UX Design
University of waterloo | capstone project
As part of the final hurdle for fourth year GBDA students to surmount before graduating we are presented with a challenge by industry partners and we are to design and justify a creative solution to the problem. This term we partnered with Scotiabank and they presented us with our design challenge.
my role
I took on the role of business lead, being a small team we shared roles so I got to work on research, UX testing and UX design as well.
my team
Cailin Younger
Kelsey Ramseyer
Anais Rountree
Aleena Singh
Final How-Might-We’s after dot voting
Once we got started with the design problem, we moved right into design sprints, isolating any burning questions and figure out the true problem at hand. We began with our How Might We’s and then establishing a long-term goal. Moving into dot voting, we were able to isolate some of our key questions that would need further research to answer. With these questions at hand we were able to guide our research efforts and help us to narrow our scope.
We compiled our first round of research together, discussed (at length) and voted on a specific problem area within our challenge that we would focus our solution on. For us, this was immigrants and refugees.
Team doing How-Might-We’s
Problem Definition - Why did we choose immigrants?
We found that when it comes to the paycheque to paycheque cycle, it is relatively hard to break. Once you are close to getting out, you get pushed back down by more taxes, less welfare etc. leaving you right where you started - that’s what makes it a cycle.
With immigrants we found that they can break it on their own usually about 5 years after moving. They work hard, they want to make a better life for themselves and their family, so they already have an intrinsic motivator to do better. Everything is different, from the currency to street names takes some getting used to. We chose them so that we might help them with that transition process and act as a buddy so they might start building their lives from the moment they land.
Final Product
Problem solution - What did we build?
A 6-month free program that provides new immigrants with everything they need to understand about Canadian finances and how to settle emotionally into their new home through a series of care boxes that include financial learning.
User interviews helped us determine where some of the greatest issues lie with immigration. From these interviews we were able to determine when each box should come and what should be put into each box. For example, our emotional support box would come at 3 months in as this is when homesickness is likely to happen.
User Testing
Round 1
This involved a very low-fidelity test of our website, and a card sorting activity.
We found our testing at this stage most valuable as users weren’t as afraid to tell us their opinion and whether or not we were heading in the wrong direction. The low-fidelity website test involved them ‘clicking’ on a piece of paper and telling us where they would go on the screen and what information they would like to see. The card sorting activity was for the physical product (our boxes) where we printed a variety of pictures depicting useful/fun things that we would include in the boxes, the users would then sort them into which box they felt the items would be most useful or not needed at all.
Round 2
This testing was with our high-fidelity models. It included a click though of the website and unboxing the prototype of our bag and box. This was insightful for us to see if the website we had originally tested translated well onscreen and whether the information presented was enough for the user to be able to understand who we are.