UX CHALLENGE 2023

The UX Challenge is a technological challenge promoted by the HIT Foundation that allows those who study or carry out research in the field of design and human-machine interaction to work closely with companies to innovate and redesign the user experience (UX) of digital products and services.

The objective of the challenge is to maximize the usability of the interfaces and innovate the functions and methods of interaction between users and systems, also using augmented or mixed reality solutions. Participants will work in teams to design and test prototypes and interfaces of mobile applications, web apps, software and interactive systems on board industrial machinery and manufacturing production lines presented by the selected companies.

THE CHALLENGE 

An online land surveying company intends to conduct a user experience evaluation of the existing version of its product and gather suggestions for improvement, in the form of mockups, wireframes and prototypes.

The company intends to focus on use cases related to operators, not system administrators.

Company UX Goals:

• Make the product more usable (for example by making it more efficient from the users' point of view);

• Receive advice on how to homogenize the visual and interactive structures of the product;

THE LANGUAGE AND TOOLS USED

Given the composition of the team, the English language was adopted as the main method of communicating emails, produced material and final presentation.

At the request of the UX Challenge staff, the Miro Board platform was used to manage the work of these five days.

The prototype produced was created by Martina Brognara on the FIGMA platform in compliance with the design specifications provided by Material Design 3. Many of the icons were designed from scratch by Elsi Muller.

For the final presentation and the documentation necessary for the challenge were created via the Google suite.

Not knowing the topic in depth and not being able to study it in the appropriate time, CHAT GPT was used to reorder the cadastral data of some sections according to a more suitable order.

THE METHODOLOGY

The UX Challenge is characterized by the design methodology adopted, known as Design Sprint, in which in a relatively short period of time the problem is studied, a solution is proposed, and finally a prototype is produced and tested in resolution of the challenge considered.

In this case, the duration was five days in which various activities related to the assigned challenge were carried out.

Steps:

1. Problem mapping (MAP THE PROBLEM)

2. Proposing possible solutions(IDEATE)

3. Decision regarding the solution to be implemented (DECIDE)

4. Prototype creation(PROTOTYPE)

5. Prototype testing with specially recruited users (TEST)

At the end of the week the material produced was delivered and subsequently presented on the final day in front of the other companies.

1 - MAP THE PROBLEM

After reading the Design Brief document, the group began to address the situation by studying the product, understanding how it worked, the target users and how it behaved in response to our actions.

In light of this, we moved on to analyze the challenge, taking into consideration the objectives and results expected by the company.

Finally, a formal interview was held with a representative of the participating client in order to resolve doubts regarding the given deliveries and obtain more information regarding the design requirements.

3 - DECIDE

With the sketches created, a DESIGN SPACE was built in which the different ideas could be presented, discussed and clarified.

Per ogni soluzione proposta è stata espressa una preferenza o meno rispetto a certe caratteristiche (menù a tendina, navigazione orizzontale o verticale etc..). 

The most voted ideas were then digitally scanned and uploaded to FIGMA so we could guide prototyping.

Below are some of the most voted ideas.

4 - PROTOTYPE

On the basis of what was produced, a prototype was created on FIGMA which included the main functions of the application considered and which allowed a series of TASKS to be completed for the purpose of a future usability evaluation.

The main focus during the creation of the product was the User flow, but this did not prevent us from inserting the right amount of details to create a HiFi version of the solution.

Tune AND DELIVER

Subsequently, the necessary documents at the end of the UX Challenge were drawn up and the presentation to be shown on the final day was produced.

Once the public presentation was over, we moved on to the private interview in which the results of these five days were explained to the company representative present.

Weeks later, the presentation of the results was repeated within the company itself.

Thanks to Paolo Massa and Letizia Brunetti for their support and availability during the challenge.

Please note: in compliance with the confidentiality agreement of the challenge, it is not possible for me to show the original interface of the program to carry out a due comparison, however this does not appear to hinder the understanding of the methodology adopted in the project and the final result obtained.