Module 1: Empathizing with users and defining pain points

Welcome to Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, Ideate, which is the second of seven courses in the Google UX Design Certificate. Your journey towards a career as a UX designer continues!

In this course, you will complete the first phases of the design process for a project that you’ll be able to include in your portfolio. In the previous course, you learned about the design thinking framework (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test). As you progress through this course, you can think of the design thinking framework as a structured step-by-step system for learning the design process.

In this course, you will learn how to empathize with users and understand their pain points, define user needs using problem statements, and come up with lots of ideas for solutions to those user problems. You will complete hands-on activities focused on designing a mobile app, which align with real tasks that UX designers complete on-the-job during these phases of the design process.

Content and projects in each course of this certificate program build on information practiced in earlier courses. To be successful in this course, you should complete the previous course of the certificate program, if you haven’t already done so.

1. Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design
2. Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, Ideate – this course
3. Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes
4. Conduct UX Research and Test Early Concepts
5. Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma
6. Build Dynamic User Interfaces (UI) for Websites
7. Design a User Experience for Social Good & Prepare for Jobs

Each course of the Google UX Design Certificate is broken into modules. You can complete courses at your own pace, but the module breakdowns are designed to help you finish the program in about six months total.

So, what design skills can you expect to develop during this course? Here’s a preview of the hands-on activities you’ll complete.

Module 1: Empathizing with users and defining pain points. Begin the design process for a mobile app! This part of the course will focus on understanding users, which is the first phase of the design process. You’ll empathize with fictional users to build empathy maps and create personas. These hands-on activities will help you understand user perspectives and pain points.

Module 2: Creating user stories and user journey maps. You’ll continue to empathize with users of the mobile app you’ll later design. You’ll craft user stories and develop user journey maps. You’ll also learn about the importance of considering accessibility when empathizing with users.

Module 3: Defining user problems. All of your work to empathize with users will help you define the problem that users are facing. In this part of the course, you’ll move from the empathize phase into the define phase of the design process. To define the problem your designs will solve, you’ll build a problem statement, a hypothesis statement, and a value proposition. In addition, you’ll explore how psychology and human factors influence design.

Module 4: Ideating design solutions. Move into the third phase of the design process: ideate. You’ll consider everything you’ve learned about the users you’re designing for and the problems they’re facing in order to brainstorm ideas for design solutions. To help you come up with lots of ideas for design solutions, you’ll conduct a competitive audit and complete design activities, like How Might We and Rapid Sketching.

Keep in mind that if you want to obtain the Google UX Design Certificate, you must complete all graded materials in all courses of the certificate program and earn a score of 80% or higher. Graded materials are located at the end of each module and are indicated with the name “module challenge.”

Good luck beginning the design process for your first portfolio project: designing a mobile app!

As you complete courses in this certificate program, you’ll create projects for your portfolio to show off your work to potential employers. It’s a very exciting time because you’re about to begin your first design project! 

To start, you’ll select a project prompt in an upcoming course item. Then, over the next few courses, you’ll use that prompt to build a mobile app design. Later on in the certificate, you’ll use that same prompt to build a responsive website.

Everything you create during the activities of this program will be included in your portfolio. Be sure to take the courses of this certificate program in order, so that you’ll follow the steps of the design process and create all of the artifacts you’ll need for your portfolio. 

Choose a prompt 

You might be thinking, there are so many products I want to design! How will I ever choose? To help narrow the scope, you’ll choose a prompt that will give you more specific guidelines. 

To review possible prompts and select one to work on, you have two options:

1. In the next course item, you can review and select from a list of twenty-five prompts curated by the creators of the Google UX Certificate.
2. In the following course item, you can review and select from Sharpen, an online tool that creates randomized design prompts. 

These prompts are designed to generate types of products that may resonate with potential employers. Your first project will focus on designing a process within a mobile app to meet the specific need of a hypothetical business or organization, and both the list and Sharpen will give you lots of ideas to choose from. 

Two more things to help you get the most out of this first portfolio project:

1. The 25 prompts in the list all align closely with the examples that you’ll explore throughout the certificate. So, if you’re new to UX design or just looking for a little extra guidance and support, strongly consider selecting a prompt from the list for your first portfolio project.
2. If you already have an idea for a design project in mind, you will have the opportunity to work on the project of your choice in Course 7 of the certificate program. For this first project, please select a prompt from Sharpen or the list presented in the next course item.

Starting your UXD Portfolio

After you choose a prompt, you’ll start working on activities that contribute to your final portfolio. The following activities are focused on learning more about your users and competition for your first project, a mobile app:

• Mobile App Personas
• Mobile App User Journey Map
• Mobile App User Problems
• Mobile App Competitive Audit and Report

Build your case study

As you work through Courses 2-6 of the Google UX Design Certificate, you’ll collect artifacts for your portfolio case study in a slide deck. A slide deck is a versatile format that can be used to gather, present, and share your work. It is also a widely used format in the professional world. A lot goes into building a strong case study, so it’s best to add to it as you complete activities. This way, you can spend more time making sure each slide is ready to impress.

Use the template we provide below to organize and build your case study as you progress through courses. Feel free to customize the template to match your brand. We’ll also provide you with reminders each time you should add an artifact to your slide deck. By the end of Course 6, you’ll have a complete case study to include in your portfolio website and to showcase during your future job applications!

As a preview, your second portfolio project will be to design a responsive website to compliment a mobile app. The case study template can showcase the assets you create for both mobile apps and responsive websites. If you include both in one case study, you may need to duplicate certain template slides to create space for more assets.

To use the template for the case study, click the link below and select USE TEMPLATE. 

Link to template: Case study slide deck

Here are some tips to help you use the slide deck template: 

Use the instructional language and placeholder shapes on each slide to help guide what content you should include. To replace the placeholder text, select it, then type new text. Remember, this template is just to help get you started, you can change the font and formatting however you like. 

To include images of your UX artifacts in your slides, either screenshot or download them to your device. If you’re using Google Slides, you can then go to the slide where you’d like to add an image, choose Insert from the top menu, navigate to Image, and select Upload from computer from the dropdown menu. From here, upload the screenshot or downloaded image you want to display.

Resize and place the image however you think it best complements the other content on the slide. Don’t forget to delete any placeholder shapes or text from the template. 

Revisit these instructions whenever you need, and keep in mind that, just like UX design is an iterative process, building a case study also takes time and multiple iterations. Be patient and thoughtful as you create each slide, and you’ll soon have a full case study ready to share with an audience.

