usability testing

AR Feature Design for Dwell’s mobile application

Company: Dwell

Timeline & Team

12 months with 5 person fully remote team

Results

The project had achieved its goals and users expressed excitement and enthusiasm when interacting with the app.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

POSSIBLE VISUALS

The augmented reality (AR) market is expected to grow by billions in years to come, and the accessibility of AR provides many opportunities in helping users with day-to-day tasks.

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This project uses the 5 phases of the design thinking process (research, analysis, ideation, prototyping, and testing) to create an iOS mobile app that supports users looking to furnish or decorate their space with items from a variety of home brands that suit their personal preferences.

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Dwell will help users efficiently visualise and arrange these items within their space.

Ever feel like you can’t quite style your space in the best possible way? Cue Dwell, an iOS mobile app that uses AR to automatically design an interior space by generating furniture and decor based on the user’s preferences.

I led this 10-week remote project from research through launch and collaborated closely with other designers and developers.

Process

I adapted the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford’s design thinking process, which consists of 5 phases: research, define/analysis, ideation, prototyping, and testing & evaluation.

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Due to the iterative nature of design thinking, I found this process extremely valuable in discovering insights and informing key decisions for the app.

Melody Smith

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Research

I started off with Market Research by conducting Competitive analysis on some of our competitors such Ikea and Wayfair

I conducted a competitor analysis of 4 iOS apps that use AR to view furniture and decor in your space.

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Biggest takeaways

• These apps provide very useful features and an overall clean usage of AR
• None of them are capable of automatically conducting a complete redesign of a space based on the user’s personal preferences, which is the core focus of Dwell.

Research

I conducted 5 semi-structured user interviews to collect rich, qualitative data in order to better understand the process users took to shop for home decor/furniture and decorate their living space.

Since AR is predominantly used by those aged 16 to 34, this informed the target demographic for the Dwell app.

I sent a follow-up questionnaire to users to validate the collected data and gain a more holistic view of their perspectives.

Research/Analysis

I transcribed each interview and conducted a thematic analysis before grouping key information into themes using affinity mapping.

This allowed me to better visualise the data, have an accurate depiction of where users’ sentiments lied, and empathise better with users to inform design decisions.

Key Findings

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• The affinity mapping revealed 5 themes and numerous respective sub-themes. The themes captured connections within the data that hold importance to users, which will ultimately inform the creation of the key features for the app.

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• In addition, I evaluated the key insights from 5/5 and 4/5 of participants to see what most users resonated with, which allowed me to prioritize the types of functionalities and content that need to be included in the design of the app.

Analysis

I created 2 user personas and journey maps based on the key takeaways from the thematic analysis and affinity mapping.

Analysis

The journey maps follow each persona’s process from searching for a piece of home decor or furniture to ultimately purchasing it. Mapping the persona’s actions, emotions, behaviours, and feelings during this process helped me better empathise with users.

Using the analysed data, I created a problem statement to reflect the user’s need and the main insights from research. The problem statement helped anchor the project and guide the ideation session. This helped me come up with the solution.

Dwell can use AR technology to automatically integrate furniture and decor into a user’s space based on their personal preferences (ex. style, budget, type of space, etc.) and help better visualise items in relation to others in the space.

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Dwell can generate items into a user’s space, allows for interaction with objects in real-time, and offer a wide product variety from numerous home brands for a seamless design experience from the comfort of the user’s home.

Problem

Solution

An adult who is decorating a new or existing space needs an efficient and customized way to visualize home decor and furniture in their space.

Ideation

Ideation

I chose to use the “How Might We…?” brainstorming technique for the app’s key features as it allows for efficiency and brings a new perspective of viewing the problem.

Essentially, I reframed the problem statement as questions to brainstorm solutions for. This allowed me to focus on certain aspects of the problem statement and dig deeper to generate ideas.

Ideation

I derived 6 key features for the Dwell app, which are targeted points that reflect what most users have expressed in regards to designing their interior space. These features will translate to the core functionalities of the app.

Ideation

Before I went ahead and started to prototype the application, I choose to make sure I brand product/feature correctly with the correct color, theme, and font I was using.

Earthy colours paired with clean, bold typography and soft overlapping shapes helps invoke a balance between warmth, structure, and imagination - all qualities a user feels during their search in designing their home.

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The name “Dwell” alludes to the nature of home and comfort, which directly correlates to having a beautifully designed space that suits your personal taste.

Ideation

With the key features in place, I created a user flow diagram that walks through various processes within the app such as onboarding and using the AR design functionality.

The diagram allowed me to really think through all the pages, decisions, and actions a user will explore on the app for each of these main processes. I was also able to determine a more logical flow of information within the app.

Prototype

I created a low-fidelity interactive prototype that focused on the layout of the app and started to explore colours, imagery, and typography. Ideally, a larger screen allows the user to see more area of their space through the camera.

