Our team was tasked with designing a mobile app that leverages the latest augmented reality (AR) technology to provide a unique and engaging user experience. The app would be used primarily by outdoor enthusiasts, allowing them to explore their surroundings in an entirely new way.
To better understand the needs and expectations of the target audience, the design team conducted both quantitative and qualitative research. A survey was distributed to existing users of the brand to gain insights into pain points and preferences. In-depth interviews were also conducted with a group of users who had used similar AR apps in the past.
Our Role on the project:
• User Research & Analysis
• Persona Creation
• MVP Definition
• Wireframes
• UI Design & Prototyping
• Usability Testing
• Product Strategy
Designing and building a new platform based around recent technologies such as augmented reality removes all forms of familiarity with common applications. Our hypothesis is that AR is new and confusing to most users.
“We believe that as we push the boundaries of what the technology is capable of as well as the UI simple enough that anyone can open the app and get started”
We decided to reach out to potential and active users to see how they felt about AR technology and the use cases for navigating through the application. Here is what we found.
We set up multiple personas based on the user research we refer to several times throughout the case study.
Personas are built with scenarios that identify a realistic goal or problem while using the application. Personas focus on 3 common characteristics:
These characteristics will drastically affect the design decisions we develop.
Spending some time looking through the persona’s and diagnosing the pain points and motivations from each helped us to understand, empathize, and adapt design decisions. This process helped influence the important development of crucial needs and functionality that may have been missed.
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User research and person creation brought up the users main needs, goals, and behaviors. Therefore, we found that the main issues in our design decisions needed to solve were:-
Based on this information, we were able to create user stories and define the MVP
We have created several user flow diagrams from every step of what the user can do in the app. From signing in to the app for the first time to checking other users' artwork. These flow charts help map out exactly what a user will go through.
We sketched several paper wireframes that allow us to draw out as many ideas as possible with the knowledge of the required elements to the applications design based on users goals, needs, and frustrations. We took these paper wireframes and built digital versions in Figma to build interactive wireframes for test groups to well…test.
We took our original wireframes and turned them into a black and white prototype in Figma where we iterated on feedback and defined design themes, and visual hierarchy
After a few iterations and multiple tests we designed the final screens with Figma We conducted a final A/B test on some elements we were still unsure about during that process we finalized, defined, and implemented the final design patterns, elements, and colors.
Our goal was to make a modern, cohesive, and simple look. Waterfall is fundamentally based around new technology so it was very important to keep it simple and easy to digest.
Research is a must - approaching this project brought a lot of challenges for us because designing almost anything with the primary focus being 3D space arises problems we aren't as familiar with. Without research we wouldn’t even know where to start.
Users are always right - As UX Designers it is our responsibility to remove as many biases as possible and to listen and understand users. Making apps with a user first mentality was the main influence we were able to deliver a cohesive project.
Challenge yourself - One of the best experiences about this project was thinking outside the box, it was hard but we pushed forward and every step of the way was exciting.
