Problem

Addressing pain points of researchers through their research journey

There is a strong lack of awareness of Sex education, along with a gap in the impartment of comprehensive sex education in schools, colleges, and other institutions in the country to adolescents.

Role

UX Research
UX Design
Product Design
UI Design and Prototyping

Project Details

Type: Personal Project (Group)
Duration: 6 months
Tools:

Deliverables

User Research Audit
Interactive Prototype
Testing Analysis

Solution Sneak Peak

Easy Tools and Accessible Material provided at ease

Tools and Resources are designed to be easily accessible, allowing researchers to dive into their tasks without unnecessary hassle. Researchers can retrieve information or data whenever they need, at any place and time during the on-field research.

Participants Searches and Casting Polls for Researchers

An easy way to find your user base and sample size through other streamlined channels. With participant search, researchers can find sample sizes easily and conduct studies more accurately.

Design Process

Desk Research

The project’s base began with understanding research and the basic questions that follow along with them.

WHAT

Is Research ?

Careful study and investigation to discover and explain new knowledge.

WHERE

Is Research Used?

Research studies are useful across industries like education, business, government, and science fields.

HOW

Is Research Done?

Involves you or your team going directly to the source to ask questions and gather data.

WHAT

Is Research Important?

To understand a phenomenon, situation, or behavior under study and its impact.

WHO

All Conduct Research?

Research is diverse and conducted from academicians to professionals.

Type of Research

Literature Review:

Primary research is used to complement, validate, or question nationwide or regional patterns through localized data

~Lynn Hall & Leah Wahlin

To identify and correct flaws you can initiate the process of piloting or experimenting with your questions on a small, targeted group to ensure their clarity.

~John W Creswell

Respondents must have the information sought, which holds significance, especially when in search of factual or technical details.

~Ranjit Kumar

The fundamental guideline for any data collection process is to document the methodology behind data generation and the process by which we acquired them.

~Sydney Verba

It is crucial that every participant possesses a certain level of experience with the phenomenon being studied.

~Cheryl N Poth

A crucial phase in the procedure involves identifying individuals or locations for study with participants to ensure the acquisition of valuable data.

~John W Creswell

Insights:

Research is Complex

Conducting research methodologies and practices to achieve results presents numerous challenges.

Research can be time-consuming

Research is often accompanied with other miscellaneous tasks, leaving less time for focused-research.

Research has multiple aspects

Along with carrying the process out, there is plagiarism, ethical approvals, funding issues etc.

Research is vital in many fields

There are significant studies and sources pointing towards significant impacts driven by research.

Problem Area

Necessary pain points of researchers when they are conducting throughout their research journey.

Note: This problem area is aimed to focus on market, industrial, and educational studies. Scientific and medical research is outside the scope of this project due to differing needs and priorities, highlighted through the desk research.

Pilot Study

The initial study explores stakeholder interactions and methods to understand the overall different research processes. The study helped gain an understanding of which groups to focus on.

Method of Research

Interview Type: One-on-One (Offline)

Interview Question: One Word/True-False

Stackholders

Professionals Early-Career Independent Workers Industry Experts Academicians

Total Paticipants: 27 Users

Avg Duration 10 mintues

Objectives of the Research

Understanding Researchers and what target groups do
The process they follow while conducting research

Findings of Research:

The findings of the research can be divided in two parts. The first part was making significant observations on the process of research. Stakeholder mentioned numerous tactics of how they tackle research, on the basis of which a general task flow is mentioned below.

An overview of how tasks are executed through a general process

The second part involved categorizing stakeholders to group their needs and pain points, guiding the project towards a more problem-specific solution.

Professionals

Equipped with the research process through years of experience.
Start research with an open mindset and proceed to dive deep into it
Have resources built to conduct high-impact research.

Early-Career Researchers

The process of research is new and fresh. Uncertainty of how to perform research.
Doubtful whether they are on the right track.
Its hard to gain access to resources while conducting research.

Independent Researchers

There is no medium to rely on, while conducting research
Access to resources are hard to attain.
Navigating not cost effective.

Pain points from different stakeholder groups

Insights of the Research

Resources aren’t readily available Resources become difficult to gain for early-career and independent researchers.

Data handling is crucial to determine outcomes Handling large amounts of data and ensuring its accuracy, is stressful on a larger scale.

Professionals recall facing lack of resources With experience, professionals seek to simplify the process for others.

Stackholder Identification

The pilot study identified clear perspectives to streamline the process and build for the specific target groups.

PRIMARY At a base level, the focus is to streamline solutions towards Early-career and Independent researchers

SECONDARY On a broader level, the connected audiences would be academia groups and universities.

Primary Research

On finalizing the target group, there was a need to better understand the selected primary and secondary audiences in detail.

