A One-Stop Solution For Smartphone Searching
By: Mahnoor Afteb
Tags: Interaction Design, UX, Smartphones, Product Design, UX Research

A One-Stop Solution For Smartphone Searching

The Problem

Getting a new smartphone is an exciting experience but also could be overwhelming if you can’t decide. When it comes to searching for a smartphone to buy, there are thousands of different options out there to choose from. The research process could get quite tedious once on the Internet as one may find themselves scrolling through various brand websites, phone reviews, articles, videos etc. Sure you may have narrowed your choices to the brands you prefer, but you still need to do a little research before you are fully committed to spending your money.

From personal experience, I can confirm that this process could be very time-consuming. I will admit that I am a loyal iPhone user but I do find myself searching up reviews and specifications for other competing phones on the market. I like how Apple’s website and app has a simple feature which compares its devices although still being limited to iPhones only. I also stumbled upon a few sites and apps out there that compare different phones side-by-side. The reoccurring issue I noticed was that these applications were only limited to comparing phones and there was still the need to separately search up reviews, videos and articles. There was no way to save different phones that I liked without bookmarking them to my browser’s favorites.

Goals:

Keeping in mind the initial research I conducted by examining various phone comparison applications, here were my main goals for Phone Zone before starting the needfinding process:

Simplify user’s research process without having to scroll through various websites, videos, reviews etc. Ability for user to personalize their experience through filtering based on the price, size, model, brand etc. A side-by-side comparison of different phones which can help the user easily compare without having to go on each phone’s respective site/app.

Design Hypothesis:

I believe that an app that compares prices, specs and reviews of the latest phones will simplify the users research process and help find a smartphone that fits their needs.

I also think that this app isn’t intended for prospective phone buyers only. It could be used by really anyone whether they are just curious on what phones are releasing or are looking for a friend.

Needfinding

Interviews

To better understand the needs of potential users, I first interviewed two people:

Person A: My younger cousin Person B: My older cousin

Interview Questions:

So where do you generally go to when you are looking to find information on phones? Can you show me how you would usually do this search process? Can you tell me what’s frustrating about your current search process? What could be better about how you do this process? Is there anyone that helps you in this process, or no?

Interview Results:

Person A’s pain points :

Recently broke her phone and is looking to find a cheaper phone.

As a busy student, she doesn’t want to waste time in the process of searching up online and reading articles and reviews

Wants a simpler format without any crazy tech jargon that can easily compare and filter phones.

Person B’s pain points :

Looking for a phone for his grandfather and is having trouble finding phones that are senior citizen friendly.

Too lazy and doesn’t have the time to research and read long articles.

Wants to be able to filter based on accessibility and price range along with the ability to compare different phones side by side.

UX Personas

I created two UX personas that are roughly based off of the information received from the two interviewees:

Person A (Primary Target):