🎬Thinking on how to begin? My Debut UX Case Study could help!

“Creating an ideal experience for different areas of your house by implementing Design thinking”

As the title says this article will tell you in detail how I picked a problem statement and kickstarted my UX case study journey but first if you are reading this, I must thank you for being an early audience on my debut. I love my audience and since you have got the privilege of being the first one, I won’t leave you and will always be looking forward for your feedback in the future.

🎬Once upon a time!

So i enrolled myself in a Bootcamp back in September by Growth School and was assigned my first ever project to work upon.

Among 120 people we all were divided into groups of five. Every member of the group was assigned one room of a house (living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and dining room). I was assigned Kitchen as my area of study. I need to consider the remaining members of my group as sample users to complete this Design Thinking project 🔥

And since we were already defined a part of a room we were not given any problem statement and need to put up questions to our users based on the area of the house defined.

It felt a little difficult in the beginning but as they say “ Beginning is half done” and yes starting with the basics always help so i trusted my intuition and started with the process ⚡️

🎬Design Thinking ”Getting Started”

Mentor support was always there and they did clarified all our doubts right from the start.At this stage typically ideas that win are translated into design
experiences.We were given an editable PDF where we have to write down our findings of interviews and research and then have to drive a solution. It provided us with a simple, inclusive and reusable process using the basic principles of Design Thinking.

⚠️Pitstop 1 : Empathize

Know the people you’re designing for, so you understand their needs better. This stage included my understanding of the USER’s perspective! I need to connect with the users and understand and immerse in THEIR perspective.

Below are some of the questions i prepared to ask to my users, I tried keeping them open ended so as to get elaborative answers 😎

1. Do you often face difficulty in finding the utensils when you need them the most and have wished your kitchen had more storage?
2. Topics can be discussed about smelly water sink or water clogging in it.
3. Do you have a ceiling fan or something to keep the kitchen cool during summers?
4. People often ponder upon their comfort level while preparing the food, a discussion can be done based on that (if they have a ceiling fan in their kitchen to keep them cool in summers)
5. Whether they have a hot water gyser while washing the dishes or vegetables in winters or if they do not what alternatives do they have for warm water?
6. Do they find it irritating when water falls down from their slabs while cleaning it after preparing the food and what solutions they would like to see?
7. Discussions can always be done on general topics about how is their overall experience working in kitchen, what changes they would like to see and what they like?
8. Do they like the equipments, resources they have in their kitchen (chimney, number of burners on the gas stove etc)

🔑 Key Insights from the users:

Voila, Never did I realized I conducted my first User Research by virtue of this fun filled activity 🔥

⚠️Pitstop 2: Define

Decide on who you want to design for and what you want to help them do. This is a stage where I have to frame a problem statement on the basis of what i had learnt from Empathize stage.

So i revisited all the information gathered after interviewing my users, their ideal experience, likes and dislikes and based on them noted down 3 Problem statements which are as follows,

1) Storage confinement in the kitchen
Users complained of not being able to have kitchen items/utensils fit into the desired and relevant space and even if they did they had to put their refrigerator outside of it much to their dislike.

2) Arrangement issues
Some users who didn’t had a storage issue were still not very happy with the arrangement of the items as they were unable to find the items at the right place and at the right time.
They need to arrange the items in an order almost every time so as to reduce chaos.

3) Design Problem
Many users complain of water spilling from their slabs while cleaning it so creating a moist kitchen floor and thus increasing the work of cleaning.

I believe these 3 could be a problem statement i need to find a solution about,
Storage confinement, arrangement issues and Design problem 💡

Why is it important to the user? 🤔

1) Users want the kitchen items/utensils to fit into the drawers of their kitchen and mostly do not want to keep their refrigerator outside of it.
2) Users who didn’t had a storage issue were still not very happy with the arrangement of the items as they were unable to find the items at the right place and at the right time.
3)They need to arrange the items in an order almost every time so as to reduce chaos.
4) They do not want to mop or clean their kitchen floor everytime they clean their slabs thus only increasing their work.
5) They would like to hide their dustbin from their sight if they can thus making their kitchen look good in terms of aesthetics and also to maintain hygiene.

⚠️Pitstop 3: Ideate

This is the stage when you want to start thinking of solutions to the user problems. I did it by keeping the problem statement in front of me and writing down all the solutions to them which came in my mind.

