A User Journey

This round, I started off by rounding out the creative brief I worked out last semester into a Materials Matrix. This is basically a document that lists a brief description of the overall idea, a list of what will be made for each deliverable, a description of the components of each, and the number of screens or pages of each item. I still need to nail down exactly what I will do for the app and website, but I’m almost there with this.

Next was the User Journey. I chose the persona Li Wei, an international student with limited resources. He moves to a new city, and finds that his resources of time and money don’t stretch as far as he needs them to. To create the user journey, I started out by just imagining his everyday life. I next wrote a short story imagining his experience, pain points, and how they might be solved through ResourceFull.

The initial sketch for the user journey. A flow might be, discovering the app through a poster, downloading and signing up, then scrolling through various resources.

It takes time to get his bearings, and once he does, he comes to the realization that he’s really short on money. To make up for it, he goes really cheap on food–buying a bulk pack of ramen noodles and eating them every day. This is an experience many college students have had. He’s definitely tired of it, and stressed, but makes do because he thinks he doesn’t have another choice. The next day, he’s on campus and sees a poster for the school’s student resource app. He scans the QR code, and downloads it later that night when he gets home. One of Li Wei’s big concerns is drawing the wrong kind of attention to himself. He doesn’t want to outright ask for help, and finds there are options on the app that allow him to get what he needs without jumping through a lot of hoops. He finds that the community he lives in has a network of Free Fridges (basically mini food pantries), and one is near his apartment. He walks over in the evening, and finds fresh produce, rice, and other goods. He excitedly picks a couple of things, and returns home. Back on the app, Li Wei searches out a recipe using what he got, and makes dinner.

After writing the story, I drew out some key moments, and wrote brief descriptions of each. I think this was a useful exercise, and actually gave me a few ideas for how the app and other elements of the project might work together. I’ll definitely use this process again when I start working on the app and website flows, and I think it will also be useful to run scenarios for the other personas I created.