URBAN TURF
Hyperlocal News App
What is Urban Turf?
The Urban Turf app is an off-shoot of the Washington D.C. based hyperlocal news publication. The CEO of Urban Turf approached us to design a hyperlocal news app to inform potential real estate buyers.
The Challenge
A user needs to get a sense of a neighborhood over time to decide if it is the neighborhood where they want to buy property. The user also wants to quickly consume the most relevant content about a particular area.
The Outcome
A news feed of hyperlocal news stories is populated based on a defined area. From an individual article, a user can access similar news stories that were written about the same location. The user can access stories from the past to see how an area has changed over time. The user can save the written, or audio version of the story.
My Role
UX Researcher, UX Designer, Interaction Designer
Tools Used
Sketch, Invision. Lookback, Mindjet
Whiteboards, sketchbook, post-it notes
UX Research Methods
We employed several UX research methodologies, including google analytics, interviews, surveys, affinity mapping, personas, journey mapping, and contextual inquiry.
After synthesizing our research results, we could identify the main problem our users faced. We could move on to generating ideas on how to solve this problem.
Information Architecture
I continuously updated the app architecture of the Fuse product.
This is a map I made of the app architecture
Ideation, A Design Studio, and Rapid Prototyping
We began ideating for possible interactions. This was the most fun part of the entire process for me! We conducted a design studio with our client.
Once we had generated many ideas to solve the user's problem, we made a series of rapid paper prototypes and did user testing to figure out which ideas worked/ were feasible given the time allotted.
User Testing
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We tested the paper prototypes to gain insights into the overall flow of the app as well as certain interactions
Wireframing
We wireframed the entire Urban Turf app. After we had a digital prototype of the app with Invision, we were able to use Lookback to conduct further user testing.
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Conclusion and Next Steps
Designing the Urban Turf App allowed me to exercise my UX Research, UX Design, and most importantly, my Interaction Design skills!
This project allowed me to be truly innovative in terms of understanding the delicate balance between ideation and practicality.
