UX Portfolio showcasing my process for designing intuitive and engaging experiences for users.

1. JONAH OSAWA
ux portfolio 2015
808.753.6416 • jonahosawa@gmail.com

2. Hi, I’m Jonah.
I’m a User Experience Designer from Honolulu with a
background in music industries and marketing.
My Specialties are
I think what makes a good story is how well the listener can empathize with the
characters. This is why I'm a UX Designer; nothing excites me more than
understanding someone's story and having a chance to make the next chapter
more positive. User Testing
User Interviews
Wireframing

3. My Process
Research Design
Discovery SketchUser Research Synthesis Usability Test Visual
While each project demands its own unique tweaks, I rely on this framework to guide me
towards the best solution for the problem at hand.
Brand Analysis
Competitor Analysis
Tech Research
Heuristic Evaluation
Contextual Inquiry
User Interviews
Surveys
Affinity Maps
Feature Prioritization
Personas
Sitemaps
Task Flows
Use Cases
Design Studio
Wireframe
Prototype
Test
Iterate
Test
Iterate again
Test
Iterate once more
High-Fidelity
Mockups

4. Research
I approach every new
project with an open mind,
without making any
assumptions or jumping
ahead to possible solutions.
I am a firm believer that
every design decision
should be supported by
research.

5. Discovery
Get a lay of the land.
Feature analysis of competitive and comparative sites
Notes from project kickoff meeting with a client
Listen to stakeholders.
I begin by getting a feel for the scope of the
project. What is the current state of the product?
Who are the competitors? How are their
solutions designed? Analyzing similar products
to identify strengths and weaknesses can lead to
design opportunities later in the process.
Every stakeholder has their own perspective.
Listening to them will help me strike a balance
between the goals of the user and the goals of
the business. This step also acts as an
introduction, and opens the line of
communication moving forward.

6. Meet the users.
I learn who the users are through
surveys, contextual inquiries, and
interviews. Interviewing people to
uncover their stories is one of my
strongest passions in the entire UX
process. Nothing reveals more about a
user than simply asking them, “why?”
User Research
Notes and key quotes from user interviews
Survey results from Google Analytics Conducting contextual inquiry with potential users

7. Synthesis
Analyze the results.
Visualize the user.
With sufficient information from my research, I
begin organizing it to reveal patterns in user
behaviors and demographics. Using this
information, I prioritize features and construct
the research report to validate future design
decisions.
Using the research findings, I develop personas
and build potential user flows. I will refer back to
these visualizations throughout the rest of my
process to keep my designs as user-centric as
possible.
Mapping features to create a “M0SCoW”
feature prioritization
Cleaned up Persona and User flows for use
throughout the rest of the process

8. Design
High-fidelity mockups come near
the end of my process, once
designs have proven to be intuitive
through usability testing. I keep
fidelity low during testing to allow
for rapid iterations and
prototyping. I am always willing to
take as many steps back as needed
if it means producing a better user
experience at the end.

9. Rapid design studios.
Explaining my ideas to my team after a few minutes
of quick sketching
Once I have a clear understanding of the
challenge and the users, I can begin
visualizing high-level designs through
rapid, timed sketching sessions. I like to
involve as many stakeholders as I can in
these sketching sessions because they are
an ideal way to explore design strategies
with minimal time and financial
investment.
Sketching

10. Iterate, iterate, iterate.
I conduct usability tests at each
phase of the design process. To
determine if a design is intuitive to
users, I ask users to complete
various tasks and observe their
interaction. By starting usability
testing early in the process with
low-fidelity prototypes, even with
paper prototypes drawn by hand,
key flaws can be identified and
improved upon quickly.
Usability Testing
Observing a card sort to help
determine information
architecture
Prototype drawn on paper with
movable modules
Conducting a usability test,
making sure not to ask leading
questions or make leading
statements

11. Move to higher fidelity.
After the design has proven to be
intuitive through testing, I raise the
fidelity and make the design not only
usable, but delightful for the user. The
visual aspect of the design will reflect the
company brand and identity, helping
solidify the experience and brand as one.
Visual

