I see it in those I mentor early in their careers and in friends further along their paths — constantly questioning, Am I doing the right thing? The culture around us suggests there’s one passion we’re meant to find and follow forever, but in my experience, that’s rarely the case. Life is a journey filled with changes, challenges, and self-discovery, not a single path we’re meant to follow for a lifetime.

Instead of chasing a singular, elusive passion, let’s take the pressure off. Here’s my proposal: follow your curiosity.

It might lead you to one thing, multiple things, or change over time. And that’s perfectly fine. There’s no “right” or “wrong” decision, only progress. The real mistake is indecision and inaction. Fear of choosing the wrong thing often paralyses us into doing nothing or disengaging from what we’re doing right now.

Curiosity is likely your intuition guiding you towards something worth exploring. And once you start following it (the key is action), you’ll discover more clarity as you go.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” — Albert Einstein

This bicycle analogy resonates with me. Once you are moving, you can always change direction. But if you stand still, you will fall off.

Life doesn’t need to be as complicated as we make it. Take a step and see what happens. It’s better to try, fail, and pivot than to overthink yourself into paralysis. The worst-case scenario is rarely as bad as our anxious minds make it out to be. Ten years from now, we won’t regret what we tried and failed at. But we might regret what we never had the courage to pursue.

Countless lives could have unfolded for each one of us — countless decisions leading to different, but equally valid, paths. None inherently right, none inherently wrong. Our generation in the Western world is in an incredibly privileged position. We have an abundance of options at our fingertips: tech, travel, finance, events — you name it. With the internet, opportunities have expanded beyond what previous generations could imagine. But too much choice can be overwhelming, leaving us constantly wondering if we have made the right one.

In the past, choices were limited. To oversimplify: you could cook, hunt, or find water. You might have chosen cooking simply because it was the least bad option. And that was enough. You were content. Today, with so many possibilities, we can fall into “the grass is greener” syndrome, never fully content, always questioning our choices.

My perspective has evolved. It doesn’t matter what you choose — just choose something. Follow your curiosity. If it doesn’t work out, learn quickly. We thrive on challenges, problem-solving, and mental stimulation. Like riding a bike, you can always change direction — just keep moving. Trust that the next step will reveal itself.

It’s okay to change paths, explore different interests, and have several chapters in your career. What you need at one point in life might not be what you need later.

Take my own journey. Nine years ago, I left the UK seeking freedom. I wanted remote work, flexibility, and travel. That curiosity shaped my choices. Over time, my need for stability and growth led me in a new direction. Who knows where my curiosity will lead me in five years? Another pivot could await.

Embrace new opportunities, let go of the myth of “finding your passion,” and follow your curiosity instead. Give it your all, commit, and make the most of it. There’s no one “right” choice. You’re responsible for your life — so stop fearing the wrong decision and enjoy the journey. The worst that can happen is that you learn something valuable.

There’s a saying: “As you get older, you get wiser.” But as we get older, do we really get wiser? Or do we just grow more risk-averse, retreating further into our familiar comfort zones? Yes, we tend to have more financial security and a more settled life, but is that wisdom?

Let me tell you a story…

About 10 years ago, fresh out of university, I applied for a UK government-funded programme to support entrepreneurs in Kenya. No money required, new skills to learn, and a chance to experience a new culture? It sounded perfect. But a month in, the UK government funds were being misallocated, the programme was a mess, and a few other volunteers and I decided we couldn’t continue supporting it in good conscience. I sent a long email explaining my decision to leave to both the local and UK organisers.

I was out, but I wasn’t ready to go back to England. Having landed in a country rich with culture, I was sure I was there for a reason. I was staying: no ifs, no buts.

My situation:

• Minus £300 in my bank account (£1,000 was my maximum overdraft)
• No source of income, or even a solid prospect of one
• In a country I didn’t know, with no one to ask for help
• No flight home
• No security, no clear living arrangements, no plans

My mentality: I’m young, smart, and in Kenya. I’ll figure it out.

At 22, I didn’t take calculated risks. I barely even considered risks at all. Money, security, a fallback plan, those weren’t my concerns. I simply believed everything would fall into place. Ah, the beauty of naivety.

With nothing more than the belief that it would all work out, I got to work. Nairobi is a hub for NGOs in East Africa. With my graphic design degree, despite having no work experience, I reached out to NGOs, pitching branding ideas and explaining how I could help.

It took persistence: countless emails, coffee chats, and follow-ups. But eventually, I got my first clients and gradually got out of my overdraft. I stayed in Kenya for a year and even built a steady stream of graphic design clients across East Africa, mainly in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. That work, and the contacts I made during that year, started my career. It was, for the most part, what sustained me until I transitioned into tech years later.

I wasn’t afraid to be uncomfortable, to be vulnerable, to put in the work and figure it out. I had faith in the process, and a blind optimism that, in hindsight, carried me through.

A decade later, I still look back on that experience, surprised at myself. A fresh-faced 22-year-old, armed with nothing but naivety and determination, built one of the most enriching chapters of her life.

As we grow older, we emphasise taking “calculated risks.” According to Daniel Kahneman, our brains process decisions in two ways:

• System 1: Fast thinking, intuitive, instinctive, effortless, and shaped by past experiences.
• System 2: Slow thinking, deliberate, logical, analytical, and effortful.

As adults, we emphasise the importance of training ourselves to rely on System 2. We analyse options, weigh advice, and make measured decisions. When we’re younger, we don’t know any better. We make impulsive choices, for better or worse.

I understand the value of careful decision-making. But I also wonder, as we age, do we lose our ability to trust our intuition? Do we become too cautious, too afraid to step outside our comfort zones, to be vulnerable?

There’s a contradiction in the advice we hear: “Step out of your comfort zone,” but also “Consider all the pros and cons, be smart.” Many find themselves paralysed by indecision, too afraid to take the path that seems meant for them. When we assess risks logically, the “safe” route always seems like the best option, the job with the high salary, the country with job security, the career path with clear steps. But is the safest route always the right one? Is it the one that will lead to a fulfilled life?

Entrepreneurs stand out to me as a rare group of people who seem to retain a youthful optimism, regardless of their age. They embrace risk, often to great reward. They understand that there’s no single path, that with a bit of hard work and grit, the world and their reality is malleable. The traits I see in all of them are simple:

• Self-confidence
• A bias for action
• Perseverance

I am no entrepreneur, but looking around me, I can’t help but wonder: why worry? What is the worst that could happen?

We often hear the horror stories because bad news sells. But even in those cases, how often do we hear of someone truly regretting taking a chance? Even when things do not go as planned, people almost always find a way through, gaining experience, resilience, and lessons they would never have learned otherwise. It is rarely the things we tried and failed at that haunt us; it is the things we never dared to try.

If someone else has taken the leap, what’s stopping you? It’s normal to feel fear, but it’s the courage to act in spite of it that makes all the difference. Take the chance, and see where it leads. Fortune favours the bold.

