Kahila
For my developing interactivity class, my team partnered with Kahila, a Boston University-based startup company developing a proprietary Apple Watch band and case with buoyant properties, designed for water sports enthusiasts. Our plan was to develop a website to spread awareness of Kahlia's first-of-its-kind buoyant Apple Watch strap and case, highlight the risk of losing Apple Watches when participating in water sports, and the product's competitive pricing and attractive colours.
To start us off, we conducted a comprehensive market research. We looked into the wearables market, the water sports market, and the emerging technologies market. Through this research, we were able to identify three significant strengths and opportunities for Kahila:
Presenting a one-of-a-kind product to a very niche audience
Limited knowledge regarding the cost of wearable replacement and statistics regarding water sports-related losses of wearables allows for education opportunities
Limited digital presence allows for ‘big splash’ moment
It was also during this research and brainstorming stage that we decided to expand the potential user consideration for Kahila. Instead of only catering the website for water-sports enthusiasts, we would also take into account customers who could be purchasing the product for someone else. For our ethnographic interviews, we looked to speak with people who fit both these considerations. My teammate and I co-lead the research protocol development and execution. We synthesised our findings down to two user personas:
Based on the journey maps constructed for both user personas, we began developing the wireframes for the website. Once we aligned with the clients on the content, we began building the website in Wordpress.
Once the website was constructed, it was time for the next stage of UX testing: the usability test.
My teammate and I co-lead the research protocol development and execution. Per the protocol, we were to ask for general feedback but also ask participants to execute two key tasks corresponding to each user persona.
The most encouraging takeaway from our usability tests was that both participants were able to navigate through the different wireframes with ease. The participants did provide us with valuable feedback, which the research team synthesised into action items for the web design team, in advance of sharing the final product with our clients.