Unrulr is a social learning website and mobile app that helps students document their projects.
As a part of the Circular Design Internship Cohort 1, I was selected to collaborate with a team for 8-10 weeks to address an issue that Unrulr users were facing.
Unrulr presented us with three potential problems to solve based on conversations with its users. Based on our timeline, resources, and skills, Passina and I chose the following question to tackle for our internship:
How might we improve the speed and ease of the post creation workflow so that it is minimally disruptive to capturing a learning moment?
Because we were new users to the Unrulr app, Passina and I took some time to learn how the Unrulr app works. I took screenshots of each screen and I wrote down questions I had. I was reading a book on service design at that time and thought about how many decisions users have to make when creating a learning post.
Passina and I conducted interviews with current users from a local high school. We wanted to uncover any issues they had when they first used the app and what issues they currently have. Because of our limited time and few responses from schools, we were only able to source 2 students to interview.
The students mentioned several times how easy it was to navigate the app. Whatever issues they had in the beginning, they were able to overcome them on their own. Because there was no way to save a draft, for example, one user wrote their post on google docs then copied/pasted it into Unrulr when they were ready to post.
Passina and I also conducted task analyses with new users to see if they faced the same issues we had when using the app for the first time. Since we weren't restricted to the schools that used Unrulr, we were able to source 5 high school students to participate.
After transcribing the interviews, Passina and I individually parsed through the data and presented what we each learned to the rest of the Unrulr team.
I first organized the steps the users took to complete their goal of creating a learning post. The diagram mirrored the steps that I noted when I first used the app and confirmed what I suspected earlier:
There were too many decisions and screens for the 5 steps needed to create a post.
I then used affinity mapping to find common themes between the current and new users. When I presented what I learned to the team, I was told that my insights were just a summary of the facts and
This lead me to a deeper discussion with our mentor, Erika, in which she gave me resources on how to draw out insights from UX research. I then re-immersed myself in the data to see what I could learn.
In addition, when Passina and I discussed what we each learned from the data, we were surprised to find that students generally had no problem with the Unrulr app. Our sessions were short because they quickly figured out how to use the app on their own. They mentioned that the app was "cool", "easy", and "straightforward".
Thus, we were at a standstill. We were told that users were having issues with the speed and flow of the post creation flow but the users we interviewed breezed through our sessions.
Erika assured us that this can happen with UX research. Sometimes things don't go as planned. It's now up to us to use what we learned to improve the product.
Even though there weren't major issues with the Unrulr app, there were things that the users mentioned that we could work on. I was able to find design opportunities that could contribute to a more efficient post creation flow.
Talking through what I learned and connecting it to insights with Erika and Passina gave me fresh perspectives on the value of our existing data and how it can still serve to improve the Unrulr app.
Passina and I surprisingly honed in on different issues in the data that we want to solve. We also had different timelines for the internship so we branched off to cover our design interests for the last few weeks. While she continued analyzing her data, I decided to start finalizing my design solutions and begin wireframing.
To help me gather my thoughts, I documented my reasons for designing elements in a certain way. I wanted to show that my decisions were thoughtfully developed through user research competitive analysis.
Initially, I wanted all the steps to be on one screen to reduce cognitive load. However, Will, Unrulr's CEO, argued that previous experience with one screen created issues with one population of its users, teachers. As a compromise, I designed the flow to "appear" as though everything was on one screen but it was really in multiple screens.
I had an insightful discussion with the Unrulr team on how my wireframes worked and whether or not it was feasible in real life. I also gained clarity on what sections I needed to fix before finalizing the high-fideilty prototype.
I used Urulr's purple color to highlight active states, show interactive buttons, and create visual hierarchy and improved the sections that were unclear before presenting the prototype to the team.
I thought that the prototype really showcased how the hybrid screens could work and the value of the progress bar.
If I had more time, I would to conduct a usability study to check if my designs contributed to improving the speed and ease of the post creation flow. Instead of just high school students, I'd also like to learn about the experience of other users like teachers.
In addition, remembering a discussion I had with the team about back buttons, I want to conduct A/B testing to determine whether "X" or a back arrow was the best buttons for users to go back a step. I want to understand users' motivations for clicking back because we had different interpretations of when and why users might go back.
I was nervous whenever I had to explain to Will or Jack from Unrulr why I designed things a certain way. As someone new to UX design, I was worried that my rationale wasn't up to the standards they were used to. On the other hand, I did look forward to our weekly meetings because it was where I gained better understanding of what was realistically and technically possible with the Unrulr app and its users.
I'm also thankful I got to be part of CDI and to work with the Unrulr team. My previous experiences in UX design were school projects so this opportunity gave me the chance to collaborate with and learn from real designers, users, and a startup. I learned about my strengths and weaknesses, and the internship gave me the confidence to continue in my pivot to UX design.
It was a pleasure working with Cherry and her other collaborators on a UX project focused on the redesign of the post creation flow in the Unrulr app. Cherry has a great intuition for user research, UX flow creation, and UI mockup ideation. Our weekly check-in meetings were always enjoyable— Cherry always stuck to her deadlines and effectively presented her deliverables. Additionally, she worked well with her team mate and mentor. I would recommend Cherry for any position that requires an effective communicator and collaborator.