Observing the behaviors wants, and needs of people, as well as designs and feedback around existing products, provided the opportunity to empathize with potential users as a precursor to the design process.
 

• Research 
   

📋 Plan 
 
The research plan for the Emvee Timesheet App aims to understand the usability and understandability of the app's timer and manual entry functions, as well as identify any challenges or errors users may encounter while tracking and submitting their work hours. The plan outlines the research goals, research questions, and key performance indicators that will be used to assess the study's success. The methodology includes an unmoderated usability study with five participants who track and submit work hours regularly and consists of a series of tasks and a questionnaire to gather data on the participants' experiences. The participants are a diverse group of individuals of varying ages and backgrounds, and the study will be conducted remotely over two days. The survey results will be used to improve the design of the Emvee Timesheet app and make it easier for users to use. (view plan) 

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🗣️ Interviews​ 

Interviews with four people provided insight into needs and pain points which helped empathize, using detailed personas and journey maps. A diverse group of participants was selected, including two males, two females, and one nonbinary individual, ranging in age from 19 to 55. One participant had a visual impairment. All interviews were conducted remotely, with each participant completing the tasks and questionnaire in their own home. The interviews lasted approximately 45 minutes and were recorded using audio and video. The participants were asked a series of basic questions about their work environment and their current method of tracking and submitting work hours. At the end of the interview, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire about their overall experience with the app. The user interview scripts were carefully designed to gather valuable insights about the app's usability and to identify any challenges or areas for improvement. (view interview script)
 

🔬 Competitive Audits

The audit process involved thoroughly reviewing critical competitors, Toggl Track and Hubstaff, to assess their user experience (UX) and user interface (UI). This included analyzing user reviews and feedback, testing the usability tools, and identifying areas for improvement. Data were analyzed to compare types, qualities, market positions, and tones of existing products. Findings were synthesized to determine their design's strengths, weaknesses, gaps, and opportunities for improvement. 
 

• What I found:
   

📌 Edge Cases

Patterns and themes discovered from insights helped to identify three common user pain points:
 

1. 
   Fear of mistakes
   Many users feared that errors in their timesheets could severely impact their lives.

2. 
   Difficulty 
   Several users expressed frustration with the complexity of the timesheet tools.

3. 
   Time wasted
   Several users noted that managing timesheets took time away from more meaningful work.
    

• ​The results
   

💁‍♀️ Personas

I used this information to create detailed profiles for each persona, including their age, occupation, location, personal details, and quotes that summed up their attitudes and motivations. I used random content-generating software to create names and photos for each persona to ensure that the personas were as realistic and unbiased as possible. Frida and Miller represented the app's end users and their goals.

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• Miller is a 25-year-old IT student living in his parent's apartment in Baltimore, MD. While attending college classes, he works as a barback at a piano bar in the evenings. He is motivated to consolidate his daily tasks using a mobile device and graduate to become an IT professional. However, he has experienced frustrations with writing emails to explain mistakes on his timecard and finds the online timecard awkward to use on a mobile device. He believes that there are apps that would make the time-tracking process more accessible, but he is convinced that his management needs to be more current to transition in that direction.
   

• Frida is a 33-year-old business school graduate and event manager who lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and dog. She prioritizes meeting deadlines and maximizing her earnings. However, she is frustrated by her time on tasks outside her job duties and coworkers who are paid equally for non-work related activities. She hopes to streamline her time management using the app and avoid any potential mistakes that could impact her performance.

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🚀 User Journeys

To create user journeys for Frida and Miller, I first referred to the personas I had previously developed to understand their specific pain points and goals. Using this information, I created detailed scenarios that outlined the steps Frida and Miller would take as they interacted with the Emvee Timesheet app. These scenarios were designed to address the pain points and frustrations Frida and Miller had identified and help them achieve their goals. Using personas as a reference during the user journey development process, I created more intuitive and realistic journeys grounded in real people's experiences and motivations. This helped me better understand my end users' needs and design an app that would be more useful and effective.

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🗺️ Conversion Map

I used the information from their personas to identify key moments in their experience with the app and mapped out the steps they would take to accomplish their goals. I then created a flowchart, or conversion map, to visualize the user journeys and communicate the design plan and list of screens to stakeholders for feedback and collaboration. This allowed me to understand the end user's needs and motivations and create a design that addresses their pain points and helps them achieve their goals seamlessly and intuitively.