UI Design Challenges

Research on IterateUX 

Objectives

There are essential areas of IterateUX UI Design challenges that need further exploration from user research in understanding the engagement factors. There are essential questions to think about while doing research

Engagement Factors 

Learn about the pain points that users encounter while doing the IterateUX or other UI Design challenges 

Understand the users' lack of motivation for doing IterateUX UI Design Challenges 

Uncover the non-IterateUX UID challenges that users participated in 

Essential Questions

What are the user’s expectations on the IterateUX UID challenges? 

What prevents them from participating in IterateUX UID Challenges or other UID challenges? 

How are they unaware of IterateUX UID challenges? 

Surveys & Interviews Logistics Planning

Surveys

Distributed for the large sample size of the IterateUX member population in Discord

Surveys provide a quantitative perspective on what areas of IterateUX UID challenges would need improvement

The results from the survey can help prioritize the questions addressed in the user interviews based on the highest pain point areas

Interview Participant Recruitment

Manual hand-picking was involved for the participant recruitment of the ones who were participants and non-participants through Discord direct messaging

There were remote user interviews scheduled through Zoom videos or on the Discord video chat

There were a total of five participants. 1 participated in the IterateUX UID Challenges and the other 4 were non-participants

Results

Surveys

There were four types of users discovered in the UID challenges

• Interested

• Non-Interested

• Participant

• Non-Participant

Reasons behind low activity

Users are not informed in announcements or any other notifications in Discord on the upcoming UID challenges 

IterateUX UID challenges are buried within the information of other posts in the Design Hangout channel within Discord 

There is not enough time to complete the UID challenges 

What type of content do users prefer to see in UID challenges?

Users want something more than just doing mimicry design challenges 

There should be UX Design context within the UI Design prompts 

Users want to see problem-solving involved while doing the UI Design challenges 

80% of the users had 1-2 years experience with UI Design

80% of the users have not participated in the UID challenges

73.3% of the users would like to see YouTube tutorials to help them out for the UI Design challenges

Survey Conclusion

The members have experience in UI Design and are interested in exploring the context of UX Design. The UI Design challenges should be manageable and not overly time-consuming, ideally taking less than 2 hours to complete. One important aspect that the survey did not address is the specific type of UI Design Challenge they are seeking. However, we can draw helpful insights from the past challenges the members have engaged in, particularly those involving Adobe, to guide us in creating suitable prompts for future UI Design challenges. 

Interviews

Conducted the data synthesis on the interview results. Data Synthesis

Data Synthesis Key Results

Users want a collaborative approach while doing UID challenges which benefits them in education and career. 

Quote from Participant 2: “I like collaboration. In UX, we don’t work in bubbles. Spend so much time looking for examples. Collaborative, everybody definitely bounces each other. I don’t do well without collaboration.” 

Users want to improve on their UI design skillset which is the reason behind participating in those challenges. 

Quote from Participant 3: “My main goal was I’m from a UI or visual background. It’s to practice some UI skills and the social aspect of it.” 

Users need to be notified by email for upcoming UID challenges 

If there are big UID challenge events, users would like to be awarded for a prize as an incentive for doing the UID challenges 

Interviews Conclusion

To summarize, users desire a convenient and stress-free experience when undertaking UI Design challenges. They value challenges that facilitate learning and personal growth, benefiting both their education and career paths. It is essential for UI Design challenges to have a clear purpose and demonstrate how they contribute to society in the real world. 

Competitor's Analysis

Drawing from the insights gathered through interviews and surveys, users have shared their experiences with various UI Design challenges that they would like to see incorporated into IterateUX. In light of this, conducting a competitor analysis became crucial in order to understand and identify the opportunities that IterateUX can capitalize on, giving it a competitive advantage. Here is the competitor analysis created on FigJam.

