✦ Prélude
Role
Lead UX Designer & Researcher
Approach
Lean UX
Duration
7 Weeks (2024)
Medium
Figma, FigJam, Teams
Overview
An all-in-one anime hub 💻
Kuro is a web application prototype designed to provide a streamlined experience for manga and anime viewers, curate an extensive anime catalog, and allow users to explore and organize anime content. In the fall of 2024, I pitched Kuro as an idea for my Interaction Design II class and was chosen as the team lead. For the duration of this project, my team and I would build Kuro following an adapted version of the Lean UX framework, given our course timeline.
Problem
Lack of anime content & integration leaves fans frustrated 😖
As my team and I are all avid anime and manga fans, we realize how difficult it is to find a streamlined experience that allows them to enjoy both forms of media in the same space. Moreover, many mainstream anime and manga sites have limited content availability, which leads to many users migrating to illegal anime streaming sites that are constantly taken down.
Approach
Forming assumptions with Lean UX 🤔
Lean UX is a collaborative-based methodology focused on forming assumptions, rapid experimentation, and iterative learning. By following this way of thinking, the Lean UX method allowed my team and I to make assumptions on who would use our product, as well as attempt to validate our assumptions through testing aspects of our product.
Sprint 1
Week 0 - Laying the groundwork ✍️
My team and I started Sprint 1 by creating our Lean UX canvas, a compilation of exercises meant to help teams brainstorm and declare their assumptions regarding the key elements of a product concept. The Lean UX canvas helped my team and I to share our assumptions on key problems and potential user needs, as well as form testable hypotheses about possible solutions.
Product Problem Statement
As the team lead, I scheduled and led meetings with my team to complete the Lean UX canvas which housed assumptions we formulated for our product. Through these meetings, we came to the assumption that the current state of media platforms treat anime-related content as low priority, which limits the anime/manga streaming experience. We believed that our product would address this gap by providing an affordable, accessible, and extensive anime and manga streaming service.
Sprint 1
Week 0 - Laying the groundwork ✍️
My team and I started Sprint 1 by creating our Lean UX canvas, a compilation of exercises meant to help teams brainstorm and declare their assumptions regarding the key elements of a product concept. The Lean UX canvas helped my team and I to share our assumptions on key problems and potential user needs, as well as form testable hypotheses about possible solutions.
Product Problem Statement
As the team lead, I scheduled and led meetings with my team to complete the Lean UX canvas which housed assumptions we formulated for our product. Through these meetings, we came to the assumption that the current state of media platforms treat anime-related content as low priority, which limits the anime/manga streaming experience. We believed that our product would address this gap by providing an affordable, accessible, and extensive anime and manga streaming service.
