Prologue: While this is fundamentally a showcase of our process in the hopes of helping others, it’s also a story about the realism of limitations when working with clients and how we ultimately were able to deliver a product the client was pleased to receive and call their own.

序言：雖然這從根本上展示了我們希望為他人提供幫助的過程，但同時也講述了與客戶合作時局限性的現實性，以及我們最終如何能夠交付客戶滿意的產品并為其打電話給他們的客戶擁有。

On a day like any other autumn day in the office, I was approached by my employer with a rather vague request, “We have some business friends, they have a bit of a budget and would like us to rework the UX of their app, can you?” … A seemingly straightforward request right? Well yes but if there’s anything I've learnt working closely with clients is that things are never as simple as, “Here’s a bunch of money, do the thing you do.” Oh no, don’t let yourself fall into that trap. Validate! Always validate what the expectations of an initiative are so that you can better meet those expectations but also gain greater control over what those expectation might be in the first place. Anyways after probing my employer further about the project I finally had my answer “We have some money, do UX” 🤦?♂?

在辦公室的任何其他秋天的一天，我的雇主都向我提出了一個模糊的要求：“我們有一些商業朋友，他們有一些預算，希望我們重新設計應用程序的用戶體驗，你能？” ……看似簡單的請求對嗎？ 好吧，是的，但是如果我了解到與客戶緊密合作的任何事情，事情從來沒有像“這是一大筆錢，做自己想做的事”那樣簡單。 哦，不，不要讓自己陷入陷阱。 驗證！ 始終驗證計劃的期望是什么，以便您可以更好地滿足這些期望，同時也可以更好地控制這些期望的初衷。 無論如何，在對我的雇主進一步調查該項目之后，我終于得到了答案：“我們有一些錢，做UX” 🤦?🤦?

Unsatisfied with the lack of a brief I recruited one of out project managers to help me obtain one. The following morning we called the client and began asking questions, a 14 minute call later and we had exactly what we needed … “We are seeing a tremendous amount of drop-off through the sign-up process.” … “Can this be done before the end of the month.” … “We don’t really have a consistent UI system in place.”

由于缺乏簡短的介紹，我招募了一名項目經理來幫助我。 第二天早上，我們打電話給客戶并開始提出問題，然后在14分鐘后打電話給我們，我們確實滿足了我們的需求……“我們在注冊過程中看到了巨大的下降。” ……“這可以在月底之前完成嗎？” ……“我們實際上并沒有一個統一的UI系統。”

研究策略 (Research Strategy)

Achieving a ‘better result’ requires taking a suitable approach. Design thinking has been a-well-known problem-solving method infused in the psyche of designers and start-ups. Design Thinking was familiar and quick to execute which suited the aggressive timeline set-forth by 925's investors. Design thinking was how we were going to do it.

為了獲得“更好的結果”，需要采取適當的方法。 設計思維已經成為一種眾所周知的解決問題的方法，注入了設計師和初創企業的心中。 Design Thinking熟悉且執行Swift，適合925投資者設定的激進時間表。 設計思維就是我們要做的事情。

移情 (Empathize)

Having an aggressive timeline and fixed budget, it wasn’t going to be achievable spending much time conducting interviews. This is where UX fundamentally hinges, it’s absolutely crucial we base decisions in data and remove our own bias out of the equation as much as possible. However, this doesn't eliminate our ability to improve a product by identifying points of friction and alleviating points of pain through the user journey.

有一個積極的時間表和固定的預算，花很多時間進行采訪是不可能的。 這是UX從根本上依賴的地方，這對于我們將決策基于數據并盡可能從等式中消除我們的偏見至關重要。 但是，這并不能消除我們通過識別摩擦點并減輕用戶使用過程中的疼痛點來改善產品的能力。

It's important to communicate this limitation to stakeholders when creating without genuinely complete user information and data. “I can make this, it will however be based on these assumptions that we agree upon and it’s recommended these decisions are validated in the near future … sign here”

在沒有真正完整的用戶信息和數據的情況下，將此限制告知利益相關者很重要。 “我可以做到這一點，但是它將基于我們同意的這些假設，并且建議這些決定在不久的將來得到驗證……在此處簽名”

So how did we empathize with the user? … Well we started by using the product.