After reflecting on it, I’ve realised this transition is about more than being technically strong in design thinking or crafting pixel-perfect screens in Figma. It’s about stepping into a role where you have more impact through strengthening your soft skills, strategic thinking, and adaptability in a fast-paced environment, focusing on a few key areas:

1. Influence and Future-thinking
2. Communication and Storytelling
3. Promoting Growth in the Team Around You
4. Being Comfortable in Uncertainty

Let’s break that down…

1. Influence and Future-thinking

Senior designers are expected to think beyond the immediate design tasks and consider the broader impact of their work.

• Think longer-term: Before diving into “now” problems, consider the bigger picture. What’s the wider context? Where is the company headed, and how do your designs fit into that trajectory? In fast-paced environments, this means balancing short-term needs with a long-term vision.
• Really nail solving for business outcomes: Understand which customer needs are most important to address for maximum business impact. Senior designers connect user needs to key company objectives like revenue, engagement, or retention.
• Drive outcomes: Go beyond executing tasks by having a clear perspective on where the product should head and why. Back this up with measurable results like reducing friction or improving conversions.
• Think systematically: Develop a deep understanding of the ecosystem in which you’re designing. Consider how your solutions scale across products, platforms, and systems.
• Proactively identify opportunities: Spot areas where design can improve both user and business outcomes. Be adaptable in prioritising opportunities, as business goals and user needs often evolve rapidly.

2. Communication and Storytelling

Your ability to communicate effectively and advocate for your designs is critical to transitioning into a senior role.

• Tell compelling stories: Frame your design decisions in ways that resonate with your audience. Tailor your story to focus on scalability when talking to engineers, and highlight business impact when presenting to product managers.
• Present with confidence: Share your work with conviction, whether it’s to your peers or company leadership. Have a clear rationale, backed by data and user insights. Being opinionated isn’t about being inflexible; it’s about showing you’ve thought deeply about the problem and possible solutions.
• Collaborate effectively: Lead workshops, align cross-functional teams, and build relationships with stakeholders. Your designs are only as strong as the collaborative process behind them. Agile environments require constant communication and quick pivots, so foster open dialogue.
• Advocate for design: Push for quality, even when scope needs to be tight. While speed is essential, don’t compromise on delivering a great experience. Sweat the details and advocate for the user.

3. Promoting Growth in the Team Around You

Senior designers aren’t just individual contributors; they elevate the team and foster a culture of growth and collaboration.

• Mentor and support others: Share your knowledge, provide constructive feedback, and help junior designers grow. Mentoring isn’t just good for them; it strengthens your expertise too (example: me being prompted to write this article from the mentor session I had).
• Contribute to the design culture: Champion best practices like accessibility, inclusive design, and design systems. Foster an environment where great design happens collectively. A strong design culture means better decisions and a better product.
• Unite and influence: Rally your team around a shared vision. While you may not manage people, you can lead through collaboration, bringing others together to move in the same direction. Agile teams thrive when aligned, so adaptability and flexibility are key.

4. Being Comfortable in Uncertainty

It can feel stressful when priorities, scope, and focus change. A key skill for a senior designer is to embrace this ambiguity and lean into it rather than resist it. Become an enabler of fast decisions, not a blocker.

• Be open to iteration: Welcome feedback and be ready to pivot your designs based on changing priorities. Iteration is not throw-away work; it’s an essential part of the process.
• Stay flexible: Adapt to new requirements or directions without losing sight of the overall vision.
• Prioritise effectively: When faced with competing demands, focus on what will have the biggest impact for users and the business.

Conclusion

Transitioning to a senior product designer is not just about levelling up your craft; it’s about stepping into a bigger role where you lead with influence, strategy, and adaptability. The ability to pivot quickly, align with changing goals, and still push for high-quality outcomes is what will set you apart. Focus on building influence, communicating effectively, fostering growth in others, and staying calm when things feel uncertain. Do this, and not only will you earn the senior title, but you’ll also make a real impact on your team and the products you create.

Let’s dive into some of those design strategies to keep in mind…

B2B Design Strategies for Growth

1️⃣ Value Demonstration

B2B users want ROI. Clearly showcase how your product solves specific business pain points.

• Example: Slack emphasises unlimited message archives and admin tools in its premium tier, helping teams scale seamlessly.
• Pitfall: Failing to highlight clear business outcomes or benefits that justify the cost.

Only once the value is proven internally (by a few people) will the product scale internally. Slack’s freemium model starts with a single user, then scales by encouraging team adoption. Free users quickly encounter limits (like message history or admin controls) that make upgrading necessary as the team grows.

Design Tip: Create viral loops by designing features that naturally expand usage and highlight premium features as essential for scaling.

2️⃣ Focus on Team Dynamics

Design experiences that start with individual users but naturally expand to teams.

• Example: Figma’s free tier is robust for individuals, but team collaboration features are gated behind premium plans.
• Pitfall: Overcomplicating the onboarding or team-invitation process.

Figma understands that its true value lies in collaboration. By providing a robust free tier for individual use, it delivers immediate value while naturally encouraging users to expand into team features to unlock its full potential. This approach reflects a deep understanding of user dynamics and the journey from individual to team adoption.

Design tip: Understand how the product delivers value within the team by distinguishing between essential features (table stakes) and advanced features that drive deeper usage. Align your pricing strategy to reflect this value, ensuring users feel they’re paying for what truly enhances their experience.

3️⃣ Support Longer Decision Cycles

Provide detailed resources (e.g., case studies, feature breakdowns) to help multiple stakeholders make decisions.

• Example: Notion uses comparison tables and tailored prompts to guide teams toward upgrades.
• Pitfall: Rushing users with aggressive upsells before they’re ready to commit.

In B2C, the decision to buy or expand is typically made by a single consumer, simplifying the process. In B2B, however, the decision often involves multiple stakeholders, each with different needs and priorities. Evaluating whether a product meets the diverse requirements of all these stakeholders takes more time, and the process can be even longer and more complex in larger, more bureaucratic organisations.

Design tip: Identify the key decision-makers within the organisation who influence the buying process, and ensure their needs are addressed, not just those of the end users. Remember, the “buyers” aren’t always the “users,” and catering to both groups is essential for driving conversions.

B2C Design Strategies for Growth

1️⃣ Emotional Engagement

Use gamification and visuals to keep users engaged and excited about the product.

• Example: Duolingo’s streaks and “Super Duolingo” rewards motivate users to stay and upgrade.
• Pitfall: Over-relying on gamification without clear, tangible value.

Gamification goes beyond just points, badges, and leaderboards (as outlined in Actionable Gamification by Yu-Kai Chou). It’s a powerful tool for behaviour change, leveraging our core motivations. To sustain long-term engagement, it’s essential to tap into intrinsic motivation — driven by internal desires like curiosity, personal growth, and achievement. While extrinsic motivation (external rewards like points or prizes) can complement this, it’s the intrinsic factors that truly build lasting habits and commitment.

