Needs Analysis and Ideation
To kick of the project and better analyse the users needs, I created two empathy maps, the first focused on the public service users (general public), and the second was the public sector decision makers. These two empathy maps certainly helped lay the foundation for the rest of the exploration completed.
Once the empathy mapping was complete, I started to break down some possible ideas for solutions while also exploring additional problems that would need to be accounted for such as infrastructure and technology blocks.
I developed a customer journey map for Mary, a fictional user persona representing older community members with limited digital literacy living in rural Ireland. This map was crafted to demonstrate how Mary interacts with the Anseo app’s AI assistant, reflecting her needs and challenges in engaging with digital services. The journey starts with her learning about the service and spans through her ongoing use and loyalty. This prototype includes a details of her interactions with the app, her emotional response and potential touch points for improvement.
The map is not only a tool for visualising Mary's experience but also serves as a strategic guide to enhance service design for users like her, ensuring the app is accessible and beneficial.
This prototype is not meant to be perfect, but rather an exercise in creating a unique and innovative solution to answering the project brief, creating a bridge for marginalised groups as Ireland moves forward with digitising their services.
This prototype is a storyboard detailing the experience of Mark, a 29-year-old professional visiting the Anseo centre for the first time. I envisioned this storyboard to show how the library's new purpose is perceived through Mark's eyes, what changes he notices in the space and how he thinks it may be relevant to the community. His goal is to sign up as a member and explore Anseo and it’s offerings.
To make the most out of the exercise, I worked towards the completed prototype in these phases:
- Defining a storyboard structure in written bullet points
- Drawing up a very basic sketch with pencil and paper
I used a storyboard template in FigJam, and working on my iPad, I drafted up the first digital version - and being unhappy with the initial outcome of this. So I found images online to montage while used midjourney to help create two additional scenes that I could trace over.
Once I had the compositions ready, I brought this in as a background image into Procreate, and started to trace over the images. This was a much smoother process and felt natural (and enjoyable) to do, ultimately bringing the storyboard forward to the final prototype. The brief states that these prototypes are intended to be low-medium fidelity, but if I was to bring this forward to high fidelity. I would enhance the image size to allow for more detail, and make sure to craft additional layers, shadow and perspective. Below are some images I documented to showcase the process I went through.
