What Now?
What Now is a review and social networking solution to the question we all ask ourselves: "So...what now?". Unlike competitors, What Now is highly personalized, using an onboarding survey and app usage to generate suggestions for users.
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Process
In this mobile app design, I controlled every aspect of the project. My design process for What Now began with research, user stories, user scenarios, and interviews. I then moved on to benchmarking similar applications and building an information architecture. Sketches quickly turned into wireframes and through many iterations, type studies, and user-testing, the final UI took shape. I've included just a few of the most influential steps below.
User Stories
Storytelling is the heart of the user experience. These 5 research-based user stories describe the user’s role, their task, and their goal or motivation for completing the task.
- As a new resident of Boston, I want to find the best restaurants near me, so I can get to know my area better.
- As a NYU graduate living in New York City, I want to find new places to go, so I can branch out of my usual routine.
- As a 30 year old on vacation in Charleston, I want to locate the local favorites around me, so I can get to
know the city. - As a San Francisco resident who just moved to a new neighborhood, I want to find the best spots near my apartment, so I can take advantage of what this new area has to offer.
- As an avid review writer, I want to try new places, so I can write reviews and post photos of them to help others.
Interview Takeaways
Cost Efficiency
4 out of 5 participants mentioned cost as a frustration while finding new places to go in Boston. To alleviate this pain point, I can include a feature to filter suggestions by cost.
Information Accuracy
3 out of 5 participants mentioned miscorrect information found online as a pain point or frustration. To minimize this issue, I can have administrators manage the application and keep track of user-reports. I can also ensure that the database the application pulls from is frequently updated.
Trustworthy Reviews
2 participants mentioned reading reviews when discussing what they enjoy about the search process and one mentioned that they, “sometimes feel that [they] can’t trust reviews”. I can alleviate this pain point by only allowing confirmed users who visited a place to review it and suggesting to users that they post photos along with their review.
Personalized & Curated Suggestions
3 out of 5 participants mentioned that their ideal application would include personally curated suggestions based on their previous selections. This surprised me a little because I know many users feel creeped out when apps track and provide information based on their usage. I plan on using both the user’s indicated preferences and automatic data tracking to generate suggestions. However, I also plan on keeping the suggestions semi-randomized so users do not get annoyed by only seeing the same type of places every time.
Transportation Assistance
4 out of 5 participants mentioned commute/transportation assistance as a pain point or something they’d like to have. I found this a little surprising because of the amount of great transportation assistance already out there. To alleviate this, I will indicate the suggested mode of transportation and intuitively link the application to the user’s GPS app of choice (i.e. Apple Maps or Google Maps).
Information Architecture
I created a site map in order to organize and clarify the content and understand relationships between the app's pages. This step brought me much clarity in my design process.
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Hand-Drawn Wireframes
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Digital Wireframes
Onboarding
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Suggestion Generator
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Writing a Review
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Type Studies
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Logo Composition
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Final UI
Onboarding, Suggestion Generator, Writing a Review, and the Explore Page
App Button
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