This blog post is a reflection of my learning journey in understanding what Experience Design really stands for and why I feel connected to it intrinsically. Firstly, my interest in the subject emerged around 2 years ago, when I started to talk to some friends in the industry, brainstorming about apps and websites ideas and I found out I could have some pretty good ideas on solutions that could make people’s lives better. I wasn’t sure what niche in the design industry was responsible for creating these experiences and I was told it was Experience Design.
When I first saw that in my first trimester I would be studying XD, I was extremely excited to learn about its methodologies in understanding and identifying users’ needs in order to create a tailored solution for them. According to the Design & Innovation Blog, “Experience Design is a discipline that develops holistic experiences inclusive of all users across all aspects of service, product or event.” Throughout the course, we are being presented with numerous tools and skills needed to develop an XD concept successfully.
So far, I understood that researching and figuring out correctly user’s needs is the foundation of an XD solution. Our learning process started by picking a topic and researching potential challenges that people have with that. The best way to do that is by conducting the 2 types of research available in XD: Qualitative and Quantitative Research.
These 2 concepts have the power to identify users and connect deeply with their needs. While Qualitative Research helps to answer open-ended questions like “why” and “how”, Quantitative Research answers closed questions like “when”, “where”, “what” and “how many”. I, for once, conducted a focus group for my qualitative research and a survey for my quantitative research and this is all a part of the Market Research.
When creating a survey form or a focus group road map, we need also to consider participants Demographics and Psychographics, this data will later be used when defining your Persona in the XD solution. The table below explains the difference between these concepts:
The next step after identifying what are the main key points and users issues regarding a creatin topic is to use all data gathered and develop the XD concept. The development of an XD solutions consist of 5 XD elements: Information, Navigation, Engagement, Entertainment, and Personalisation.
Week 6 Slides: XD
Each of these elements have multiples design criteria that are needed to be taken into account when building the XD solution concept. These works like a guide when structuring the deliverables and making sure the solution has covered all the essentials topics. We are still learning about these concepts and I am very excited to see how we will develop these applied to our solution.
My team XD solution
The project we’ve been working on is a continuation of my research for Assignment 1: Women’s Empowerment through Sexual Wellness. This XD solution consists in a platform made to educated and encourage women finding ways to develop sexuality and explore the benefits of sexual wellness.
After conducting both types of research, I’ve noticed that women have different ways to approach sexuality according to their family's education, religion, experiences in life, society input, and cultural issues. Some of the research outcomes and insights:
• 37,50% of women have never used sex toys, which implicates that there is a huge market gap to be explored.
• Almost half is motivated by their partners to explore their bodies and sexuality to increase self-confidence and bring positive outcomes to the relationship.
• Our mother has a huge impact on our sexual education
• Some religions see masturbation as bad, once our bodies were made to reproduce according to them.
• Woman would rather share their sexual insecurities with close friends and/or their partners
• Most women feel discomfort when talking about sex and claimed the reason behind it is the existing taboo of society about the topic
•Gynecologists are using sex toys and sexual education to help patients develop sexual confidence.
• All of them considered getting a new sex toy after our talk.
After conducting both types of research, I’ve noticed that women have different ways to approach sexuality according to their family's education, religion, experiences in life, society input, and cultural issues. Some of the research outcomes and insights:
• 37,50% of women have never used sex toys, which implicates that there is a huge market gap to be explored.
• Almost half is motivated by their partners to explore their bodies and sexuality to increase self-confidence and bring positive outcomes to the relationship.
• Our mother has a huge impact on our sexual education
• Some religions see masturbation as bad, once our bodies were made to reproduce according to them.
• Woman would rather share their sexual insecurities with close friends and/or their partners
• Most women feel discomfort when talking about sex and claimed the reason behind it is the existing taboo of society about the topic
•Gynecologists are using sex toys and sexual education to help patients develop sexual confidence.
• All of them considered getting a new sex toy after our talk.
Based on the above, our team decided that the solution will be presented ad an App + Landing Page and the name chosen for the solution is Carnelian. Carnelian is a crystal that helps to activate our Sacral Chakra, known as our sexual chakra. Crystals are very linked to our wellness and self-development, hence the reason why we chose this name for our solution.
Carnelian Concept - Team Miro Board
By conducting the research and analyzing the target audience, I found a few key features that our XD solution has to consider such as:
• Have a cool and contemporary branding, following aesthetics trends, applied to multiple media.
• Allow women to experiment privately or in groups.
• Link sexual education to products.
• Have a sexologist and a gynecologist as specialists of the solution.
• Create experiences to “break the ice” before asking people to open up.
• Consider involving partners and friends in workshops and solutions
• Have a cool and contemporary branding, following aesthetics trends, applied to multiple media.
• Allow women to experiment privately or in groups.
• Link sexual education to products.
• Have a sexologist and a gynecologist as specialists of the solution.
• Create experiences to “break the ice” before asking people to open up.
• Consider involving partners and friends in workshops and solutions
Carnelian promise to deliver Online and Offline Support from specialists, monthly Carnelian Club Box releases, videos and products reviews (social media), and a chat to community feature.