Design is a process, we must always aim to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to solve for our user’s needs before we can measure success.
Empathize & Define
Establishing business requirements and goals. Learning about who the user is and what their needs are. Defining meaningful and actionable problem statements that focus on insights and the needs of the user. The insights emerge from a process of stakeholder and user interviews, surveys, competitor analysis, and creating user personas.
Ideate
Transitioning from identifying problems to creating solutions. Brainstorming to find the widest possible range of ideas from which to select, not simply finding a single, best solution.
Prototype & Design
An iterative process of generating artifacts intended to answer questions that bring us closer to the final solution. These prototypes can be anything that a user can interact with – a wall of post-it notes, wireframes, paper mockups, or storyboard. Sitemaps, information architecture and high-fidelity static mockups are created for visual representation of the end product.
Test
Testing provides the opportunity to better understand the user through observation and engagement. Trying to find out what worked and what didn't. Refining the solution and informing for the next iteration of protyping and design through usability testing and evaluation, feedback and surveys.
Build
Taking what was learned and giving the design a stuctural markup with scripts and stylesheets to create a finished product with graphical elements.
deliver!
About Me
Creative. Thinker. Dreamer.
I am a user-centered, problem-solving, self-motivated UX & UI designer living in Dublin, Ireland. I have experience working in-house, freelance and in an agency environment at every stage of the design process from initial ideation to finished product, creating simple and practical solutions to user's problems.
I love understanding how people think and behave, and leveraging research to design and transform complex tasks into intuitive products and experiences which solve both user and business needs. My ability to learn quickly and my love for new technologies has allowed me to gain experience in a wide variety of fields in the digital world whether it be graphic design, small business websites, eCommerce stores or mobile applications. When I'm not designing I love to travel and to move as fast as possible down snowy mountains.
Whether it’s finding a solution to a complex design problem, or just figuring out what colours work best on a web page, I aim for simple, intuitive solutions that will improve the projects I work on. Feel free to say hello and let me know if you have a project I can help you with.
GoodMarket
Mobile app design to bring the modern convenience of online shopping and delivery to the customers of a small local grocery store.
My role: Interaction Designer | Information Architect
Project Prompt
GoodMarket is a small grocery franchise based in the United States. Although their customer satisfaction ratings have remained relatively constant over the last 4 years, their market share has been decreasing by 8% each year. If they continue at this rate for another year or two, they’ll be forced to shut their doors. Through some market and user research they have determined that this decline is most likely due to the increase in online grocery ordering & delivery products.
Many customers prefer these products to shopping in store because they’re faster, easier and more convenient - customers can shop from their desks, homes, or in line at the coffee shop. GoodMarket believes that if they allow their customers to shop and buy their products online, they can expand their customer base and market share.
VISION STATEMENT
Good Market has put together the following vision for their new online product:
"GoodMarket is a grocery shopping tool that helps customers quickly and easily shop and purchase groceries online, and then have them delivered promptly at little to no cost."
UX Research
In order to figure out which customers to target with their product, GoodMarket did some user research. After observing customers in their stores, and talking with users of a competitor's product, Good Market has determined that busy young professionals make up a large portion of their product’s target market. They’ve create a persona called “The busy professional
(TBP)” to describe the qualities of the type of user they’re focusing on.
User persona for GoodMarket's mobile app target audience.
Business Goals
What is the expected business outcome for the product?
Expend customers base and market share, deliver products to other cities around the country. Being competitive on the grocery market and in online ordering & delivery products in particular.
What are the users' goals?
Quickly and easily shop without spending extra time on it (purchase online), get fresh groceries delivered promptly.
Competitor Analysis
To get a better understanding of how users shop online currently a competitor analysis was undertaken to how other companies offering the same/similar services had gone about things and to see where there was opportunities to improve on the overall experience.
Scenario of use to describe the typical experience that a customer like The Busy Professional (TBP) would have when ordering their groceries online:
It is late in the afternoon and Tom is in his office. He has just found out that he has a late meeting he needs to attend and won’t get a chance to go shopping after work as he had planned.
