UI/UX - Peter's Bakery School App
CLIENT: Peter’s Bakery School - Part of the Google Certification Course on UX Design
PROJECT ROLE: Project Manager / Lead UX/UI Designer, designing an App for Peter’s Bakery School from conception to delivery
RESPONSIBILITIES: User research, conducting unmoderated usability studies, paper and digital wireframing, lo-fi and hi-fi prototyping.
THE PRODUCT:
Peter’s Bakery School is a small family business. Peter wants to promote his wide range of cooking courses and make it easy for users to find/book them. His customers are men and women of all ages, students, and everyone who wants to learn more about cooking or simply needs a hobby or a passion for it.
THE PROBLEM: Peter does not have an App to promote his courses and grow his business.
THE GOAL: Design and develop an app for Peter’s Bakery School so his customers can easily book one or several cooking courses. And engage with more customers.
PROJECT DURATION:
June 2021 to November 2021
User research: summary
For this particular project, I’ve conducted some unmoderated usability studies and created empathy maps to understand user needs. The user groups identified through research were adults, employed and unemployed ones, and students who needed a new hobby or wanted to learn/improve their cooking skills.
This group also confirmed our initial assumptions that Peter’s customers would be really satisfied if they could have an easier way to engage in this kind of formation/class. Some other user problems included not having in their nearby residence a place where they could practice and learn new skills.
User research: pain points
PERSONAL TIME
Users usually struggle with getting ideas for what to do for their family meals.
APPS ACCESSIBILITY
Users pointed that they found it a bit “hard” to find a app where they could easily find one or more Courses about cooking.
NEW IDEAS
Users usually struggle with getting ideas for what to do for their family meals.
APPS FEATURES
Users also realize that the apps didn’t have some features they needed (ex. book more that one course at once, have a calendar instead of text boxes to choose dates).
Persona: Mary Doe
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
Mary Doe, is an hard working secretary, wife and mother, who needs to find some Cooking Courses to participate in and book them, because she needs to layoff some steam and free her mind from work.
User journey map
Mapping Mary’s user journey showed how useful an App would be for Peter’s School and at the same time revealed some issues that needed to be addressed.
Paper wireframes
Drafting some examples on paper of the App homepage ensured that some key elements were incorporated into digital wireframes to be well-suited to address user pain points. For this screen, I prioritized a quick view and easy-to-read of the latest courses to help users save time.
Stars were used to mark elements of each option that would be used in the initials wireframes.
Digital wireframes
These are screenshots of the homepage app low-fidelity prototypes, before and after updates were made, based on our first research insights.
Before the prototype here.
After the prototype here.
After gathering feedback and taking in consideration some of the pain points presented by users, updates were made, based the user research insights.
Being able to book more than one Course at once was a key feature that need to be addressed in the designs and in addition to equip the app with AT.
Low-fidelity prototype
The low-fidelity prototype connected the primary user flow of choosing and booking a Course so that the prototype could be used in a usability study with users. View Peter’s School App low-fidelity prototype.
Usability study: parameters
Study type: Unmoderated usability study // Location: Portugal - remote // Participants: 5 participants // Length: 15-20 minutes per participant
Usability study: findings
Useful: People found the app to be very useful to use
Efficiency: People wanted an easier way to choose a date to book a Course
Customisation: People wanted to be able to book more than one Course at once
Mockups
There were a few actionable insights I came up with from the usability studies. One of those was changing the way to choose a date, instead of a text box users said they preferred a calendar “mode”.
In the early designs users were only allowed to book a Course at a time. I added the option to “Add to cart”. So users can have the ability to book more than one Course at a time and continue to navigate in the app.
Key mockups
High-fidelity prototype
The hi-fi prototype followed the same “choosing and booking a Course” user flow as the lo-fi prototype and included the design changes made after the usability study. View the Peter’s Bakery School high-fidelity prototype.
Accessibility considerations
I’ve add in consideration typography hierarchy, so in a layout divisions were created to help/show users where to focus and make it easier to find information.
In terms of color, I’ve applied the 60-30-10 rule. Also used some accent colors to emphasize information, and at the same time all the app is communicating the branding.
In addition to color I’ve also had the caution to use icons, so the overall design will be clearer to more users.
Takeaways
Impact:
The app really made a strong impact on the users, they feel like the app meet their needs.
A quote from peer feedback:
“Using this app it’s the easiest way for me to find a way to perfect my skills in cooking, with so much different offers. I already have it in my shortcuts!”
What I learned:
It was a blast, since the first contact with the product and “the problem”, throughout the entire process. I’ve learned a lot, not only on a UI level but the all UX process was a real eye- opening for me. Listening to users and address their pain points and feedback, really made a strong impact in my designs.
Next steps
I need to continuing measuring (analytics) the engagement with users, to understand the impact our updates made regarding it.
I will conduct when possible another Usability Study to have some inputs from new users. So it helps me to continue improving the User Experience.
I will want to ear from Peter’s experience as well, so he can give his opinion about the impact on his business and see if his goals are being achieved.
