Overview

Purdue University’s UX design course requires the completion of an independent, self-directed project as the course’s capstone. For my UX capstone project, I chose to strengthen my visual design skills and familiarity with Figma by redesigning a section of a website that I frequently used.

Results when using the search bar on MFC

Redesigned search results page

https://www.figma.com/proto/jgxbi5nUObnbi0G7ztiVfN/search?node-id=133-211&starting-point-node-id=144%3A16&t=IkGJXAwAvk1gF9F6-1

Interactive Figma prototype

Problem Statement

Using the search feature on MyFigureCollection is a convoluted task

Goals

• Identify and analyze pain points users face in MyFigureCollection’s current state
• Prepare a comprehensive redesign plan that addresses major pain points
• Create a user-informed low fidelity prototype to represent the redesign plan

My Role

• Research Design
• User Research
• Webpage Design

User Group

Casual and new users of the MFC platform

Key Terms

• MFC: MyFigureCollection
• Database: A digital collection of data
• Database entry: Data stored in the database
• Encyclopedia: MFC’s collection of non-merchandise data: characters, shows, etc.
• Origins: Source media (shows, games, movies, etc; where a character is from)

Utilized Skills

• Self-directed research
• Low-mid fidelity prototyping

Abstract

MyFigureCollection is a website with a robust set of features, all with the purpose of facilitating its audience’s Japanese merchandise collection hobbies. My project focuses specifically on streamlining the process of searching for database entries. Currently, using the search bar on MyFigureCollection brings the user to a “quick search” page, which displays an incomplete list of database entries that match the searched term, and no option to show all results or filter them down. In order to yield proper results, the user must find the Encyclopedia entry for the desired character or series, find the merchandise type they’re looking for, and filter down from those results. This process is not communicated on the website and must be discovered via trial and error. Over the course of this semester, my goal was to redesign the process of searching and filtering to align with user expectations and reduce frustration. I did this by researching industry standards, understanding my user group’s unique needs, creating a redesign plan to meet those needs, and finally, creating a representative prototype that will be iterated upon and tested with users. My user group is casual and new users of the MFC platform.

Process

Milestone 1

Identify and analyze pain points users face in MyFigureCollection’s current state

Heuristic Evaluation

Goal

Understand the current state of MFC’s usability

Process

• Evaluated where MFC fell short according to Nielsen's heuristics
  • Focused primarily on search and filtering usability

Match Between System and Real World

Clicking “Add to my collection” brings up “Add to wishlist” first.

Add to my collection button

Pop-up after clicking the “+”

• A user would click “add to my collection” if they already owned the figure and wanted to add it to their collection showcase
  • “Owned” would be the expected status, not “wished.”

Navigation tabs above the search results appear to be filtering options, but they are not.

Navigation tabs above the search results

• When a website’s functions do not align with users’ expectations, they can become frustrated.

The user is presented with the option to "link" a figure to a list instead of "add" to a list.

“My lists” button

Shown after clicking the link button