Case Study Every Thing App

A mobile packing list app for travel preparation.

The Project

When traveling and touring, it’s clear that you want to be well prepared, so that all your important and indispensable things, but also the very personal stuff you don’t want to miss, are not forgotten at home. The idea of the mobile app every thing is intended to offer the possibility of quickly creating an individual packing list for each journey or tour.

I developed this case study during an online course where I gained the certificate „Become a UX Designer from Scratch“ at the Interaction Design Foundation. To understand and learn how UX Design works and since I see this as the beginning of an exciting journey I have gone through the whole design process for a mobile packing list app.

Role

As this was my first project in an online course from the IDF, I was working on my own as a UX Designer, responsible for the whole project. But I had a great exchange with fellow students.

Study & Designing time

I have already created most of the deliveries during the course of 7 Weeks. However, the high fidelity prototype and the completion of the case study took a little more time.

Deliverables

For the every thing packing list app I did some User Research, created Personas and an Empathy & User Journey Map. On that basis, I designed a Paper Prototype as well as a Low & a High Fidelity Prototype.

Focusing on the User

Research

To start this project and transform an idea into a product, I have conducted some user research. With the help of an online survey I have been able to generate information about the user’s behavior in relation to travel preparations, to collect feature requests and to determine the key pain points. The biggest problems with travel preparations or during a journey are

Forgetting important things at home
Too much luggage (especially clothes)
Baggage not matched to the conditions at the place of travel

Excerpt from the Survey Questions:

Who are you traveling with?
Do you have a problem with forgetting things when you are planning a tour or holiday?
What are your biggest pain points when it comes to planning which things you have to put in your backpack or luggage for your next trip?
Do you use paper lists or tools like Excel to check off things for your preparation?
What basic features would you like to see in a packing list app?

Personas & Empathy Map

With the information from the user research I developed three personas that correspond to the typical users of the app. For one persona I also generated an empathy map to provide a better understanding of the users› needs and requirements.

User Journey Map

In the user journey map I show how the user actually uses the app, what he or she thinks and feels about it and what possibilities there are for improving the first draft. The user journey map was done for the persona, for which I also created the empathy map.

Since I worked alone for this project and not in a team, I used the SCAMPER method for my further ideation process. SCAMPER allows to rethink a new idea or existing products from different perspectives and to change them if necessary.

Designing the User Interface

Prototyping and testing

Initial point for my design was a Paper Prototype which I produced. With simple templates I designed the necessary screens for the developed user journey and could do a first usability test.

I noticed immediately that there were too many screens for the creation of packing lists. This insight I used directly for the implementation of the low fidelity prototype. The screens for the generation of a new packing list are much more compact in the low fidelity prototype, which makes the handling much easier for the user.

Take Away

The findings from the user research were important for me to identify what users encounter most when they are packing for a trip. I was able to incorporate the insights into Personas, an Empathy Map and a User Journey Map very well.

The inserted Ideation Process with the SCAMPER method was exciting, but did not lead to a lot of insights, because the project is still in its early stages. Maybe the method is better suited for a redesign of existing projects.

During prototyping, the simple paper prototyping and quick testing allowed me to immediately identify a weakness in my design. I was able to apply this knowledge straight away to the subsequent low & high fidelity prototypes.

Finally, I have done the design of the high fidelity prototype in affinity designer. This step was not mandatory to get to know the whole design process, but I wanted to finish my project with an exciting looking design at the end.

Another goal for further designs would be to learn how to use Sketch and create animated mockups.

A future objective for further designs is to learn how to use Sketch and create animated mockups for better understanding and testing.