Adwork - A UX Case Study
The Problem
If you're a young creative like myself, creating and finding work, let alone building your portfolio is more difficult than you can imagine. That being said, I decided to create a concept for an app to deal with such a niche problem - Adwork.
My Role
My role was to create a concept for an app that would involve a step by step process in order to find a solution to a niche problem. To that end, I looked at my environment - myself specifically & wondered "What's a problem that we currently have & how can I solve it using the resources at my disposal?"
User Research
In order to help aid my design process, I did user research based on my inspiration for adwork. This involved analyzing my current inspirations and taking notes based on what worked and what did not. This included the analyzing the IA,UI, UX of my inspirations which includes: Instagram, the Reddit is fun mobile app, Tinder & Fiverr.
I also took into account which color palettes & font would work the best in order to create a visual design that would appeal to users the most
I also took into account which color palettes & font would work the best in order to create a visual design that would appeal to users the most
To accompany this research I also sent out a survey through facebook groups dealing with advertising, reddit subreddits such a r/advertising, r/userexperience, & r/graphicdesign & even interviewing my fellow classmates within the communication technology major.
This all done in order to discern what my targeted demographic- young creatives, would want within Adwork, be it a hamburger menu or a dock or to see the demand of my app by asking if the user is struggling creating a portfolio. This allows me to gain feedback on their usage of such an app & why they would want to use it.
This all done in order to discern what my targeted demographic- young creatives, would want within Adwork, be it a hamburger menu or a dock or to see the demand of my app by asking if the user is struggling creating a portfolio. This allows me to gain feedback on their usage of such an app & why they would want to use it.
When asked specific questions about their perspective on what's the worst thing to do in order to seek out creative inspiration for clientele projects, users have responded by stating the following:
The worst thing to do if you are creatively bankrupt is to freak out. If I start freaking out and make myself more panicked than i already am, i will most likely just pass out and that doesnt help me with anything in the end. Do not wait around for inspiration to come to you, get up, look around in places that have nothing to do with what you are working on, and the inspiration will most likely be there. Do not look at other artists’ work in that moment because that will just get you more discouraged.
Waste time trying to beat an idea into submission. It may be a very good idea, but it may not be the right fit for the project you're working on at the moment.
Furthermore when users were asked if they enjoyed giving or receiving feedback from others, the users responded by stating;
Giving feedback to others on their work is one of the most important part of any creative field. In school, we are first taught how to PROPERLY give criticism to someone on their work. I personally enjoy giving feedback to other because not only does it help them, but it probably helps me more. Its no surprise critiquing your own work is hard, but looking at someone else’s work, I realize what actually works in design and what doesn’t. While critiquing someone's work, i learn alot about myself. First of all, where do my design principles stand? I often ask myself in my head if i hate some aspects of the person’s design because it’s not visually appealing, or the actual design is not working? With every comment, i like to give my reason and also advice on how to make it better. This helps me because i take that same advice and apply to my own work in the future.
Yes, as long as they aren't defensive. I appreciate receiving it and it's a sign of a respect for someone's work, emotional development, and intelligence (even when it's negative)..
I don’t mind, but it very much depends on who I’m speaking with. I have to take time to get to know the person in order to gauge how well they can receive constructive criticism, then work to adjust my language s.t. they don’t feel attacked.
Wireframing
The user research I did gave me good insight as to decide what design choices I should lean on to make the users feel more comfortable using Adwork, that being said I created two different versions in order to compare which one of these would fit better.
Each of these wireframes have helped me sketch ot my ideas for the final digital prototype and have helped me redesign some aspects of it. The wireframes also gave me the ability to ask prospective users about which design they would rather interact with and what, from a user's perspective would want to use. In short, more people preferred version one, however I did incorporate some of version two's design, such as the voting mechanic, albeit tweaked as well as adding a messaging function.
Final Result
Adwork has been the final result of much user research, wireframing and designing. It's become a combination of step by step process that uses these ideas in order to create a user experience that is easy to utilize.
There are a couple of things that I would change in order to make my design and Adwork better. Hence why I created a pros & cons chart in order to make it simpler.
Conclusions
One of the biggest things that I've learned while doing this is that I love UX design and would like to pursue it as a career path for myself. Learning how to use both Sketch & Figma, the different methods of user research such as card-sorting, user interviews and surveys. All of it combined, makes use of wide variety of skills involving problem solving and creativity in order to find a solution to niche problems.
The most important thing that I've learned is that some projects are great as concepts, but the implementation of those concepts are a lot harder. I loved the design part but I feel as though I need to work on my user research more in order to get more of a feel of the design process better. I hope to improve my skills to the point of a professional.
The most important thing that I've learned is that some projects are great as concepts, but the implementation of those concepts are a lot harder. I loved the design part but I feel as though I need to work on my user research more in order to get more of a feel of the design process better. I hope to improve my skills to the point of a professional.