Methods Used: Directed Storytelling, Personas, Low-Fidelity Prototyping, Architecture Diagramming, Medium-Fidelity Prototyping, Interactive Prototyping, Usability Testing
Tools Used: Sketch, Axure, Keynote
Key Themes: User Research, Information Architecture
Persona developed based on directed storytelling
Directed Storytelling and Research Findings Report
I asked three people to tell me about a time they booked a flight online. After identifying commonalities and differences between my participants, I summarized the most important findings, and I developed a persona to represent my users.
User Goal Refinement and Low-Fidelity Wireframes
I used my research from the previous week to define a more specific user goals statement to direct my project: My user is a family traveler who needs to book a flight for a specific purpose, and so must be in a particular location for a particular duration of time. However, beyond this specific purpose, they are flexible. They want to feel like they are getting a good value, so they would consider adding destinations along the way or bundling services like hotels, but they don't want to feel like they are wasting their time or money. With this user goal in mind, I began sketching wireframes for the site. After I was happy with my sketches, I made digitized wireframes for the project in Sketch.
Some sketched wireframes for my site
Architecture diagram made in Sketch
Architecture Diagram and Medium-Fidelity Wireframes
I made architecture diagrams to better understand my user flow. These diagrams helped me refine my navigation and develop higher fidelity wireframes.
Homepage from my Axure prototype
Interactive Prototype
I used Axure to make an interactive prototype for my website — the highest fidelity wireframe I made for this project. You can try my prototype yourself here.
Page from my findings report summarizing findings and recommendations
Usability Testing and Findings Report
I recruited and conducted usability testing with three participants. After asking general questions about themselves and their first impressions from the site, I observed each user completing three tasks. The first task tested the main functionality of the site by putting the user in the shoes of a flexible traveler that needs to book a flight to New York City for a wedding. The second task tested whether and how the user would sign in to save their progress. The third task involved price comparisons with competitors. My findings report gave basic information about the participants and methodology, along with a long list of findings and recommendations sorted by priority.