What I do when I design

On this page, you can see the design process I use in my personal and team projects.

Research

To understand the possible problems users face, I conduct interviews, desk research and observation. In some projects, like Paradiso, I also participated in shadowing to understand the journeys and processes which the users go through.

Interview through video call
Remote interview for FOMO
Interview in controlled setting
Interview session in the internship at NAVER LABS

Customer Journey & Persona

From the research data, I put down users’ processes into customer journeys and grouped the similarities shared among users to create personas. This is for user understanding, allowing for a clearer picture of the needs and problems that they may have. Below, I give examples from my FOMO project.

Customer journey from the interviews/research
Rearranged and categorized to be more concise
Personas
Grouping the similarities to create personas and customer journeys

Grouping & theming the findings

After extraction of the quotes and customer journeys, I rearrange the information again to cluster the data into themes based on the needs and problems that the users have.

Theming from FOMO
Theming in my internship at NAVER LABS

Brainstorming possible solutions

After I learned about problems that the users face, I participate in brainstorming possible solutions by generating and answering ‘How Might We’ questions as well as raising new ideas to the team.

Sitemap & Information architecture

Once the possible solution is set, I push the idea forward by drafting interaction systems. This allows us to see the big picture of the product/service flow (e.g. interactions). I created a sitemap for FOMO and drafted an information architecture for KRAAN.

Concept sketch & Wireframe

A quick sketch allows us to see the first draft of the solution. Wireframes help us to check and adjust the interaction to be smoother. These two steps help us to see what the final solutions would look like. Below, I give examples of my sketches and wireframes.

Quick sketch for Paradiso (Sorry for my drawing!)

FOMO‘s Wireframe

Digital prototype

After the wireframe is set, I create some basic interfaces and click dummies to communicate what the digital experience would be like.

Prototype from FOMO

User flow

User flows help us to see the potential user process when using our solutions. You can see the user flows that I created in FOMO and Paradiso.

Physical prototype

In addition to applications and websites, I also do some physical prototypes. I coded with Arduino for KRAAN and used Touchdesigner for SENSO.

User test

I observed users behavior while using the prototypes or MVPs through Hotjar videos and video calls. When there are chances that I can interact with the users, I prepare a list of tasks for them to accomplish via the product. From there, I can see which struggles they are facing and report these to the team for a design iteration. In CINEME, I used Maze to test Low-fi and High-fi prototypes.

Maze usability test from CINEME