About Sam
I have been in Marketing for around 4 years, with a recent completion of a Masters Data Analytics and Marketing.
However, whilst on furlough, I decided to review my skills and experience to re-train and enter a new career path in User Experience and Design, in order to understand key business needs within a User Researcher role, speaking directly with the customer and using their insights to help organisations build more customer focused product and service offerings.
In order to gain more experience within this field, I have recently undertook the UX Design Course from UX Academy that provided in depth theory and practice of tools such as Figma and Miro, into real life client project. This gave me an understanding of how to collaborate as a team, in addition to establishing effective project management techniques.
Project: Bluepass
Bluepass is a mobile app that connects NHS Staff with companies providing discounts specifically for them. The target market the product is aimed at NHS, but particularly doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers. My team were assigned to help improve Bluepass’ user experience and app flow.
Business Goals
Improve user experience or flow for Bluepass App.
Increase users activating discounts and sharing them.
Success metrics
Engagement with app (increase in shares, amount of discounts used, app usage)
Initial research
Interviews took place between 3rd-10th August with current NHS Staff. Users were asked about current habits for using discount apps, then given the current Bluepass app for feedback on usability.
Key quotes that came from the research included:
- “…Found the home page confusing as I was expecting to see more than just a blank screen”.
- “…I like asking friends/family to find codes through WhatsApp/call”
- “I find the process of finding a discount too long.”
Problem Statement
The hypothesis focused around improving the user’s introduction the app.
The steps taken for the project were:
- Need to improve onboarding process;
- Creating a sign up/login/guest login process more obvious at the beginning;
- Improve discount visibility;
- Social media app integration
User Personas
Journey Map
Rationale of design
Login page: Simplify login and onboarding process designed from persona specifications. This is one of the key changes, as previous research suggests 72% of users say completing the app onboarding process in less than a minute is an important factor in their decision to keep using an app. This will help create better sign up and user engagement with home page.
Offers page: Stack offers with discount highlighted. The rationale behind this was to reduce time for user to search for discounts.
Sharing: Create a section that promotes sharing of discounts via social media apps, through recommendations found in user research. Previous UX examples that have implemented this helped with user sharing and engagement by 14%.
Prototype
Usability Testing
After creating the high-fidelity wireframes, 6 additional NHS users were recruited to test the changes and if the improvements helped with the usability of the app. Key quotes from the research included:
- “I found the login page and homepage easy to use.”
- “I like the layout and division of offers on the home screen.”
- “There is too much the text presented on the offers page. I would like less text or more images to balance it.”
- “I would like to customise the sharing options.”
- “I would like to see more links about discounts and how to verify.”
Learning and challenges faced during the project:
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the project was done remotely. It was more challenging as the team and client were working full time jobs and living in different geographic areas.
Also, as most of us were new to UX Research and Design, it took some time to get used to software (i.e Figma for designing wire frames) and UX concepts.
To overcome this, set times allocations per week were set aside for the project and setting deadlines of tasks needing to be completed for the project. Also, regular communication with the client on updating him on project progress.
Expected impact from the changes:
From previous research, by simplifying the onboarding experience, Bluepass can expect improvements of user retention by 50%.
Adding social media integration to the sharing part of the app will not only elevates the functionality of these apps but will help with the recommendations made by people they follow on social media, adding credibility to products, and inspiring a purchasing decision. Whether you want to start a career in UX, or just diversify your skillset in general, UX Academy has several courses available to suit your needs. Get the chance to work on real life projects and build your UX portfolio when you join UX Academy.
Whether you want to start a career in UX, or just diversify your skillset in general, UX Academy has several courses available to suit your needs. Get the chance to work on real life projects and build your UX portfolio when you join UX Academy.