Design tip: To create a truly engaging product, start by understanding your users’ underlying motivations. Design the experience to align with these motivations, while ensuring it’s fun and rewarding. This approach will foster emotional connection and keep users coming back.

2️⃣ Frequent Triggers for Upgrades

Identify natural moments in the user journey where premium features solve immediate needs.

• Example: Canva encourages upgrades when users need high-resolution exports or premium templates.
• Pitfall: Interrupting the experience with intrusive paywalls or irrelevant upgrade prompts.

Canva’s freemium model shines by encouraging upgrades at just the right moments. Need a high-res download? That’s premium. Want to use an exclusive template? Time to upgrade!

Design Tip: Identify natural friction points in the user journey and present the premium tier as the seamless solution on discovery.

3️⃣ Seamless Path to Conversion

Make upgrading simple and frictionless with clear CTAs and easy payment flows.

• Example: Spotify uses minimal, visually appealing paywalls to highlight ad-free listening and offline downloads.
• Pitfall: Complex or unclear upgrade processes that lead to drop-offs.

Spotify’s free tier delivers a great experience but frequently reminds users of what they’re missing: ad-free listening, offline downloads, and unlimited skips.

Design Tip: Use non-intrusive, contextual reminders to highlight premium benefits while keeping the free experience enjoyable.

Common Pitfalls Across Both Models

Over-restricting Free Tiers: This is a delicate balance — how much value to give away for free? An overly restrictive free tier won’t provide enough incentive to upgrade. Users need to see enough value in the free tier to understand the potential of expanding. Balance generosity with incentives.

Aggressive Upgrade Prompts: Pushy design can frustrate users. Use context-aware nudges instead. Use locked icons, tooltips, or gentle reminders to spark curiosity without disrupting the user’s flow.

Lack of Transparency: If users can’t see the premium value clearly, they won’t convert. Your paywall isn’t just a gate — it’s a sales pitch. Highlight premium benefits clearly with comparison tables, testimonials, or visuals. Transparency builds confidence.

—

Final thoughts

Designing for growth in both B2B and B2C is all about understanding your users — what drives them, what they need, and how to make their journey as smooth as possible. Whether it’s scaling teams in a business or getting consumers to engage, the goal is simple: create value that makes upgrading a no-brainer.

By avoiding common pitfalls and aligning your design with user needs, designers can create freemium experiences that drive both growth and monetisation ✨

What strategies have you seen work really well that aren’t included here? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

It’s a growing trend that people prefer to self-serve rather than go through a long Sales process, not just in B2C but in B2B as well. They want to see and use a product themselves before buying it.

This is product-led growth.

Using your product to scale itself

How to scale is the key to this topic. Having product-market fit is a pre-requisite, product-led growth is looking at how to distribute that product: how you get the customers to find, use and ideally pay for it. If you have a great product but no one uses it, that’s not a successful product.

Sales-led vs product-led growth

Sales-led growth

There is value in looking at both approaches, to best understand how to capture the most value from your customers. Product-led growth does not need to work in isolation.

When to be sales-led?

High lifetime value (LTV)

In Enterprise of higher Mid-Market segments, with high-value customers and higher complexity of problems, sales-led growth has been seen as the safe bet as you see in the image above. Higher Lifetime Value (LTV) customers need more of a white glove experience in the long procurement processes and implementation, and the LTV of these customers means this is likely still a profitable approach.

Niche solutions

Where the Total Addressable Market (TAM) is small, the quality of the relationships with this small group of customers is much more important. It therefore may be worth going for a sales-led approach.

A new category

If going into a whole new field, you need to understand customer problems and how best to support them with your solution. Initially, this may be best served through sales to minimise churn, and then as you understand better customer needs you can begin thinking about a product-led approach.

Caveats to Sales-led growth

Higher Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

• High-touch sales is expensive: the LTV of a customer needs to be higher than the investment in sales to acquire the customer for the model to be profitable.
• Customer acquisition is not efficient: potential leads have never used the product and are basing decisions largely on what they have been told and not seen — 98% of market-qualified leads (MQLs) don’t convert into paying customers, that’s expensive.

Lack of revenue diversity

• With the focus of efforts on a few high-value customers, the health of the company is vulnerable if you lose even one of them
• The product decisions tend to be guided by the biggest-paying-customer needs, the product is an afterthought behind one customer’s needs rather than catering to a wider net of customer needs

The risk is with the customer — the company is trying to match the value of the product with a small number of customers’ needs, and if that value is not seen the company tries to fix it. Success depends on a small group of customers, they hold the risk.

Product-led growth

The caveats you see for sales-led growth are exactly the pros for product-led growth: lower CACs and revenue diversity.

Why be product-led?

Lower individual LTV in a bigger market

In the lower mid-market, SMB and Consumer segments, you have a lot of people with lower individual value, this is where product-led growth has been seen to thrive — revenue diversity.

• Increase people going into your funnel: allowing customers to evaluate the product themselves through trial or a freemium model — no friction from sales, no commitment, more people
• Scaling is not limited to Sales reps: as you improve your onboarding of customers you can scale globally at a fraction of the price

Lower CAC

• Faster conversions: users can onboard without hand-holding, reducing time-to-value. If the perceived value is high, those users can convert into paying customers through upgrading without any sales support (although of course can be there if needed). Lower cost for the company, quicker value for the customer — win, win.
• Increased profit margins: with a product-led approach, you need fewer people to do more, meaning more revenue per employee and increasing profit margins by reducing cost.
• Improved experience: as the responsibility of acquiring and activating customers falls more on the product, more focus is needed to make sure that user experience is seamless with onboarding, plan selection, and trials needing to be easily navigated and self-served.

The risk is with the business — we provide value to a larger group of potential customers at a lower upfront cost and no commitment for the customer. Success depends on whether the product provides enough value to enough customers, the risk falls on the business. The business has more control over that success.

The move towards Product-led Growth

B2B Product-led growth

Consumers go with and stay with products that prove their value. Product-led growth is a way to prove value faster, to more people, at a lower cost and without friction of payment when starting.

But, isn’t this a bit of a B2C approach? B2B need more hand-holding and more considered decisions, right?

It’s true that traditionally as an individual (B2C), you are used to trying before you buy. Whereas in your company (B2B), you might be more tolerant of going through a longer process to get something signed off.

But times are changing…

B2B buyers are behaving more like B2C users. Three out of four B2B buyers would now prefer to self-educate.

There are more products in the market, meaning we have more options to choose from. To grab the potential customer’s attention, companies need to prove their value faster with less friction — for both B2C and increasingly for B2B too.

Unlocking the value of Sales within a product-led model

For sure, there is a place for Sales in a product-led model, the key is how to combine the best of both. Capturing B2B markets using product-led tactics to prove value quickly to more people, while using sales to capture the potentially higher value customers.