He has heard through a colleague that one of the local stores now has an online shop and also provides delivery
service too. Knowing he is running low on food at home he decides to give it a try. While walking to the canteen to
get something to eat before the meeting Tom takes out his phone and goes onto the GoodMarket website to check
it out. He finds that he can actually really quickly get most of the essentials he needs on the GoodMarket online shop
and that prices are reasonable too. He is even more impressed when he sees they offer late deliveries and he places
his order and selects to have his order delivered to his apartment for 8pm, by which time he should be home.
What is the context of use? In what settings will the product be used?
- For what length of time?
It should not take the user more than 15 - 20 minutes to do their shopping online. greatly reducing the time and effort spent travelling to and from the grocery store and actually doing the shopping in person.
- Will the user likely be interrupted or otherwise need to return to tasks?
First time users may be interrupted in order to setup a new account with personal information (name address) and also to provide billing information. This information should be savable though if wanted by the user to provide repeat users with a much quicker 1 click checkout option on return visits.
- Should GoodMarket exist first as a mobile or web-based product?
Using the persona to steer direction, mobile first would seem to be the best option as it will allow the user to shop anytime anywhere directly from their phone.
- Are there multiple users of a single account or device?
No. 1 user account with name and address and payment details setup is all it will require to use the product to do your grocery shopping and have it delivered to your home address.
Usability Analysis
The next step was to to run a a usability analysis review of a similar product to get an even better idea of what works and what doesn't and how the GoodMarket could be designed to improve on the existing options already available. This analysis was done using usability heuristics to review one of the larger online grocery apps in the areas of learnability, efficiency, memorability and error handling.
This exercise was carried to try and best categorise the GoodMarket inventory for search on mobile. It was important to organise the store's products in a way that would make sense for the user to find them. To help with this I ran a a mix of in person open card sorting workshops and also ran a closed sort using the online tool OptimalSort to help determine users’ conceptual models of different categories of items on the app.
Open card sort workshop.
Results from closed card sort on OptimalSort.
Sitemap
From the information gained using the card sort I then created a preliminary sitemap for the new application taking into consideration all features and pages that would be needed outside of and along with the actual store categories.
GoodMarket sitemap.
User Flow
The next step was to create a user flow to show the journey to purchase from opening the app using the new sitemap as the template for each step in the process. This was especially important as the user needs to sign in before they can checkout and as such there needed to be a prompt to sign in at some point in the journey.
Click image to view larger
GoodMarket userflow for journey to purchase.
Prototyping
Wireframes
With the basic user flow now laid out it was time to mock up some screens to provide a visual representation of how users would interact with the app to move between the screens while they went through the process of browsing, choosing and ordering their groceries. There was several iterations of the wireframes beginning with some rough sketches to get to the final version below.
Mobile wireframes for the GoodMarket application.
Wireframe userflow
A diagram put together to show the different screens in sequence throughout the user journey in preparation for the prototype.
Click image to view larger
GoodMarket wireframed user flow diagram.
Working prototype
Using InVision I have put together a working prototype for the GoodMarket app in order to try and gain validation in it's functionality.
Currently using the prototype to collect feedback on the functionality of the app, the likelihood being that there will need to be some changes made before moving on to the UI design for the app.
Date: January 2017
Client: GoodMarket
Category: Interaction Design
Bizzy
A product designed to help users eat clean and stay healthy at work and on the go.
My role: UX Researcher
The Idea
Poor nutrition on the job is resulting in a decrease in productivity and an increase in excess weight and obesity. Because of today’s busy work life, many office workers pay little attention to their eating habits. Many start their days reluctantly rolling out of bed after hitting the snooze button for the last possible time and then rush out the door without even so much as thinking about breakfast. There are others then who are so busy during the day that they skip lunch or if they do
eat something its a ready made sandwich and some chocolate for example eaten at their desks.
As a result of skipping meals snacking can become difficult to control, especially as there is always an excuse for treats and sweets in the office space (somebody back from a holiday, a birthday or somebody leaving etc).
DEFINING THE PROBLEM
To confirm my hypothesis and to try and find a solution to the problem I carried out some user research with the some key goals in mind:
To identify and understand the main reasons people working in offices skip/miss meals.
