Friday check-in

First off I want to say, screw the weekend, but also, TGIF. Now that that's off my chest.
It's been a while since I've posted. Many things have come up, including a move back to Toronto booked for October. I'm looking forward to seeing family, friends and colleagues, and being quarantined for 2 weeks :| :D

Some project accountability updates:

I've done 4 user tests with initial app prototypes, with 2 more scheduled this coming week and a bunch of people (mostly friends) interested as well.
I'm trying to wrap up testing within 2 weeks since I want to start development soon (again). However, I've also found user-testing to be extremely valuable overall and almost don't want it to end. I think it never will and believe product validation/feedback should happen at all stages, in different forms.

I'm currently on version 2.x of my first prototype. Right now I'm doing very short iterations (Mostly UI updates and copy) because I'm confident with the primary feature set, the value prop and the overall look and feel. I actually started coding v1 with React Native, Redux and sqlite3 for storage. I learned a ton about the framework. This was happening alongside user testing v1 which took a few weeks to get going. For scheduling tests I found this tool called Calendly https://calendly.com/ which has made scheduling convenient since you can just send people a link to book a time that works around your free time.

About developing...once I got some initial feedback from testing v1 (more on that maybe in another post and lessons learned from user-testing in general) - This is when I had to stop. There was a lot that was unclear, confusing, and there was an obvious disconnect between the why of what I was trying to achieve. This is when I knew I had to stop, because the last thing I want to do is build something people find confusing and unsure about. Additionally, a big gotcha for me was the idea of bringing delight. I realized that if by the end of the user-tests people didn't feel at least a little bit happier, if there weren't moments that made them laugh or smile, then I was doing something wrong. I'm happy to say that I feel like I've achieved this with the latest version :)

Some take aways from the last few weeks:

• Set deadlines for yourself - so that you don't lose momentum
• User testing isn't easy especially if it's your baby, not to mention, if you're getting family involved. But it's a chance to improve. Any and all feedback is good feedback at this stage. Leave your ego at the door, and encourage people to be honest with you. Set your net wide initially for who you want feedback from, but have a rough idea about who your ideal audience is so that you know which opinions matter more - knowing who is unlikely to use your product is good intel.
• Focus on bringing delight - through design, content, color etc.. Solving the problem is one thing - but if you can find a way to bring delight, that's what's going to get people to keep coming back.

Have a great weekend everyone!

PS: I might post some screenshots soon, should I?