Instead of the traditional tactics of generating sales leads, if those potential high-value customers are already using the product, then you can begin qualifying those leads based on behavioural signals that indicate they have motivation/need and are likely to fall into the high-value bucket therefore qualifying for Sales attention.

How can you qualify these leads in your product? Behavioural scoring. Through analysis, you can determine what to include in this scoring. In the example of Hotjar, we used Recency (days since last active), Frequency (avg. num. active days per week) and Monetary (LTV). You can then go further into this analysis with specific actions users take (inviting other users, visiting specific pages, accelerated use, etc.).

A change in mindset: How can the product itself qualify Sales leads so we save time/money by talking to people who have already seen value in the product?

Behaviour is a much better indicator of motivation to buy, people will be much more open to having conversations with Sales after they’ve seen the value in the product.

Designing for Product-led growth

Right at the beginning we said product-led growth means using the product to acquire, activate and retain customers.

The user needs autonomy in the product to first understand the value and then unlock additional value (convert or upgrade) themselves inside the product: self-service.

A strong self-serve experience in your product is table stakes for product-led growth.

Before thinking about the experience, it is important to align measuring the success of your efforts with product-led growth metrics, these might include:

• Time to Value (TTV): how long it takes for a user to read an Aha moment or activation event
• Product-qualified leads (PQLs): activated users that exhibit high-value behaviours (see above about behavioural scoring)
• Expansion revenue (expansion MRR): revenue generated from existing customers through upsells, add-ons, cross-sells, etc.
• Average revenue per user (ARPU): amount of money, on average, that you can expect to make from an individual user
• Customer lifetime value (LTV): prediction of how much revenue your business will receive from a single customer throughout your relationship
• Net churn: net percentage of total MRR lost from existing subscriptions/customers during a period
• Virality and network effects: adoption increases exponentially with each additional user

Experience areas to focus on with Product-led growth

Acquisition

Aim: The user perceives the product as highly valuable and easy to use.

Reduce friction where possible. For example, in the sign-up flow only have the steps which are required (a good example being Intercom). The benefits of reducing friction here to the bare minimum are a high number of sign-ups, a low drop-off of sign-ups, and quicker TTV.

Activation

Aim: get the user to the Aha as fast as possible, reducing the time-to-value (TTV) metric.

Activation is not just about the Aha moment, it consists of 3 key moments to keep in mind:

1. Set-up moment — configure the product before seeing any value. Keep this as quick as possible initially, this step is often considered friction by the user.
2. Aha — set of actions the user needs to take in the product to see initial value. Focus your onboarding efforts on getting the customers to take the actions that get them to the Aha moment.
3. Habit moment — the user continually repeats a set of actions, increasing engagement and use of the product, meaning they will retain over time. This is more a focus for core-tool product teams than growth teams: increasing engagement.

To have strong activation, understand what successful users did during their early usage vs unsuccessful users. Where did people get stuck, listen to their feedback about what was missing or confusing.

Conversion

Aim: the users understands the value of paying, knows which option/plan is right for them and is clear how to progress.

If customers have activated and seen the value in the product, they may want to unlock more value through converting to a paid plan. If this motivation is there, guide them through the process: recommend based on their usage, have easy comparison of plans and a simple checkout process. For bigger companies, consider that the end user might not be the person with the credit card so allowing them to send requests to other people in their organisation.

Retention

Retention is a product of increasing engagement and reducing churn. To break this down… Engagement looks at the use of the product, and the frequency of that use. Churn is the number of people who subscribed to your product but then unsubscribed.

Here, I will focus on Churn (as engagement is a much larger topic that expands far beyond product-led growth).

Aim: get/keep the business to net negative churn (New user revenue + Existing customer expansion > Churn)

Consider different tactics depending on whether the customer is churning at an early stage (after 1 week) or a late stage (after 5+ weeks). If you are seeing more early-stage churn, then you may want to take a closer look at your onboarding flow. Whereas, if you are seeing more late-stage churn, offering incentives might be a better approach.

Final thoughts

If you think about buying perfume, a new gym subscription or a new software for your company, trying the product, seeing the value of it and then buying creates confidence in your decision. Product-led growth doesn’t need to be in isolation — it isn’t sales-led vs product-led, both have their place and it is about capturing the value from different segments based on their needs.

Product-led growth is a trend that is here to stay, so while trying to navigate this world I hope you found my rambling thoughts helpful…

Further reading

• Product-led growth, Wes Bush
• What is product-led growth, Leah Tharin
• Creating a killer onboarding experience, Hackernoon
• Growth strategy, Venngage

This was a project done with Lidia Ruiz Olmedo & Elisabetta Lanzafame for Ironhack’s UX/UI bootcamp course in Barcelona.

Where did we start from?

Redesign a responsive website for a small business: Vegan-Té La Siria, Malaga, Spain

We chose a small business and using information architecture, branding and responsive layout technique, we redesigned their site. Once designed, we also built the homepage (HTML & CSS) to properly demonstrate how the layout & design changes on different size screens.

Scope

• Group project (3 people)
• 1 week

Tools

• Pen & paper
• Prototyping tools: Figma & Principle
• Mural

UX Techniques

• Information architecture, navigation & sitemap
• Card sorting
• Desirability tests
• Branding
• Interviews
• Establishing business opportunities from primary features (user vs business value)
• Problem statement & scenario
• Lo, mid & hi-fi prototypes
• Animation
• HTML & CSS

Evaluating the current site

To fully understand where improvements were needed we evaluated the current site with a content audit & visual evaluation.

Content Audit

The objective of the content audit of the current site was to gather all the content, look for duplicates, bad structures & understand brand values.

With an overview of the content included, we could think about prioritising the messaging and align it to business goals with information architecture and clear site navigation.

How did we restructure the site?

Business goals, users’ mental models and brand values were the basis or reorganising the site’s structure.

1. Users’ mental model

We split up the content from the current site into separate elements of information and allowed people to group the content as they felt made sense to them using a process called card sorting (open & closed card sorting). This approach uncovers users’ mental models for better information architecture. This gave us 5 main categories: about, menu, services, delivery & contact.

2. Business Goals

With those 5 categories in mind, we then prioritised them against business goals.

What are the restaurant’s key business goals and how could a new website design support these objectives?

OPPORTUNITY 1: Provide fresh delivery food

• PROBLEM People looking to an easy / accessible alternative to cooking at home
• SOLUTION Accessible, quick and easy-to-use delivery option
• KPI Number of deliveries ordered

OPPORTUNITY 2: More clients in restaurant

• PROBLEM Business boost needed from people coming to eat post Coronavirus
• SOLUTION Effectively & authentically communicate brand identity & messaging
• KPI People contacting via the site

3. Brand values

With an idea of site structure through auditing the content, grouping similar elements and then prioritising those categories based on business objectives, we then began thinking about brand messaging.

