My Journey through the Google UX Specialization Course 2: Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, and Ideate

“ Empathize with users, Define the user needs, and Ideate solutions for users’ pain points. ”

These are the major goals for the second course of Google UX specialization course on Coursera.

For the past two months, I have been learning all about user experience through this course. As a self-learner, I took up this specialization course because jumping from one project to another without any structured syllabus was a bit overwhelming for me. Through this blog, I will be documenting my entire journey and how I approached each assignment in this specialization. After covering the fundamentals in course 1, course 2 focuses on researching and empathizing for the first of three portfolio projects. The first project is designing a mobile application for the prompt chosen from Sharpen.

Overview

Duration of course 2:

6 June 2021 to 23 June 2021

Tasks:

1. Choose prompt for portfolio project 1
2. Create a screener survey
3. Outline interview goals and recruit interview participants
4. Conduct user interviews and create transcripts
5. Create Empathy Maps
6. Create Personas
7. Craft user stories
8. Create a user journey map
9. Define a problem and hypothesis statement
10. Determine a value proposition
11. Create a competitive audit and report
12. Use How Might We and Crazy Eights to ideate

TASK 1: Choose prompt for portfolio project 1.

For project 1, Sharpen, an online tool that creates randomized design prompts was embedded in an activity. So press the “New Challenge” button and get a prompt for your project. Press it again if you do not like it and see if something better comes up.

After about 15 minutes of clicking on the “New Challenge” button, I finally got a prompt: Design a flower catalog app for a florist in Houston. YAY!

My portfolio project prompt 1

As it would have been difficult to reach the target audience in Houston, I adjusted the prompt city to Jaipur, India, and came up with the prompt title as:

Design a flower catalog and delivery app for a florist in Jaipur, India.

The first reason why I chose this prompt was that I love flowers! Their fragrance and colors being therapeutic, make me feel at ease and content. The second reason is that there are very few flower delivery services in India so designing a solution for it seemed challenging and exciting. The minute I saw the prompt, I decided to go ahead with it.

Empathize

Empathizing is the first step of the design thinking process. As a UX designer, empathizing with users improves the products you create because you experience the product as the user does and understand how do they feel when they use a product. Task 2 to Task 8 are part of the empathizing phase.

TASK 2: Create a screener survey

I created a screener survey to collect demographic and quantitative data which helped me to analyze how do people feel about flowers, how do people buy flowers (online or in-person), and who my potential interview users are. It also helped me to understand the when, why, where, and how of flower shopping of the targeted user group. I made sure that my screener survey questionnaire was respectful, inclusive, and equity-focused. The maximum number of respondents was between the ages of 22–28(73.2%).

A few of the findings of screener surveys are shown below.

Screener Survey Findings

TASK 3: Outline interview goals and recruit interview participants

Interview Goals:

1. I want to understand how flowers affect the daily life of people.
2. I want to understand the motivations, goals, and painpoints of users when they buy flowers
3. I want to understand how do they feel when they cannot find the flowers they wish for and what do they do in this situation.
4. I want to understand their experience of buying flowers in-person vs. online
5. I want to understand how to improve their experience for this entire process.

Recruit interview participants:

In the screener survey, I added an optional question asking users whether they were willing to provide their email addresses if they wanted to talk further about their thoughts on the topic. I chose my interview participants from the responses I got. I also reached out to people on Discord and LinkedIn to see if they could answer a few descriptive questions. I chose interview participants without any biases, included a diverse but targeted group of users when conducting interviews in order to get the best data. In total, I interviewed 5 participants

TASK 4: Conduct user interviews and create transcripts

In order to conduct effective user interviews, I prepared for them beforehand. I created a script of interview questions that I need to ask users.

Interview questions:

1. Can you tell me a little about yourself?
2. How interested are you in flowers? How do they affect your daily life?
3. When was the last time you bought flowers? How was the experience?
4. Have you ever bought flowers online? If Yes, how was the experience? And how do you differentiate it from buying flowers in person? If No, why did you not buy online?
5. Tell me when you felt most frustrated while buying flowers? Why was it frustrating?
6. Describe how do you feel when you cannot find flowers of your choice.
7. Can you describe what an ideal flower delivery application for you would be?
8. Would you like to add anything?
9. Do you have any questions you would like to ask me about the project?

At the beginning of each interview, I introduced myself and the project I am working on. I made sure to thank them both before and after the interview since it was such a pleasure hearing their perspectives, experiences, and feelings about buying flowers. After the interviews were conducted, I made transcripts for each interview participant that helped me in the next task.

I was a little nervous about conducting user interviews but it turned out to be a really amazing experience. Thank you to all the interview participants!

TASK 5: Create Empathy Maps

While conducting interviews, I started to understand what are the users’ painpoints. I created one-user empathy maps from the interview transcripts to understand more about what the user says, feels, thinks, and does in a concise manner. One of the common user painpoints was: difficulty in getting good quality flowers at a reasonable price.