那么我們如何同情用戶呢？ …好吧，我們從使用該產品開始。

定義問題 (Defining the Problem)

A team of three, including myself set out to spend a small working session going through the sign up process and exploring the app. We were however unable to successfully complete the sign up process in any realistic amount of time, being periodically hindered by externally linked verification methods and forms. It became immediately apparent why users were not completing the registration process.

一個由三人組成的團隊(包括我自己)著手進行一次小型工作會議，以完成注冊過程并探索該應用程序。 但是，由于受到外部鏈接的驗證方法和表格的定期限制，我們無法在任何現實的時間內成功完成注冊過程。 顯而易見的是，用戶為什么沒有完成注冊過程。

We confirmed this was a wide spread problem by having various co-workers and family members run through the same process, all of which had the same struggle with the app, which is :

我們通過讓不同的同事和家人進行相同的過程來確認這是一個廣泛存在的問題，所有這些人都與該應用程序進行了相同的斗爭，這是：

That the 925 app was kind of confusing, the sign-up process asks for an exorbitant amount of information, mainly in the form of a background check performed through a third party service. This required the user to jump into a seperate browser to complete this section of the process. This web service also wasn’t optimized for mobile making it extremely difficult to use. At this point in the process users are unable to evaluate the offerings of the app and are instead met with a variety of challenges while trying to register.

由于925應用程序有點令人困惑，因此注冊過程要求提供大量信息，主要是通過第三方服務執行的背景檢查的形式。 這要求用戶跳入單獨的瀏覽器以完成過程的這一部分。 該Web服務還沒有針對移動設備進行優化，因此很難使用。 在此過程中，用戶無法評估應用程序的產品，而是在嘗試注冊時遇到了各種挑戰。

Our next step was to itemize all of the concerns people were experiencing through the registration process. It helps to get this research to the board to better organize and address these concerns in a prioritized manner. What we settled on was essentially a pseudo approach at user stories. None the less a valuable tool moving forward.

我們的下一步是逐項列出人們在注冊過程中遇到的所有問題。 這有助于將這項研究提交給董事會，以便更好地組織和優先解決這些問題。 我們確定的基本上是在用戶故事上使用偽方法。 仍然是前進的寶貴工具。

Ideate解決方案 (Ideate Solutions)

We were faced with at least one glaring issue and a limited amount of time and budget to execute much else. The next step was to define How Might We notes. There’s never only one way to achieve something, this allows us to explore a variety of ideas (Diverge) so that we can better narrow down the ones that will work best for us later (Converge).

我們面臨著至少一個突出的問題，以及有限的時間和預算來執行其他許多任務。 下一步是定義我們的注釋方式。 達成目標的方法絕非僅有一種，這使我們能夠探索各種想法(Diverge)，以便我們可以更好地縮小對以后對我們最有用的想法(Converge)。

I speculated that the drop off was occurring due to the effort vs reward of the background check. This was however a key component of the service 925 offered. Workers needed to be vetted in order to build a trustworthy platform that employers would be comfortable using … or so it would seem.

我推測下降是由于背景檢查的努力與回報而發生的。 然而，這是所提供的服務925的關鍵組成部分。 需要對工人進行審查，以建立一個值得信賴的平臺，使雇主可以放心使用……看來如此。

One of the initial solutions that simulated the client during a post research / pre design meeting was the idea of “Uber for Work”, perhaps a little contrived but none the less an exciting proposition. It also had the added benefit of helping me pivot the structure of the app around a centralized feature (location based, map interface) versus say a traditional job listing. Simple but promising. Plus the idea had the support of the client behind it, that doesn't inherently make the decision the right one, but it's important that clients feel heard, this so happens to be a great way of achieving just that.

