unprinted
unprinted is a digital hub for Japanese designers, offering cutting-edge design news, insightful articles, and industry events, all aimed to inspire and enliven their daily design journey.
My Role
UX Designer, UX Researcher
Platforms
Desktop, Mobile
Timeline
Ongoing
Tools Used
Figma, Miro, Zoom
Overview
Background Information
In the initial stages of unprinted, I led the user interviews, serving dual purposes: validating our concept & assessing our preliminary designs. Knowing we wanted to support Japanese digital designers, we needed to make sure they were interested. We wanted to know what kind of articles and resources they liked, what they needed but couldn't find, and how unprinted could fill those gaps.
My Process
Crafting the User Interview
💡Planning
First, I outlined what we aimed to verify with the user interview.
This was to ensure clarity about our objectives and stay focused on the outcomes we wanted to achieve.
Next, I began the practical planning phase by addressing these four pivotal elements:
1. What we aim to discover
2. The reason behind these specific inquiries
3. The questions necessary to achieve our goals
4. The intended use of the gathered information
In the final stage of the interview, we presented pre-formulated designs of the home and article detail pages. The aim was to ensure that our branding aligned with the preferences of our target audience and to verify if the distinct sections and elements in our design met their needs and expectations for such a digital hub.
You can view the prototype here.
To finalize the user interview plan, I prepared all the content for discussion in advance. This preparation was done to ensure that the interview duration did not exceed the intended timeframe of approximately 45 minutes.
🔎Participant Recruitment
To gain a deep understanding of our target users, I aimed to include Japanese digital designers of all levels. I searched for potential interviewees on both Twitter and LinkedIn. After carefully examining various profiles, I contacted those who fit our target user profiles, which included:
Aspiring & Beginner Digital Designers
Experience: Less than a year
Current Status: Actively learning or working in a junior designer role
Intermediate & Senior Digital Designers
Experience: More than a year
Current Status: Continuously improving their skills, staying updated with industry trends, and engaged in a designer role
As a result, I reached out to more than 20 individuals, and 9 responded positively to my user interview request. I proceeded to conduct interviews with these 9 individuals via Zoom.
✍️Analyzing the Results
Our user interviews provided crucial insights into the needs, preferences, and challenges of our target market: Japanese digital designers. The enthusiasm for unprinted was apparent and validated our product idea.
Users expressed interest in a wide variety of content including industry insights, practical guides, digital design events and news. Additionally, they indicated a need for a single, easily accessible resource hub; unveiling a key opportunity for unprinted to serve as a comprehensive one-stop-shop.
Regarding the preliminary designs, we had to make significant changes. Initially, when we presented the designs, interviewees all described them as "kawaii," a term that translates to "cute." At first, this feedback seemed positive, but we had some reservations as to whether being perceived as "cute" was in line with the brand image we aimed to project.
To clarify, I emailed the interviewees after our sessions, asking them about the types of designs they admired, found inspiring, and considered trendy. The designs shared by the interviewees were considerably different from our existing "cute" aesthetic. The preferred designs were portrayed as modern, stylish, and minimal with fewer colors and extraneous elements.
Based on this feedback, we decided to change our designs from a "cute and pop" style to a more "stylish and cool" aesthetic.