To find out what common foods people snack on during the day and how frequently.
To identify opportunities to promote healthier eating habits for office workers (perhaps by helping them to make healthier choices?).
To see if users are motivated or more likely to make healthier
choices when prompted or given an incentive to do so.
Research Survey
The first step was to send out a screener survey to office workers in order to gain as much information as possible about the lifestyle and eating habits of actual office workers.
Initial screener survey.
User Interviews
While I was still waiting for the survey feedback I began running a number of user interviews to get a better insight into the typical day to day of different office workers both male and female. It was interesting to see different patterns emerging among the male and female participants. These patterns were later backed up by the data gathered from the user survey.
Key findings:
Male participants were more likely to skip breakfast in the mornings as they were usually rushing out the door. Lack of preparation also meant they usually ate out locally on their break.
Female users prepare their meals (breakfast and/or lunch) in advance more often than their male colleagues however they were also found to be the most likely to snack on sugary items in the afternoons.
Creating User Empathy
Empathy Mapping
In order to try and gain empathy with and get a better understanding of the users I created an empathy map using the key themes that kept re-occurring during the user interviews and in the survey responses. Organizing the data this way allowed me to ensure the project was user-centered and also to provide a visual reference of the broader influences of the users lives.
User empathy map.
Storyboarding
My next step was to to show the users in context to show not just what the users are doing, but where they are when they're doing it all the time keeping the user in mind. Once the storyboard was finished it was then shown to a number of users who participated in the survey or interview stages for validation. Feedback was positive with nearly everyone who it was shown to saying they felt this story was about them personally!
Current state storyboard created during research phase.
POV Statements
At this point I felt I had gathered enough data and organized it so as to create empathy with the user. It was now time to look for insight and create a Point Of View (POV) statement to frame the problem space that best sums up what our users’ need while also helping me to begin looking at ways in how we might solve for them too.
POV Statement 1
A busy young professional short on time and with little spare money needs to find a way to eat healthier meals throughout the day because he knows his poor diet is not good for his overall health.
How might we help the user to manage their time throughout the day better so they can find extra time to prepare healthier meals.
How might we provide easier access to healthier meals for office workers at convenient times and at more affordable prices.
How might we educate or motivate our user to make healthier decisions.
POV Statement 2
A young office worker with a habit for eating too much sugary foods in the afternoons needs to find a way to make healthier choices because she is worried about putting on too much weight.
How might we help the user to manage their time throughout the day better so they can find extra time to prepare healthier meals.
How might we go about providing healthier alternative to sugary foods for our user in the office environment.
How might we create a way for people in teams in offices to help each other make healthier option.
Ideate
Brainstorming
The next step was to begin generating as many ideas as possible to solve for the user. With the aid of the artifacts created during the research phase and the POV statements framing the problem I ran two timed 10 minute brainstorming sessions to see what I could come up with.
Sketches from one of the brainstorming sessions.
User Journey Storyboarding
Having put a few ideas together in the brainstorming sessions I then looked at which we're the most practical and feasible and took those which I felt would work well and created a new storyboard detailing how these solutions might fit into the users day to day. These storyboards were then shown to two of the participants from the interview stage to again review and get their feedback on whether the new story made sense and seemed realistic to them and was iterated on until the solution seemed a good fit.
Future state storyboard.
Testing
Landing Page Test
Having now come up with some ideas that potential users felt were good and seemed beneficial the conclusion was that a web and mobile application catering to the various needs of office workers was the way forward. To further understand if the features I had proposed were valuable to the users I created a landing page for the purposes of testing to gather both qualitative and quantitative user feedback.
The qualitative data was captured using Peek User Testing to see users actually using the site and hear what they understood about the product and also using Usability Hub to gain further insight into a larger audiences thoughts on what was being offered. I also ran an advert on Facebook to see how many email signups the page would capture over a 5 day period (37 is the answer, not a runaway success but the advert didn't have much money behind it although its reach far outweighed the amount of signups I got).
