What?
Who?
Why?
A networking platform used to connect livestock breeders to broaden their herd potential. It’s like a dating app for livestock!
Livestock breeders looking to expand their genetics quickly and efficiently online.
Users have 3 busy seasons a year; show, breeding, & foal. This is a recipe for chaos and no rest. Users could benefit from a product doing the networking for them.
Team Size:
1 designer
Role:
UX Researcher, UX/UI Designer
Time Frame:
6 months
Deliverable:
desktop & mobile functioning screens
Toolkit:
Figma, FigJam, Adobe Illustrator, Maze
How might we...
alleviate fatigued horse breeders’ schedules during their most busy season by taking tedious and repetitive tasks off of their plate?
Research
Competitive Analysis
Through reviewing established horse breeding databases we can better understand features that are popular with users. The websites all provided similar information but varied mostly on location offerings.
There weren’t any that were a direct match to the client’s product.
Feature Roadmap
I worked with the client to establish a hierarchy of features valued by importance. The client’s focus was largely on making sure customers understood the product and also that Hitch & Herd is a trustworthy company.
6 Virtual Interviews
By speaking with horse breeding professionals on their career experiences and lifestyle we can better understand specifically what kind of features would be most beneficial for this product.
User Priorities:
Minimal learning curve
Trust
Flexibility
Consistency from supporting services
“The more you think about it, the more you wonder why anybody does it.”
“I’m not in my role because of anything other than I started at the bottom & really learned how the business works.”
“Horses are just in my blood.”
Sample Question:
How many foals (births) do you have per year?
What we want to know?
a better understanding of how busy this customer base is
Sample Question:
When breeding, do you only use your personal studs or do you outsource?
What we want to know?
how much networking this user does for breeding purposes
Sample Question:
What are your most utilized resources for networking your business?
What we want to know?
The client had mentioned word of mouth but I wanted to confirm this was the case for this sample pool
User Dislikes
Not having time to sleep during busy season
The unpredictability of working with live animals
USER PERSONA 1
Name: Mark
Age: 41
Location: Cresson, Texas
Family Status: married, 3 children
Occupation: Equine Breeding Manager
Hobbies: hunting, attending his children’s events, casual baseball with his children
Community: learns about politics and current events based on what he hears in his social circles. His seasonal work schedule is too unpredictable and busy to be involved in extra activities
“It Is For Sure 100% A Way Of Life And It Never Turns Off.”
Motivations
Family purpose from providing for loved ones
Excitement adrenaline rushes from foaling and shows
Needs
Trustworthiness confidence that partnerships will benefit business
Results experiencing benefits of labor efforts
Pain Points
Overloaded not enough time in the day to finish all necessary tasks
Obstinateness newcomers unwilling to learn the industry norms
USER PERSONA 2
Name: Lisa
Age: 52
Location: Smithfield, North Carolina
Family Status: married, 1 adult child
Occupation: Veterinarian Breeding Manager
Hobbies: horseback riding, casual bar hangouts, and general socializing
Community: she is too busy to be involved in extracurricular commitments for herself.
“A Really Cool Part Of This Job Is To See My Hard Work, To See Why We’re Doing It.”
Motivations
Success winning shows makes continuing hard work feel doable
Growth increased production for semen and increased livestock births
Needs
Consistency reliable working relationships is crucial with inconsistent animals
Progress without continued successful pregnancies, her business will fail
Pain Points
Inconsistency shipping mishaps and live animals are unpredictable
Multitasking busy seasons happen all at once, attention wearing many hats is exhausting
Priorities
Extensive search filters so users can easily find what they’re looking for
A clear path out so users do not get stuck on a page
A transparent and concise overview of the company to familiarize users who may be checking the product out for the first time
What I learned from the User Flow
Creating a user flow means keeping in mind every single possible path in which can be navigated through the product. This was really helpful in deciding which pages would take priority.
Design
Lo-fi User Test
Objective:
Users were to rank screen sections in order of importance when making a purchase.
Participants:
5 Users
Patterns:
Users agreed that item photos are most important
Overall users did not find it as important to know about a business’ background
Surprises:
Users do not find the item name important when making a purchase
Users overall tended to agree on the order of the screen categories
Considerations:
Showcasing trustworthiness on the product page to keep users engaged with the platform and excited to make a purchase through the product platform
What I learned from Lo-fi Wireframes
A hierarchy of elements is vital for good communicative design. This happens early in the defining stage but is best showcased for the first time in lo-fi wireframes.
The below graph showcases users’ results for ranking of importance. Green is most important, red is least.