Without further ado, move on to the next course item to choose your project prompt!

As you’ve learned, your first portfolio project will focus on designing a mobile app to meet the specific need of a hypothetical business or organization. Later in the certificate, you’ll use the same prompt to create a responsive website. Now it’s time to select your project prompt!

Before selecting a prompt, take time to explore your options. Review the list below and use the Sharpen prompt generator in the next course item. In both the list and the prompt generator, all the prompts are similar to those you may encounter in job interviews. For some interviews, potential employers may assign UX design prompts to get to know your work. Like those interview exercises, the prompts in both the list and the generator will tell you the kind of product you’re designing (an app), the business or organization to design for, and the overarching need the product should fulfill. 

Use the following guidelines when reviewing and selecting your prompt:

First, consider which prompts spark your interest and imagination. Select one that you think will sustain your creative energy over the next five courses in the program. Have fun!

Second, consider your experience level: 

• If you are new to UX design or just want more support as you complete your first design project in the certificate, we strongly recommend selecting a prompt from the list. These prompts have been curated to closely align with the design prompt examples that are discussed throughout the certificate. To explore those design prompt examples before you choose a prompt of your own, check out the Portfolio project prompts below.
• If you’re more experienced with UX design or just want more of a challenge, consider selecting a prompt from the generator. The generator provides a greater variety of more diverse prompts to stretch designers’ skills.

Third, remember to record your prompt. Save a screenshot of it, write it down, or use some other method. This is especially important if you use the Sharpen prompt generator in the next course item. If you generate a prompt you like, the Sharpen tool will not save it for you, and you may not be able to generate it again—so be sure to record it.

Sharpen generator for additional project prompts

Once you’ve reviewed the portfolio project prompts below, you can explore the Sharpen prompt generator in the next course item for more inspiration. To produce a prompt, click on the “New Challenge” button. You can refresh the prompt as many times as you want to find one that sparks your creative energy. Remember that the generator provides a greater variety of more diverse prompts to stretch designers’ skills. It’s a good place to look for a prompt if you have some experience with UX design and want more of a challenge.

Portfolio projects prompts

1. Design an app and a responsive website for a camping supply store to advertise and sell its products.
2. Design an app and a responsive website for parents to purchase and resell children’s clothing.
3. Design an app and a responsive website for a local grocery store that helps shoppers locate products as they shop in person.
4. Design an app and a responsive eCommerce website that enable gamers to purchase gaming equipment.
5. Design an app and a responsive website that help customers diagnose issues with their houseplants.
6. Design an app and a responsive website that allow patients to check-in to their family doctor’s office and answer initial health screening questions.
7. Design an app and a responsive website for the staff at doctors’ offices to order and track supplies.
8. Design an app and a responsive website that enable doctors and nurses to document, store, and reference patient records at a local primary care office.
9. Design an app and a responsive website that enable parents to review their children’s health records, print the records to meet school or camp requirements, and see when their children’s healthcare visits are due. 
10. Design an app and a responsive website that enable property owners to view and dispute the assessment on their property and pay their property taxes monthly or yearly. 
11. Design an app and a responsive website that enable consumers to find who represents them in both state and federal government. 
12. Design an app and a responsive website for people to find, dispute, and pay their parking tickets. 
13. Design an app and a responsive website for a public art museum to advertise exhibitions and events, provide museum information to patrons, and enable patrons to schedule visits.
14. Design an app and a responsive website that enable tutors to list their services and parents to search for and book time with tutors. 
15. Design an app and a responsive website that help parents and students find bus routes and stop information. The app should also let parents and students search for or create their own carpooling groups.
16. Design an app and a responsive website that parents use to enroll their kids in after-school care and pay for the service. 
17. Design an app and a responsive website for remote customer service teams to receive, manage, and report on incoming service requests.
18. Design an app and a responsive website that enable users of budgeting software to report bugs they encounter and track the software developers’ response(s).
19. Design a family schedule-management app and responsive website to enable parents to manage both their schedules and their children’s schedules. 
20. Design an app and a responsive website that teach users how to save and budget their funds.
21. Design an app and a responsive website that help small business owners send and track invoices for their services.
22. Design an app and a responsive website that help friend or family groups manage a household budget and save up for a common goal (such as a vacation).
23. Design an app and a responsive website for a bank that help customers select, set up, and manage a personal bank account without visiting in person.
24. Design a personal credit-management app and a responsive website to enable users to track and improve their credit scores as well as review and apply for new credit cards based on criteria such as lowest interest rate.
25. Design an app and a responsive website to help global travelers find the current exchange rates between two currencies. They can also use this information to quickly and easily exchange currencies.

Exemplar prompts 

The following is the list of three exemplar prompts that you’ll be exposed to at specific points throughout the certificate. Do NOT select one of these prompts for your own portfolio projects. In upcoming course items, you’ll see these prompts used as context for examples of good design work. Remember that these example prompts closely align with the list of 25 prompts above. So, if you’re new to UX design or just want a little extra support as you complete your first portfolio project, select a prompt from the list above. 

1. Design an app and a responsive website to find, compare, select, and contact a healthcare practitioner.
2. Design an app and a responsive website that help citizens of a large city, with over 100 parks, to reserve and pay the rental fee for an outdoor pavilion for an event.
3. Create an app and a responsive website that allow operations teams to view their inventory, add new inventory, track inventory as sales are made, and view inventory information.

In this reading, you’ll explore example portfolios from entry-level UX designers at Google. You’ll consider what you like about these portfolios and why. This will help you start to think about how you’ll design your own portfolio website in the future!

Keep in mind, there’s no “right” way to build a portfolio. Every designer, recruiter, and client has a different idea about what should be featured in a UX design portfolio. Examining lots of portfolios will give you ideas and inspiration to apply to your own portfolio. 

To review example portfolios from entry-level UX designers at Google, explore the links below. You can review them independently and at your own pace, but if you want to do a more formal review process, follow the steps below. This process will help you take notes you can use to design your own design portfolio later.

Access the template

There is a portfolio comparison template available for you to use when reviewing design portfolios. 

To use the template for this course item, click the link below and select USE TEMPLATE Link to template: essentials of a good portfolio template

Choose portfolios to examine

Review the following list of entry-level UX designers. If you are using the template to review and take notes, choose three portfolios from this list, and copy and paste the portfolio URL into the first column of the template.

