My role on this project: research design and analysis, content strategy
As a primary UX researcher on this project, my role was to plan, execute and analyse the research and support the developer by offering insights that can be turned into content strategy
Timeline: 2 weeks
Developer/Inventor: Matthew Schmuckler
Smatter is an app that gives users daily dose of knowledge about different topics and delivers an immersive experience. There were initial ideas for features but these needed concept and market testing.
Research questions
What topics would users enjoy reading about?
How do we translate immersive experience into exciting features?
Would people like having different levels they unlock as they learn?
What would make levelling up more fun?
Would users pay to unlock more?
Research rationale
Due to time and budget constraints for this project, I had to think carefully how to gather the best possible research. I discussed the pros and cons of different research approaches with the stakeholders and decided on the following strategy.
Concept testing
Chosen to capture feelings, reactions and opinions of potential users. To get the best possible data, I felt 10-12 users would be optimal.
Survey
Chosen to confirm results of the concept testing and capture wider segment of users. Sample size was decided based on acceptable margin of error and confidence levels discussed with the client.
Concept testing was done by presenting the users with a story board and asking them to discuss their opinions, thoughts and feelings.
Story boards used in concept testing (this content is subject to copyright)
Key finding
We found that users were very interested in having certain features and some commented that the app would also appeal to their children.
They were also encouraging because they felt it would be an app that could also benefit their children by expanding their knowledge. This made us think of ways to make it visually appealing to younger audience.
Testing the market
Interesting to younger and older users
“My nine year old daughter would love this”
I then programmed a survey that further tested certain concepts, such as what features future users may find interesting.
Question example:
Imagine the app was able to provide a fun or little known fact about a particular composer, writer, artist, piece of music etc. such as this: ”Da Vinci could write with both hands at the same time.”
How much would you enjoy this feature?
Translating research findings into features
Who doesn’t like fun facts
Fun facts were very popular with our participants, both in concept testing and in the survey, as was media (e.g. a piece of music, art or literature along with the article). Users also enjoyed levelling up idea.
Less is not always more
We also found what would be an optimal mix of features with majority of participants telling us they want all three features as daily content.
What else would users want to know about?
We found that many users were suggesting Literature as an option when asked what else would they want to read about daily, so this became a feature.
Summary
This was a fun research project that stretched my research skills and allowed me to participate in the content strategy, which I enjoy a great deal. Since this was an exploratory research, we wanted to gather as many insights as possible, which was translated into final features for the app. But this work is not over. Since there were time and budget limitations, research is not complete. The next steps would be to test the designs with users, to identify any usability issues and iterate. Additionally, content for the app was not tested, apart from very small samples used to illustrate the concepts within a survey. Detailed content on different topics should be tested with potential users, to identify any problems prior to generating a large database of content, which would take up considerable time and resources to create.