User Experience
Context
Earlier this month, i got to be a part of a workshop at CSM, as part of our ‘signup workshops’. The one i chose for this unit was about an introduction to user experience. The workshop was led by Daniela Barbeira, who is a designer at transport for London (tfl). She is also part of the team which created the ‘tfl go’ application.
The workshop
We were divided into groups of three to four students, and given sample user personas, and two problem statements that related to the student’s experience at UAL to investigate. I had the chance to work with two amazing people, our problem statement was to investigate the weeks leading up to graduating from UAL. We created an experience map using sticky notes and sharpies. (tip: use sharpies as it makes it easier to put down thoughts quicker). The goal of an experience map is to identify the different associations in the stages of a process under investigation.
At the end of the process, we question the different parts of the process and try to identify specific points to further understand and think of possible problem statements.
To get us to think, we were told to only think about bad or irrelevant ideas, after which, everyone was asked to think of 8 ideas in a limited period of time, which then led to discussions among the group members to focus on implementing one chosen idea, working closely as a group. We were asked to create a narrative storyboard to express our idea/ thought process regarding the problem statement we had identified.
Outcome
Our thought was developed around the exposure to industry the students of CSM had access to and how might we create a better experience for the students at large. To this, our solution was this idea of organising an event, almost like a play day, which would be host to different activities and collaborative events, enabling organic interactions between students/ graduates and people from the industry. This is how the final ideation looked like. Here we show an activity involving painting different parts of a bigger picture, while changing positions and interacting with the people around, kind of like ‘musical chairs’. The workshop ended with a presentation of our work as groups with thoughts & inputs from our tutors.
Learning
I think the workshop helped me understand the actual process of working with UX design, it developed my understanding of UX, user personas and experience maps. I think I can apply the method of creating experience maps to ideate and identify problem statements in other projects as well.
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