ux case study examples

ux case study examples

User Experience (UX) Case Study Examples

1. Introduction

User Experience (UX) case study examples – a look into the growth of different companies over time and the user experience solutions they applied to boost their product. Case studies are detailed investigations of specific companies or incidents. It’s a form of research that is used to help develop a more thorough understanding of a specific issue or instance. User Experience (UX) is an evolving industry that spread across technical sundeck and has now touched all the aspects of IT and services provided by companies, from small scale to large scale. UX deals with all the resources and deliverables that involve technical and user interface aspects of a product. UX case studies form the heart of a UX professional’s portfolio. They are essential to getting the job, whether it is freelance, part-time, or full time. A case study is one of the research streams in investigating a particular instance or a case under a standard set of data collection methods. In essence, a UX case study is the story of the project or any particular event where the user experience professional was involved and the course of events that followed. In telling that story, it shows evidence of one’s experiences, understanding, skills, and general know-how of the UX process and decision making. A UX professional’s experience determines how well he can solve a problem to create a universally optimized experience. UX decisions are part of an iterative process that can be informed by different varieties of evidence that shows service a system and its constraints. Case studies that show a rich understanding of the constraints and various techniques should be present from the professional’s various experiences.

2. Problem Statement

It is essential to have a strategic plan in place for any business that provides direction and a clear vision of what the future will hold. The management team at Okha have failed to reach an agreement as to what type of customers they want to target and the best approach for attracting them. As a result, they are uncertain on how to make the transition from a company that does direct business with customers to a service that connects customers to coaches. They realize that there is a need to become more efficient in their efforts to gain customers and gain a better understanding of who their current and potential customers really are. This poses problems for the management team with finding coaches and determining what type of coaches will be best suitable for Okha’s intended future customers. A solution to this problem starts with finding the type of customers that Okha wants to target. This can be done by creating customer profiles and comparing them against current customer demographics to identify any discrepancies. The transition to serving the customers can occur once the customer profiles match and will require an understanding of customer needs to search specific coaches in the attempt to fulfill any requests.

After reviewing the background summary about the company, I think I have come up with the perfect problem statement. Okha is a privately held company that is looking to team up with Concept Designs to implement similar business objectives and reach projected strategic goals. It is the intention of our team to provide Okha with a revised business strategy and design a coach management system that will assist in the implementation of both. This problem statement serves as a general outline to be used in finding a logical solution to the real business problems Okha is facing today. The goal is to find Okha a current and sustainable coach management system. To begin, our team has defined a sequence of objectives that are framed as a set of questions to be answered. Through each finding and possible solution that will occur further down the track, this sequence of objectives will be referred back to as a reminder of the initial problems that Okha is facing and what is needed to solve them. This will help keep the project focused and maintain a clear vision of what is required.

3. Research and Analysis

Research and analysis is key to the success of any project, and often a good user experience design will demand a very thorough study. In looking at our first case study, Alberta, a student researching a new place to study may benefit from getting a quick overview of the city. Realizing it would be valuable for Alberta to be able to readily access information about hundreds of different cities, the best approach is to develop a web-based application. Enroute to its destination, this project was taken through a substantial research and analysis phase. City promotional material and tourism websites were evaluated to determine what makes a city unique and what kind of information would best depict this. A review of the methods in which people form perceptions about cities led to the realization that photos are the most effective means of communication. Users were found to either seek specific information that can best describe a city or simply get a general ‘feel’ for the city in order to form a loose impression. This spurred the idea to use ‘photo essays’ on specific topics in addition to a photo gallery with captioned photos. During the process of gathering information about different cities, we held a focus group to determine how users might compare cities and what might determine their final decisions. The suggestion of a compare tool was then implemented using a weighted comparison table, which was determined to be the most effective means. All these conclusions and ideas were then pieced together into a sort of ‘guideline’ which would direct site development. In the end, the hard work put into research and analysis was crucial in delivering the right product to the user.

4. Design Solutions

The third approach is to reduce mode confusion, and the fourth is to automate a means-end direct move. These approaches are inspired by generating alternative designs and can be implemented in our probabilistic transformation and algorithm.

Then the second approach revolves around change prevention design. The main reason for system complexity is constantly changing requirements. The task will keep changing and this will have an effect on the system, causing it to take a new path in order to accomplish the task. So the idea is to lift the task to the point of satisfaction and create some map or algorithm to decide which action is the best to get the job done. This can take time in the initial phase, but it will greatly affect the task efficiency and make it easier to understand.

Fortunately, I came up with several design solutions which will help in solving the problem and can be implemented easily. The first approach is basically problem-externalizing design. This is a concept based on the task to take the problem from a person’s mind outside of them. In other words, this approach provides help in solving problems by making it visible. The problem will no longer be stored in memory and the person will have a clear understanding of what the actual problem is.

5. Conclusion

From these ideas, some may be inspired to use these examples to build better patterns into some of Oracle’s existing applications. Others might also ponder what sort of insight might be delivered if UX were renewed in the applications they work on. In any case, all of these examples should give a good understanding of how to observe users’ interactions with software, understand what makes those interactions good or bad, and ultimately design a better user experience. This is the essence of what UX is all about, and these case studies serve as excellent illustrations of these concepts.

In conclusion, I would like to note that this collection of case studies contains too much value. In total, it provides an impressive overview of how UX can move those who use it from negative experiences with software into positive ones. What is particularly striking is the depth of insight that has been provided into each individual case study. By breaking down examples into such fine detail, the collection does an excellent job of giving practical illustrations of how UX can be implemented into a piece of software. This may prove invaluable for those looking to move into the field or implement better experiences into their own products. Similarly, these in-depth examples may also be useful for those who have been charged with the task of selling the idea of UX to higher-ups in their companies.