c.chen
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talk loud .

Designing a speaking practice platform for young-adults to improve during interviews or speeches.
ROLE
TIMELINE
SKILLS
TOOLS
Product Designer
September 2023 - November 2023
User Research
Product Design
Usability Testing
Mockups & Prototyping
Figma
Adobe Creative Suite
Google Drive

THE PROBLEM

Young adults often struggle to independently develop effective strategies for interview or speech preparation, resulting in suboptimal performance during crucial professional or academic engagements.
EXPLORING THE USER'S NEEDS
Identifying pain points through initial research
To better understand and identify the pain points and unmet needs of people who struggle with public speaking, I recruited and interviewed 5 young-adults (students and new graduates) who admitted to facing difficulties to public speaking and wanted to improve.
I identified 4 pain points through these user interviews ↓
Lack of Practice
Opportunities and Content
Users often struggle to find suitable opportunities and time to practice public speaking.
Performance
Anxiety
Users often face anxiety and nervousness when speaking in front of an audience.
Receiving Quality 
Feedback
Users have a hard time receiving quality feedback that they need to improve.
Motivation & 
Engagement
Users may find it challenging to stay motivated to practice their public speaking skills.
Lack of Practice
Opportunities and Content
Users often struggle to find suitable opportunities and time to practice public speaking.
Performance
Anxiety
Users often face anxiety and nervousness when speaking in front of an audience.
Receiving Quality 
Feedback
Users have a hard time receiving quality feedback that they need to improve.
Motivation & 
Engagement
Users may find it challenging to stay motivated to practice their public speaking skills.
Before settling on key features, I created a user journey map to visualize how I wanted the app to feel like while using. -- This example shows the user flow of an individual wanting to prepare for upcoming job interviews using talk loud.
THE SOLUTION (KEY FEATURES)
Addressing the issues
Note - these are the final designs after multiple reiterations based on feedback
GOAL #1: Creating Opportunity
Personalized Practice & Learning Content
In order to ensure users get the practice that they need, talk loud provides general and job-specific interview prompts. Furthermore, users are able to create prompts and view learning content as needed to improve.
GOAL #2: REDUCING ANXIETY
Self-Record Performances
Practice is essential in building confidence while speaking. A self-record feature was added to help users get used to seeing themselves talk, and see what they needed to work on. Videos were kept private unless user chose to share them for peer review.
GOAL #3: PROVIDING QUALITY FEEDBACK
Review System
Although intimidating, a peer review system allows users to gain valuable feedback from other users as they practice their interviews. Facing concerns of minimal feedback from peers, a self-review feature was also implemented into the app.
GOAL #4: KEEP USERS MOTIVATED
Progress Checks & Joining Challenges
To help keep users motivated, I incorporated progress checks to see how they were doing. Users are also able to join challenges and earn badges based on which prompts they ace or how often they practice.
USABILITY TESTING
How did we end up here?
After creating the lofi prototype, I gathered 5 participants (target users) for the first usability test. Participants were asked questions about their preferences and usability of the product, guiding subsequent iterations to enhance user satisfaction. I organized the insights into the affinity diagram shown below.
FIRST ROUND OF REITERATIONS
Refining the design for a better experience
ISSUE #1: Users wanted a more personalized experience and practice more tailored towards their career goals.
ISSUE #2: There was too much clutter since each prompt had its own review page. Users had to navigate to a specific prompt to see the corresponding peer reviews. Thus, they were confused by the layout and worried that nobody would review their submissions if other users were not practicing the same prompt as them -- minimizing peer feedback and overall improvement.
FINAL ROUND OF REITERATIONS
Diving further with hi-fi
Another usability test was conducted after finishing the high-fidelity prototype with a similar group of young adults as test #1. I found a few critical themes that I wanted to address based on my findings.
#1 - ADDRESSING LACK OF CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK

Despite combining the peer review section into one and creating challenges that encourage users to give peer feedback, users may still be unsatisfied with the quantity and quality of the feedback they receive from others.

To solve this issue, I decided to add a feature where users may review themselves. We tend to be more critical of ourselves which is helpful. Writing down our issues may help us quickly realize what we need to improve before others notice. Guided questions will be provided for us to answer when critiquing ourselves for more effective feedback.

#2 - ENSURING PRIVACY AND ANXIETY PREVENTION
#3 - INCREASING LEARNING EFFICIENCY AND ACCESSIBILITY
REFLECTION
What I learned // challenges faced
✰ Be flexible, but don't go overboard.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was keeping an open mind, while also not trying to do too much in terms of creating solutions. I found that the more I thought about adding something, the more confusing the solutions became.
✰ Share your designs early !!
It's important to share your initial thoughts and wireframes before you dive too deep into the design process. Getting early feedback makes the reiteration process much easier and saves time when conducting usability tests.
Thank you for taking the time to look through my case study! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. I would love to connect ☺︎

✴︎ let's create something together ❋

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