Whos is Vegan-Té La Siria? We wanted to deconstruct their promise to their customers in order to authentically communicate it.

We decided on primary brand attributes to develop the visual design with: approachable, healthy, fresh & light. We used these attributes as goals for how we wanted the users to associate with & think about the brand.

What’s really the goal here?

Having deconstructed and realigned the content of the site to business goals we solidified a problem statement to have in mind when progressing further with the design — getting the users to interact with a design to support reaching business goals.

How might we streamline the process of ordering food from Vegan-Té and allow people to understand who they are?

Introducing you to Sara

From the insights in the user interviews, we developed some specifics about who this website & restaurant is serving. Sara is a user persona: a fictional figure to have in-mind as a representative of the user (traits, behaviours & patterns of a bigger body of people).

Let’s make a scenario for Sara, how might Sara con to use the Vegan-Té site?

Sara knows all the vegan restaurants in Malaga, due to the coronavirus lockdown she’s missing her favourite places. Reminiscing about the tasty food, she’s reminded of the delicious fatte they have at this place called Vegan-Té. She jumps online to see if they have online delivery.

The final design

Before going into some key highlights of that process, best you have the final thing in mind.

We invite you to explore the delivery options of Vegan-Té and add some tasty fatte and hummus to your cart. Make sure you’re in full screen — enjoy!

How did the project take shape?

With a problem, a goal and a user, what were the steps to get from A to B?

Initial stages:

• Navigation & site map (using card sorting)
• Understanding business goals and prioritising the content dependent on it
• Brand attributes & initial visual pathways (with style tiles)

Mid stages:

• Experimenting: visual pathways with site content in layout
• Deciding on elements to move forward with and iterating with that
• Testing the desirability of of the design

Final stages:

• Finalising design details (both mobile & desktop)
• HTML & CSS of one page
• Prototyping

Some key steps along the way

With the brand attributes (approachable, healthy, fresh & light) in mind, we developed initial style tiles, with which our team aligned how we saw the visual design progressing.

From those style tiles, we each developed a visual design pathway. We did this to diverge visually, and have more options to play with.

This process gave us the following 3 options:

Once we saw how everyone visualised the design, we drew together the elements we thought worked well and aligned best to the messaging we were going for and settled on the following brand elements:

The logo reflects the woman who runs the restaurant, she’s from Syria and she puts her heart into the place. We wanted her to be a key part in the branding as she’s really the powerhouse behind everything and feeds the vibe of the place.

Key changes made through the design process

• Change made: Order of navigation options
• Reason: Prioritising business goals

• Change made: Primary background colour from coral to white or grey
• Reason: In-line with brand attributes: healthy, vegan & fresh

• Change made: Rid contact page
• Reason: Not useful, doesn’t aid the user, instead clear calls to action (business goals in mind)

Making the layout responsive

Some key differences:

1. Primary navigation: Horizontal top nav in desktop, hamburger menu in mobile
2. Delivery & Menu interface: Tabs on desktop, accordion drop-down on mobile (no scrolling, succinct user experience)

Animation consideration

How might animation play a part in enhancing the experience and maybe even delight? We considered the top nav bar on desktop changing colour depending on its background to ensure legibility.

Site build (HTML & CSS)

To fully understand how the responsiveness of the site could be we began building out the home page using HTML and CSS which you can see here.

Hello!

This is just the beginning and it we were to have more time it would be nice to build out more of the site.

Did we communicate what we set out to?

With our redesign, we wanted to see if we were achieving what we set out to with the brand attributes. Above are the results from our desirability tests. They’re very much in-line with what we wanted to achieve which is great.

Next steps

If we were to continue with this project, what would we do next?

• Build out the full webpage using HTML, CSS & Javascript
• Run usability tests to evaluate the success of our design
• Offer the webpage to the restaurant to use

Key learnings

What did we learn from all of this?

• Power of card sorting & desirability testing to validate design decisions
• The importance of aligning design with business goals
• Translating design to HTML/CSS

Thank you for reading! If you have any feedback or comment don’t hesitate to contact me on LinkedIn or at soeverard@gmail.com.

This was a project done with Ironhack’s UX/UI bootcamp course in Barcelona.

What was the starting point?

Design a new travel booking app to be launched on both Android and iOS.

We were provided with initial personas (to use as a starting point) and the focus of this project was thinking about business opportunities within our designs and then executing with a strong visual identity and ensuring it’s appropriate for both iOS & Android.

Scope

• Individual project
• 1 week

Tools

• Pen & paper
• Prototyping tools: Figma, Marvel & Principle
• Mural

UX Techniques

• Interviews
• Establishing business opportunities from primary features (user vs business value)
• Problem statement & scenario
• Lo, mid & hi-fi prototypes
• Animation
• Translation from Android to iOS
• Usability testing
• Information architecture
• Branding

Deciding on direction

When deciding on which features to prioritise, I looked at what was important to the user (using Red Routes), and then what was important to the business (the opportunities for revenue).

This analysis of user & business needs, along with initial user interviews, led me to prioritise two opportunities for this product:

Opportunity 1

Clear & accessible way to book flights

Problem: People are short on time & want to organise trips quickly

KPI: Number of flights booked

Opportunity 2

Travel insurance provided during the flight booking process

Problem: People feel vulnerable in unfamiliar places

KPI: Insurance booked

These two opportunities led the design and its primary features. In a succinct way, the goal of FlySafe is outlined by this problem statement:

How might we make booking flights easy and quick while providing convenient insurance?

What else is out there?

To get an idea of where this product could shine, I looked into how others were already tackling travel booking and noted their user flows.

This allowed me to see both concise and quick ways for the user to get from A to B and also areas in which I could focus on to make more user friendly and convenient.

Who does FlySafe help?

Without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to Sofia. From the insights in the user interviews, I developed some specifics about who this app could be for. Sofia is a user persona: a fictional figure to have in-mind as a representative of the user (traits, behaviours & patterns of a bigger body of people).

Let’s make a scenario for Sofia, how might she come to use FlySafe?

One of Sofia’s two trips this year is to London. Having seen the news, her mum has told her to take care and be safe while there. As Sofia has always been on the safe side of life, her friend recommended her FlySafe for key info on London and travel insurance while she’s booking her flights.

How did the project take shape?

With a problem, a goal and a user, what were the steps to get from A to B?

Initial stages:

• User interviews
• Benchmarking
• Establishing business goals
• Paper prototyping

Mid stages:

• Mid-fi prototypes
• Exploring visual design pathways
• Testing (3 people) & iterating

Final stages:

• Testing (5 people) & iterating hi-fi prototypes (2 versions)
• Deciding specifics of UI elements
• Animation
• Translation from Android to iOS

The final design

Before going into some key highlights of that process, best you have the final thing in mind.

Try booking a return flight to London with No Worries insurance (as Sofia). Make sure you’re in full screen — enjoy!

Some key highlights along the way

One of the key element in the design is the safety information on travel destination and how to communicate that effectively.