12. SoundCloud Rooms
Design a new feature for existing responsive siteRedesign existing e-commerce site
Solo project
Contextual Inquiry
Card Sorting
Usability Testing
Wireframing
Desktop Prototype
3 member team
Collaborated on Research
Led Usability Testing
Sitemapping
Keynote Presentation
Mobile Prototype
Forbidden Planet
Samples

13. Case Study: Texts.com

14. Overview
The Challenge
My Role
Deliverables
Our ProcessTextbook prices have increased a whopping 812% in the past 30 years, and
80% of the market is controlled by only four publishers. They are determined
to keep prices high, so Texts.com offers a cheaper alternative to college
students.
Working with two other UX designers, my primary contributions to this
project were conducting usability tests, building the wireframes, and
analyzing competitive and comparative sites. I also conducted user interviews,
helped create the research report, and guided a design studio with the CEO
and developers of Texts.com.
• Research Report
⁃ Key contextual inquiry takeaways
⁃ Key interview takeaways
⁃ Survey results
⁃ Competitive and comparative analysis
⁃ Persona
• Design
⁃ Medium fidelity wireframes
⁃ Annotated wireframes
⁃ Sitemap
⁃ New user flows
• Suggested features
• Clickable Prototype
Texts.com is a site that offers two main services to college students:
1) compare textbook buying and selling prices across online retailers.
2) buy and sell textbooks with fellow students at their campus.
Because Texts.com is a relatively new company, my team and I were given options
as to what we could provide UX design services for. After discussion, we decided
that redesigning the existing site would be the most beneficial to the business, as
succeeding here would potentially drive mobile app and plug-in downloads.
With a timeline of only two and a half weeks to complete the design, we
prioritized the features that needed to exist within our design based the most
common use cases. We also communicated with the developers regularly to
understand the technical constraints of the website.

15. • Analyzed features, layouts, elements, and market
positioning of 4 competitive sites
• Received ~40 survey responses
• Conducted 6 in-depth user interviews
• Conducted 6 usability tests of existing site
Gathering the data from our competitive analysis, we gained an
understanding of the online textbook retail landscape and what
services were available to college students. Through our user
research, we uncovered pleasures and pain points that students
were encountering in their textbook buying and selling
behaviors.
Survey Response Analysis
Our sole persona for this project
Layouts of competitor sites
Using these insights, we developed use cases, user stories, task
flows, and a persona. Due to all of the results from user
interviews and surveys aligning perfectly, only one persona was
needed to encompass all the goals and needs of our potential
users.
Research

16. • Ensure users know exactly what services Texts.com
offers from the homepage
• Delay sign up/log in until absolutely necessary in the
task flow
• Cultivate the user’s trust in the site and brand
We held a timed sketching session with the Texts.com team in order to see
their design ideas and take them into consideration as business goals. Each page
was designed with specific user goals in mind.
My team and I knew what features were necessary, but we initially struggled
with determining what page each of those features would be on. We solved this
problem by developing the user flows and sitemap first, then using those as a
guide for designing each page of our prototype.
After sharing and discussing each designer’s ideas, we finalized an initial design
for each page. Beginning with low-fidelity wireframes, we were able to conduct
3 rounds of usability testing and make 2 rounds of iterations. The third round
of testing was used to make design recommendations that could not be
incorporated into the final deliverable due to time constraints.
Our primary goals with the design were to
Design
Initial Design Latest Iteration

17. After giving a keynote presentation to our
client, we held a debrief meeting with them
to discuss our design decisions and
suggestions in further detail. The client was
enthusiastic with the final deliverable, and
any questions about our design were backed
by research findings outlined in the research
report.
Our design is currently in the development
process, and will be live on the Texts.com
website in July 2015. My UX team with the CEO and developers of Texts.com
Outcome

18. jonahosawa@gmail.com
808.753.6416
linkedin.com/in/jonahosawa
Contact