Before diving into our project, we conducted thorough desk research, gathering valuable insights and performing a competitor analysis. We gathered a lot of information since we were a team of four.
We initially aimed to target only students, and eventually discovered that students from foreign countries struggle with many aspects when moving to Vienna. However, our first priority was to understand the needs and challenges of students coming to Austria.
Based on our research questions, we conducted four interviews, delving deep with follow-up questions and using "why" extensively. We then organized the data into clusters using an affinity map, refining and rearranging with the help of AI in FigJam.
From our interviews, we discovered:
We created three personas to better understand our users and sent them on a user journey to identify their main struggles, particularly upon arrival in Vienna.
To stay grounded, we constantly referred back to our interviews, refining personas and adjusting our "How might we" statements.
In the end of the Definiton Phase we generated "How might we" statements to guide our brainstorming.
How might we …
We brainstormed and sketched potential solutions, incorporating ideas from brainwriting sessions and dot voting.
To organize the features, we began considering the site layout. After several discussions and sketches, we realized it was extensive. We had many ideas for structuring the sitemap. To ensure clarity, we conducted an open card sorting activity with 18 participants. They categorized cards in a way that made sense to them and labeled each category.
After making the sitemap, we made user flows and tested them using paper wireframes. We found out we were wrong about some things. I enjoy this part because what seems obvious to us might not be to the user.
I'll never forget my UX teacher Mark, who said prototypes should be ugly and made quickly. You don't want to get too attached to them and want to change them a lot.
Thanks to the insights from the testing, we adapted our user flows.
One thing we learned in this process: Don't get too attached to your prototypes. You'll be changing them – a lot! It's simply a vehicle for testing and iterating, nothing more.
During our research phase, we frequently encountered participants struggling with the unfriendly approach of Viennese people. To make our app friendlier, we used a bright pink color as primary color and I drew cute illustrations. Despite time constraints, I drew what first came to mind, and I am quite pleased with the results.
In the initial low-fi prototype tests, we discovered that users were confused about the event feature we provided. Consequently, we removed it and focused on developing two main features: Guides for Austria and Helpchat. We have adjusted the sitemap slightly and created a high-fidelity prototype.
After finishing our high-fidelity prototype, we tested it with five potential users. We watched how they used the app to see if they understood and could use our main features. Try it out yourself:
Users tend to scan rather than read the product. Excessive text describing functionality is unnecessary. The design should intuitively guide users through the product experience.
