Design
User Flows
Now that I knew my feature set well, it was time to develop my user flows. This entire process allowed me to visualize my user's journey and the different case scenarios that there are. This will also cut out my work for me later, as I will know exactly what screens I need to have.
Low-Fi Wirerames
It was finally time to put my ideations into life. I had a very good idea of how I visualized this project to look like. So I ahead and wireframed each screen.
Testing and research through many phases of the project was very important, I wanted to know if my ideas could be improved at every version. So before I iterated into high-fi wireframes, I conducted some more research on if my designs were clear and intuitive so far.
Take Aways
After conducting my research, I went a head and wrapped up all my insights into three categories, pain points, what users liked, and iterations to be made. This again, helped me take a huge chunk of unorganized data and turn it into actionable insights.
High-Fi Wireframes
Pretty self explantory here, but using feedback and reflecting on my designs, I iterated into high-fi wireframes that were able to represent discord's brand identity, but also add a new flair that discord hasn't seen before.
Prototpying
I made some UI components, to create a quick library of assets, such as buttons, tiles, togles, and more. Additionally, I also prototyped all the screens.
As I said before, every iteration should have good research to back it up, so I finally conducted my last round of testing, by doing usability testing for my prototype. I again took 5 users, and asked them to walk through my prototype, with little to no help, to reduce as much bias as possible. I would probe questions such as, "what do you think that button does?" or "can you think aloud?" so can understand their thought process when using my feature.
After making my last additions and fine tuning the prototype using the feedback, I concluded my finished prototype of Discord Feeds. Please feel free to check it out!
View PrototypeLearnings and Key Takeaways
Designing a feature with an existing Brand
Not only is visual branding difficult when you are building off an existing brand, but understanding if you feature aligns with the brands core themes and values was tricky too. I did a lot of research and even talked to ex discord employees to really understand if my feature was straying too far away from discord, and also if this is really what discord needs as a revamp to their platform.
Creating research that probes and extracts the right information from users
There was so much to cover in terms of what I wanted to learn from Discord users, so really creating objectives and the developing the best questions to extract user motivations, habits, and more was truly a challenge that I had to overcome.
Synthesizing huge chunks of research into actionable insights
There was also an overwhelming amount of user research that I collected especially during the early stages of understanding users, and a lot of the information collected was very basic and mundane, but turning these statements into conclusions and insights, were one of my favourite parts of the project, because discovering that my hypothesis was pretty much spot on was super rewarding.