• Lisa
• Shabi
• Nicolas
• Josh
• Kartik
• Tongfan
• Penny
• Yobi
• Onye
• Olena
• Sharon

Use questions to guide your review

Consider the following questions as you review each portfolio. If you are using the portfolio comparison template, answer the questions in the template for each portfolio that you chose to review. Then, in the column to the far right, share which portfolio stood out to you in each category and why. 

First, how does the portfolio establish the designer’s personal brand? What type of first impression do each of these three designers make? 

A designer’s personal brand is how their personality, unique skills, and values intersect with their public persona. It’s the first impression a designer makes! A personal brand should clearly demonstrate who the designer is and what makes them and their work interesting. 

Second, Is the navigation simple and intuitive? 

The navigation is the way users get from page to page on a website. Users should be able to reach the homepage from any part of the site. And the navigation should lead them from one project to the next. It should also be easy for users to navigate to a contact page that includes an email address, a copy of a resume, and links to other professional social media accounts.

Third, does the portfolio website go beyond the template? 

Although a website builder’s pre-designed layouts make it easy to get started, effective designers go a step further. Portfolio designers can customize their websites to align with their brand and the story they want to tell. For example, designers should remove the text that comes pre-loaded in the template, and replace it with their own content. It’s also helpful to register their own domain name, so their website’s address doesn’t contain the name of the website builder.

Fourth, does the portfolio website include a diversity of projects? 

Each portfolio should have 3-5 projects that demonstrate the designer’s skills. Note whether each portfolio contains a diversity of projects.

Finally, is the site housing the portfolio responsive? 

If you can, access the site on multiple kinds of devices, such as a smartphone and a laptop. If the site is responsive, its on-screen appearance will adjust based on the user’s device. So, whether someone engages with the website on a desktop computer or mobile phone, they will have a positive experience. 

Summarize and reflect on your observations

After reviewing the portfolios, take a moment to reflect on the following questions. If you are using the template, answer these questions in the space at the bottom of the template.

• Was there an element of the portfolios that you would like to learn more about?
• Did you discover any design element that you would like to include on your own portfolio website?

Key takeaways

Effective UX designers often draw on others’ work for inspiration and emulate others’ work to build their skills and improve their designs. By analyzing other designers’ portfolios, you’ve gained valuable practice and sharpened your ability to recognize the elements of a good portfolio. This will come in handy when you create your own.

Advertising agency

Advertising agencies are teams of creatives hired by clients to build marketing campaigns. Designers working at an advertising agency will likely have opportunities working with different brands and companies. Large companies, start-ups, and design agencies are other types of companies UX designers may begin their career at.

Large company

Large companies, such as Google, Apple, Nike, and Amazon. Working at a big company is a great way to learn about a specialization within UX design, and you get to learn from other experts. Start-ups, advertising agencies, and design agencies are other types of companies UX designers may begin their career at.

Start-up

Start-ups are new businesses that want to develop a unique product or service and bring it to market. Teams at start-ups are typically smaller and close-knit compared to corporations, and each person performs a variety of roles and tasks. Think of it like being a generalist! Large companies, advertising agencies, and design agencies are other types of companies UX designers may begin their career at.

Design agency

Design agencies provide a one-stop shop for the look of brands, products, and services. They typically focus on branding and design. Large companies, advertising agencies, and start-ups are other types of companies UX designers may begin their career at.

Show they are open to continuous learning

It’s important for an entry-level designer to consider how they should present their portfolio to employers because it demonstrates that they’re open to learning. It also proves they have the skills and potential to get the work done.

Prove they have the skills and potential to get the work done

It’s important for an entry-level designer to consider how they should present their portfolio to employers because it proves they have the skills and potential to get the work done. It also shows that they’re open to learning.

As you’ve learned, your design portfolio is how you’ll share your UX design work with the world. With a quick glance at your portfolio, you want recruiters to immediately understand who you are and your strengths as a UX designer. 

It’s not required, but consider starting your portfolio website now. With your site created, you can add examples of your work as you complete your portfolio project. Whenever you’re ready to start, this reading guides you through some key considerations and options for selecting a website builder.

Using a website builder is a great way to showcase your UX design skills and get started when you’re new to the field. There are many great website builders available to support you in the journey of building your very own portfolio. The website builder you use to build your portfolio website is entirely your choice. For now, we’ll introduce four options that you can use to build your portfolio website: Squarespace, Webflow, Wix, and Google Sites. Feel free to choose one of these website builders, or another one, depending on what works best for your needs and goals.

Choose the right platform for you

As you explore the four options for website builders that are listed below, keep these questions in mind to help you find the website builder that best meets your unique needs.

1. Do I know how to code, or should I use a website builder that doesn’t require coding experience?
2. Is it a low-cost or free option?
3. Does it offer customizable templates?
4. Does it provide flexibility and complete control over design?

Squarespace

Squarespace is a great option for UX designers who are new to website building. When you sign up, Squarespace shows a variety of templates that you can easily customize to your liking, including color schemes and fonts. You can visit this page for a full list of Squarespace’s features. You can also check out the Getting Started guide on Squarespace for additional portfolio tips.

As a part of the Google UX Design Certificate, you might be eligible for a discounted price on a Squarespace account. Visit the dedicated landing page on Squarespace to learn more. Or, you can create a standard Squarespace account.

Webflow

Webflow is a creative tool designed for flexibility and is a strong website builder if you want to make a truly unique portfolio. You’ll have full control over your website’s design and a blank canvas to build upon. Having a basic level of HTML and CSS will help you with the Webflow learning curve. If you don’t have any experience with coding, you can visit Webflow University to find lessons on specific things you want to learn.

If you’d like to create your portfolio with the help of a template, you can check out Webflow’s Template Marketplace. Or, if you’d like to learn portfolio tips from Webflow, check out this Webflow University course.

As a part of the Google UX Design Certificate, you might be eligible for a discounted price on a Webflow account. Visit the dedicated landing page on Webflow to learn more.

Wix

Wix is a strong choice to create your portfolio website without needing to code. Wix is known for its intuitive technology and user-friendly drag and drop editor, so you can have your portfolio available online in no time. 

Wix offers customizable designer-made templates and design features that give you creative freedom to build the portfolio you want. If you’re considering Wix as the website builder to create your portfolio and want some inspiration, check out these UX portfolios built on Wix. Plus, if you sign up for a yearly Premium Plan with Wix, you are eligible for a free custom domain for one year.