Based on the feedback the next steps will be to re-evaluate some of the features initially proposed and to focus on just two or tree, regarding the landing page it needs to be streamlined with more focus on the features the product will offer making it clear to users what they are signing up for to see if it can aid in garnering more interest.
Date: November 2015
Client: Bizzy Nutrition
Category: UX research & strategy
Gigsy
A single purpose app for finding live music events in and around your location based on the music you love
My role: UX Researcher | Interaction Designer | UI Designer
The Idea
Like many ideas this one stemmed from personal experience and from listening to others. I am a big music fan and also travel a lot and sometimes, especially when you are somewhere where you don’t understand the native language, it can be difficult to find out what’s going on around you during your trip. Currently there are a number of applications already available that provide people with event information in different ways, either via advance notification through email, if they follow the band on social media or they actively search their favourite artists tour dates to know when and where they are playing. There currently isn’t a solution that combines the best features of each to provide users with real time information on upcoming gigs based on their location no matter where they are in a clear, simple way.
Discovery and Research
I knew from speaking to friends and colleagues that other people were having the same experiences but I needed to know if there was a large enough user group having the same problem to warrant further consideration. To validate my idea I first put together an online survey using Google forms which I sent out via social media, and online music forums to quickly gather as much quantitative data as possible from as many users as possible. Once I had assessed the results I then carried out five 1:1 user interviews to gain some qualitative insights into users behaviours and mindsets when it comes to listening to music, going to music events at home and abroad and buying tickets for those events.
Research Survey
Through the use of an online survey with over 80 respondents from a wide demographic I was able to define what the main target age group for this project would be based on their current behaiviours, browsing habits and how frequently they currently attend concerts/music events.The survey also provided a way to get some quick insight on user’s pain points.
User Interviews
After analysing the survey data I was able to find a number of respondents that seemed like they best fit the target user group and scheduled three 1:1 interviews to further probe them about their behaviours and experiences using current applications and organising and going to music events at home and abroad. Talking to these potential users showed me what current applications and platforms people were already using, the features in them that they find most important (and those that they found frustrating or felt were missing completely), how they use them and how they go about discovering new music and finding out about the concerts they attend.
Key findings:
The main way people are currently finding out about music events is still through word of mouth (from friends), via social media (usually in advance notice), through a Ticketmaster search, signing up to Bandsintown or through traditional newspaper adverts.
Users were happy to receive emails and push notifications about music events that might interest them.
Users listened to a wide variety of music spanning different genres and said besides the “big” or most well known artists whose concerts were well advertised they often missed gigs in their hometown or found out at a later date that somebody or some event they would have loved to attend was on while they were abroad.
Competitor Analysis
Following on from the user interviews and survey I compiled a list of the main events based mobile apps and websites that had been mentioned and some other competitors and like-minded solutions that I found out about and their individual features to see what features were wroth exploring or trying to improve on. It was noted that no single app really provided an experience tailored explicitly to each individual user.
User Personas
Through the use of an online survey with over 80 respondents from a wide demographic I was able to define what the main target age group for this project would be based on their current behaiviours, browsing habits and how frequently they currently attend concerts/music events. The survey also provided a way to get some quick insight on user’s pain points.
IDEATION AND DESIGN
User Flow
Based on all the information learned in the research stage as well as assessing the feature matrix to decide on the key features the Gigsy app would provide for users I mapped out the primary screens of the app from login to end goal (finding out about nearby music events and possibly purchasing gig tickets). It was important to make the user journey flow intuitively so it was a simple process from beginning to end.
Sketches
I sketched out a number of different ways of laying out the information on the main screens of the event finder: the overall events list, an individual events details screen, and an event discovery screen. I iterated and further refined these sketches after determining all of the specific information and features that users would need on each screen.
Wireframes
Once I had figured out the main user flow and screens for the app I created a number of sets of wireframes to give a better idea of how the information and functional elements would be laid out. These were then shown town to potential users to get feedback and then iterated on until I settled on a final set of wireframes which were later used as the basis for the visual design of the app.
Visual Concept
Date: July 2015
Client: Gigsy
Category: UX and UI design
Apollo Language Centre
A website design and build for a brand new English learning school in Ireland.