Empathy Maps

TASK 6: Create Personas

I created 2 personas by combining 4 of the empathy maps. Because User 2 and User 4 had similar painpoints and experiences, I merged their empathy maps to create the user persona “Aryan”. Due to busy florist stores, they both found it difficult to choose the perfect flowers every day and for festivals. User 4 needed flowers daily because they were used as an offering to god in daily prayers. Hence the goal of the persona “Aryan” is to find good-quality flowers at a reasonable price and did not fold petals when packed.

User 1 and User 3 had the same interest, that of gardening. Both of them want flowers and plants for their gardens, as well as for instructions on how to care for the flowers and plants. Using their empathy maps, I created the second user persona “Sara”.

User Persona: Aryan

User Persona: Sara

TASK 7: Craft user stories

Next, I created user stories from the persona’s point of view to inspire and inform my design decisions. They also served as a checklist to make sure that I am addressing the key problems and prioritizing my design goals. Do not forget edge cases while crafting user stories!

User Story: Aryan

User Story: Sara

TASK 8: Create a user journey map

I wanted to know what kinds of experiences users had while engaging with my flower delivery app as I was creating the user journey map. I also wanted to know how they felt when they met or failed to meet their goals while using the app. User journey maps assisted me in creating an obstacle-free path for my users and rerouting them back to their happy path whenever they encountered an obstacle.

User journey map: Aryan

DEFINE

The empathize phase helped me in determining the target audience for this application and the goals users want to achieve. In the define phase, I synthesized everything I learnt in the design phase to design a user-centric solution and define the expectations, concerns, and motivations of my target user group. Task 9 and Task 10 are part of the define phase.

TASK 9: Define a problem and hypothesis statement

Defining a problem statement allowed me to better understand the needs of users and the restrictions they encounter whether purchasing flowers from a local vendor or an online flower delivery service.

Defining a hypothesis statement allowed me to think about the possible solutions to the problem my target user group faces. The course covered two popular approaches for defining hypothesis statements.

1. if…then…
2. We believe that…for…will…

From the above two approaches, I used the if…then… approach because it focuses directly on the user’s needs. The second approach takes my perspective into consideration and then think of a solution.

Problem Statement: Aryan

Hypothesis Statement: Aryan

TASK 10: Determine a value proposition

Value proposition helped me to determine what does my product does and why the users should use it. I followed two steps to come up with the value proposition.

1. List the product’s features and benefits: In this step, I simply listed all the features my product can have. I listed every feature that came to mind without holding anything back.
2. Explained the value of the product: In this step, I sorted out the features into four categories as Accessibility, Cost, Reliability, and Variety & Uniqueness.

List of all the features

Features and their Value Propositions

IDEATE

During the ideation phase, I came up with a broad set of ideas on how the users can get good quality flowers at their doorstep. I also brainstormed on how will daily flower delivery subscriptions help user to reach their goals. The aim was to generate lots of ideas even if some of them sounded weird at first! Task 11 and Task 12 are part of the ideate phase.

Sometimes your most outrageous idea will turn into a great and unique solution!

TASK 11: Create a competitive audit and report

Because I couldn’t find any good direct competitors for just floral delivery service, I evaluated one direct competitor and three indirect competitors for the competitive audit. The majority of the applications I found sent bouquets and other gifts, but none of them offered both generic and exotic flowers. A detailed competitive audit of all four apps can be viewed here.

Report:

1. Competitive audit goal(s)

The goal of this competitive audit was to compare the user experience of each flower delivery service and determine its strengths and weaknesses.

2. Who are your key competitors?

My key competitors are:

• INDIRECT: Get Flowers Daily, a flower delivery service that delivers flowers for daily use and for god offerings.
• INDIRECT: Bloombombs, a flower delivery business that delivers exotic flowers in bouquets that don’t fold their petals and are pet safe.
• DIRECT: NurseryLive, a plant and flower delivery app that delivers plants, flowers, and gardening tools too.
• INDIRECT: Floweraura, a gift delivery service that delivers bouquets, cakes, flowers, and much more

3. What are the type and quality of competitors’ products?

• Get flowers daily: Get Flowers Daily has a large selection of generic flowers for everyday usage. Florists in the area can use the platform to sell their flowers and plants. Flowers, plants, garlands, and bridal floral jewelry are the major offerings. They can also decorate the location with flowers. Consumer reviews are provided, which create a foundation of customer trust.
• Bloombombs: Bloombombs delivers farm-fresh flowers to subscribers’ homes on a regular basis. They provide a large selection of exotic flowers that are packaged in a care-friendly manner to prevent the petals from folding. They also sell dried flowers and plants that may be used to decorate your house. A pet-friendly bouquet is one of their high-value offerings.
• NurseryLive: Flowers, plants, seedlings, and gardening tools are all available at NurseryLive. They also provide exotic flowers for bouquets and a variety of gifting items for different occasions. Gardening is an activity that needs extensive knowledge in order to properly care for plants and flowers. NurseryLive hosts courses on their website to educate the fundamentals of gardening and the precautions that need to be taken to ensure that flowers and plants thrive.
• FlowerAura: Cakes, bouquets, mugs, and customized pillows are just a few of the gifting options offered at Floweraura. They also allow users to set calendar reminders for various events so that they do not forget key dates.

