Users will have the opportunity to skip steps but it will result in a limited product experience
The time has come to study Information Architecture (IA)! As this is a weighty topic, I will split this blog post into the Doing and the Reflecting. Please continue reading for the ‘Reflecting’ post.
Onboarding Flow
Before starting our onboarding flow, we took a moment to redefine the goal of our prototype. I was relieved that reflection was part of the official task, as I always do this for myself. Pause and evaluate. Taking a moment helps me keep on track and allows me time to adapt the project’s original goals to respond to new research insights.
I struggled initially to define my onboarding. Each source made its own categories, leading to a general lack of consensus (Weinberg 2019; Justinmind 2020; Shad 2023). Based on this experience, onboarding could benefit from professional standardisation, similar to categorising dark patterns (nagging, confirmshaming etc.) (Brignull et al. 2023).
As my onboarding flow serves a particular purpose, it is slightly longer than average. Keen for some other perspectives, I have posted my flow onto the public forum and into the reviews section in a webinar. As of posting this, I haven’t had any word. I am still eager for feedback to improve my work, so I will pause the weekly content to work on a draft submission of the final product to send to the tutors.
Navigation
To begin with, I was unsure about outlining navigation types as I couldn’t see the use. Having briefly outlined my product navigation, I have a more straightforward path ahead of me. Outlining is “to get you started and give you a structure to hang your [design] on” (Bakis 2023). Once small but critical questions have been answered, some difficulty is removed from the design process.
Card Sorting
Eager to jump in, I outlined my content and put it straight into an Optimal Sort tool (Optimal Workshop 2024). Much to my chagrin, several things went wrong.
I should have given more context to my categories. Looking at the results, many of my content cards were ambiguous without context. One participant replied to the post-survey question, “It didn’t make much sense to me. It’s hard to organise [something] if you don’t know what’s it for. Like, what am I supposed to put in groups?”
Nine people participated in the digital card sort, however four abandoned the task before completion
Additionally, I should have crafted my participation message better. Four out of nine participants abandoned the card sort before the end due to how Optimal Workshop functions. Participants were unaware they had to reach the very last ‘goodbye’ screen, meaning their answers were not saved. I found this particularly frustrating. People had given their time to my research, but I couldn’t make their participation count due to my unfamiliarity with the tool. If I do a digital card sort again, I will take more time to investigate the tool before launching my study. Overall, my results would have been less impacted if I had taken some time to develop a research design structure that included time for experimenting with tools (Ranganathan and Aggarwal 2018).
Conclusion and next steps
As I would like to move into a UX researcher position in my career, this was a small but eye-opening experience. I will collate research job postings and note the research software they use. If they have free or student accounts, I will incorporate those tools into my practice to solve some small but impactful problems.
As with every new UX task, I really enjoyed myself this week. I’ve learned the importance of a more robust research design (knowing the tools, knowing what and why I’m asking), and next time, I will prepare better with research and appropriate reading.
References
BAKIS, Kirsten. 2023. ‘How to Outline a Novel in 9 Easy Steps’. Reedsy [online]. Available at: https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-outline-a-book/ [accessed 2 Mar 2024].
BRIGNULL, H, M LEISER, C SANTOS and K DOSHI. 2023. ‘Deceptive Patterns – Types of Deceptive Pattern’ [deceptive.design]. Deceptive Patterns [online]. Available at: https://www.deceptive.design/types [accessed 2 Mar 2024].
JUSTINMIND. 2020. ‘User Onboarding: 11 Best Practices and 15 Examples’. Medium [online]. Available at: https://uxplanet.org/user-onboarding-11-best-practices-and-15-examples-9156b483f074 [accessed 29 Feb 2024].
OPTIMAL WORKSHOP. 2024. ‘User Experience (UX) Research Platform’. Optimal Workshop [online]. Available at: https://www.optimalworkshop.com/ [accessed 29 Feb 2024].
RANGANATHAN, Priya and Rakesh AGGARWAL. 2018. ‘Study Designs: Part 1 – An Overview and Classification’. Perspectives in Clinical Research 9(4), 184–6.
SHAD, Aazar Ali. 2023. ‘The Only Onboarding UX Resource You’ll Need In 2023 [Guide]’. User Pilot [online]. Available at: https://userpilot.com/blog/onboarding-ux/ [accessed 29 Feb 2024].
WEINBERG, Eve. 2019. ‘Guide to Onboarding UX Patterns & Which One Is Right for You’. Medium [online]. Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/menu-of-ux-onboarding-patterns-and-when-to-use-them-3df2e3880fd1 [accessed 2 Mar 2024].
German vocabulary of the week
Reflecting – Reflektieren