在后期研究/預設計會議上模擬客戶的初始解決方案之一是“ Uber for Work”的想法，也許有些人為，但仍然是一個令人興奮的提議。 與傳統的工作清單相比，它還具有幫助我圍繞集中功能(基于位置，地圖界面)圍繞應用程序結構進行樞紐的附加好處。 簡單但有希望。 再加上這個想法得到了客戶的支持，這并不能使決策成為正確的選擇，但是讓客戶感到被告知很重要，這恰好是實現這一目標的好方法。

線框 (Wireframes)

The process of creating wireframes is seemingly outlined the same way but in actuality is almost always some weird mixture of fidelities. While we strive to start with a paper sketch, followed by a lo-fi and eventually hi-fi interactive digital prototype, our workflow and project constraints may not necessarily allow us to segregate our ideation in such a linear fashion. For this project I did the very thing I was often told to avoid during my time in school and jumped right into digital creation. It worked, but it’s important to understand why it’s typically not a good idea to skip the doodles:

線框的創建過程似乎以相同的方式概述，但實際上幾乎總是保真度的某種奇怪混合。 雖然我們努力從紙上素描開始，然后是低保真和最終高保真交互式數字原型，但我們的工作流程和項目限制可能不一定使我們能夠以線性方式隔離想法。 在這個項目中，我經常被告知在上學期間要避免的事情，然后直接進入數字創作。 它起作用了，但是重要的是要理解為什么跳過涂鴉通常不是一個好主意：

Sketching allows us to explore a greater amount of ideas in a shorter period of time, it allows us to get the bad ideas out of the way to make room for the good ones. When we begin with digital ideation, it can be extremely easy to explore certain directions that may not necessarily be all that suitable, hence wasting a great deal of time. It’s not a hard set rule to sketch first, it is however recommended and and will likely save you time later on.

草圖繪制使我們能夠在較短的時間內探索更多的想法，它使我們能夠消除不良想法，從而為好的想法留出空間。 當我們從數字化構想開始時，探索可能不一定非常合適的某些方向可能非常容易，因此浪費了大量時間。 首先要繪制草圖不是一個硬性規定，但是建議您這樣做，以后可能會節省您的時間。

I translated How Might We notes into a visual design solution, I began by creating art boards in Adobe XD with single words written on each one outlining the page or step in the flow, i based these around the existing user flow initially and later moved, added, and subtracted pages as needed until i had a flow that alleviated the barriers we experienced. Next i began writing a list of the required elements each of these pages would need to function. I like to think of this as sketching when working digitally, this stage is not about UI or visuals, rather structure and flow.

我將《我們的威力》翻譯成一個視覺設計解決方案，首先在Adobe XD中創建畫板，每個單詞上都寫有一個單詞，概述了流程中的頁面或步驟，首先將它們基于現有用戶流程，然后又進行了移動，根據需要添加和減少頁面，直到我的流程減輕了我們遇到的障礙。 接下來，我開始編寫所有這些頁面都需要運行的必需元素的列表。 我喜歡將其視為數字化工作時的草繪，此階段不是關于UI或視覺效果，而是結構和流程。

Once the structure has been defined you begin compartmentalizing and creating, because of the nature of app design we are constantly reusing visual elements, in a way its self referential which allows us to create quickly and consistently, i followed Atomic Design Principles when building out the UI to keep consistency across screens.

一旦結構被定義開始，因為應用程序設計，我們都在不斷重復使用的視覺元素，在某種程度上其自我指涉這使我們能夠快速一致地創建本質compartmentalizing和創造，我也跟著原子設計原則構建出時使用者介面可維持螢幕之間的一致性。

Here’s the Adobe XD wireframes:

這是Adobe XD線框：

原型 (Prototype)

Simulating a working product is going to allow us to conduct user testing quickly and in a way that best reflects the final product. It additionally allows us to present out design in a context that the clients will understand (not everyone has the ability to imagine how static images will interact with one another) this ultimately gives us a greater chance of approval when presenting our work. I used Adobe XD’s built in prototype tools to quickly link together the wireframes, while this allowed me to execute quickly it would mean giving up integrated access with Maze a wonderful tool that allows you to gain accurate user feedback remotely.

