Product Design
Beacon
Stay in touch with your friends with reminders, and arrange meetups around your busy schedule. Beacon shows nearby friends who are available for quick meetups.
Product Design
Beacon
Stay in touch with your friends with reminders, and arrange meetups around your busy schedule. Beacon shows nearby friends who are available for quick meetups.
Project Type
Bootcamp Capstone
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
8 Weeks
Tools
Figma Invision
Project Overview
The "loneliness epidemic" wave
Goal & Impact
Help young adults engage and maintain their existing friendships in order to reduce loneliness. Therefore decreasing the percentage of loneliness experienced in young adults.
Solution
An app that helped young adults reach out and plan impromptu meetups with nearby friends that will fit their busy schedules.
Problem Space
Lack of friends in young adults.
Isolation and lack of connection are some of the main causes of loneliness. Social connections formed through friendships provide relief from loneliness. The decrease in friendships is a key indicator of why young adults feel more lonely.
In young adults age 18-27
25
reported having no close friends
22
reported having no friends at all
2020 Cigna study which surveyed 10,000 adults across the United States
Too shy & introverted to connect with others
53%
Their hobbies/interests don’t facilitate friendships
26%
Say that friendships are too much work
20%
Say they are too busy for friendships
14%
<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">Causes of Loneliness
Negative Effects of Loneliness
Current Preventions
Understanding the problem
During the early stages of adulthood, young adults experience big life transitions (job, school, moving) impacting their connection with friends and family.
Assumptions
Helping millennials form quality friendships through shared interests and opportunities can decrease the percentage of loneliness in young adults.
Questionnaire & User Interviews
Talking to young adults and understanding their experiences.
To confirm my assumptions, I decided to gather primary research by collecting quantitative and qualitative data. I used a questionnaire to narrow my scope on the general preventions and causes of loneliness.
Afterwards, 5 user interviews were conducted to gather in-depth contextual information about young adults’ experiences with loneliness. Due to the range of factors that contribute to the feeling of loneliness, the qualitative data will provide a solution that tackles the most prevalent cause.
Participant Criteria
Young adults age 18-30
The age group most impacted by loneliness
Lives in North America
Secondary research based on stats and research only in North America
No major health or psychological disorders
Depression & other health factors can contribute to the feelings of loneliness
Synthesized Insights
Old friends are better than new ones.
Contrary to my assumption, many of these young adults preferred to spend time with their close friends rather than make new ones.
- Most young adults prevented loneliness by spending time with friends and family
- It's difficult to form quality connections with strangers
- Having a mutual interest and matching personalities is more important than meeting people
- Quality time is important to maintaining existing relationships
- Lack of physical presence increases feelings of loneliness
Behaviours
Use technology and hobbies to prevent loneliness and to keep in touch with others.
Findings
• Talk to friends and family to avoid loneliness
• Goes to the gym and being active
• Use social media to connect with friends
• Meet friends less often
• Plays & listens to music
• Goes to the gym and being active
• Use social media to connect with friends
• Meet friends less often
• Plays & listens to music
Motivations
Users want to form in-person relationships and experience new hobbies.
Findings
• Reaches out to people when lonely
• Meet new people at work
• To go on more walks
• Try to hang with friends more
• Wants to be more social
• Seek out new experiences
• Meet new people at work
• To go on more walks
• Try to hang with friends more
• Wants to be more social
• Seek out new experiences
Pain Points
Due to busy life changes, it is hard to coordinate with existing friends and form new quality connections.
Findings
• Lacks social interactions & initiative
• Difficult to make time for friends
• Feels left out of friend group
• Can’t tell if new connections will click
• Socially awkward
• Feels tired and unhappy due to loneliness
• Difficult to make time for friends
• Feels left out of friend group
• Can’t tell if new connections will click
• Socially awkward
• Feels tired and unhappy due to loneliness
Person
Insights to Persona
I created a persona that encompasses the new findings based on the behaviours, motivations, and pain points from my research and interviews. Millennials’ busy lives made it difficult to coordinate meetups with existing friends.
Experience Mapping
Improving current experiences.
The current experience of coordinating hangouts can be a time-consuming and difficult task; especially in larger groups. Deciding the details of a meetup (time, location, activity) were the main areas where experience can be improved.
Reassessing my HMW
How might we maintain the existing friendships of young adults so that they experience fewer moments of loneliness?