Logo Development
The client had a lot of ideas for logos which started as a pencil sketch, as shown below. They wanted to see options featuring a rope wrapped around a hitching post as well as genetic symbols incorporated in the text. The rope and hitching post is what we ultimately landed on.
Final Logos
High Detail Logo
Simplified Logo
Color Inspiration
The client felt strongly about keeping familiar colors to the user for the palette. This meant staying with a natural color scheme. Reference images shown below.
Final Colors
Primary Colors
#D0B6A4
#B18567
#7C5D48
#704C42
#492B1F
Secondary Colors
#67AD92
#01774A
#01472C
Neutral Colors
#1A0509
#FFFBF9
Typography Goals
Working with the client it was clear they wanted tradition to show through in the text choices. We landed on a serif bold heading and paired with a more plain sans serif for body text and buttons.
CTA TEXT
LUSITANA BOLD
90PT
HEADING
LUSITANA BOLD
48PT
HEADING
LUSITANA BOLD
30PT
SUB HEADING 1
LUSITANA REGULAR
22PT
SUB HEADING 2
POPPINS SEMIBOLD
16PT
BODY TEXT
POPPINS LIGHT
14PT
BODY TEXT
POPPINS LIGHT
12PT
Design Process Highlights
Collaborating with a client resulting in endless ideas
Finding the right balance between traditional and new
Testing
Unmoderated User Testing via Maze Platform
5 breeding professionals provided feedback in improving navigation of the product design.
Hi-fi User Test
Task #1:
You are a horse breeder looking for a stallion that is 6-8 years old with a cremello blaze. How would you navigate to find a suitable option?
Task #2:
Choose the horse resulted from your search.
Outcome:
4/5 users successfully completed task #1
5/5 users successfully completed task #2
Patterns:
For the first task, users had an average misclick rate of 53.8% which is really high. Only one person had issue with dropping off for this task.
Upon looking at the heat maps this appears to be due to a small clickable area to expand filters.
Surprises:
Users tried to go out of order for filter options other than what was wired for the prototype.
Considerations:
Revise so that the entire filter option area is clickable to expand. This will help users get to their destination quicker
The issues users had difficulty with, clicking unclickable filter options & clicking filter options out of order, were more so difficulties in my prototype wiring.
Issue 1: Missed Wired Steps
Summary
User testing participants were asked to find a horse with specific filter options.
The prompt as follows, “You are a horse breeder looking for a stallion that is 6-8 years old with a cremello blaze. How would you navigate to find a suitable option?”
Problem
Users searched for the filter options out of order than was intended during the wiring. This should have been accounted for as it is not a wrong method of reaching the task objective.
For accurate testing it is imperative that all possible options are wired for the screens to flow seamlessly.
Issue 1: Missed Wired Steps
Solution
Revise wiring for future tests to include all possible pathways & user flows. This is something I was aware of prior to testing but I mistakenly thought users would follow as options were listed in the prompt.
Consideration
Without all possible pathways present testing is invalid. Users were mostly able to finish the task still but testing should be invalidated due to incomplete wiring. Go forward, must have all possible paths covered for wiring options.
Wiring should be ready for users to click filters in any order as they desire. This will ensure correct testing results as well.
Issue 2: Filter Tabs Clickability
Summary
User testing participants were asked to find a horse with specific filter options.
Heat maps showed users attempted to click areas outside of the wired areas of opening the filter options.
Problem
Users were able to successfully complete the task. However, they clicked on areas outside of the prototype wiring in order to open filter options.
For this small sample pool it did not deter users from finishing the task but it could affect future users’ experiences.
Issue 2: Filter Tabs Clickability
Solution
Increase the surface area on each filter option for most accessibility. This will lead to an increased success rate of users’ ability to open the filter.
Add an invisible section behind the filter text that can be wired to be clickable.
Consideration
This is an important element to correct. Any small possible annoyance can add up for users and make for a bad experience. This could affect users’ desires to revisit the website in the future.
High-Fi Screens showcasing the filter option
Challenges
Waiting for feedback from a client always adds a hurdle in the design process but communication persistence usually does the trick.
Lessons
This assignment has been a great exercise in logical design. Ensuring elements are placed in a way that makes sense to the user is difficult but rewarding once the final product is done.
Alternatives
Showcasing more of the filter capabilities instead of so much of the company background could have been beneficial to reel users in early.
Future
In my previous career I was in the department of being the logical one, otherwise known as
the buzz kill. I was used to communicating in a sensitive way what was and was not possible for a
product. However transferring those skills to clients in an industry which I do not have expertise in was
a new experience.
It’s exciting to think about perfecting this skill ahead.
Please reach out