Xinsighters - a community-based platform for freelance UX researchers
User research
When I first met with my stakeholder, the entrepreneur of Aqsenter and a UX researcher, I heard from her about the challenges facing UX researchers and the social platform she builds trying to solve the problems and complexities faced by this group.
My starting point was assessing the main issues of my subject matter experts.
Problems statement
Freelancers ux researchers need an attractive way to present their research with simple visual tools.
Freelancers ux researchers need a good source of quality projects.
Freelancers ux researchers need a quality professional community to share knowledge and ask questions.
User Survey
I surveyed 25 UX researchers in our focus group. The survey asked several questions, including whether they were members of the UX community, where they found professional information, and whether they were interested in attending professional events and lectures. Additionally, I asked if they would like to publish their research in a professional setting, to which 60% answered yes and 28% answered maybe. However, the turning point of the survey was when I asked if their portfolio properly represented their research work, and 66% answered no. I further probed and found that 90% of the respondents had a hard time building an attractive portfolio. Additionally, 76% of the respondents said they needed help and support in the portfolio-building process. Realizing the significance of this problem, I discussed it with the stakeholders and decided to prioritize solving this issue. This led me to another stage of research where I met with a group of UX researchers to understand the complexity of the profession.
Meeting the users
I learned a lot about my research during a meeting with users, which helped me understand it better as a user experience designer. The meeting was part of the process of building a new community of UX researchers from various companies and freelancers. During the meeting, I realized that researchers often face challenges in sharing information, finding relevant information, getting feedback, and finding quality projects. I also learned that many researchers find it difficult to present their work in an accessible way and that this is a common issue in research. From this meeting, I drew key values of visuals, accessibility, feedback, support, and community, which I believe are important for a variety of research fields and professional groups. After the meeting, I created a small affinity map that captured all the important insights I had gained from the users.
Affinity Diagram
Brand Positioning matrix
User flow
A new feature was born from the study!
My suggestion to my stakeholder was that I design a feature for building a portfolio within the community and job seekers platform.
style tile
In the UI design elements process, I considered the complex hierarchy of the page. I wanted to create a sense of professional space yet accessible and sociable. In addition, I wanted to emphasize the amount of knowledge and the possibility to share and receive it through the platform.
Hi-Fi
In the Mid-Fi stage, I created two screens for the profile page, one for the personal profile and the other for the portfolio. When I reached the Hi-Fi stage, I decided to unify the screens and use the portfolio as a personal profile. This obtaining professional visibility, and familiarity that goes through content that upgrades and even make it easier for the user to promote it on the platform.
