This UX research study aimed to existing tensions between parents who mediate their teenagers' social media usage and teenagers' personal autonomy. More importantly, we wanted to understand the care reasoning behind parental mediation behavior, an aspect that is often overlooked in the relationship.
At the end of it, we compiled a 48 page workbook that summarized all of our research insights. In it, we also discuss our research methodology, speculative sketch responses, and our field research experiences.
PROBLEM
As a generation born with this technology, we can relate to teenagers using social media. However, we wanted to also understand behaviors in parents and identify how social media and mediation plays into the parent-teen relationship.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
RESEARCH QUESTION
As we dive into how parents mediate, it's important to understand two big mediation strategies parents often employ:
FIELD RESEARCH
When researching academic articles for secondary research, most studies only showcased either parents or teens. However, it was important for our question to put both parents and teens on the same level, and understand both of their perspectives to properly address tensions or behaviors.
We broke our interview session down to provide both time together, and separate.
INSIGHTS
To align with NPS's overarching goal, we curated a set of signature experiences we believe should lead the app’s redesign. Our UX pillars touched on three different sides of the app; one to organize, one to motivate, and one to stay informed.
IDEATION
In addition to designing earnest concepts aimed to drive towards a solution, we also found it necessary to explore provocative, speculative concepts. It’s important to note the differentiation as our speculative concepts were created to invoke a response, rather than create a solution.
NARROWING DOWN CONCEPTS
In the interview, we made sure to differentiate our speculative and earnest designs. We received some feedback, and proceeded to make changes
FINAL CONCEPTS + WORKBOOK
Unlike what you may expect, creating these concepts was not the big goal of our study, nor was finalizing and pursuing a specific design direction afterward. Instead, we wanted to focus on the research to be fully engaged with the process, rather than an end goal or solution. This also allows for a more playful design space, where we can include speculative, thought-provoking designs as well.
To document how far we’ve come, however, we’ve compiled a workbook that goes into our research more in-depth. I encourage you to check it out here!!
TAKEAWAYS
We redesigned the user flow so our map page is easily accessible in various situations. In the redesign, users can access the map throughout the park, trail, or trip plan page.
Hindsight is 20/20; There will always be more questions you’d want to ask!
When going through our data, we would sometimes run into an “aha!” moment where we wishes we asked a specific question to piece things together. And while it’s unlikely we’ll ever be able to create the perfect interview, through experience I can get better at understanding what big questions will be rewarding.
Be playful in your design process.
Not necessarily bright colors, but being open minded and entertaining crazy, hilarious, or even wild ideas that may not have the best ethics. Speculative design can be extremely interesting, not only in the concept you choose to create but also the reaction of participants when you present it. That in itself can reveal a lot.
Acknowledge who you are highlighting in the conversation.
I wanted to be very intentional about highlighting both parents and teens in this conversation as we dived deep into the tension at play. Many research studies would focus on either the parent or the teen, which left us curious about what the other perspective was. By separating parents and teens in interviews, we were able to get more truthful, candid answers.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
It’s extremely hard to remove social media and technology altogether. So, it follows that striking a balance, satisfying both sides, is perhaps the compromise in the parent-teen dynamic (while keeping social media in the relationship). In the end, it’s simply not possible to conclude this study without mentioning a common ground.
While there was no snazzy eye catching final solution attached to this research question, this research study has been extremely fulfilling. Research is its own fascinating field of its own, and it was great to get a taste of it. Special thanks to Audrey Desjardins for being a mentor in this study, and to Ava, Steve, and Mike for being great teammates!