Key Findings from Competitor Analysis

IterateUX UID challenges should provide prizes for participants who did well on those challenges 

The UID challenges offered by Adobe XD to prepare participants with UX Research materials that enable them to comprehend the problem they are addressing while creating and constructing the UI Design component. 

It would be ideal to provide a step-by-step process with icons and affordances that guide beginners in completing a UI Design challenge like Behance's challenges 

Personas

After analyzing the data from surveys, interviews, and competitor analysis, it is evident that there are two distinct user personas 

The first persona consists of users with prior experience in UID challenges who seek design prompts that are relevant to their careers, address real-world problems, and provide professional benefits 

On the other hand, the second persona represents users who are new to the UX Design field and are currently in the learning phase of UI Design 

Experienced in UID Challenges

Inexperienced in UID Challenges

Customer Journey Map

The importance of a customer journey map is to understand and internalize on the key steps the user would take to join and participate in the IterateUX UID challenges based off of the survey and interview data. The crucial areas are to understand the participant’s behavior when starting and while doing the UID challenges. 

Experienced in UID Challenges Customer Journey Map

Adam is determined to enhance his UI Design skills to pave the way for a successful career as a product designer. In pursuit of this goal, he embarks on a research mission to find a suitable UI Design challenge to engage with. Adam's primary objective is to participate in a challenge that centers around problem-solving and offers constructive feedback. Additionally, he seeks assurance of receiving convenient notifications throughout the process. 

Inexperienced in UID Challenges Customer Journey Map

Lily is determined to acquire and refine her UI Design skills, with the ultimate aim of securing her first job as a successful UI Designer and utilizing her expertise throughout the UX Design bootcamp. Encouraged by her fellow classmates, Lily decides to take on the challenge of participating in a UI Design challenge. As a newbie UX Designer, she yearns for empathetic feedback from these challenges. Furthermore, Lily hopes that her diligent efforts in completing the UI Design challenges will be recognized and rewarded. 

Recommendations

There should be a wide variety of UID challenge prompts that provide guidance to users in regard to experience and beginners. No restrictions on creativity 

Users want to have a team collaboration approach for doing the big UID challenges 

Best ways to notify the users of upcoming UID challenges 

• Create a separate channel in the IterateUX Discord server on UID Challenges

• Provide a calendar notification on the upcoming UID challenges

• Provide an email on the upcoming UID challenges

• When users finish up the UID challenges, provide a direct follow-up message on their interest in the upcoming UID challenges

Big UID Challenges can be there for events

• Providing a prize for the winner of the UID challenge can create a strong incentive and motivation to do more of those challenges 

• Provide teams for the participants in doing the UID challenges 

Topics of UID challenges 

• Business-to-business UI challenges apply to enterprises. Provide UID pieces on report dashboards, digital workflow, and, etc. 

• Business to consumer involves UI challenges that apply to eCommerce, food orders, education, etc...

• Allow users to design for mobile within specific OS such as iOS and Android 

Overall Conclusion

Participants in UID challenges desire the liberty to unleash their creativity in distinctive ways.

They express a strong preference for avoiding any constraints related to prototype tools when constructing their UI design projects.

While working on the challenges, users appreciate receiving some guidance based on the prompt to steer their design process.

Additionally, they value the freedom to handpick their color palette, images, and typography to infuse their personal touch into the design.

It's worth noting that participants in UID challenges can be divided into two categories: experienced users who have prior experience in such challenges and novice users who are new to the world of UID challenges. 

Experienced participants in UID challenges seek to understand how these challenges can contribute to their professional growth and advancement in their respective careers.

They expect the design prompts to be versatile, applicable to various industries, and relevant to different operating systems, enabling them to select the appropriate UI platform.

On the other hand, UX designers with zero experience in UID challenges prefer straightforward design prompts that cater to their educational needs and align with their career aspirations.

They anticipate that these design prompts will effectively demonstrate the benefits of UI Design pieces in enhancing their learning experience and facilitating their personal and professional growth.