As shown above, that was developed upon in a few ways during the iterations: splitting up the destination information page from the insurance offerings; trying various visual approaches to communicating the safety rating; prioritising the information the user actually needed rather than sales talk.

Here are some further amends made during the iteration process:

Android vs. iOS

The design was originally considered for Android, how might that translate to iOS?

• Navigation brought to bottom nav bar in iOS
• Calendar view made more familiar to iOS users
• Back button navigation style amended
• Side drawer (native to Android) changed to the calendar filters appearing from below

Visual design and UI considerations

As the app was strongly geared towards safety, the visual design had to reflect that in order to authentically communicate what the app stands for. With this in mind I chose blues and golds as the primary colours (reliability and confidence) with the safety/price colours aside in red, yellow & green.

After experimenting with type, colour & design detailing, some UI specifics are collated here:

Animation

Along with the foundational visual language (colours, typography & layout), I began thinking about how animation could enhance the user’s experience. Animation could highlight specific elements of information to draw the user’s eye, or simply to add a little delight to the design.

Next steps

If I were I continue developing this idea, what would I do next?

• Explore searching by the ‘safest destination’ as a development
• Could the destination information be more specific? e.g. safety of each neighbourhood
• Test on more people & iterate further
• How could we increase customer loyalty (as a further business opportunity)?

Key learnings

• When content heavy, prioritising what the user really needs to know is key
• Ensure the tone of voice is in-line with the user’s goals
• Testing with a wide range of people is really useful

Thank you for reading! If you have any feedback or comment don’t hesitate to contact me on LinkedIn or at soeverard@gmail.com.

This was a project done with Ironhack’s UX/UI bootcamp course in Barcelona, with Victoria Micheva.

What’s this all about?

Who’s Glovo? Glovo is a Spanish courier service that provides purchases and delivering through its mobile app.

What was the brief? Adding a ‘split the bill’ feature to Glovo’s existing app as seamlessly as possible.

Our story begins with research.

How do people really split their bills?

To get an idea how people pay generally for their goods when others are involved (whether that be online or in-person), we did 2 initial interviews.

From there, we wanted to see what others were doing already with some benchmarking. We used Jakob Nielsen’s heuristics to evaluate how successfully people were tackling split bill features. Monzo, Uber and Verse were key players in this evaluation — all of which has very smooth split bill functionalities but with varying approaches to user flow and flexibility.

With an idea of the market place (what was already out there) and a survey, we conducted a further 8 interviews that were more focussed. Through affinity diagramming, we found some common themes when it came to what was important to people when splitting bills:

• Convenience & time saving is key
• Awkwardly asking for repayments is the worst
• People hate maths — avoid counting who owes what
• Splitting bills can be a vibe killer

What did we want to achieve?

With research under our belts we decided to get really clear about what we were doing, why and for whom.

To settle on a problem statement we used How Might We cards, to diverge on the possible opportunities and better understand our priorities. From here, we decided on the following problem statement:

How might we help people on Glovo split bills fast and without awkwardness?

So, who would this be for?

We were very clear on the fact there would be two sides to the feature of splitting a bill: one person using the app (initiating the split bill) and the other(s) accepting their money request. To have specifics in mind we developed two user personas as fictional figures to have in-mind as a representative of the user: traits, behaviours & patterns of a bigger body of people

So, with that in mind, I first introduce you to our primary user persona: Diego.

Diego is based in Barcelona, he’s 28 and orders food a couple of times a week. When paying, he needs convenience and things to happen quickly to he can focus on what’s important: spending time with his friends.

And, our secondary user persona: Helena.

Let’s jump into their shoes

I’d like you to imagine the following scenario:

Diego has his cousin, Helena, at his house. They have a lot to talk about and are looking for something quick and easy for dinner. Pizza from Glovo is the go-to.

Diego gets to paying the bill and they decide to split it. Both hate wasting time and awkward conversations about money but luckily Glovo has a new feature which puts their minds at rest.

Try the final version

Without further ado, I’d like you imagine you’re Diego in the scenario and you’re on his phone with this prototype. I invite you to try different ways of splitting the bill and explore the flexibility Diego has.

And now, for the other side of the story see here for Helena’s phone.

Now, how did we get from A to B?

You’ve seen our final design, how did we get there? There were 3 overarching stages in the process, which you can see here:

With research, a defined problem and a persona in mind, we began thinking out how the user flow could materialise which is what you see noted here:

At the start of the process we began developing the feature with the split bill option appearing after the initial payment was made (so there would be no delay in the orders). With this user flow, we began sketching. These quickly developed into a paper prototype allowing us to get user feedback as soon as possible.

What we quickly realised was that we needed to amend the user flow so that the split bill option was before the initial payment, why?

• One of the main points from our research was avoid awkward conversations about money at all costs. If people repay one another post initial payment, reminders between friends and awkward conversations will still be had (we would not be reaching our goal)
• Glovo is not a bank, and shouldn’t worry about money people after an order has been made if not to do with the order itself
• How would people pay after order been made if Glovo if not going to act as an intermediate? You can see where the complications arose

So we had a rethink with one question in mind: how can we allow for split bill to happen before initial payment made without delaying the order?

Solution?

The person initiating the payment authorises his card for the full order’s payment but with a delayed charge of 15 minutes, why?

• Glovo has authorised payment as an assurance to process the order immediately
• The user’s friends have 15 minutes to pay their share otherwise the order will be processed as normal

That way there a three-fold positive outcome: 1) avoid awkward conversations between friends about money (they pay or they don’t in those 15 minutes, that’s it); 2) Glovo gets their order, only varying who might be covering it; 3) there is no delay in processing the order.

Once the user flow was set, it was just a matter of making it as clear as possible for Diego and Helena to find useful. These changes were made based on user feedback on design iteration. Here are a few key changes made:

Once we were at the point of high-fidelity, we wanted to make the experience as sleek and enjoyable as possible. To do this we did a couple of things:

• Careful consideration of matching the visual design to the Glovo brand
• Add illustrations to aid engagement and understanding
• Consider how animation might play a part in the feature (using Principle)

See here again the final prototypes of Diego and Helena.

Next steps

If we were to move forward with this, what would that look like?

• Explore how the interface of multiple users in the split bill would be
• Review Glovo’s payment methods (during research this kept on coming up, although we were focussed on the split bill pathway, we would have liked to review Glovo’s payment options more broadly)
• Further testing on both sides of the user (Helena & Diego) and iterate the design further

Key learnings

• Even with a well-defined brief, good research
  is essential to ensure the experience is user-centred
• Benchmarking is insightful for interface specifics
• Listen to user feedback even if you don’t like it
• Trust the process — follow each step, make a plan, include a break ;)

Thank you for reading! If you have any feedback or comment don’t hesitate to contact me on LinkedIn or at soeverard@gmail.com.

This was a project done with Ironhack’s UX/UI bootcamp course in Barcelona.

