Challenge:​ I was asked by client to help identify and solve problems with their company’s  mobile website experience and use human-centered design to facilitate online ordering and  navigation throughout the website from a mobile platform.

Selection and Application:​ A lot of research is needed when taking on a challenge like this. As  tons of primary and secondary data became available, the use of a good and reliable tool or  method to organize and translate the data, and present all the findings became evident. With  that in mind, I found it very beneficial to use the affinity mapping technique to group my data. I  like to use this tool to analyze my assets after conducting particular types of research.

For this challenge specifically, I needed to discover my client’s customers pain points using the  product, so I ended up having to do some guerilla usability test. In cases like this, I usually like  to use affinity mapping as my main visualization tool as it allows me to present my findings and  tell the customer’s story in a more simplistic and compelling way.

One of the main reasons for often applying this technique when working to solve this type of  problem is because it lets me easily organize my findings and communicate them in a more  interesting way than by just using text. I also find it easier for me to go over the findings with a  client if I have those visuals to aid me throughout the conversation.

As Ashley Wood said in the video lesson from week 1, “The beauty of using visualization is that  we can tap into a single picture. The more you begin to use pictures, the more that you begin to  diagram while you talk, and create a visual image for people of how you are thinking. The more  likely you are to achieve a sense of agreement and consensus with people, the more you are  likely to draw out conversation. In an environment where your, your ability to, to get things done  and to solve problems is dependent on other people being able to understand you and align  their ideas with yours.”

I couldn’t agree more with that statement. As a designer myself, I have to use a variety of  visualization tools every day to pitch new ideas to people and also present solutions for complex  problems.

Insight:​ As I looked at my research findings on my affinity map, I was unable to backup all the  pain points I came up with based on my own assumptions. Because of that and also because i  wanted to avoid any confirmation bias, I realized I needed to dig even deeper and explore more  data. The more I studied the data I already I had on hands, the more I could see that there was  a pattern among the “less technology savvy” group. That pattern showed me that these  individuals couldn’t complete the order or get to the end of the funnel. I then decided to find out  the reason they weren’t being successful in accomplishing that task (even after receiving the  same instructions as the other participants from the other groups) so my next job was to look  into that.

However, before moving forward, I took an even closer look at the initial findings and learnt that  some of the participants in the “less technology savvy” group weren’t very confident completing  the test of placing an order via the mobile website mainly because they found the website to be  way too overwhelming to navigate so they got lost in the process. That finding still didn’t fully  answer my questions. I knew there was more to know, so I came to the conclusion that I needed  to conduct more research with that particular group of users, but this time using different  methods that would hopefully help me understand better what that group's pain points were and  if there was any outside factors influencing their decisions and affecting the initial results of my  research.

Long story short, after gathering more data I discovered that the reason why some of those  users couldn’t complete the transactions was because they were having a hard time reading the  text on the app and were too embarrassed to admit that to me so they chose not to mention it in  the first place. They knew that they could’ve picked pain point 4 (text is too small, hard to see),  but thought that by doing so they would be letting everyone know they have vision issues, which  would make people associate that with them aging.

This example showed me the importance of going back and not only getting feedback, but also  testing my initial hypothesis. In a situation like this where external factors could have messed up  the entire process of trying to solve a complex problem, it’s definitely worth going back as many  times as it takes to explore what the best approach may be.

Approach:​ In the future, I want to make sure I do a better job at coming up with more specific  pain points and jotting my answers down and organizing them better on my affinity map. I think  using other visualization tools such as mind mapping would definitely increase my chances of  being more successful when trying to understand what story customers are trying to tell me and  also help me interpret my findings better so that I can come up with more helpful solutions for  problems.

Note:​ This is a fictional case study that I wrote for the purpose of completing this exercise. I  have not followed all steps nor applied the entire Design Thinking framework to this case as I  attempted to illustrate my point. The purpose of the exercise is to demonstrate how I can apply  visualization tools to a particular situation, so this is what I tried to accomplish here.

