.jpg)
Initial prompt provided by designation hosts (University of Laurier UXplorer)
Whats the problem?
|
The double edged sword
While maintaining relationships digitally is easier than ever before, motivation to form new connections in-person is often negatively impacted.
Connecting face-to-face
Physical interaction is the most important form of communication for mental health. While digital connection is positive, it’s not a substitute.
How are students feeling?
1/4 students consider themselves lonely. In addition to mental health, academic achievement, retention and sense of belonging are all correlated with involvement in the student community.
Solution
Lasting connections that find you
Bump is an app that alleviates the anxiety of making new relationships and assists in forging lasting bonds.
Research
Investigating pain-points within my community
Utilizing surveys, interviews and further secondary research I delved deeper into the root of the problem.
I uncovered viewpoints students had towards meeting new people, how they engaged in activities outside of their immediate circle, and how they stayed connected with their current friends.
Organizing my research into themes through affinity mapping
What did my research reveal?
|
The first step
30% of students rarely engaged socially outside their immediate circle. 25% felt intimidated often when approaching new people.
Physicality
40% of students expressed desire to meet in-person more, finding it tough to sustain new friendships digitally.
Staying connected
Common interests, shared goals, shared activities, and online connection keep students together.
Define
Who are we designing for?
Meet Pluto 🪐
An introverted first year who recently moved from Toronto and has a close inner circle. He wants to meet new people but finds it difficult due to large class sizes and hellish UWaterloo workloads.
"The people I meet on campus are really cool but its sometimes hard to keep in touch after classes and we stop seeing each other in person. It’s easiest with my friends who are in the same clubs as me or play the same games."
The high-level goal guiding my decisions
"I want to design an easier way for students to connect, optimized for approachability and face-to-face engagement."
With a better idea of the problem I distilled my findings from secondary research into a more precise how might we statement...
I want to design an easier way for students to connect, optimized for serendipity and face-to-face engagement.
.jpg)
Experiment
Information Architecture
Visualizing the high level journey helped determine which screens I needed to flesh out for my MVP while keeping in mind potential features.
At this point I had a general idea of what the app was and what it wasn’t:
The app is:
- For spontaneous connection with new people
- Meant to encourage face-to-face interaction
- Built for sharing interests, passions and joyful moments
The app is not:
- Meant for long time use
- A replacement for Instagram or Twitter
- A popularity contest
High-level sitemap for MVP
Wireframing my solution
Challenge
How can we match users who haven’t posted yet?
Bump’s algorithm is primarily powered by user posts — without them, matches and recommendations can’t be made. I asked myself if it would be possible to match people before they start posting, or for users who don’t share.
My interviews found that more introverted students (a small but significant portion of the target demographic) may be hesitant to post, meaning the algorithm wont be able to find them matches.
I landed on the idea of asking questions during onboarding to kickstart the algorithm, developing 3 different versions:
.jpg)
Comparison of different iterations for onboarding questions — Option #3 won!
Option #1: single page
Cognitive overload from many choices
Each choice seems less impactful
Shortest time to complete
Option #2: distinct pages, buttons
Lots of reading and choices
Emphasizes one question at a time
Easily understood
Option #3: distinct pages, images
Embodies Bump’s tone by evoking feelings of passion
Emphasizes one question at a time
Easily digestible and glanceable
Integration with Instagram
Another way Bump reduces reliance on posting is by allowing users to connect through Instagram to provide data on interests and mutuals.
Final design
Building bonds through serendipitous connection
Happy accidents
65% of students surveyed expressed desire to meet more people who share common interests. By periodically Bumping into likeminded new friends, this pain point is alleviated. All that’s left is reaching out.
To assist users in starting the conversation, each Bump suggests events you'll both love, turning common interests into real, lasting relationships.
This feature is based on secondary research which found face-to-face connection to be most effective in sustaining relationships
Anxiety-free connections
One common theme I noticed is that students feel intimidated when taking the first step towards a new relationship, causing me to ask myself: how might we alleviate the anxiety of the first, pivotal step?
Events! Browse what's happening, see who's going, and connect with a tap — quick preset messages make reaching out feel natural and stress-free, removing the akward 'so... want to hang out?' step.
Sharing moments from everyday life
Users post about the things they love — whether its an interest, club, hobby, or anything in-between.
Two key requirements led to this feature
- The designation prompt required the use of everyday elements
- A social feed provides the algorithm with data about users interests, leading to Bumps
I want to design an easier way for students to connect, optimized for serendipity and face-to-face engagement.
Interactive prototype
Epilogue
The end, but not really
Measuring KPI’s — the heart framework
If the project launched, it’d be key to collect and analyze metrics to measure the apps impact. I use Google’s HEART framework to measure KPI’s and direct future iterations and tests.
Retention
Signaled by an increase in active users and growth in repeat ratio; measured by attrition rate and daily active users (DAUs).
Engagement
Signaled by time spent on the app and use of events page; measured by open rate and avg session length.
What are my most important takeaways?
What are my most important takeaways?
What are my key takeaways?
|
Assumptions make flimsy bridges
Listening to peoples experiences, stories and struggles is core to great design. Throughout the project I began with assumptions and watched them morph, some being proven and others crumbling under user insights.
I began by mapping out my own hypotheses, but knew true impact would come from backing those up with sturdy research. I found that the best way to ensure impactful solutions is by backing yourself with sturdy research from real users.
UX theatre is fool’s gold.
Consider users on the edge
Through chatting with mentors I was asked: “will extreme introverts be willing to post about their lives?”
This corner of my target market is easy to forget, yet it’s the sector affected most by the problem. I learned to invest time to consider the perspectives of multiple user-types to ensure edge cases have just as good an experience as the typical user.
This mindset led to features such as Bumps based on mutuals and onboarding questions to reduce the algorithms reliance on posts
Next project ☟
.jpg)