My role: Web Designer | Information Architect | Front End Developer
The Brief
The guys over at Apollo approached me to design and build the site for their new business venture. Partnered with one of the global leaders in English learning the client had a clear vision of what they wanted from the site and an established set a brand guidelines to conform to.
The site needed to be structured in a way to make it as easy as possible for people, some of whom would have limited English to find the relevant information they needed on the courses available, accommodation for the duration of their stay, course fees and also the ability book places on each course.
Desktop wireframes used to agree structure with client.
The Challenge
The main challenges with this project were to do with time and ensuring the site conformed to the brand guidelines set out by the partners while also giving it its own unique look and feel.
There was a short amount of time from initial briefing until go live and a large body of information that needed to be gathered, created and organized in a way that made sense for potential visitors (people looking to learn English). I wanted to give the site a modern feel that was in line with current online trends at the time of build and representative of their own brand of school based here in Ireland.
The Result
A clean, simple to use website with multiple ways to navigate around the site. Careful consideration was taken with every elsement on the site, from the main homepage video highlighting some key landmarks around Dublin as soon as you land on the homepage to capture the audiences attention, as well as the imagery used of Dublin and Cork where the school's campus are located to show potential visitors a glimpse of the Irish culture before they arrive down to he font's chosen for legibility and sized to make sure they were clear to read for all users.
Data driven website re-design for Eason's schoolbooks website.
My role: UX Designer | Web Designer
The Brief
Eason's schoolbooks website is a well established part of the overall Eason and Sons Ltd. online store that receives a large volume of traffic and handles thousands of transactions every year between primary, secondary and college level books and stationery supplies.
The site hadn't been updated in quite some time and the whole company had gone through a rebranding the previous year so with the new school season approaching they wanted to take a good look at how it could be improved while also having it reflect the new corporate look and feel. key area for improvement were the naviagtion and checkout could also be improved The idea was to use data and feedback to iterate through concepts, prototypes, and design decisions quickly to create a better overall user experience and in turn increase sales online.
The Goals
Simplify the site’s transaction process by 10% and in turn reduce shopping cart abandonment and increase conversion rates. Improve the usability, user experience and create a more coherent on brand design. Improve on site searchability and navigation.
The Approach
We established business objectives and customer goals based on a combination of stakeholder interviews, user testing, and web traffic log analysis to determine which pages were getting the most traffic and could be improved and where the drop-offs were happening.
A high level content card sorting was performed to organize the site’s massive inventory of books, study aids, stationary and accessories into better categorization.
Several rounds of gray scale wireframe prototypes and full color visual designs were created and tested prior to development.
We were succesful in reducing the average transaction process by the target of 10%, taking the journey from over 13 steps down to 9 from landing on-site to finish purchase. Usability testing of the prototypes showed that customers could complete 90% of their core tasks 50% faster than before. Additionally, the revised site architecture improved customers’ ability to find exactly what they were looking for by over 50%.
Date: August 2015
Client: Apollo Language Centre
Category: Web Design
Huddle
Mobile app design for a concept application based around scheduling social activites with friends.
My role: UI Designer | UX Designer
The Idea
A concept mobile application designed for the purpose of providing users a fun and useful way to schedule meet ups. Whether it's a work lunch, a dinner date or even just some evening beers with good buddies Huddle is there to help you plan and keep track of all your outings.
The Huddle application allows you to search for bars, coffee shops and restaurants to plan a meet up at. Read user reviews on each venue, find out opening hours and distance from your location before you book a reservation. Huddle also helps you to keep track of all your arrangements so you never forget the plans you made with everything else going on in your life.
The Result
A clean, simple to use website with multiple ways to navigate around the site. Careful consideration was taken with every elsement on the site, from the main homepage video highlighting some key landmarks around Dublin as soon as you land on the homepage to capture the audiences attention, as well as the imagery used of Dublin and Cork where the school's campus are located to show potential visitors a glimpse of the Irish culture before they arrive down to he font's chosen for legibility and sized to make sure they were clear to read for all users.
