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Research

Learning and Investigating User Needs

Overview

In order to learn about our users’ needs, we conducted investigative research and collected qualitative data. We started by interviewing four people with visual impairments. We then created two user personas. Next, we made a user journey map based on our personas. Finally, to build more empathy for our users, we participated in a Walk-A-Mile observation. Drawing on our users’ experiences, we cultivated empathy, identified user pain points, and were inspired to create a solution to address those frustrations.  

Research Findings

Interviews

Understanding Our Users

In the beginning, we conducted four semi-structured interviews with our users. We asked questions about their daily routines, habits, frustrations, and desires. This was done to eliminate any prior biases we might have had, and to learn about our users’ needs. This helped us in understanding our users, and narrow down the scope of problems we could design a solution for. The information that we discovered about our users was used to create our personas.

 

Takeaways

  • A desire for independence, living their lives and being able to achieve the things they want

  • Not really comfortable going to unfamiliar places (some wouldn’t even do it)

  • Use smartphones and technology just like anybody else

  • Lack of accessible signs

  • Running into tree limbs

  • Unmaintained crosswalks and sidewalks

  • Importance of being familiar with environments (building cognitive maps)

Interviews

Walk-A-Mile Observation

Walk-A-Mile Observation

Empathizing with Our Users

Throughout our research process, we conducted a Walk-A-Mile experience with our four members by blindfolding ourselves and navigating to specific locations using a makeshift cane. This proved to be important in empathizing with our users, as we now had personal insight with the frustrations that our users may experience while going down the stairs, reaching a sidewalk curb, etc. We could connect the difficulties we encountered to the shared experiences of our interviewees. We were able to narrow down the specific needs of our users that we were compelled to address.

 

Takeaways​ ​

  • It was extremely difficult to orient ourselves in the right direction once we lost track of where we were.

  • There was a lack of accessible information presented within buildings to indicate where we were.

  • The cane only detected the immediate objects within its trajectory and did not provide us with extended information about our surroundings.

Personas

Summarizing Research Findings

Personas were created based on the synthesis of our collective research findings to illustrate the main pain points of our users. These personas are an archetypal representation of our demographic users and specify the types of challenges they face in daily life. The scenarios presented outlines the specific events that occur when their pain points are most relevant, which is further given context and emphasis in our user journey map in the next step.

Personas

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Takeaways

  • Most of the pain points were related to the user’s navigation routine.

  • We divided navigation into two specific types: indoor and outdoor.

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Persona Examples

User Journey Map

User Journey Map

Finding High-Level Frustrations

We focused our user journey map on our persona Greg Wernicke. While we adhered to our user research, some assumptions were made about our user’s feelings due to time constraints. We focused on communicating auditory and tactile descriptions to provide a richer user experience. The user journey map allowed us to identify specific areas of Greg’s routine where he had high levels of frustration. This helped us further focus our design to target those specific areas.

 

Takeaways

  • Users were most frustrated and disappointed when their independence in mobility was ignored by a stranger who physically led them to their desired location, rather than being given verbal instructions.

  • Users showed increased anxiety when they faced unexpected obstacles in their path of navigation.

  • Users experienced a surge of negative emotions due to a lack of accessible labels (e.g. Braille signs).

 

User Journey Map Examples

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