Objective
The objective of this stage was to test the core user flows of Dearly using a low-fidelity paper prototype. I wanted to understand how the app is easy to understand for first-time users, identify usability issues early, and validate whether users can successfully complete key tasks like onboarding, journaling, and reflecting on their mood patterns.
AI Usage
I used ChatGPT to help analyze and easily understand my key findings and insights from the cognitive walkthroughs.
After conducting the walkthroughs and taking notes on user behavior, confusion points, and errors, I used AI to organize these observations into clear patterns and themes.
Example Prompt:
“Help me summarize key findings from the cognitive walkthroughs for my journaling app.
Here are my notes:”
Output:
AI grouped my observations into themes such as onboarding clarity issues, decision overload when choosing journaling formats, unclear save flow, and confusion in the Reflect section.
Benefits & Challenges
AI helped me quickly organize my findings into clear, readable insights. Instead of manually sorting through all my notes, I was able to identify patterns more efficiently and present them in a structured way.
The outputs sometimes generalized my findings, so I had to review and adjust them to make sure they accurately reflected what I observed during testing.
Reflection
AI played a supporting role in this stage by helping me process and communicate my findings more effectively. I conducted the testing, gathered the data, and identified the issues, while AI helped organize and refine those insights into clear themes.
Overall, I was responsible for the research and analysis, and AI assisted with structuring and summarizing the results.