OVERVIEW

This exercise will introduce the User Experience Research Process. Over the course of this exercise, you will develop a concept for a new mobile phone app based upon your own user research.
 

PROCESS

User Research: Before coming up with a concept, you need to understand your user and identify their pain points.
First interview your partner (10 minutes per person): Ask them to go through their typical morning routine with you. The goal of this interview is to improve their morning routine in some way. Listen for any moments of frustration or inefficiency. Maybe they have trouble getting out of bed initially, maybe they have trouble fitting in a healthy breakfast, maybe they just feel crabby. Maybe their roommate annoys them while they try to prepare for school.
Be sure to take notes. When your partner is finished going through his/her morning routine, ask follow-up questions to clarify details. For example, if they wake up feeling generally crabby, try to determine any factors influencing this mood: Diet? Sleep pattterns? School stress? Back problems?
If he/she has no issues in the morning, switch to your bedtime routine and focus on getting enough sleep.
Ideation: Separate from your partner and begin to develop ideas for an app that could alleviate their morning pain point. Be sure to focus on only one source of frustration. Your app only needs to solve one very specific morning issue for the identified user (your group partner).
Jot down as many ideas as you can. Crazy ideas are perfectly acceptable as long as they address user need.
Discussion with partner: Meet back with your partner to share your ideas. Ask your partner for feedback. We will discuss some of the ideas as a class.