The brief

What was the scope for the project?

Propose a new mobile app designed to support building (or breaking) a habit.

Initial research

User interviews, surveys

The brief was broad, in order to gauge which habit I wanted to focus on I started my research with 2 initial interviews. These conversations were open, not about any specific topic or habit. From these two initial interviews the theme of accountability and communication caught my eye.

From here, I did 3 more interviews and a survey.

The survey

The survey received 25 responses. Initially I thought I’d be focussing on how people manage their communication across different platforms (which changed promptly after), meaning the questions asked in the survey where not as helpful as perhaps they might have been if I had decided a clear direction earlier on.

Note: You will see as progressing through the process, that this project has been a learning curve and there were several things that I did early on in the process that did not help me.

The interviews

Having done the initial 2 interviews, I then did 3 more (5 in total with initial research) to delve further in to the topic of communication and accountability.

Affinity diagrams

With the survey data and information from the interviews I looked for common themes through affinity diagrams.

Some key insights from this were:

• People not having direction at work
• Bad communication supports negative team culture
• Lack of transparency causes a team to suffer

From this point, I decided to focus on solving a problem in the workplace.

A wrong turn 🙀

After the affinity diagrams, I found myself going down the wrong rabbit hole for the majority of the project’s week.

What happened?

With the themes of accountability, communication and the workplace, I began thinking about project management. In a week, daft I know… Nonetheless, let me take you through the journey.

The personas

A persona is a fictional figure to have in-mind as a representative of the user: traits, behaviours & patterns of a bigger body of people.

Thinking about the workplace, there were two key personas that had to be included in the design process: employee & employer.

I did 2 more interviews to understand these two positions further: one with each other persona types (employee & employer).

From these interviews, I understood the different pain points, gain points and frustrations from both parties. Which lead me to creating David and Rachel, the two user personas.

The problem

With 7 interviews, 2 personas and 1 survey in the bag, the time had arrived to settle on a problem statement. In order to do this, I used a divergent brainstorming tool called How Might We cards (HMW), which allows you to think of problems as opportunities. Here are some of the key HMWs I came up with:

• HMW streamline communication within teams and across different teams
• HMW allow team transparency & align priorities
• HMW ensure the correct content/documents is always available
• HMW ensure smooth communication with people at all levels in the organisation
• HMW align goals with everyday tasks

With all that in mind I decided in the following problem statement:

How might we allow clear communication across teams about tasks and how to execute them

Ideation

With a clear problem and user in mind, I began sketching ideas and thinking about user flows.

Through this process I landed on project management as the obvious solution for teams to understand what needs to happen when and how to do it: minimising miscommunication between parties involved. Little did I realise the complexity of going down this route (are you beginning to see the red flags for a one week project?).

Prototyping

Lo-fi:

With the user flow in mind, I wanted to go straight to getting feedback on usability and made a paper prototype using Marvel and tested it on 2 people.

Mid-fi:

From the test on the lo-fi prototype, there were some key changes made, however the user flow & concept was understood. No help nor nudges needed for the users to navigate well around the prototype. The feedback was used to make the iteration into a mid-fi prototype which you can test here.

Hold-up, it’s time for critique

Wednesday morning arrives (bear in mind, final presentations on Friday morning, we’re over half way through the project), and it’s time for a group critique: tutors and students review you work, ask questions, offer suggestions. The verdict? I’d bitten off more than I could chew and hadn’t answered the brief.

A quick summary

The brief: Propose a new mobile app designed to support building (or breaking) a habit.

Had I done that? No.

The timeline: One week.

Could I tackle project management in a week? No.

The next step: Back to the drawing board.

Round 2

With a day and a half to go, I had no prototype, no user flow and no idea. What did I have? Initial research and a vague goal of increasing transparent communication in the workplace.

From here, I had to look at the goal in a new light and asked myself the following question: Why was transparent communication in the workplace important?

• Less misunderstanding
• Healthy workplace culture
• Team spirit
• Increase self-esteem
• Non-threatening environment
• Clear direction
• Solve conflicts easily
• Stronger teamwork
• High employee satisfaction

Understanding the underlying motivations to reach the final goal allowed me to think of new approaches to tackling it.

The problem

I then went through a similar process as beforehand with How Might We cards which highlighted to me possible opportunities within the research I had already undertaken.

Here is the amended problem statement:

How might we grow team spirit in the workplace through transparent communication?

The persona & scenario

I was really keen not to drop the ball in round 2, by ensuring I had a clear persona and scenario in mind on my second attempt before ideating. (These were both sense checked before progressing!)

Without further ado, I introduce you to David Fin:

His characteristics are based on insights from the interviews:

• Need for sense of direction at work
• Good communication is key (people need to feel part of their team)
• Transparency allows for stronger teamwork

Furthermore, creating a scenario gave David context. This in turn meant I could progress the design process with him in mind, I could imagine myself in his shoes and empathise with his needs. What is David’s situation?

David works at a company trying to improve their company culture. He’s likes this as he’s a people person and wants to feel part of his team and useful to his colleagues. His company is attempting to do this by using the Daily Team Support app where the team can share their daily tasks and concerns amongst each other and offer support where needed.

Ideation

At this point, I felt like I had a good idea of David and his needs and went to thinking about how I could support him with some initial sketches.

A key idea that came out of these initial sketches was the stand-ups that Agile teams use to keep each other informed of what’s going on and if there are any issues.

Stand-ups happen everyday, and they consist of a team sharing with each other 3 things:

1. What they did yesterday
2. What they are doing today
3. Any blockers (anything that might prevent them moving forward)

With this in mind I came up with a very straightforward user flow. Thinking of David, I was keen to give the app a playful element — adding the competition element to the flow, championing the people that had supported the most teammates that week (‘the best teammates’). I concept checked this user flow with 3 people, and they understood it.

Prototyping

Lo-fi:

The user flow then translated into a lo-fi prototype which I tested using the Marvel app with 2 people.

Some key user feedback from tests:

• ‘What are you up to’ page too busy
• Where do you go to from ‘offer support’?

Mid-fi (v1):

With the insights from user testing I iterated into a mid-fi prototype.

I tested this with a further 3 people, the insights from which defined the changes to the final iteration.

Mid-fi (v2): FINAL DESIGN

Some key changes in this iteration based on user testing include:

• Ridding all reference to stand-ups to make accessible to people unfamiliar with the concept
• Ridding ‘what did you do yesterday’: no need, it’s part of the stand-up formula but redundant in this context
• Adding personal profile: people can see what their colleagues know of them & edit
• Adding more explanation of the app early on to make purpose clear

These changes are highlighted here:

See final prototype here.

While interacting with the prototype, I invite you to put yourself in David’s shoes — what might he do?

