The final project has provided me with a good learning experience with regards to designing user experience. It was a chance to put concepts learnt into practice and to actually see how all of them fit together.
It was also interesting that despite being cautioned in class about placing functionality before experience, we somehow found ourselves doing it. In retrospect, we unwittingly did that in hopes of increasing user satisfaction and because it was the easier thing to do
But what I probably took home about User Experience Design from this project were with respect to these 3 things:
1. User’s Needs & Experience
2. Design Aesthetics
3. Technical Ability
User’s Needs & Experience
This is something that was really hard to do, especially if what you designed wasn’t something that you’d use. Unlike designing the LT experience, of which we were also users of, the iCook wasn’t something we’d use.
This meant that we really needed to get down and dirty with our users – to truly understand them and their needs. We needed to spend time talking to them, finding out more about them, doing field research instead of jumping straight into working on the product, with the little we knew about them and assuming that was sufficient. Getting more into their psyche was something we could and should have done more of.
Undoubtedly, this is probably the most boring aspect, apart from user evaluations but I believe this is probably the most important consideration when it comes to designing. Although there are needs that can be met with functionality, our ultimate aim is to please a thinking and more importantly, feeling human being.
Design Aesthetics
This is probably the next most important thing in UX design because appearance communicates and appeals to the emotions, affecting experience. It took us quite awhile to come up with an interface design that pleased our users, but I’m glad we eventually did.
Technical Ability
I couldn’t imagine if there were no students from Computing in this course, because constructing a prototype would have been almost impossible. The lack of technical ability to make ideas a reality would also affect the end product. It was a good experience working with students from another faculty, albeit challenging at times because we had differing viewpoints. Nonetheless, it was a good simulation of working with other departments in a company.
