Navigating the Lean UX Journey: My Leadership Experience on the Imbible Project
Embarking on the journey of designing Imbible, a mobile app prototype geared towards educating young adults about the world of cocktails and bartending, was a challenging yet incredibly rewarding experience. This project unfolded throughout the Fall Semester of 2022 as part of an Interaction Design II course at Kennesaw State University. My role as the team leader and interaction designer provided me with valuable insights into the Lean UX process and the opportunity to execute it successfully.
Lean UX: A Framework for Innovation
Lean User Experience (UX) Design is a methodology that centers on user-centric design principles while embracing Lean and Agile development practices. It emphasizes reducing waste and creating products that cater to the needs of the users. Imbible, our interactive iOS app, aimed to make the learning process about drinks and bartending both educational and enjoyable for adults of legal drinking age.
Team Dynamics and Roles
Our team consisted of talented individuals, each contributing unique skills to the project:
1. Lauren Johnson (that’s me) - Team Leader/UX Designer
2. Lindsey Smith - UX Designer
3. Kristen Sitro - UX Designer
4. Mateo Perez - UX Designer
As the team leader, my responsibilities included organizing meetings, moderating interviews, presenting ideas for content and design, facilitating discussions aligned with Lean UX principles, managing a team calendar, ensuring team engagement, and designing and prototyping various aspects of the app.
Tools of the Trade
Our toolkit comprised essential software and communication platforms:
- Figma for design and prototyping
- Discord and Outlook Teams for team communication
- Photoshop and Illustrator for graphics and visual elements
The Lean UX Journey: August 2022 - December 2022
Challenges and Objectives
Our primary challenge was to create an app that served an educational purpose rather than becoming just another social media hotspot. We aimed to educate individuals of legal drinking age who were new to the bar industry. Key objectives included meeting all user goals and crafting a personalized quiz tailored to the user's taste preferences.
The Lean UX Methodology
Lean UX thrives in fast-paced, cross-functional environments, blending UX, Agile, and Scrum practices. Agile delivery involves iterative development of specific requirements, while Scrum facilitates work in sprints with daily stand-up meetings and continuous adjustment based on evaluation.
Our Lean UX canvas was adapted to suit our course's timeframe and accessibility constraints. Here's a breakdown of our journey divided into two sprints.
Sprint 1:
Design Week 0: We began by filling out the Lean UX Canvas, clarifying business problem statements, creating proto-personas, formulating hypotheses, and establishing a product/sprint backlog.
Sprint Week 1: We built our Minimum Viable Product (MVP), conducted interviews, and utilized affinity maps to evaluate our MVP's effectiveness.
Sprint 2:
Design Week 0: We revisited the Lean UX Canvas, refining it based on evidence from Sprint 1. We adjusted proto-personas and focused on improved solutions.
Sprint Week 1: We made enhancements to existing features and added new ones based on user feedback gathered from interviews.
Sprint Week 2: Final adjustments were made to the prototype, including user-requested features. We conducted final interviews and held a Sprint Retrospective Meeting.
Lessons Learned and Future Endeavors
Our Lean UX journey on the Imbible project provided invaluable insights and experiences. We learned the importance of adaptation, embracing change, and validating assumptions. The process fostered growth as UX Designers, shaping us into more agile and user-focused professionals.
Given more time, we would have expanded on content, particularly in the areas of bar lingo and the drink dictionary. User suggestions, like the ability to tap on unfamiliar terms for definitions, would have enhanced the user experience.
In conclusion, my leadership experience on the Imbible project was a remarkable journey of growth, collaboration, and innovation. Lean UX proved to be an effective framework for guiding us from ideation to a successful prototype. As we look ahead, we carry these valuable lessons with us into future UX endeavors, ready to tackle new challenges and create user-centered solutions.
