WINNING DIY
PakAborad
DIY by Anum Haroon
BEHIND PAKABROAD
The Process
The DIY started off with desk research and competitor analysis, understanding the target users, building empathy, understanding how they perform tasks and what their wants and needs are. It moved on to critiquing existing websites using design principles and coming up with a design concept for the website
Research
Phase 1
Information Synthesis
Phase 2
UX Review
Phase 3
Proposed Solution
Phase 4
PHASE 1
Desk Research
As part of the literature review, I came across 3 notable related websites: The Canadian Expat, Australian Times and India Abroad. I had decided to conduct a UX review on the third due to cultural similarities between the the user group with Pakistanis.
User Research
To understand users, I conducted desk research on the subject and designed user personas for a competitor website.
I concluded that the user group was ‘casual technological users who had experience with how to navigate within a website while relying on visual affordances
User Personas
User Research
After an in depth analysis of the existing related website, India Abroad, several design principles were found to be broken. To access the detailed report, click here.
The need to design a news website for Pakistani expats that follows best design practices was, indeed, a major need
Selected UX and UI problems in India Abroad and their proposed solutions are highlighted in the table.
PHASE 4
Proposed Solution
Keeping the problems and solutions in view, I proposed the following;
The website is designed using minimalism. Special
attention has been paid to the content on the home
page being less to avoid clutter.
The website is made aesthetic by adding a slideshow
on the home page.
Hover effects are taken care of to provide users with
feedback when they interact with the website
By Location
User is able to search by location which organizes
news effectively. This feature was added to cater to the
need of Hira Mirza (Persona 1).
News Categories
Different categories of news are found on the News
page.
Actions
The user can comment on, save and share news
articles. S/he can also view the time it was posted and
the number of pictures/videos it has (if any).
Additional Features for Pakistanis
User can search for halal restaurants, mosques, local
events, communities and success stories besides news.
This caters to the suggestion given by some of the
survey participants: There is too much content on it.
Looks like a news website. Should have something
actually useful for expats?” and Help people living
abroad with their issues .
Meet the Team
Anum Haroon
Anum is a Research Associate at Chisel, Lums. Her area of expertise is UI/UX Design.
Education & Experience
Anum has recently completed Masters in Computer Science from LUMS and is currently working on multiple commerical and research projects involving UI/UX design and assistive technology.