I built out a rough design for the preferences quiz as part of onboarding that captures a user’s sense of style, budget, living situation, etc. From this, I mocked up the AR design space which will automatically generate objects based on the inputted preferences when a user scans a room using their phone or tablet camera.

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I also explored how a user can save a designed room, view their profile, and view an inspiration feed. Keeping this iteration less detailed allowed me to minimise investing time into a design before getting users’ input.

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Some inspiration for the layout was drawn from apps that users enjoy using like Instagram and Pinterest to help bring a sense of familiarity to users when they use Dwell.

Prototype

I incorporated the feedback from usability testing into a mid-fidelity prototype and explored more details in the branding, functionality, and interactivity of the app. Realistic content and imagery were worked into this iteration, and I enhanced the content and layout for a better flow of information.

In addition, I refined the preferences quiz to be more personalised, developed a tutorial for how to use AR design mode, and explored various ways users can interact with items and design their space in a more customised way.

To use the app, the user will hold their phone or tablet over the area of their space they want to decorate/furnish and interact with the AR generated objects on their screen.

VIEW INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE

Prototype

Here I created some prototypes of the application

Preferences Quiz:

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• Accurately tailor home items to your personal taste by completing a quiz.
• Preferences include type of space, budget, style, colours, types of items, and item quality.

AR Design Mode Tutorial:

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• A guided walkthrough on how to generate items in AR and interact with objects.
• Brief descriptions on various key functionalities like filters, shopping cart, and manually replacing items.

Explore, Saved, & Profile pages:

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• View trending and recommended home items and designed rooms tailored to your personal preferences.
• Easily view your saved rooms, items, and inspiration from the Explore page.

AR Design Mode & Functionalities Prototype

Directly add items from the room to your cart and save the full redesigned room to refer back to.

Simply tap a “Generate Items” button to automatically populate your space with AR objects.

Manually add items to the room by searching or choosing from suggestions.

Use filters to adjust price, style, colour, and item type.

Regenerate the room at any time with new items and lock items you like so they stay in place while other items get replaced.

Select AR items in the room to view similar products and easily replace items

Prototype

I conducted 1 round of usability testing with 3 participants was done to assess the low-fidelity prototype, asking users to perform tasks around creating an account, using AR to design their space, interacting with items, and saving the designed room.

• The testing yielded many insights that revealed key usability issues with refining the preferences quiz, labelling of content, and making AR design mode more intuitive.

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• Testing allowed me to better empathise with users while they interacted directly with prototype, develop a more collaborative approach to building a product, and uncover usability issues from a different perspective.

Testing/Evaluation

Reflection

Overall, this project has achieved its goals and users expressed excitement and enthusiasm when interacting with the Roots app.

Key points of reflection

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• Design thinking provides layers of insights. Especially during the research and usability testing phases, I was able to really see the iterative nature of design thinking. Engaging directly with users throughout multiple phases of the project process allowed me to stay consistent in empathising with my users and keeping them at the focal point of all design decisions.

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• Usability testing yields actionable feedback that inevitably builds a stronger product. The pinpointed feedback from users while they directly interact with the prototype is extremely valuable in evaluating what is and isn’t working. Ideally, multiple rounds of usability testing would have provided validation for each prototype iteration once user feedback was incorporated, but having even a few key insights from users helped me get out of my head and empathise with how users were navigating the app. While some of the feedback was unexpected, it provided a challenge to work within certain constraints and empowered me to find a way to create a user-friendly design.

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• Designing with limited resources and time can still make an impact. Since this project explores AR as an emerging technology and emphasises building out one core process of the app: automatically redesigning a space with items of personal preference, the time frame did not allow for extensive prototyping and usability testing. However, I was able to create an AR experience without actually implementing true AR prototyping in the app by showing detailed screens and visuals that mimic this. Therefore, I learned that it is possible to use creativity to explain an idea and message for a more complex project even without the appropriate time or resources.

Project Summary

SpotNow is an IOS mobile application that believes in stress-free parking solutions for drivers. We envision a world where drivers are connected and empowered, where they no longer have to worry about wasting time, money or energy on parking search.

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Responsibilities

• Quantitative research study
• Experience Design
• Prototype & usability testing

Research & prototype for digital platform in the PaePoint app

Company: PaePoint

Timeline & Team

1 year working with offshore developers in India

Results

In the first 3 months after launch, the usage of the app increased by 70% and gained 30% in users in 4 months.

PaePoint is a digital platform to manage your personal finances and provide secure transactions.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

• Nowadays, It’s difficult to manage finances. People tend to lose track of their transactions.
• Users are looking for an instant, easy, and secure solution for this issue. So here comes PaePoint, which is a digital platform that assures security and provides new ways for digital transactions.

I led this 16-week remote project from research through launch and collaborated closely with my client and third party developers from India.