Visit this dedicated landing page on Wix to learn more. 

Google Sites

Google Sites is Google’s free platform for building websites. It’s a great option for anyone looking for a simple and affordable way to build an online portfolio. Google Sites offers a variety of useful features, like easy collaboration and sharing, as well as storage right in your Google Drive for easy access. Check out this list of Google Sites’ features to learn more.

Maintain your portfolio

Your portfolio is the ultimate statement of your work as a UX designer. As part of this certificate program, you’ll create three UX design projects, which you can feature in case studies on your website.

Once you begin creating projects on the job as a UX designer, you’ll update your portfolio website to showcase these new projects as well. But for now, all you need to do is select the website builder you’d like to use and start with the basics of setting up your account. There will be more details about how to build out each part of your portfolio website as you make your way through this certificate program, so stay tuned!

You’ve learned that now is a great time to start your portfolio website—so you can build on it as you complete this course. You’ve also explored website builders, reviewed examples of portfolio sites, and learned about their importance. Your portfolio website should be an opportunity for you to demonstrate your design experience, express your personal brand, and communicate your value to potential employers.

You are not required to, but consider starting your portfolio website now so you can populate it with work samples from your portfolio project. Whenever you choose to start, here’s a list of elements to include. 

You might have noticed these elements in action when you explored examples of entry-level UX designer portfolios earlier in the course.

1. Name and personal logo (if you have one). Clearly list your name at the top of your portfolio website to help visitors easily identify whose work they are reviewing. If you have a personal logo, like a simple icon or a stylized version of your initials, you should consider including that alongside your name, too.
2. Navigation menu. Navigation is how users move from page to page on a website. Keep the navigation on your portfolio website simple and easy to follow. For example, users should be able to reach the homepage of your portfolio website from any part of your site, and your navigation titles should be clear and accurate.
3. Work samples. The focus of your portfolio website is to highlight samples of your UX design work. For example, you will create three projects during this certificate program that you can showcase on your portfolio website. When planning your portfolio website, be sure to choose a layout that will let work samples shine!
4. “About Me.” Plan to create a page on your portfolio website where visitors learn more about your interests, experiences, and passions. You’ll create an “About Me” page for your portfolio website in an upcoming activity of the course.
5. Contact information. On your portfolio website, it’s helpful to provide information about how people can contact you. For example, you should provide your email address, a link to your resume, and links to your professional online profiles (like LinkedIn), so visitors can contact you about potential job opportunities. Wherever possible, try to use professional-looking naming, like an email address of [YourName]@gmail.com. You can plan to include your contact information in different parts of your portfolio website, like a dedicated page or across the top, bottom, or side of your portfolio website.
6. Color scheme. The colors in your portfolio can provide a more engaging user experience, and they should reflect your personality and personal brand. We suggest selecting a small set of colors that work well together, like one primary color and one accent color. The goal of the colors is to support your content and personal brand, not distract from it. 

You don’t need to have the content for each of these elements filled in yet. In fact, we’ll be helping you do just that through activities in this certificate program. For now, your goal is simply to have a clear understanding of the type of information that will be included in your portfolio website and start planning where you want to house each element.

Optional: Map your website’s content

A quick sketch of what your portfolio website could look like can give you a better idea of the right template to use from a website builder. All you need is a pen or pencil and paper to sketch out a basic layout of important pages. 

For example, you could start by outlining the homepage of your portfolio website and drawing where you think your name and logo, the navigation menu, and your work samples should go. Or, you could sketch an “About Me” page to visualize where you want to place an image of yourself, a description of your interests and experience, and contact information.

Don’t worry about trying to get fancy! Your goal is simply to start imagining what the layout of your website will be so that you can use templates from website builders to their full potential. Use your creative skills and have some fun!

As you map the content of your portfolio website, consider answers to these questions:

1. What will you include on your portfolio homepage? 
2. Which elements, if any, do you want to include together?
3. How many pages overall will you need, and what should you title each page?

As you develop your skills in UX design and build your portfolio project, you’ll need a place to showcase your work. In the field, professional UX designers often create and maintain portfolio websites, where they showcase examples of their design work. For a designer, a portfolio website is an essential tool for showing their skills, promoting their professional brand, and making connections with employers and other designers.

Thankfully, there are a number of website builder tools available to help. Website builders often have tutorials to help designers create a professional-quality site without coding. These website building sites have pre-built layouts designers can use to add text, images, and sound.

If a designer cannot or does not want to code their own website, they might use a website builder that features a so-called WYSIWYG editor. WYSIWYG, pronounced “wiz-ee-wig,” stands for “what you see is what you get.” With WYSIWYG editors, designers can add and edit text in the website builder, just as they would in a word processing program, like Google Docs or Microsoft Word. They can also easily add functionality to their sites through drag and drop components.

Here are four website builders with WYSIWYG editors:

• Squarespace
• Webflow
• Wix
• Google Sites

In this reading, you’ll explore how designers set up portfolio websites and best practices for building one yourself.

The best designers typically create portfolio websites early in their careers and update them routinely as they create new work. You don’t need to create your website right now. But when you’re ready, use this reading for guidance.

Create an account with a website builder

Website builders make it easy to create a profile. If a designer opts to use one, they might create an account on Squarespace, Webflow, Wix, or Google Sites. The website builder homepages offer guidance on how to create an account and get started. For example, see:

• Squarespace: Building a portfolio site
• Webflow: How to make a unique online portfolio
• Wix: How to Build a Personal Website: A Step-by-Step Guide
• Google Sites: Introduction to Build a Portfolio with Google Sites

If a designer knows how to code, they also have the option to build their own website instead of using a website builder. The choice is up to the designer!

Set up your own portfolio website

Here are some best practices that designers often follow when they create a portfolio website:

Use a portfolio template option

Each of the website builders have plenty of templates, including some templates specifically for portfolios. Templates are empty website layouts. Using a template means that a designer doesn’t have to start from a blank slate, making it much easier to set up the portfolio. For example, if a designer drafts layout ideas in advance, as you explored in the Plan your portfolio website reading, they might use those ideas to find a template with a similar appearance.

Choose the right layout option 

After a designer selects the option to use a portfolio template, each website builder presents a gallery of different portfolio layouts to choose from. A savvy designer will think about what type of portfolio they’re building and pick the best layout for their needs. 