Method of Research

Interview Type: One-on-One (Offline)

Interview Question: In-depth Questionnaire

Stackholders

Early-Career Independent Workers Academicians

Total Paticipants: 22 Users

Avg Duration 45 mintues

Objectives of the Research

Understanding Motivation and Purpose to conduct research.
Current Methodologies followed and solutions adapted too
Need-based demands of researchers
Real-life examples scenarios of problems occurred.

Findings of Research

Many early-career researchers experience insufficient guidance

~“Well there isn’t anyone to mentor me through the process. That can be challenging.”

Lacking support can isolate independent researchers, hindering collaboration and knowledge-sharing.

~“Well cross-collaboration between researchers is a difficult process. There are a few channels that support this.”

On-Field visits can be valuable for research but often present challenges.

~“On-field research poses its own challenges of location, logistics, data management etc.”

Obtaining a representative or large enough sample size can be difficult.

~“As a researcher, I prefer first-hand insights from SME’s when exploring unfamiliar topics.”

Researchers may encounter language and ethical barriers that hinders data collection.

~“As a researcher, I prefer first-hand insights from SME’s when exploring unfamiliar topics.”

Research is a lengthy process and has no definite end point.

~“As a researcher, the entire journey is lengthy. There are multiple setbacks along the way.”

Insights of the Research

Insufficient mentorship and guidance Users pointed towards lack of guidance through the entire process and being uninformed about methodologies of research.

Obtaining a certain sample size is difficult When obtaining participants for interviews and studies, there can be a non-streamlined pathway opted.

On-field research isn’t supported with varying tools The process of on-field research is tedious and often encounters numerous hurdles

Market and Competition Study

The insights drawn from the Primary Research led to conducting a detailed market study, and understanding the existing solutions.

Current Trends and Platform

Casting Social Nets

Casting on social media that you have an interview lined up

Contact Insiders

Going through various social media pages, exhausting contacts.

Google/SEO

Googling keywords and sources, finding numbers, and contacting people.

Mutual Contacts

Do you know any else in a similar situation?

Current Tools and Mastery:

In the identified problem area, numerous current influences and tools aim to streamline the process. I have accordingly categorized these influences based on whether they are direct or indirect inlfuences engaged by researchers.

Pain points from different stakeholder groups

Categorization of obtaining Representative Samples:

Interviewers and researchers who conduct studies have provided insights on various methods they use to reach their sample sizes. To develop a solution tailored for these researchers, I categorized these methods based on their impact vs effort required.

How Might We

User Perspective

How might we ensure a smoother service to ensure the entire reasearch process is esaier?

Ideation

To be able to incorporate a wide range of tools and supporting materials to streamline research having a product application to streamline research is efficient.

Concept Development:

To be able to prioritize and generate new ideas for the application, there were two ideation methodologies used. SCAMPER and Mash-up Tool were the two ideas implemented.

S

Substitute normal data with visual representations

Substitute the sample size with other secondary data

Substitute handwritten note-taking with AI note-taking

C

Feature about the insights and data

Get help from experts in the field and connect with them

A

Reward-based system for research participation

Adapting the concept of background checks for participants

Adapting hologram features to induce real-life on-field research

M

Modify the traditional route

Modify the research process of findings data

P

Connecting researchers with each other

Putting in the aspect of finding mentors

E

Eliminate unnecessary task scheduling and planning

Estimate the use of multiple platforms

R

Reverse the process & expect sample size to approach researchers

Reverse the task, how to experiment research tactics

SCAMPER Ideation - to generate features

Mash-Up Ideation - to generate features

Information Architecture

Final Solution

Easy Tools and Accessible Material provided at ease

Participant Searches and Casting Polls for Researchers

An easy way to find your user base and sample size through other streamlined channels. With participant search, researchers can find sample sizes easily and conduct studies more accurately.

Interative Prototype

UI Developed in 2023

Visual Design

To be able to explore newer ideas and drive research insights in the right direction, I had a simple mind-map to ideate the main product to streamline research.!

User Testing

The initial study explores stakeholder interactions and methods to understand the overall different research processes. The study helped gain an understanding of which groups to focus on.

Method of Research

Interview Type: One-on-One (Offline)

Interview Question: Questionnaire

Stackholders

Professionals Early-Career Independent Workers Academicians

Total Paticipants: 15 Users

Avg Duration 20 mintues

Objectives of the Research

The flow and user journey of the application is suitable to researchers
Additional improvements and changes to the application

Insights of the Research:

1

Researchers needed increased accessibility

Opening the app and finding certain tools, especially in closed time frames isn't ideal.

2

Researchers need an advanced filter for niche sample sizes

The filters need an advanced and more details while targeting niche audiences.

Implementing the changes through insights:

1

Simple Widgets to ease the complexity

Adding quick access widgets to capture important data and simplify tasks.

2

Advanced Filtration with AI suggestions

Adding a one-step distinct filter system to search audience when choosing niche options.

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