UX Research Study
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My Role
Ux Designer - conducted UX Research for this project.
Duration
September 2023 - December 2023
Responsibilities
User research
Data collection and Analysis
Created user personas, conducted user interviews, journey maps, and created a competitive analysis.
Tools
Pen
Paper
Apple iWork
The Product
The product that I conducted User Experience Research for was a connected car app. The app would allow users to control their car through their phone.
The Problem
In the past ten years car tech has not kept up with phone tech. People today expect to have the same level of control of their car that they do of their phone and smart home.
The Goal
Create a connected car app that allows a user to control their car, keep track of its maintenance and find the car on a map.
Project Overview
Understanding the User
I conducted research by first interviewing potential users of the applications after defining research goals and questions to ask, from there I identified user pain points to create 2 personas to represent my target users. After creating personas I wrote users stories, created problem statements and made user journey maps for my two personas. Finally I conducted a competitive Audi and presented my finding in a report which helped me to create “how might we” statements and do a session of “Crazy Eights” to think of solutions to users problems.
User Pain Points
Unable to unlock car when hands are full
Difficulty finding or forgetting where car is in crowded parking lot.
Searching owners manual is time consuming and not always accurate
Tracking and scheduling maintenance can be time consuming
Persona 1: John
John is on the road commuting a lot. Working in construction he works in many different cities and often needs to take his car in for preventative maintenance. He currently tracks maintenance interval through miles driven. Sometimes his car has warning light or other issue and he needs to look up. He would like a way to track maintenance and look up things in an owners manual
Persona 2: Rachel
Rachel is a stay at home mom who drives her kids around the city a lot. On the weekends she take her kids to their activities and often loses the car in the lot she wants a way to find the car with GPS, when she gets to it is either too hot or cold inside the car and she wants a way to pre cool the car. Other times when her hands are full she would like to just open the door and start the car without looking for her keys.
Impact:
When conducting research I found that people would like to have a way to control their cars from their phone. I also found that many car companies don’t invest enough in their application’s user experience and that sometimes there is a high cost to use the application.
Going Forward
What I learned:
This project helped me to learn more about how to conduct UX Research from interviewing potential users to conducting audits of competing products.
Next Steps
Since this project was for a class that focused only on UX Research, my next steps would be to begin the design process for my application. I will need to create both paper and digital wireframes, low and high fidelity prototypes and conduct user testing to ensure that the application works as intended. I hope to continue working on this application and complete the design process.
John’s User Story
John’s Problem Statement
John’s User Journey
Rachel’s User Story
Rachel’s Problem Statement
Rachel’s User Journey
Competitive Audit Report
Goals and Methods
The objective is to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of competitors in the market and to gain insights into market trends and customer preferences.
Compare features of other manufacturers connected car applications.
After the analysis, we will use the insights to identify strengths and weaknesses, gaps and opportunities for our app.
Gaps include:
Availability, some brands only offer connected car app on upper trim vehicles.
Accessibility, apps have a lack of labels, accessible colors or even compatibility with screen readers.
User flow and navigation on some of the apps is not in line with other smartphone apps.
Opportunities includes:
Accessibility features could be improved in all apps use of higher contrast colors, heavier text weights and compatibility with screen readers and other AT.
Making a connected app that is available on any model of car not just high end models.
App that has a native feeling UI to its respective operating system iOS or Android.