模擬有效的產品將使我們能夠以最能反映最終產品的方式快速進行用戶測試。 此外，它還使我們能夠在客戶能夠理解的環境中展示設計(并非每個人都有想象靜態圖像將如何交互的能力)，這最終使我們在展示我們的作品時獲得了更大的認可機會。 我使用Adobe XD的內置原型工具將線框快速鏈接在一起，而這允許我快速執行，這意味著放棄與Maze的集成訪問，這是一種出色的工具，可讓您遠程獲得準確的用戶反饋。

驗證方式 (Validation)

In order to validate our ideas, we tested the design periodically against the original app with staff across the office and connections the client that best reflected the demographic who would be using the platform.

為了驗證我們的想法，我們與整個辦公室的員工定期針對原始應用程序對設計進行了測試，并與最能反映使用該平臺的受眾特征的客戶進行了聯系。

There are several steps that users went through. First, we showed them the original application and had them register. Followed by the same process using the new prototype. A-B Testing, although rudimentary allowed us to directly measure the impact of the changes made with users.

用戶需要經歷幾個步驟。 首先，我們向他們展示了原始申請并進行了注冊。 隨后使用新的原型進行相同的過程。 AB測試，雖然基本，但使我們能夠直接衡量用戶所做更改的影響。

回顧與結論 (Retrospective & Conclusion)

Being a specialist in a smaller agency is seldom a picturesque role of performing a specific type of work every day. The reality is you’re often required to adjust your skill set as projects require. This project was one of those rare cases where I was given complete ownership over the project with support offered across the agency as required, essentially “You’re the expert, steer the ship” The interesting part about being the captain, is you have to know where you're going and how you're going to get there. This project came with a steep learning curve in the sense of project management; specifically dealing with client communication, time-estimates, budget, and billing.

在較小的機構中擔任專家很少能每天完成特定類型的工作。 現實情況是，經常需要您根據項目的需要調整技能。 該項目是極少數情況下的案例之一，在該案例中，我獲得了該項目的完全所有權，并根據需要在整個機構范圍內提供了支持，基本上是“您是專家，駕駛這艘船”關于船長的有趣之處在于，您必須了解您要去哪里以及如何到達那里。 從項目管理的角度來看，該項目具有陡峭的學習曲線。 專門處理客戶溝通，時間估算，預算和賬單。

At the end of the day, the final prototype can continue to be improved as more insights into user behaviour are discovered and pivot as new business cases arise. Overall this project was a great learning experience given both its opportunities and constraints.

歸根結底，隨著對用戶行為的更多見解和新業務案例的出現，最終原型可以繼續得到改進。 總體而言，鑒于其機會和局限性，該項目是一次很棒的學習經歷。

If you’d like to review the app it is available on the App Store and Google Play Store. Check out more about 925 Freelancing to see how they are striving to help connect businesses to people looking for flexible work.

如果您想查看該應用程序，則可以在App Store和Google Play商店中找到該應用程序 。 進一步了解925 Freelancing ，了解他們如何努力幫助企業與尋求靈活工作的人們建立聯系。

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the UX process for this project. We discovered meaningful insights that will be very useful in future projects. If you want to collaborate, talk shop, or simply share a conversation over coffee, drop me a line at hello@mitchmills.com or connect via LinkedIn.

謝謝閱讀！ 我希望您喜歡這個項目的UX流程。 我們發現了有意義的見解，這些見解在將來的項目中將非常有用 。 如果您想合作，聊天或只是在喝咖啡時分享對話，請給我 打電話 hello @ mitchmills.com 或通過 LinkedIn進行聯系 。