CyMessage
My Role:
UX researcher
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Created the interview protocol
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Developed interview questions & survey items
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Conducted user interviews on Webex
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Analyzed interview transcripts & survey results to understand users and their needs
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Created affinity maps for data organization and pattern recognition.
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Collaborated to create primary & secondary user personas
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Developed user stories, user journey maps, and user flows collaboratively with team members
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Drafted paper and digital wireframes
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Conducted Usability Testing to test the low-fi prototype
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Designed the Hi-fi prototype based on Usability Testing results
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Tested the hi-fi prototype with real users
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Ran t-tests for product comparison
App Design
Project Duration:
August- October 2024
Project Overview
The Product
CyMessage is a new Canvas feature geared towards connecting ISU students together.
The Problem
Students encounter difficulties in accessing ISU information due to a lack of centralized resources, leading to challenges in locating information about clubs, on-campus events, and academic/social activities. Additionally, ISU club and organization websites often provide limited and fragmented information.
The Goal
To create a comprehensive and user-friendly platform that centralizes ISU information, enhancing students' access to, and awareness of, clubs, on-campus activities, and academic/social events.
User Research
We started this project by trying to understand our users and their needs. We wanted to find out how engaged they were in campus life and what tools they currently use to get campus-related information. We wanted to find an existing product that can meet their needs. However, after trying several products, none met the requirements.
Survey
To examine users' current level of engagement on Canvas, the navigability of the Canvas interface, how often they check their Canvas notifications, and what social media tools the users use we developed a survey and sent it out to 20 users. 17 completed it.
The results from the survey gave us a good idea about the engagement levels of our users with Canvas and what social media platforms they most frequently use in order to include a similar/familiar design in our product. However, quantitative results did not help us to understand the nuanced experiences and perceptions that the users have regarding the ease of access to ISU information, encompassing details about clubs, on-campus events, and various academic and social activities. Therefore, we created an interview protocol to get deeper insights into our users' perspectives, allowing us to explore the specific challenges, preferences, and contextual factors that quantitative data alone could not capture.
User Interviews
We conducted user interviews with 8 users (ages 17 - 24) on Webex, recording both audio and video for each session.
We retrieved and analyzed transcriptions alongside survey results to gain a comprehensive understanding of user needs.
The findings were then visually represented through an affinity map, allowing us to distill key insights for informed design decisions.
Ideation
The ideation process included:
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Creating primary and secondary personas
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User stories
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User journey maps
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Problem statements
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Generating final features to include in our product
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Storyboarding (big picture and close-ups)
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User flows
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Sitemap
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Paper and digital wireframes, and
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Lo-fi design
Primary & Secondary Personas
Primary
Secondary
User Flows
Lo-fi design
Usability Study for Lo-Fi Prototye
Once we had our lo-fi design, we conducted a usability study to evaluate the user experience, identify potential pain points, and gather valuable feedback for refining and optimizing the interface of our product.
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8 users completed the following tasks using the lo-fi prototype:​​​​
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Create a profile
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Search on the directory
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Create a channel
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Join a channel
The results of the usability study were instrumental in crafting a hi-fi design based on user feedback. By specifically addressing the pain points identified in the lo-fi design, we were able to eliminate these issues and enhance the overall user experience.
High Fidelity Design
Usability Study for Hi-Fi Prototype
To test our hi-fi design, we conducted another usability study with 5 users to assess the effectiveness of the implemented changes, identify any remaining usability issues, and gather additional insights to ensure a refined and user-friendly interface. Additionally, we included a comparative analysis with a market product, Discord, to benchmark our design against an industry-standard platform and glean valuable insights for further enhancements.
Our users completed the SUS survey after using CyMessage and Discord. Next, we ran a t-test to see whether there was a significant difference between the SUS scores of our product and Discord.
The results showed a statistically significant diference (p=0.03) between CyMessage and Discord, with users preferring our product over Discord.