Finding the Flow

In any design project, it is important to understand the ways that users interact with the app. Often as designers, we are disconnected from the ways that actual users use apps, relying solely on what we expect from them in the interim. 

This can be detrimental to your project, as users will run into roadblocks trying to accomplish goals within your app, and switch over to something else that works better for them. 

In order to know whether or not the user interface is intuitive enough, we have to run user tests. 

To do user tests however, we first need some wireframes. Luckily, we already made user flows which we can use to guide us to which screens need to be made. 

I started by going through each of these user flows one by one and creating a rough sketch of what I though that screen could look like. From there, I expanded upon all of the other user flows and aspects I expect users to try and use. 

Once all my screens were complete, I could finally start the process of testing. I grabbed two of my friends and started setting down screens in front of them, telling them where they needed to go.

Through this experience, I was able to learn more about peoples instincts when controlling an app such as this. One of the main aspects I went to change is to stray away from using a search feature for this project, as when prompted with an option to search, subsequent tests are met with attempts to directly search for the goal.

I also found that some aspects of the wireframes were communicated poorly, such as the clip feature, which both users I tested with got confused with. To fix this, I would instead aim to use better language that communicates the feature effectively.

User testing continues to be essential for designers to understand the process potential users use going through their projects.