Choose a URL name for the portfolio website

Squarespace requires users to pick a name before they start putting work into their portfolio, while Wix and Webflow encourage users to select a name before they publish. Either way, savvy designers typically select names that are simple and professional, like “[Your Name]design.com.”

Emulate good examples

Throughout the process of creating and building a portfolio, designers often emulate others’ work or draw on it for inspiration. Think about the portfolios you examined in the Explore UX design portfolios reading. Many designers take time to consider examples from their peers, determine what they think makes a strong portfolio, and then use those examples for inspiration.

Key takeaways

A portfolio website is an important place for designers to showcase their skills and examples of their work. With the guidelines above, you are ready to start filling out your portfolio! If you already have examples of UX design work that you want to upload to your portfolio website, feel free to add them. If not, don’t worry. You’ll create content to add to your portfolio throughout this certificate program! Your portfolio project will need 3–5 completed design projects, and you can draw on all of them for examples to include in your website.

You’ve explored the important role that empathy and user interviews play in UX design. You’ve also explored some best practices for recruiting and interviewing users. When planning for interviews, designers often:

1. Create research goals to guide the interview questions they ask and the design decisions they make based on users’ responses 
2. Determine the target audience for the product they’re designing for and list key characteristics of the users they want to interview
3. Write a list of interview questions so they can determine effective questions in advance and ensure consistency across interviews with different users

Now you’ll review an example of this process in action. User interviews require input, collaboration, and time, and you won’t be asked to interview real-life participants until later in this course. For now, this review will help you get comfortable with defining the scope of UX research and understanding potential users of your products. This foundational work will help you when you’re ready to interview users later and when you’re doing UX research on the job. 

Review the example

This example comes from a UX research plan for a food delivery app called Zia’s Pizza.

Interview goals: 

1. I want to understand common challenges people face when trying to manage a busy schedule and when meal planning.
2. I want to identify frustrations people experience during the process of ordering from a restaurant.  

Target participant characteristics:

• Ages 18–62
• Live in metropolitan or suburban areas
• People who order food from restaurants at least once a week
• Include participants of different genders
• Include participants with disabilities

Interview questions: 

1. What is your current schedule like? How do you balance your responsibilities with meal planning?
2. How often do you order meals from a restaurant? When you do, what is your motivation? 
3. What challenges do you face in the ordering process? How do these challenges make you feel?
4. How do you think these challenges could be resolved?

Consider the research goals

Research goals guide the interview process and shape subsequent design decisions, so they need to be clear and focused on the problem the designers are trying to solve.

To craft such goals, effective designers often start by considering empathetic questions like these:

• Who are my users and what problems or needs is my product aiming to solve?
• What about my users do I want to learn from the interviews? 
• Are there certain user problems or pain points I need to learn more about?

These kinds of user-focused questions help designers connect with users and create effective research goals, such as:

• I want to understand the processes and emotions that people experience around the problem my product is trying to solve.
• I want to identify common user behaviors and experiences with tasks that my product is trying to address.
• I want to understand user needs and frustrations as they relate to the product I’m designing.

In the example, notice how the designer defines interview goals that are both clear and specific to the Zia’s Pizza app:

1. I want to understand common challenges people face when trying to manage a busy schedule and when meal planning.
2. I want to identify frustrations people experience during the process of ordering from a restaurant.  

If the designer can understand these challenges and frustrations, they will be better able to create an effective app, one that creates an easy, meaningful, and enjoyable experience for their target users.

Consider the participant characteristics

When recruiting and choosing participants to interview, effective designers aim for a representative sample of their target users. To get the best data, it’s important to include a group that’s manageable to interview while also being diverse enough to represent the product’s real-world audience. To define this kind of group, designers often start by considering questions like these:

• Who are my end users and what are their key characteristics? Key characteristics include things like age, location, career, gender, disability, and so on.
• How might these characteristics shape users’ experiences with or feelings about my product or similar products?

For the Zia’s Pizza app, the ideal interview participants represent the app’s end users. They:

• Are aged 18–62
• Live in metropolitan or suburban areas
• Order food from restaurants at least once a week
• Include people of different genders 
• Include people with disabilities

By defining these participant characteristics, the designer can recruit the right people to interview and also create more relevant interview questions. Remember that a product’s end users will often be identified in a project’s business requirements. If they’re not, designers typically discover their end users by conducting preliminary user research and consulting with their clients or other business stakeholders.

Consider the interview questions

Effective interview questions have five characteristics. They are: relevant, open-ended, clear, neutral, and designed for follow-up. Before you explore these characteristics in detail, consider the example interview questions again: 

1. What is your current schedule like? How do you balance your responsibilities with meal planning?
2. How often do you order meals from a restaurant? When you do, what is your motivation? 
3. What challenges do you face in the ordering process? How do these challenges make you feel?
4. How do you think these challenges could be resolved?

These example questions are relevant because they align with the problem the designer is trying to solve. They are designed to gather information about the experiences, needs, or pain points that users may have with the product or with similar products. 

The example questions are open-ended in that they invite participants to share freely and elaborate. None can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” Unless a designer needs a definitive “yes” or “no” answer to a particular question, open-ended questions will almost always generate richer and deeper information about users’ experiences.

The questions are also neutral, which means they are not designed to lead or pressure participants toward a desired response. For comparison, consider this leading, non-neutral question: “When you order meals from a restaurant, is it because you don’t have time to cook or because you don’t want to cook?” This question makes assumptions about users’ motivations and leads them into specific kinds of answers. In contrast, neutral questions will invite participants to share without assuming, anticipating, or directing their responses.

And notice how short and simple the questions are. They will be easy for interview participants to understand and answer because they are conversational and straightforward. 

Finally, notice how the questions are designed for follow-up. Questions 1–3 all have two parts. The interviewer might start with the first part and then prompt participants to elaborate with the second part. During the empathize phase of the design process, interviews should be conversational, so encouraging participants to elaborate is a best practice.  Effective designers often follow up with simple prompts like“Tell me more about that” or with classic “Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How” questions. 

Key takeaways

Research goals, participant characteristics, and interview questions are the foundation for conducting effective interviews, empathizing with users, and getting useful information about their needs, problems, and experiences. Effective designers take time to prepare thoughtful interview plans that align with their design project’s goals and their users’ needs. They also adjust their questions as their projects progress—as they work through different parts of the design process and need different kinds of information from users. When you craft interview plans for your portfolio project, revisit this review for guidance.

