ABOUT
Candid Comments was created as the final project for my User Experience Design and Usability course, and we were tasked to come up with a digital problem or challenge that needs to be solved.  
MY ROLE
​Since this was an individual final project I had to put on all the hats of a user experience design team.
THE PROBLEM
Online reviews consists of people who really hate the product or people who really love the product.  It's hard to really know whether or not products are worth their value, and consumers and suppliers are missing out on the opinions of a large consumer base.
PROJECT GOALS
​The goals of my digital product were to
  1. make the review process easier on the side of the reviewer, and
  2. provide constructive, relevant, and accurate for those reading the reviews
RESEARCH
I started out with an Audience Analysis to focus on who would be my target users.  From there, I was able to build my three personas:
  • Foodie Francie:  Reads and writes reviews about restaurants in the areas where she travels
  • Supermom Sybil:  Reads reviews to ensure that she's getting safe products for her baby
  • Gamer Grayson:  Reads reviews to see if new gaming products are worth the hype
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND WIREFRAMING
​For the information architecture, the home and reviews flows start off with different screens, but then end up in the same flow for when users began to leave their reviews.  While also on the home screen, the rewards and settings are more informational than interactive for the user.  I was able to create the wireframes based off of the progression of steps from the flowchart.
USER TESTING
We were given a code to have three free user testing through UserTesting.com and had the option to set the preferences of our target audience for the application we prototyped.  It gave me the option to even have users test on their mobile phones instead of clicking through a mobile prototype through the computer, which was very helpful.  For the questions, we could make up our own or choose from a list of popular tasks that have already been written.  We also had the option to preview our own test by downloading the video software and to go back and make edits as needed.

"
I liked how easy it seemed to write reviews, especially with the utilization of the template feature

-- User Testing Review

LESSONS LEARNED
The user testing feedback was incredibly helpful, although for some reason, the first set of questions didn’t show up for any of the testers, which was the 5-second test, asking users to look at the application and answer what they remember from the site, what they believe they can do on the site, and for whom the site is created.  These were the key points that I incorporated into my edits:
  • make the “current goal” more clear and clickable
  • add an edit button in the review template area instead of the search icon
  • add a search bar for businesses on the homepage
  • have an option for users to view their old reviews in case they want to edit/update them
 Click below to see the prototype in Adobe XD
© 2020 teresa phan