Inspiration
I was involved in the Dallas Design Community since Fall 2015 and met many amazing Designers. I connected with people in Dallas UXPA, Ladies that UX, and the UX Club at UT Dallas
Problem
Network is very limited to one area
Most students can't afford to go out of state to connect with other UX folks
UX Conferences and events are too expensive to go
Create connections outside
Online Design Communities are too large and overcrowded
Goal
Expand Designer's network
Connect Designers worldwide
Limit crowd chat/Crowd control
Redirect self conscious emotions
Build more personal relationship
Competitive Analysis
To begin my app concept, I started to research the strengths and features in other projects in order to get open ideas on how to design my own product.
Findings
Challenge users on their goal
Connect users using common interest or goal
Connect users to other people from all over the
Motivate users by rewarding them with gifts
Creating positive light in their website/app by using mission statements and goals
Ex. Learning a new language, Connect with Professionals
Keeping their designs simple and friendly
Lack of engagement in a large community
Most communities have guidelines to follow
By gamifying the experience, users would most likely keep using the product for rewards
Conducting Survey
I created and sent out a survey through social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc..) in order to receive insight and a general idea on what users think about online communities so I can see how people create connections online. I received 62 responses from ages between 18-40 years old.
Survey Analysis
Most users aren’t active online because posts are overwhelming, “overactive”, “too much content”
64% of users were able to keep up with their penpal contact for at least 1 year
48% of the users were only able to keep up with 1 Pen pal
62% of the users find online communities through Facebook and Linkedin but don't actually participate in some of them
Users would join more than 3-4 online communities but 56% of them are only active once a week or never at all
Large responses say that users have a hard time building relationships in online communities because of the "number of people and voices" and "too many posts"
More than half of the responders say they reach out personally through direct message or email to build relationships
User Interviews
I recruited 4 upperclassmen college students who are currently studying or working as UX Designers. wanted to extract more information about online communities but through my targeted audience, UX Designers.
Goals
Determine Designer’s experiences in online UX communities
Figure out what features to target the audience
Determine what values a UX Designer is looking for in making connections in the online community
Determine how Designers engage in an online UX community
User Interview Insights
Designers love open and supportive communities
They end up gaining knowledge and advice from online design communities
With large groups, it’s hard to have your voice heard online
Designers can ask for help or advice on something, whether it is on a project or help with finding a job. Also designers exchange resources and articles to help each other
Personas
I took the user interview notes and used them to create realistic representations of my key audience to get a clear picture on who I’m creating the app for.
Customer Journey Map
I wanted to see their interaction and understand my key audience's pain points and feelings. I started out their journey with them searching through online communities to participating into the group, this provided a clear journey of what to focus on.
Sitemap
I created a Sitemap to give me an overview of how the Pendin's flow works and an overview of what pages I needed to design for the app. This gave me a more understanding about the direction I wanted to go with my project.
Wireframing
I built mockups of the app to help me brainstorm and be creative with how I wanted Pendin to be built. I started out by creating the application process when a user creates an account because I needed to consider who was signing up (Students, Professionals, Mentors) and how would I match up a UX Designer with another UX Designer.
Mood Board
Deciding on the color scheme was the hardest part of the process, I wanted to go for a light and friendly vibe. I've collected image components that I thought would best suite the theme I was going for.
Hi-fidelity Designs
Usability Testing
I would have my users role play one of the personas I created to see them go through the application process and also give them small tasks to explore the app further. This was able to help me uncover problems and note any feedback the users gave me. You can check out the testing here.
Test Feedback
I received feedback from the user testing that will help improve my product. This was able to help me understand where the problems were and what needed to be updated or changed.
Insight Analysis
Users believe they have to spend money to upgrade
Limiting features will help improve the simplicity
3 out of 4 testers didn’t know where the homepage was.
Rewarding badges causes confusion because they don’t know what they mean to a user
There are no instructions or tutorials on what the product is or how to use it