Empathizing with users is critical when it comes to creating a great user experience. In order to empathize with users and understand their pain points, UX designers conduct interviews with real people who might use the product they’re designing.

For this part of this certificate, interviewing real participants is optional. We’ll provide fictional user bios that you can use in your research in place of real-life interview participants. This reading summarizes the advice you explored in the Recruiting research participants video. Along with the other reading and videos in this lesson, it is for those who would like to get early experience conducting real-life interviews and for everyone to learn more about the UX research interview process.

Create a screening survey to find the right participants

The participants you select for a research study should be based on your research goals and the target users of the product you’re designing. The best way to check if potential participants meet the study’s desired characteristics and represent a diverse set of backgrounds is by sending a screener survey. A screener survey is a detailed list of questions that helps researchers determine if potential participants meet the requirements of the research study.

Screening participants often requires collecting demographics, which are the characteristics of a group or individual. Demographics that you might ask about in a screener survey include:

• Age
• Geographic location 
• Job title or industry 
• Gender

It’s important to recognize that asking demographic questions can be a sensitive and challenging space to navigate. Be mindful of the questions you ask in screener surveys and how you ask them. Frame questions in a way that is respectful and inclusive, and make questions optional if they ask about demographic data. You might want to preface demographic questions with a short explanation of why the question is being asked. For example, “In the spirit of inclusive design, we are asking these questions to make sure we’re reaching out to a diverse group of people.”

Interviewing participants with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and abilities is extremely important to ensure that your designs are accessible and equitable. As you start thinking about who you are designing for, aim to form a representative sample. A representative sample is a subset of the target population that seeks to accurately reflect the characteristics of the larger group. 

The participants in a representative sample should include user groups that have been commonly underrepresented in previous research. This lack of representation is often the result of biases due to age, race, gender, or ability. Ultimately, the research you conduct should help you create great experiences for all users. 

Creating representative samples often takes additional time, money, and resources that you may not have access to at the moment. You won’t be asked to create representative samples for this program, but keep in mind that it’s an important part of the UX design work you will be doing in the real world.

Start recruiting participants

Once you’ve determined the research goals, written interview questions (covered later in How to determine your research goals and questions), and created a screener survey to find a representative sample of study participants, you’re ready to start recruiting participants! 

How and where you find research study participants depends on the company you work for, the type of product you’re designing, time constraints for the research, the project’s budget, and the accessibility of target users. Based on these project details, you can choose from a variety of ways to find research participants. 

• Personal network: As a UX designer in training, your personal network is a great way to find people to interview! Think about family, friends, or colleagues who fit the demographics of the target users you’re designing for.
• Existing user base: If you’re conducting research and creating designs for an organization with an existing user base, you’ll likely be able to recruit participants from that group of established connections. This might not be the case for your current project in this program, but recruiting from an existing user base is pretty common in the real world. 
• Online: Alternatively, if you’re coming up with designs for an imaginary company or a newly established business, the easiest way to recruit participants for your study is online. You can use your own social media to find research participants. Or, there are websites created specifically to connect with research participants, like UserTesting and User Interviews. You can also find online groups that have users with the demographic characteristics that you want to interview. For example, if you’re designing an app for parents, you might find an online group about parenting. Before you post in an online community, make sure to check group rules or ask an administrator for permission to ask for research participation!
• Hallway testing: If recruiting participants online doesn’t seem like an option, a less formal way to recruit for your study is to ask people in person. You can use a recruiting method known as hallway testing, which means asking people that pass by in the “hallway” to try the product you’re designing. Try to position yourself in a location where you’re most likely to encounter your product’s target audience, like a dog park or a coffee shop. Hallway testing can be effective if you’re recruiting a small number of participants, if you have limited time, or if you want to conduct research for free. However, finding participants in this way is risky because the people you collect feedback from might not have all the characteristics of your product’s potential users.
• Third-party recruiting agencies: Some organizations have a budget to hire third-party research recruiting agencies. Recruiting agencies are useful because they save you time and can often reach diverse users.

Now that you’ve learned about finding research participants, you’re ready to conduct user interviews! 

Remember that for the purposes of this course, conducting these interviews is optional. Along with the other reading and videos in this lesson, it is for those who would like to get early experience conducting real-life interviews and for everyone to learn more about the UX research interview process.

Prepare for the interview

Whether you’re conducting interviews in person or online, it’s important to be prepared before you speak with real users. You want to make the most of your limited time together and learn as much as you can about their unique perspectives. Here are a few things you can do to prepare for interviews:

Script interview questions. Develop a list of questions that you’ll ask all of the users you interview. It’s considered a best practice to keep interview questions fairly consistent across users, but this list of questions is just a guide. You can deviate from the questions you prepared, if necessary, to learn more about the user and their pain points.

Collect supplies. Create a checklist of items you’ll need for the interview, such as a computer, a printed list of questions, or paper and a pencil. If you’re using new equipment or technology during the interview, make sure you know how it works in advance.

Research the users. Take time to learn what you can about the people you’ll interview. If the users you’re preparing to interview provide their personal information before the interview, be sure to take note of it. This information might include their name, demographic information, relevant experience with the product you’re designing, or details about how they learned about the interview. You can use this information to extend the conversation during the interview and build rapport. When you work for an organization, you can also screen participants on sites like LinkedIn to confirm they are who they say they are. You wouldn’t want to accidentally interview someone who is working for the competition!

Practice. It’s always a good idea to practice delivering the questions you’ll ask users before you conduct a real interview. This gives you time to make changes to the questions you’re planning to ask and helps ensure that the interviews run smoothly. Practicing is also a good way to determine if the length of the interview is appropriate, or if you need to add or cut questions from your list. You can practice asking interview questions in front of a mirror or with a trusted colleague.

Meet the participant

First impressions matter! As you meet users for the first time, at the start of an interview, you want the conversation to be set up for success. Here are a few things you can do when meeting interview participants:

Build rapport. Building good rapport is all about establishing a professional, but friendly, interaction. Making light conversation, like asking how the user’s day has been, can help establish a relationship before the interview begins. Simple questions and welcoming gestures can put the user at ease, which will help them share their true feelings once the interview begins. 

Thank users for coming. Before the interview begins, show gratitude to the people you’re interviewing for taking the time to meet with you and share their perspectives. Thanking users is a part of establishing good rapport and can help them feel like their opinions are valued. 

Gather basic details. As you meet users, remember to ask about basic information that’s relevant to the interview, such as their name or demographic details.