User Stories & Epics
Determining app features
24 user stories -> 5 Epics -> Chosen Core epic -> 10 user stories
Planning meetups is not a linear process. Location, time, people and other factors can influence the plan. Due to the time limitations of this project it was important to choose the crucial features. These 5 epics were synthesized forming the features this app will contain in order to meet the user’s needs.
Epics
Chosen Epic
Proximity & Scheduling
Plans change, the final epic combined user stories from both proximity and scheduling to fulfill the features needed for users to have the flexibility to reach out to friends according to their busy schedules. I chose this epic to address my persona’s frustration with fewer hangouts with their friends.
From a list of 10 user stories, the ones with a checkmark were incorporated into the main task flow. Some other features were incorporated into the final design as buttons to showcase additional features of the app.
As a user I want to...
- ..see nearby friends so that I can reach out for a quick get together.
- ...be reminded to reach out to specific friends so that I can stay in touch
- ...create groups in my friend list so that I can organize my friends
- ...get notified if someone is free to hangout so that I know who is available
- ...import my existing contacts so that I don't have to manually input their information
- ...know my friends location so that I can get updates on their status
- ...send open invitations so that anyone who is free can attend
- ...message nearby friends so that we can discuss the details of our plan
- ...recieve suggested nearby locations so that we are provided with nearby options
- ...voting system so that decisions can be reached in a coherent manner quickly
Main Task Flow
Combining business and user needs.
After considering user needs, I compared existing products in the market to explore areas of opportunity. I wanted to explore a feature not seen in other friendship-maintaining apps to create a competitive edge in the market. Rather than create a scheduling app for friends, I wanted to focus on meet-ups that could be held quickly and conveniently.
As a busy adult, I want to see if there are nearby friends for spontaneous meet-ups
Develop
From sketches to wireframing.
I created a series of sketches taking inspiration from similar patterns before deciding on the final sketch below and creating a mid-fi prototype.
Main Screens Breakdown
Version 1 - User Flow
User Testing
Improving experience through real user feedback.
I went through 2 rounds of user testing with 5 participants each. Each tester provided me with feedback on the existing functions, overall design, experience and ability to accomplish each task.
Key changes
Clarifying button function
V1-V2: ‘Nearby friends’ button is hidden under the plus button. - It was hard for users to navigate and identify based solely on the icon.
V2-V3: Changed the 'notifications' label to 'reminders'
Key changes
Understanding user's needs
The invitation process was too complicated and took too long for the user. I simplified the process by designing quick prompts and taking the thinking out.
Deliver
Creating the mood with a brand identity.
I wanted to create a brand that exuded a bright, happy, and open feel. Yellow is the colour of many friendship symbols such as the rose, topaz stone, and Claddagh ring. In keeping with the friendly theme, the rounded San Serif font echoed the approachable feel of the app.
Beacon in the market.
The primary colour worked well not to overlap with other existing apps in the market.
App Solution
Beacon
Incorporating all the design elements, I created a final prototype using my completed UI library. I ensured the app followed WCAG AAA compliance for contrast and legibility.
Smart watch
Expanding to other platforms
Explored additional platforms that can aid in the app's feature. Integration with smart watch to create an easier way to notify users of nearby friends and meetups.
The smart watch would vibrate when friends in the set radius are nearby allowing for quick contact.
Marketing Web Design
Promoting the app.
Treating this app as a real product, a responsive marketing page was created. Highlighting features of the app helped users get a better picture of how it worked and its purpose.
Key Learnings
A research driven solution.
Through this project, I learned there were constantly new insights that I discovered throughout each step of the process. It's important to iterate while taking in new information without fearing even some big pivots.
I started with an open and broad topic and let my research drive design decisions. My end solution of a friendship maintaining app would not be my first thought as a deterrent to loneliness. The research process can lead to new found solutions.
Design Impact
Project reflection and future improvements.
To explore the impact of my product, I utilized the Tarot Cards of Tech. Like most products, once it has been launched it will be up to the users to determine how the product is used.
The Big Bad Wolf Card
How could my product be used maliciously?
The greatest weakness if a malicious user were to use my app would be to track my users through the nearby friends feature. There is a layer of protection provided when I designed the map to only show an approximate location.
A collection of provocations designed to help creators consider the impact of technology.