Using Technology to Slow Down and Improve Communication

With messaging apps, we can talk to anyone at anytime and virtually anywhere. However, the constant availability to message someone can at times lessen the quality of communication. Cardmakr is an application that allows users to create and send physical mail from their mobile devices. This causes users to slow down and send messages with more intention, elevating the quality of their communication.

Role: User Research, UX Strategy, Branding, UI Design, Testing, Prototyping

The Process

Research

Test

Research: Empathy Research

Before starting the design process, I first conducted empathy research to get better insight into people’s behaviors when it comes to messaging and communication. From this, I found that many people are sometimes unsatisfied with messaging people in their lives. At times they say things that they don’t mean, or don’t think about before sending their messages. Most people I interviewed said they enjoy sending and receiving physical mail, but it is not the most convenient way to communicate. From this, I made a list of things to pursue and avoid with the Cardmakr app.

Analyze: User Persona & Empathy Mapping

After talking to the targeted demographic and listening to their wants and needs, I created a user persona and empathy map of a typical user of the Cardmakr application.

Analyze: Ideation

Using the persona and empathy map, I then used the crazy 8’s method for the ideation and storyboarding. These quick exercises helped me to further understand the behaviors of users who want to send physical mail, and how they might respond to different situations based on their mindsets.

Design: User Flow

Before any wireframes or pages were designed, I first created a user flow for creating a card on the Cardmakr application. This flow was chosen based on the results from my empathy research as well as a scenario from the ideation phase.

Design: Wireframes

Following the user flow, I began to layout basic wireframes for the Cardmarkr application.

Design: Identity

Before further developing the wireframes, I then started to work on the identity for the Cardmakr application. I decided to reference a letter in the identity, using the fold lines to form an “m”.

Design: Prototype and Higher Fidelity Wireframes

I then further developed the wireframes, and created a prototype for the Cardmaker application.

Design: UI Kit

Finally, I created a UI kit including all the elements a developer may need to build the Cardmakr application.

Test

Once the prototype was built, I conducted usability testing among Cardmakr’s targeted demographic to gain insights on the design, and learn how my expectations and assumptions were similar to the users, and where they differed. Based on the results from the usability testing, I created an affinity map to show the hierarchy of both successes as well as changes to be implemented.

Reflection and Next Steps

Once the app is created and the user experience is tested, further changes are made and those changes are subject to further testing. The user experience is continually updated and shaped based on user testing and feedback. A design is never truly finished, and lives in the space between the design and testing stages of the UX process. Further testing of the site will determine what features and changes are needed.