• Add his daily tasks/concerns
• See what his colleagues are doing today and if they need support
• Offer support to his colleagues
• Request support from his colleagues
• View his personal profile

Next steps

• Test. How would this work in real life? Test on the target users. Then iterate…

Key learnings

Don’t be precious about your designs

Sometimes you go down the wrong path, get on with it and move forward again.

We’re in school for a reason

This was my first individual project at the Ironhack UX/UI bootcamp, and starting from scratch mid-way through the project wasn’t easy. After a cool down, I decided that I was lucky it had happened now, in school. What could I learn from this? Where did I go wrong in the design process, what could I take from the design I made and dropped, and how best could I move forward?

Sense check before going too far

Following up on the last point, one of the key things I learnt was to sense check at ever point. Don’t waste unnecessary time.

Start small

Think this speaks for itself.

Thank you for reading! If you have any feedback or comment don’t hesitate to contact me on LinkedIn or at soeverard@gmail.com.

A retired couple are looking for a week’s getaway including a visit to Chichen Itza, one of the seven wonders of the new millennium - where do they look/go about about organising it?

They want things to be sorted ahead of time: flights, accommodation, things to do. In this case study, I have evaluated a few options (Kayak, Skyscanner & Tripadvisor) and tested the option I believe to be most suitable to find remaining user paint points. With pain points established, we can then begin thinking about solutions.

User: elderly couple (60–80 y/o)

• Looking for tour / package with some flexibility
• Don’t want to deal with the process of organising the travel

Destination: Chichen Itza

• Nearest airport: Merida (Cancun not far either)
• Currency: Mexican peso (MXN)
• Entry requirements: most countries don’t need a visa prior (check per country), some vaccinations recommended (none required)
• Wardrobe recommendation: in touristy places no need to be conservative, if going into rural areas cover the shoulders and knees
• Days needed to visit attraction: 1

Benchmarking: compare Kayak, Skyscanner & Tripadvisor

Method: Usability heuristics evaluation (with Nielsen’s Principles)

Heuristics:

1. Visibility of system status: inform users of what’s going on with appropriate feedback in reasonable time
2. Match between system & real world: user’s language (words, phrases & concepts familiar to the user) rather than system orientated terms
3. User control & freedom: e.g. support undo and redo ‘emergency exit’
4. Consistency & standards: no miscommunication with discrepancy in use of wording etc.
5. Error prevention: e.g. eliminate error-prone condition or present a confirmation option before committing to an action
6. Recognition rather than recall: minimise the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible
7. Flexibility & efficiency of use: speed up interaction for expert users, e.g. allow users to tailor frequent action
8. Aesthetic & minimalist design: rid irrelevant/unneeded content to streamline user experience
9. Help users recognise, diagnose & recover from errors: with clear error messages, cleanly indicating the problem with constructive solution
10. Help & document: ideal if a system/product can be used without documentation, but where needed let it be easy to search, focused on user task with clear steps to carry out, and concise.

Evaluation:

Kayak:

Good visibility of system status and use of real world language, user has control and there are standards of communication throughout. There are deals of hotels (w/specific) and flights but no option to look for more inclusive packages (e.g. go to Chichen Itza). Visibility of actions & objects fairly good, but in order to book there is no option on the app and takes you third party platform. As far as I can see, no functionality to make use more efficient when used often (e.g. tailor frequent actions). As users are taken to third party platforms to book the need for solving errors is minimised, as is the need for documentation.

For the user type, more package deals/information about activities would be useful, along with services like airport pick-ups to hotels etc.

Skyscanner:

Good visibility of system status, with more helpful options to guide through the app (i.e. can search Chichen Itza and it comes up with the relevant flights), real world wording. The user has control with a few different ways to navigate / explore options (e.g. search whole month, or search anywhere), there does seem to be perhaps too many steps so the user flow could be shortened a bit (especially if an error is made). Although the platform takes you to third party sites to make the booking, you can save the things your interested in reducing the need for recall. With documentation, efficiency of use and flexibility, there is a very usable profile page with quick links to customise you experience or ask for help. There is a consistency too in the language used and visual system that makes the whole experience streamline.

For the user type, there is information about key sites of interest with key details, user reviews and ratings. You can make a package of car hire, hotel and flights, but you cannot add other attractions.

Tripadvisor:

The visibility on some of the elements is better than others, they have many elements that they include meaning the process needs to be even more clear to make the experience as smooth as possible and while the ‘trip’ feature feels like it’s trying to tackle this it’s not that helpful. To see what you’re interested in you have to go through a few screens each time (not immediately obvious). Matched the system to the real world very well. It does give the user control but not in the most succinct way meaning errors are frequent (frustration?). Without the interests being immediately obvious, there is need for recall (using the user’s memory). There are are elements that feel are being personalised after many times using the platform, increasing efficiency, but it has not quite achieved a useful outcome. With so many facets to their offering, the design feels a little overwhelming. They do have quick access to documentation which is needed due to the errors that are easily made.

For the user type, Trip Advisor is very useful in the fact it incorporates flight details, local attractions, reviews, hotels, and just about everything; however, the experience of compiling all of these elements is a little overwhelming and the user needs to be have a very clear way to navigate and organise all the aspects.

Platform that best suits user type’s needs (elderly couple): Tripadvisor
Why? Ability to include more aspects of the travel and not have to organise when there

Testing:

Look & feel:

5 seconds with the home screen, then covered to ask: what did they see?, what does the platform do?, and where to search a flight?

Helps us know what to do when travelling and how to book it; info etc. For flights, click flight button

That’s basically what the app does, so good first impression.

Task:

With a budget of 1500eu, find flights, accommodation and one day of an adventure package (including Chichen Itza).

Insights:

Having tested on three people within the demographic (asking them to assume they were organising a trip for them and their spouses), the main points of interest were:

• No way to save the flights within Tripadvisor (they had to go to the third party sites), for later to review the whole trip
• Can save details for accommodation in ‘trip’ area, but doesn’t give any indication of price
• When tallying different elements in ‘trip’ area, no succinct way of getting to the trip you are currently organising (3 clicks rather than immediately obvious)
• On searching activities, no indication of what’s included on (must enter page to get any details) and filtering for user specifics is limited (e.g. no option to include transport or wheelchair accessibility)
• On the ‘trip’ section, there is no indication of price (even estimated), which is included on all specific pages, no collated total
• Like the reviews & ratings
• No ability to add car rental

The problem:

From the insights above, there’s a reoccurring theme of frustration with the ‘trip’ feature and that improving this could massively improve the user’s experience of the platform.

The key elements that need improving on this are:

• Include estimated prices
• Improve application-wide accessibility to it

There are many ways to solve these issues. With that in mind, a pen to paper…

Low fidelity wireframes:

Mid fidelity wireframes:

The bar at the bottom will remain on all screens if there is a trip in the process of being compiled, giving people a quick access to everything they’ve put together.

This is made into a simple prototype, which you can see here.

Learnings:

I found it very useful here to see the users go through the whole process step by step. My initial assumptions were proven wrong by this.