Expertizz Mobile Application Desktop Teaser
expertizz mobile app
UX case study, 2019
My role
Benchmarking
User research (survey, interviews, usability testing)
Concepting
Prototyping
Designing
Deliverables
Product Briefing
Synthesized Research Data
User Profiles
Sitemap
User Flows/Journeys
Low/Mid/Hi-Fidelity Prototypes
Clickable Hi-Fi Prototype
Project background
Findind the right answer and help you need is a source of frustration many of us know very well. Lacking the opportunity to talk to subject matter experts is something many of us cannot influence. To tackle this problem, as the main project of my UX Designer bootcamp at CareerFoundry, I took on the challenge of designing an application where users can turn to various experts, using their mobile phone only.
The foundations
In this project I was solemnly responsible for all of the product development stages, from the very first project briefing until the delivery of the high-fidelity prototype within the Design Thinking Framework. The efficiency of this iterative process lies in the fact that it focuses on the solution instead of the problem: Design Thinking allows you to focus on a wide range of problems and to adapt the final solution to any changes along the way, if needed.
Project Workflow - Design Thinking
Empathize
I started my project by carrying out a desk research and a competitor analysis what enabled me to see what is working well or not so well and how could I outbid the competition with my product. PrestoExperts prides itself for its smooth functionality and user friendly service. Magnifi's self identified purpose is to overcome the everyday burdens when it comes to looking for professional help.
Presto Experts Competitor Magnifi Competitor
To find out the user needs, I gathered some quantitative and qualitative data by carrying out user surveys and interviews.
Quantitative User Survey Data 1.Quantitative User Survey Data 2.Quantitative User Survey Data 3.Quantitative User Survey Data 2.
Processing the interview and survey responses with affinity mapping showed me patterns and tendencies. When looking for these patterns, I focused on users' feelings, behaviors, needs and challenges.
Affinity Mapping Round 1 - Frustrations Affinity Mapping Round 2 - Needs & GoalsAffinity Mapping Round 1 - Behavior & Attitude
At a second round of affinity mapping, I grouped the responses into similar branches based on functionalities. This seemed to be really helpful later on when deciding which features to include.
Affinity Mapping Round 2 - Trust & ReviewsAffinity Mapping Round 2 - Experience with getting online helpAffinity Mapping Round 2 - Leveraging Social Circles, Categories & TopicsAffinity Mapping Round 2 - EfficiencyAffinity Mapping Round 2 - Functionality
Define
Getting to know the users' needs and challenges helped me coming up with a problem statement. The problem statement defined the "Why?" behind the remaining of the project and gave a clear image of the desired final outcome that I was working towards:
"Our users need to be able to turn to an expert with their questions anywhere and anytime, as their previous attempts for getting professional help from other people failed because of various reasons."
Having this problem statement helped me to come up with the hypothesis statement I wanted to challenge and get confirmation for:
"We believe that creating a mobile app that enables users, regardless of time and their location, connecting to subject matter experts in a wide range of subjects, will enable them to get the professional help they struggled to find."
Ideate
As I was proceeding with the project, I wanted to relate to the users on a more personal level. Coming up with 3 lifelike user personas from the survey data was a great help moving forward and staying accountable. Getting to know more about user needs and making assumptions based on survey and interview data also helped me in creating their user journey maps too.
Expertizz User Profile - DavidExpertizz User Profile - JosefienExpertizz User Profile - Anna
User personas and their journey maps gave me a deeper insight into the expectations of users and the steps they need to take in order to complete their desired tasks and get the help they need. With this knowledge in mind, I created the user flows, the visual representations that helps anyone not involved in the design process to understand the paths users take when completing an action.
Expertizz User Flow - DavidExpertizz User Flow - JosefienExpertizz User Flow - Anna
Prototype
Relating to the users on a personal level and seeing the user flows laid out in front of my eyes helped me to think about the app´s structure, what will be included and how users are going to complete their desired actions. To make sure that my app is answering user needs, I carried out an open card sorting, that enabled me to see user expectations regarding structure and functionalities. The findings of the card sorting provided an additional help in finalising the map.
Expertizz App Structure
It was high time for creating the interface of the app, so I dived into sketching and prototyping. 
I made the low-fidelity prototypes using pen and paper, while the mid-fidelity prototypes were done with Balsamiq. 
Here, I already had the chance to deep dive in the design and layout of the app and I could make some changes compared to the initial low-fidelity sketches. 
For high-fidelity, I turned to Figma, which seemed to be a straightforward and efficient in prototyping.
Expertizz Low-Fidelity PrototypeExpertizz Mid-Fidelity PrototypeExpertizz Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Usability testing
To gather proper user feedback on the MVP, I ran 6 Moderated In-Person usability ability testings. Participants were required to complete 4 different direct tasks while interacting with the prototype. Processing the participant's responses and my observations in a rainbow spreadsheet seemed to be a reliable method in prioritising what to work on next.
Release the MVP image showing Liam Neeson as a Greek god
During the usability testing, observing the participants' body language, facial expressions and recording their voice and interaction with the MVP uncovered several surprising insights. I got first-hand experience in recognising discrepancies between what participants say they feel and what they actually do during the interaction.
Final touches and remarks
As the user interface was far from being final, following an iterative design process I was continuously implementing changes on the prototype. In order to find out what needs to be redesigned, I relied on user preference testings, design principles, accessibility guidelines and peer feedback. Even though I feel like that the final  design is never really finished I am proud of the journey that led me to its current state.
Curious about the final result?
Click on the phone below, to access the clickable prototype in Figma!
Expertizz Mobile Prototype Teaser
Thank you for your attention!