iSchool Capstone

Applying Empathy for Success: Designing Flexible User Research Frameworks for Innovation

Project tags:

information behavior & user research

ux & interaction design

Project poster

Meaningful understanding of diverse user groups can help maintain top-of-the-line experiences in software and beyond. Epic Games asked the Data Divas to design a study that could be applied across multiple user types for Unreal Engine 4 and its documentation. Phase One involved creating user personas and stories. In Phase Two, we developed a flexible methodology using customizable task sets and user-centric evaluation through journey maps and open-ended questions. In Phase Three, we tested the methodology with beginning-level users and gained additional insight. Applying this methodology will help quickly assess user needs across an increasingly diversifying user group.

Project participants:

Mahealani Smith

MSIM

Shrija Priyanil

MSIM