4. How do competitors position themselves in the market?

• Get flowers daily: as a flower delivery service that delivers flower subscriptions for prayers. The primary target audience is residents in Bangalore who are too busy to go out and buy flowers on a regular basis.
• Bloombombs: a flower delivery service that delivers exotic bouquets on a weekly and monthly basis. Their primary target audience is the people who live in Mumbai and want flowers that are fancy and aesthetic.
• NurseryLive: is the largest online nursery in India that provides delivery all over India with secure shipping and after delivery, support to grow your gardens. Their primary target audience is people who love gardening.
• Floweraura: as a gift delivery service that delivers personalized gifts, cakes, flowers all over India. Their primary target audience is the people who want gifts delivered to their loved ones on special occasions.

5. What are the strengthens and weaknesses of the competitors?

Feature comparison table of competitors

6. How do the competitors describe themselves?

• Get flowers daily: “India’s №1 traditional florist”, “Best and budget-friendly flowers.” “With direct from the farm, we guarantee is 100% freshness in flowers.”.
• Bloombombs: “The best flower subscription service in Mumbai! 100% fresh and sanitized.”
• NurseryLive: “Largest online nursery with 1.2 Million plant lovers connected with us”
• Floweraura: “№1 online flower shop that doesn’t only deliver flowers, gifts, and cakes but makes sure that each of the hampers is wrapped in love too”

7. Gaps

All of the competitors have a limited number of accessibility options and do not offer regional languages. They do not provide subscription cancellation with a 24-hour notice. Users may wish to stop delivery for a few days if they do not want it for the following few days. However, due to non-cancelable subscriptions, they may be forced to accept deliveries. There are a limited number of customization options. Also, cash on delivery is not provided.

8. Opportunities

• Provide accessibility in at least one regional language
• Provide alt text for images
• Easy to navigate UI
• Provide subscription cancellation on 24-hour prior notice
• Provide cash on delivery
• Provide virtual bouquet creations

TASK 12: Use How Might We and Crazy Eights to ideate

How Might We:

I created HMW for Aryan’s problem statement. HMW was a little challenging for me because I wasn’t sure what parts and assumptions are to be considered while brainstorming. I ideated ways to make the entire flower shopping process easier.

Some of the HMW I came up with are:

Amp up the good: HMW help users to buy fresh flowers every day or on occasions?

Remove the bad: HMW deliver flowers to the users without them stepping out of the house?

Explore the opposite: HMW create a way to make flower shopping from florists easier?

Question an assumption: HMW entirely remove the wait time at the florist shops?

Go after adjectives: HMW make it less time-consuming for the user to buy flowers?

ID unexpected resources: How might a flower delivery app help users

Create an analogy from need or context: HMW make the flower shopping process easier like making a cup of coffee?

Play POV against the challenge: HMW prevent flower petals from folding after buying them from a florist?

Change the status quo: HMW avoid going to crowded florist shops on festivals?

Break POV into pieces: HMW prevent flowers? HMW buy flowers from florist in a secure manner?

Crazy Eight:

I identified two gaps in the competition applications for crazy eight ideas. Almost all of the competitors’ apps were inaccessible and lacked a subscription feature. I considered how to make subscriptions easier for users and how to improve the app’s accessibility.

Crazy Eight sketching

Elaboration:

1. To make the solution more accessible to regional users, two language options can be provided that is Hindi and English.
2. To make the solution accessible for users, ALT text for images can be provided.
3. To make subscriptions convenient, subscription cancellation can be provided on 24-hour prior notice.
4. To make the app engaging, virtual bouquet creation can be provided.

Conclusion

For all the beginners out there, the course so far has been fantastic! All of the readings, activities, and videos provided me with all of the information I needed to get started as a UX designer. If you’re reading this and wondering how you’ll fit this course into your college schedule, internship, or full-time work, I just have one suggestion: START. You will enjoy the course once you begin it and will quickly learn how to manage time for things. I’m extremely happy with how things turned out after endless thinking and ideation. Conducting user interviews was one of the most challenging aspects of the course because speaking with new people might be scary. But I made it through and I am glad.

A huge thanks to the instructors of this course Emily Schlemmer and Shabnam Kashani for outlining every detail related to the first three phases of the design thinking process!

Please share your thoughts and suggestions on my project and let me know if you think I could do a better job on any of the tasks. I’d be happy to connect and talk with you! My social media handles are:

Linkedin | Dribbble | Portfolio

or just drop me an email at: jhanvi.mbhatia@gmail.com

Thank you for reading!