Hangtight: Coordinating Social Gatherings
Jessica Teng, UX Researcher
Isaac Wu, UX Researcher
Tim Zimmer, UI Designer
Team
Timelime
1 month
My Role
UX Designer
Feelings of isolation and loneliness created by digital disconnection and social media has become an issue around the globe.
The Challenge
Project Goals
Coordinate hangouts easier
Be provided with suggestions for new places to go
Build more meaningful relationships
Create a functional prototype that allows users to:
Working with an early stage startup, our team utilized a human-centered design approach, taking this project through the classic Design Thinking process.
My Process
01
EMPATHIZE
The questions guiding the research were:
What are the top needs in planning hangouts with friends, acquaintances and new friends?
How do users most commonly plan for hangouts?
How frequently do people want to meet new friends and why?
What are the frustrations people experience in planning for hangouts via SMS or other devices?
Which demographics need the tools to help them better coordinate hangouts with friends and acquaintances?
What are the features that are working well in the tools that the users use?
Identifying potential users & pain points in coordinating hangouts with friends
Research
A look into industry standards for social hangout apps
Competitive Analysis
Major findings from the competitive analysis to implement in our designs
The UX Researched completed a Competitive Analysis on MeetUp, Outside, Yubo, and Bumble. Using this, I was able to help identify likes, dislikes, and action items for our design.
With these questions in mind, I assisted the UX Researcher in creating a questionnaire designed to qualify candidates for user interviews.
I worked with another UX Designer to analyze industry standard incentive programs- Starbucks Rewards, Door Dash Pass, Chase Rewards, Amazon Prime Rewards, Rakuten, and Sephora Insider Points.
Analyzing incentive program industry standards, and opportunities for this product
SWOT Analysis
Rakuten Analysis
Sephora Analysis
02
DEFINE
Defining the pain points in social isolation & coordinating hangouts with friends
Problem Statement
The Problem Statement for this project was defined by the startup as:
03
IDEATION
Creating a sitemap to start laying out the navigational hierarchy of the app
Sitemap
Building out the steps a user needs to take to solve their problem
User Flows
The flows to create a profile, and to invite friends were dictated by the startup, while the flow to simplify group hangouts & get people to try new experiences was dictated by the user research our team conducted.
The sketches were designed to be familiar and solve the user needs
Sketching
The UI Designer designed the sketches based on the user research and the user flows.
I used Figma to transform the sketches into wireframes. While creating the wireframes, I was challenged to fit each element on the screen. I chose to scale down to the most essential elements in order to fit them all on the screens.
Creating screens to present to stakeholders
Wireframes
Wireframes for several versions of the homescreen
Wireframes for recommending a hangout after a user enters their preferences
OUTCOMES & LESSONS LEARNED
Through the user research, we were able to validate the startup’s hypothesis that people ages 25-40 feel some degree of social isolation and are frustrated with coordinating hangouts with friends. Once we were able to validate this hypothesis, we created a sitemap & user flows to guide how the product would solve these pain points. Then we created sketches and wireframes for what the product would look like.
If we had more time, we would have also created high fidelity wireframes for the engineer to develop a prototype, and then conducted usability testing to discover pain points with the product.
Validating research & creating a product to present to stakeholders
Outcomes
Our team of UX Designers started this project knowing that this early stage startup wanted to see a high fidelity prototype. However, there was no research yet to validate the idea yet. We quickly realized that we would need to work together to validate the startup’s hypothesis, generate ideas for the product, and work with the engineer to create a viable product.
Each UX Designer took on a specific role (researcher, information architect, and UI designer), but we all worked together to support each other on tasks to ensure that we were meeting the deadlines.
Communication is vital when collaborating to produce results in a tight timeline
Lessons Learned