UX Research
5 Person Team
1 month (November 2023)
Locale is a mobile application that was designed for a GBDA (Global Business and Digital Arts) course. The question given to us was, "What obstacles do small businesses encounter in enhancing their visibility within the local community amid the growing influence of digitalization?" our solution was Locale. My role in this project was to conduct comprehensive user research, analyze the findings to uncover user needs and behaviors, and translate these insights into actionable recommendations to improve the product experience.
Lack of data
Small businesses aren’t able to collect data on their customers
Lost in the results
SMEs often get overtaken by big business in search algorithm
No communication
SMEs lack the ability to connect & communicate with their customers
The research process mainly consisted of user interviews followed by a thematic analysis in order to gain insights and identify the main themes related to user needs. From the user testing, we were able to create an affinity diagram to summarize our findings.
Using our key findings, we made improvements to the mid-fidelity prototype and addressed issues to improve things such as readability, giving users more context regarding the analytics of their business, and making it easier for businesses to connect with each other. By doing so, we created a simple and efficient application that can help small businesses enhance their visibility and also provide actionable insights that inform strategic business decisions and improve organizational performance.
Conducting user research and analyzing the themes in the data has really helped me understand UX research better. By closely studying the information gathered from talking to users, I was able to uncover deeper insights beyond just the surface-level feedback. This process of identifying common themes, patterns, and underlying reasons for how users think and act has given me a more thoughtful and empathetic view of their needs and problems. Seeing these themes has shown me how important it is to keep improving the design based on user feedback, and to constantly engage with users to understand their changing needs. Going forward, I will use this thematic analysis approach in my UX work to really get to the heart of what users want and need, so I can create solutions that truly address their core challenges.