PROCESS

Competitive Analysis

User Research

Problem Statement

Personas

User Journey

User Flow

Card Sorting

Site Map

Low- Fidelity

Mid-Fidelity

High- Fidelity

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Usability Test

Rainbow Spreadsheet

Affinity Map

Iteration

Accessible Design

Design language system

Handoff

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I conducted competitive analysis to collect preferences and features that users like to interact with when using apps

RESEARCH

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The main objective for PayPal is safety, quick transfers and payments between people and online shopping payments. The app is designed to make relations easy.

SWOT Analysis

I planned and conducted 120 remote interviews to understand preferences and user behaviors when using a payment application and to also identify when users struggle using payments apps.

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RESEARCH

“After using multiple apps here in India, I just seem to figure out how to use the app and i feel like it isn’t safe to transfer

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money to family and friends

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3 Customer Support Team Members

• Which budget app you are using currently?”
• Which is your favorite expense tracking app or budget related app?”
• “If you are using budget related product, are you having any frustrations?
• “If you are not using or using any, why?

Summary

For the research, participants were surveyed which helped in underpinning the needs and opportunities for the app design. I asked them about their experience and their thoughts about new payment services. Then, the data collected from the interviews helped defining a Problem statement as well as helping me empathize with the users, build affinity maps , device a user journey map and create personas.

The research concluded from surveys conducted, highlighted an interest in having a digital app with new solutions and new features.

RESEARCH

• Most of the payments people usually do is from their smartphones devices.

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• Low percentage of people showed awareness in cryptocurrencies meanwhile higher percentage of people were tempted to invest in cryptocurrencies.

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• Most of the participants do not have clear saving goals in the next 12 months.

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• All participants showed interest in having an app where you can use digital fiat and cryptocurrencies.

I’m looking to make my payments from my phone instead of going to the bank and making my payments

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Post from a member in India

• Participants have different spending habits in their everyday life.

• Majority of participants have heard and they are interested in cryptocurrencies including the use of an app to manage them.

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• No signs of strong saving/budgeting habits. Hence, offering them a saving system could help them to achieve their saving goals.

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• They are interested in new products with new problem solutions.

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• Participants showed discomfort with customer support service in other app they usually use.

KEY INSIGHTS

I created an Affinity Map to synthesize and reframe the raw research data into meaningful knowledge and distill which was important and contextual to the challenge.

RESEARCH

I derived findings (pain points), and relevant discoveries from user research, through making links between interview data and preliminary research findings.

Through a final rearrangement of the notes, I clustered the extracted insights and made further connections, identifying themes from which I defined a user need statement.

DEFINE

The users of the app are looking for a solution where they can manage their personal finances being able to pay transfer and buy online in a secure way.

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At the time there were many options where people manage their finances but there are a lot of people who find it confusing and not secure.

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The use of this digital platform to manage money this app is creating a space where people can take first steps to understand and use money digitally.

Based on the research, I came up with a problem statement that users were facing and based on this problem statement, I can come up with a solution.

Based on the research, I decided to focus on ONE primary PaePoint user:

DEFINE

I decided to explore solutions for our users through a user journey. An easy and accessible design of the app is a must for the users.

IDEATE

I created an empathy map based on the collected data to understand my user’s situations and frustrations better

IDEATE

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Before I start designing my solution, I did a quick user flow and a card sorting exercise for a couple of adults to learn what the easiest way to organize the application

IDEATE

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User Flow

Card sorting

First, I sketched out the experience of how the landing page, profile, and settings page would look

PROTOTYPE

Next, I created the same experiences but I created digital wireframes of PaePoint using Balsamiq.

PROTOTYPE

Visual of the experience map with

PROTOTYPE

I created high-fidelity designs for Login, Sending, and Dashboard pages.

Login

Sending

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The screens have progressed in important and different ways. The graphics are quite minimal this give the screens a sense of polished and easy understanding of use and visuals. The interaction in every screen basically is the same, the transformation is more about the details and visuals.

Dashboard

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The dashboard screens were designed with the same transition. I did research and checked different platforms to have clear the change to make to clean and polish the visuals. In the current iteration, material design was used as a reference and emphasis has been placed for accessibility reasons

PROTOTYPE

Visual to of wireframes or screens.

VIEW INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE

After the app released for the first time, I conducted a usability test on 20 people.

TEST

Visual to highlight the problem area along with a possible solution or recommendation.

• Usability testing revealed that half of the participants jumped on the app with no difficulties, the other half just took some time to think about the tasks they needed to complete.

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• They were comfortable and every person showed positive feeling about the way the project is being improved.

The mobile application is proving to be an organic source of new users. By redesigning the app, the visits increased by 70% and retention by 24%

OUTCOMES & LESSONS

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Securly transferred money

Buying and selling cryptocurrencies

43 ^%

26 ^%

IN THE 90 DAYS SINCE LAUNCH OF THE FEATURE

Sahil Dhir • sahilrdhir@gmail.com • 510-304-4693 • sahildhir.com

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