A year ago, I worked on a small challenge where I had to present my UX skills, as a researcher and designer too. I had to design an app, with the criteria given below:
- The user lives in a society with 2000 flats
- There are four badminton courts in society.
- The residents should be able to book a slot to play in the badminton court.
- The slot time will be of 1 hour.
- The user can book slots for 3 days in advance at max. Cancellations are allowed. Once booked, the courts are auto-assigned to the user.
- There should be a penalty when the user doesn’t turn up to play.
Time limit to design: 24 hours
Below are the screenshots of the app built, in the given time frame, with many flaws and inexperience.
A few weeks later, I began testing this app, with a group of friends and family.
I gathered their feedback, had one - on one sessions and observed their actions while testing.
Below are my findings from the test conducted:
- 4/5 could took more time than usual to cancel a slot
User has to go to the ‘My Slots’ section to Cancel a slot
2. 3/5 could not edit the slot, while booking one.
User has to click on the stepper below, to switch back.
3. 5/5 took time to than usual to make payments for Penalties.
User has to click on each slot individually, to make the payment for the respective slot.
4. 5/5 clicked on ‘Courts’ first assuming that they could select the courts. The app auto-assigns the court on booking a slot.
App is designed to auto-assign the court. The ‘Courts’ here is for locating one, in the society.
As we know, there is always scope for improvement of a project, even after completing it; I worked on the re-design, following the basic ‘Design Thinking Approach’ for the User, which is iterative.
Empathize — Define — Ideate— Prototype — Test
Moving ahead, I created the personas for the user.
A few user stories:
- I play everyday with my friends, but to book every three days for the same time, is like a task.
- I have the penalties piled up, and I need to clear all dues before I book another slot. I want to do this in no time, so that I could book easily, the next available slot.
- I am 65 years and have no idea about how to use the app. My grandchildren are visiting us this weekend. I would like someone to book few slots for this game, so that they can play here and be with us during the weekends.
Based on the user stories, I have designed the user flow, to meet their expectations.
For Scenario 1
The user is prompted to set his preferences, like preferred court, time, players in his account. After logging the data and based on his bookings, the app recommends the best available slot for him, which he can book directly without manually entering all the details, every for booking a slot every time.
For Scenario 2
The user can clear up all his dues from his dashboard or by visiting the Penalty page.
Next, I used the card sorting tool online, involving my family and friends as participants.
Based on the report generated, I have defined the Information Architecture, which you will see in the final designs shared.
The data was put together, to create the dashboard. This dashboard, now has entry points for quick booking, selecting editing and canceling a booked slot, clear dues altogether.
Below, is a sneak peak of the upcoming app.
Thanks
