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In November, we took part in UX design workshops led by Steph and Chris. Across the two sessions, I learned a range of research and design methods, including conducting interviews with my peers, creating user personas and wireframes, and presenting our ideas. The hands-on activities helped me gain practical experience helped prepare me for real-world UX work. The workshops were highly informative and influenced the direction of my major project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My major project is a web-based application designed to help people regain their attention and improve their cognitive well-being in a world of unrelenting digital distractions. The basis of my project is derived from my own experiences with lack of concentration, fatigue of mind, and difficulty to sometimes maintain attention. My website is about my personal experiences with improving my cognitive well-being, and it should be understood that it is not expert-based. While documenting what worked for me, I hope to encourage users to evaluate their own attention patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The purpose of this article is to act as a plan for how I will use User Experience Research and Design techniques to develop my major project. I will discuss the different research methods I will be conducting in order to build the final product. The planning phase is vital to ensure that my project continues to be user-centred, accessible, and aligns itself with the needs of individuals who are already mentally overwhelmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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My goal is to develop an easy-to-use website where users can explore attention as a cognitive resource affected by today\u2019s fast-paced digital world. In my own case, my over-stimulation was caused by excessive tech usage, which resulted with declines in reading comprehension, increased procrastination, and ongoing mental fatigue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore, I decided to develop a website that shares my personal experience, while making it clear that the ideas and techniques I present were ones that worked for me and may not be universally applicable to all. From my website, users will get to read about my experience, experiments, and soft prompts to reflect on, instead of just providing solutions to problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Competitor Analysis<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of my planning, I researched other platforms that focused on attention, brain health and digital wellbeing so I could understand what has already been produced. I specifically looked at Lumosity, Healthybrains.org and Freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The focus of Lumosity is to improve your attention by using brain training type games. The games are engaging, but they focus on performance and repetition rather than supporting meaningful development of attention. Healthybrains.org offers a lot of evidence-based information about lifestyle and brain health, and also preventative measures. However, may seem too formal to readers and can lose their attention. Freedom takes a different approach by eliminating distractions, and while this may be beneficial, it does not encourage users to reflect on the underlying reasons for their attention difficulties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My website aims to be somewhat different from those three platforms because it will attempt be more open and honest. Instead of instructing users on what they should do, I tell them what I did and provide the opportunity for them to learn about their own attention while making it fun and informative. Hopefully, my website can create a space for users to be able to think again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n User Interviews<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of my user experience research, I intend to interview people individually, with some being affected by some sort of cognitive or attention-based limitations. The intention of the interviews is to understand what users expect from a website focused on cognitive health and wellbeing. By understanding the user needs, it can help me implement what they are looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The interviews will allow participants to express themselves freely and address specific topics relevant to my project idea. Open-ended questions will be used to encourage participants to share their views, experiences, and emotions, helping me design and build a website that is responsive to user needs. I also plan to make the interviews semi-structured because it gives me the opportunity to also ask fitting questions based on their answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Contextual Research<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I will be researching existing ideas, models and concepts for the design and development of the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are three design models I will be following in order to build a well-functioning and user-centred website:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n User Personas<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n User personas will allow me to think beyond my own experiences and consider how other users might interact with the website. It gives me an idea of the type of users who might use my website, so I can design it based on their lifestyle, needs, and what is currently bothering them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have created two user personas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alex \u2013 18-25 years old \u2013 ADHD\/ Neurodivergent learner<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alex struggles with attention and is interested in exploring attention-support strategies that have been effective for others. For someone like Alex, who struggles with attention, I will need to think about ways I can make information engaging on my website especially because he wants to learn. For users like Alex, one design consideration is how interface elements are positioned on each webpage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Michelle \u2013 30 -35 years old \u2013 Self-improvement explorer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Michelle is all about self-improvement. She\u2019s very self-aware and feels that she can make better life choices. One of her goals is to reduce her phone use by 50%. She\u2019s looking for alternative activities to replace her phone usage. When creating a website for someone like Michelle, I want it to be inviting and encouraging because she wants to improve herself. With Michelle in mind, greater attention would be given to the emotional tone conveyed by the website. Colour, font and layout research will be conducted because they play a factor in the way users feel when using a website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n