This was a project I completed as part of the curriculum for DesignLab’s UX Research & Strategy course.

Design Challenge: You’ve been approached by an investor who wants you to create an app that helps people reduce procrastination.

UX Research Methods Used: Empathy Map, Storyboard

 Empathize

I was tasked with creating an empathy map to help better understand the user, their problems and mindset. Data collected from an interview and survey were used to create the empathy map below for the user “James” who worked as a computer developer.

Define

A storyboard was created from interview and survey data. The storyboard was used to help define the difficulties a potential user was having and to help the audience/readers empathize with his frustrations.

Storyboard Findings

• There are several sources of distraction for James: emails, text messages, phone calls, boredom, his dog. These distractions pull him away from his work and once he gets off-task, he will procrastinate before re-engaging.

• James gets easily distracted, doesn't have much structure built around his day (e.g., eats at his desk) and has difficulty with time-management.

• James works long days and sits for long periods of time looking at a screen.

• Large team meetings via Zoom may be boring and disengaging.

• The afternoons prove to be James’ least productive time. This is when he turns to YouTube to revitalize him.

• There are pros and cons to working from home in regards to productivity: eating at desk, taking dog for walk.

• James may be bored/unchallenged given how easily he is pulled away from his work during the day, but can then catch up on his work in the evening.