Conduct the interview

Conducting interviews as a way to empathize with users is all about making the user feel comfortable and asking lots of questions. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you conduct interviews:

Follow interview etiquette. Speak in a clear and concise manner while asking questions, and remain professional no matter how users answer a question. Show that you are actively listening while users share their perspectives by doing things such as nodding, making appropriate eye contact, or writing notes.

Ask open-ended questions. Avoid asking questions that would lead to a simple “yes” or “no” answer. Instead, ask questions that start with “why.” For example, avoid asking “Do you like going to the library?” and instead ask “Why do you like or dislike going to the library?” This will allow for more detailed conversations and can reveal useful information to include in the product you’re designing. If the participant does provide a short “yes” or “no” answer, you should ask a follow-up question to get them to share more.

Take notes

Interviews tend to happen quickly. Without taking notes, recounting exactly what participants expressed can be nearly impossible! As you watch and listen to participants during the interview, write down as much as you can capture. A robust list of notes and observations will be helpful when you come up with ideas to solve users’ pain points. Here are a few best practices to help you take notes during interviews:

Highlight compelling quotes. The most obvious part of an interview is to take notes on what the user says. Interesting quotes are strong indicators of how users really think and feel. Including quotes in your empathy maps is a great way to feature a firsthand perspective from a real user, which can provide valuable insight when you begin your designs. 

Document observations about participants. It’s important to record not only what users say, but also their mood, expressions, body language, and behaviors. Pay special attention to outside factors, like a noise or distraction, that might skew interview responses. All of these observations will be important to consider when creating empathy maps.

Record interviews. Ask participants if they will allow you to record their interview. If they consent, recorded interviews can be really helpful later, for revisiting parts of an interview that you might not remember or taking additional notes after the interview concludes. 

End the interview

After you’ve asked all of the interview questions, give users a chance to share their final thoughts about any items discussed during the interview. Some participants might open up about their opinions and reveal insights that they didn’t share earlier. 

Also, remember to thank participants once more. You want participants to leave the interview feeling good about you, your future product, and the brand you might be representing.

Empathy is a pillar of good UX design because it helps designers connect with users and understand their needs and problems. Indeed, empathy is so crucial to UX design that the best designers start empathizing with users long before they start formally researching their needs. For example, designers might proactively empathize with users in order to refine their research plans before they begin interviewing. This is called an empathy exercise: Designers use their imaginations and perspective-taking skills to anticipate their users’ experiences so they can ask better interview questions. 

In this review, you’ll explore an example of an exercise in which a designer empathizes with fictional user profile bios. For the purpose of this course, user profiles are short biographies that describe fictional people who stand in for real-life interview participants. Don’t confuse user profiles with user personas: User profiles are short, fictional biographies that aid with informal empathy exercises. In contrast, user personas have a more formal role in the design process: After designers interview lots of people, they distill common user characteristics into user personas, who then stand in for larger groups of similar users throughout the design process.

Before you continue, remember that you’ll have opportunities to conduct real-life interviews later in the program. For now, this review will help you understand how designers empathize with a product’s target audience before they conduct formal interviews.

Interview goals and questions

In the example we’re exploring, a designer is preparing to interview people as part of their design process for Zia’s Pizza app. You explored their interview plan earlier in the course. Here are the interview goals and questions they have planned:

Interview goals

1. I want to understand common challenges people face when trying to manage a busy schedule and when meal planning.
2. I want to identify frustrations people experience during the process of ordering from a restaurant.  

Interview questions

1. What is your current schedule like? How do you balance your responsibilities with meal planning?
2. How often do you order meals from a restaurant? When you do, what is your motivation? 
3. What challenges do you face in the ordering process? How do these questions make you feel?
4. How do you think these challenges could be resolved?

User profile: Reena

Before the designer conducts interviews, they proactively empathize with target users by focusing on fictional user profiles. Here’s one of those profiles:

Reena

Age: 37

Education:

Hometown: Lakewood, Colorado

Family: Lives mostly alone, has a teenage daughter

Occupation: Paramedic

Reena is a paramedic who lives in Lakewood, Colorado. They live alone but share custody of their daughter with their ex-partner. Reena works both day and night shifts, and their schedule changes week to week. They are a rock climber who goes to the climbing gym a few mornings a week and also drives their daughter to soccer practice any nights they’re not working. Reena has dyslexia, which makes it difficult to read text quickly and process information in fast-paced settings. Reena is health- and budget-conscious.

Pre-interview empathy exercise

Before they interview users like Reena, the designer wants to ensure they’re planning to ask the right questions. A pre-interview empathy exercise helps them anticipate participant responses and refine their questions in advance. In the example you’re about to explore, the designer imagines Reena as a real person and tries to anticipate:

• How Reena might answer the interview questions
• How Reena’s needs, challenges, or concerns might be addressed

As you explore the example, notice how the designer:

• Uses perspective taking to imagine Reena’s opinions, experiences, and pain points
• Uses bullet points and incomplete sentences to record their thoughts

Remember that the responses in the empathy exercise come from the designer themself, who is asking themself the interview questions and imagining how Reena might respond.

Refined interview questions

Designers use empathy exercises to validate their research plans, including their interview goals and questions. For example, under the Zia’s Pizza designer’s third interview question, consider the final response they imagine: “Hard to scan information, especially on a small phone screen (dyslexia). This might make Reena feel frustrated and even self-conscious about their disability.”

Having imagined this potential reaction from Reena, the designer re-evaluates the interview question that prompted it. They think through questions like these: 

• What if the word “challenges” triggers some users to feel self-conscious? 
• Is the word “challenging” too leading? Does this question assume that all participants will actually have experienced challenges?
• How might I rephrase Question 3 to be less leading?

The designer then imagines a more neutral version of Question 3 and its follow-up: 

• What is the ordering process like for you? Tell me about the experience you have with ordering and how it makes you feel.

Of course, good UX design demands that designers understand users’ challenges, so the designer doesn’t discard that term entirely. Instead, they plan to use it in a follow up question: If users like Reena bring up challenges, the designer will follow their lead and ask, “Tell me more about those challenges.”

Optional empathy exercises 

Below, you’ll find a set of fictional, sample user profiles. If you want to strengthen your empathy, consider doing empathy exercises with four profiles that you think represent the ideal users for a product you’re designing for your project portfolio. You can change some details about your selected users if you need to make them better fit the users of the product you’ll design.

