In one of our lectures, we were encouraged to go to the library pick a book that interested us and bring it to the lecture to discuss. In my initial research on this project, I found this book on google scholar however, I didn’t have access to read it. When I saw it in the library i decided to pick it up and see if there were any good exercises that i could practice to improve my design thinking.
I found this page in the book that was about prioritising your assumptions in UX design. The idea of this is to improve time management and to be able to visualise the most important tasks in a project.
Gothelf explains that on the y axes, the idea is to prioritise the assumptions based on the risk that they may face in the project. On the x-axis, you must plot the task based on the knowledge you have on each assumption and the assumptions that are in the top right corner are the ones you will need to prioritise.
My Response:
After reading the book, I decided to relate prioritising mapping to my project Quick Give which you can find under postgraduate projects on my website. I started by creating a list of assumptions in my journal which were:
- User Trust – Users have the confidence in the security of the widget to be happy to donate
- Easy to use – The widget is easy to use so users don’t feel like they need too much guidance
- Compatability – The widget works on all browsers
- Quick Loading time – the widget is fast and effective
- Good design – The design in professional and works with all website design
- Customer support – there is access to an informational page for users to understand exactly what the widget is
- Social aspect – users are encouraged to share their donations on social media as a form of marketing
- Regular updates – there will be regular software updates.
Then I decided to plot my assumptions on my graph which is laid out in the same style as the book. The graph allowed me to visually see what I needed to prioritise within this project. I found that in many of my assumptions in the top right corner were about trust. This will allow me to ensure that I researched how to create trust with users through branding and user experience.
Overall I found that this was a useful technique in the design process of this project and also allowed me to prioritise my time management. I will definitely use this in my up and coming projects to ensure that I am prioritising my time.