Select Work
Startup
Launching a new search and filter feature for 12k daily visitors.
CarEdge (formerly YAA)
Consumer Automotive
Responsive Web App + API Integration
Entrepreneurship
Applying the power of human connection to personal finance.
Pivoting an early-stage product from a solo-use app to a MVP coaching platform.
Clasp
Consumer Personal Finance
iOS App + Web App + API Integration
Startup
Making car-buying decisions easier with data.
Delivering a data-driven report feature with multiple data sources.
Overview
Problem
In preparation for a site redesign, the internal team (including an external creative agency) needed to fully understand the pet adoption journey from the perspective of potential pet owners.
Solution
An experience map based on qualitative interviews captured the complexity of the process.
It visually represents the stages of pet adoption, including key tasks, user behaviors, and motivations.
Additionally, the map aligns site content and features with users' thought processes.
Impact
The resulting map got the team up to speed quickly, informed our decisions, and served as a springboard for future features.
Role & Responsibilities
As Senior User Interface Designer, my primary responsibility was UX/UI, along with the external agency.
I introduced the experience mapping process as an independent initiative in addition to design work.
I was a team of one: initiating, leading, planning, executing, and communicating all research.
Project Team
Business Owner
Head of Design
UX/UI Designer (me)
Visual Designer
External Agency
Timeline
One month
Analyze
Break down tasks
I transcribed all the interviews and broke each one down into individual tasks (almost 600 lines!)
Create task groups
Next, I searched for patterns in the interviews, and grouped individual tasks into task groups.
Task groups were then organized further into mental spaces.
A research habit
To build cadence, a third week was added to the sprint for to accommodate research. I coordinated with product managers and designers to identify in advance what they needed to learn.
A product manager observing a session.
I promoted upcoming research sessions to the entire organization, sent out calendar invites and day-of reminders, and participation increased.
Planning was team-based and transparent. When I heard “you don’t talk to the right users,” I asked who the right users were.
Recruiting and testing was tightened to 5-day cycles, based on Google Ventures' research sprint process.
To speed up the process and maintain quality, we synthesized learnings during each session. I distributed sticky notepads to the team and encouraged them to capture observations and ideas during the session. This kept observers focused on the interview, and allowed upvoting and building on other ideas. Immediately after a day of sessions, the team would regroup and discuss.