You might also prefer to conduct interviews with real people at this stage. Interacting with real-life participants can give you an early look into one of the most important parts of many UX design jobs. The following websites can help you connect with research participants: 

• UserTesting
• User Interviews

If you choose this option, be sure to develop an interview plan according to the guidelines and best practices you explored in earlier course items, like Determine your research goals and questions.

Whichever method you choose, you’re encouraged to complete four empathy exercises (or interviews).

Link to user bios: Sample user bios

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download the bios directly from the attachment below.

UX Design Certificate – Sample user bios

DOCX File

Organize your data and envision common solutions

If you opt to do some empathy exercises or interviews, complete the process by analyzing your data and envisioning common solutions:

• Analyze what you wrote for each sample user.
• Identify possible commonalities across your user profiles (or interview participants). 
• Consider whether there are features you can incorporate into your design that will work for a variety of users. 

Imagine that the users you just “interviewed” represent a large segment of the audience for your product. What concerns or problems seem most important to your users? What kinds of features might you build into your app to address these concerns? Be as specific or general as you need to be. (You’ll learn more about UX design features in later courses, so it’s okay to be vague for now.)

In the example, for instance, notice how the designer identified a favorite feature as a common solution for busy parents who use the app:

• The designer wrote, “Like many working parents, Reena is clearly very busy and doesn’t have time to spend browsing for the perfect meal every day. They have favorites they like to order frequently, so having a system in the app where users can ‘favorite’ certain restaurants and then find them easily later, would be useful.”

Key takeaways

Pre-interview empathy exercises are a great way to imagine users’ responses to interview questions, envision common solutions to users’ possible needs, and identify opportunities to refine your questions for actual interviews. In UX design, remember that empathy starts before and continues after your interviews with users. It’s a crucial tool for refining and executing your approach to every phase of the design process, including user interviews.Go to next item

To learn more about user pain points, check out these real-world case studies from Google and Airbnb. Try to identify the unique pain points that led to major design changes!

• Read about the methodology behind the 2016 Google Font redesign. 
• Learn about how a new color system helped simplify Google Maps and make it more accessible.

Examine how Airbnb revamped their product design in response to the ways in which the world changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Discovering the chat function on a site is switched off during the posted hours of operation.

Unresponsive touch screen options

This is an example of a pain point since this is a UX issue that frustrates the user. Other pain points include, discovering the chat function on a site is switched off during the posted hours of operation, or struggling to read the small text in an app.

Struggling to read the small text in an app.

This is an example of a product pain point, since this is a UX issue that frustrates the user. Other pain points include unresponsive touch screen options, or discovering the chat function on a site is switched off during the posted hours of operation.

It can convey to UX designers what users think, say, feel, and do to understand what users actually need from a product.

An empathy map is an easily-understood chart that explains everything the designer learns about a user.

User faces difficulty adding an item to an online shopping cart

Process pain points are frustrations that stop the user going from point A to point B. If there’s an issue with completing an experience, such as moving an item to a shopping cart, that’s considered a process pain point.

True

Most pain points fall into one of four categories: product, financial, process, and support.

At this point in the course, you’ve learned about empathizing with users and building empathy maps to identify user pain points. You are on your way to learning all about the users that you’ll design a product for!

Now, it’s time to start personifying users. Keeping in mind everything that you’ve learned so far, you’ll soon build your first persona. Personas are fictional users whose goals and characteristics represent the needs of a larger group of users. Each persona that you create will represent a group of users with similar characteristics that you’ve learned about through your research. Personas are key to the design process because they reflect the lifestyles of users and give your team an idea of how to meet users’ needs or challenges.

In the world of UX design, the user always comes first. But to put user needs first, we have to know who we’re talking about. So let’s explore how to build personas.

Building personas

Personas are created by conducting user research and identifying common pain points, which are UX issues that frustrate and block the user from getting what they need from a product.

As you create personas, look for the most common themes in your data and group the users who personify those themes together. For example, imagine that the data collected from user interviews for the dog walker app shows that a lot of potential users between the ages of 45 and 60 are concerned about dog walkers having access to their homes. That would definitely be a pain point you’d want to include in a persona that represents that specific age group of users.

Generally, creating 3 to 8 personas is enough to represent the majority of a product’s user base. Think of personas as an overview of all of your research and interviews. While it’s important for personas to accurately represent users, it’s impossible to meet every one of their specific needs. Personas are also context-specific, meaning they should be focused on the behaviors and goals of users interacting with the product effectively.

For the dog walker app, think about a scenario from the perspective of a dog owner:

• Daniela is a 48-year-old freelance film producer who lives with their partner Priya and their two children in Atlanta, Georgia. The family recently adopted a golden retriever puppy named Cisco. 
• The family takes regular trips with the kids for gymnastics competitions, and Daniela often travels for long periods of time when filming. Daniela wants to find someone to take care of the puppy, Cisco, while the family is away or busy. 
• Daniela’s biggest concern is trusting a stranger to come into their home and to take care of their puppy. Daniela would be most comfortable hiring someone who knows how to properly care for puppies and can take Cisco on walks and to dog parks.

Here’s what a persona might include for Daniela, using the persona template that was shown in the video:

You can use the information in personas to create designs that speak directly to users, like Daniela. This ensures users have the best experience when using your product! For example, in your designs, you might want to indicate that the dog walkers are screened by the app and must pass background checks, which would reassure users like Daniela that their dog will be safe.

Pro tip: Get your team’s opinion on the product’s users before you build personas. Then, after you build personas, review those suggestions from your team and compare them to the personas you created. Point out how the data validated or contradicted their suggestions. Everyone on your team needs to understand the personas in order to truly connect with your users.

There are many ways you can create personas. You can explore a variety of persona templates like these persona templates and examples from Just In Mind and these customizable persona templates from Xtensio. You might notice that some personas are very long and detailed! Or, you might notice different topics in the persona examples that we haven’t covered in this course. Feel free to explore and use a persona template that works best for you and your design project.

If you want to learn even more, check out this introduction to personas from Interaction Design Foundation.

Provide positive feedback before critical feedback.

Empathize with them

Recruit participants

Age

Online platforms, Social networks

• Familiarize yourself with the platform you will use to conduct the interview.
• Ensure the interviewee has access to the technology before the start of the interview.

• What do you like and dislike about shopping?
• What does your day look like when you shop?

Empathy Map

pain point

A user group