Writing down all the ideas which came to my mind 📝

1. Adding rolling shelves.
2. They can use a mounted hanger/hooks at places where they can hang mugs, cups so to have easy access to them.
3. They can store utensils in a sliding tray with proper compartments so as to find the required utensils at the right time.
4. Hang your glassware or things which you require more often.
5. The user can buy more baskets and bins to increase storage.
6. The user can have folding closet in the kitchen thus increasing the storage and also to hide dustbin to keep it away from sight as well as to increase hygiene.
7. By adding dividers for lids, baking sheets, and pans
8. They can have an elevated top near the end of the slab so as to keep the water at it only while cleaning it thus saving the kitchen floor from getting wet.

Time to write down my Top 3 Best Ideas 🥇🥈🥉

1. Adding rolling shelves:
   Rolling shelves or pull out shelves are useful to maximize storage space, provide easier access, save your back and simple clean the chaos which you might have if kitchen items are not properly arranged.
   You can always find your items in front of your eyes if they are properly arranged in shelves.
2. Folding Closets and Mounted hooks:
   They can use a mounted hanger/hooks at places where they can hang mugs, cups so to have easy access to them.
   A folding closet is always helpful to keep the dustbin away from sight.
3. Adding an elevated top at the end of the slab:
   Simply as to keep the water at it only one place while cleaning it thus saving the kitchen floor from getting wet.

⚠️Pitstop 4: Prototype

At this stage typically ideas that win are translated into design experiences.

How do I do it?

👉 I narrowed down my 3 best ideas on 2 solutions and decided to showcase them via paper prototype which are as follows,

Prototype 1

Prototype 1

1. I have created this prototype keeping in mind the problem statement of storage and accommodation.
2. As you can see I have created a drawer in the middle containing rolling shelves which has multiple compartments so as to keep many kitchen items and that too properly arranged.
3. I have also made an Elevated top at the ending of the slab thus to overcome the problem of water spilling from them.
4. Lastly, you could see a hook nearby chimney to hand some items and thus to increase storage.

Prototype 2

Prototype 2

1. Here the space above the sink is being utilized by a hook thus helping in reducing the chaos and increasing storage.
2. Kept the depth of the sink as per the user needs and also in such a manner that water doesn’t spills down.
3. You could also see Basket near the sink to separate the washed utensils from unwashed ones.
4. Finally there is a closet to keep a dustbin out of sight and it also has a lid on top of it so as to keep the smell from the garbage away from the kitchen.

⚠️Pitstop 5: Test

At this stage i was required to test my ideas, translated into prototypes with
my end users and get their feedback and further refine and iterate on them.

How I did it?
👉 Conducted a zoom call with the members of my group.
👉 Shared my screen with the prototypes & sent it if they want a further look.
👉 Asked them to rate my idea on a scale of 1 to 5,where 5 being the highest and 1 being the lowest.

User’s feedback and ratings:

User 1

My storage problem is solved by the prototype 1 as I could see multiple shelves to keep my kitchen items arranged. I would give a 4 out of 5

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

User 3
Seems like all the drawbacks have been fixed. The problem of water spilling down on the kitchen floor is resolved by the elevated top at the end of the slab

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

User 4
The problem of arrangement has been resolved by the rolling shelves.
Suggestion: A better solution can be looked for the dustbin.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

👉Disclaimer: User 2 was not available to review

What my Mentor has to say?

Good job! Aman. I really like your ideas and process of execution. It’s clean and complete. I would rate your assignment 4/5

You can follow & connect with him on LinkedIn

Mohammad Owaiz Shaik - Product Designer - Joveo | LinkedIn

🎬My 2 Cents on the Project:

Being a budding designer it was an awesome experience, being able to complete my first design project gave much of the required confidence. I know some of you might be thinking that how this simple solution has any relevance in a real time UX design but trust me it’s all about making an experience better being it SMALL or BIG!!

Further-

1. I learned how to ask subjective questions and have a conversation based on more open ended ones.
2. I learned how to give priority to the problem statements and you cannot solve everything which a user wants.
3. I learned how to embrace the ambiguity.
4. I learned how to work as a good team member
5. I realized how important it is to finish the assigned work on time 🙈

“I am excited to learn more about the area of interviews as I believe a good user research would always be beneficial for your product success”

And That’s a Wrap!! If you enjoyed reading this, hit that clap button multiple times 👏

Don’t like reading?? I have a solution for that too😎

Take a look at this Explanatory video which I exclusively created about this case study.