Design sprint + User Journey Map
I went from a seed of an idea to a realistic prototype in a week.
You may be familiar with the Google Ventures (GV) Sprint framework. If you are, you're probably aware that this is usually a team activity. I conducted a solo GV sprint. There were a few steps that I skipped over, but overall, it really accelerated my project.
One of the biggest takeaways, beyond the prototype and user tests, was the journey mapping exercise.
Mapping out the user’s journey allowed me to consider their biases, fears, and motivations before explicitly defining the products functionality. In mapping out the journey, I came to define three different types of users for my product and their intentions behind entering the system I was designing. I also made it a point to identify the users’ potential emotional states as they interface with the application.