RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN
Find Place
The social platform helps group explore nearby places based on their preferences.
Course-based project collaborated with BMO Digital Bank
My role:
UI/UX Designer
My Responsibilities
- Discovery
- Design research
- User journey refinement
- User interface design
- Wireframing, prototyping
-Conducting usability studies
Team
UX Consultant ( my mentor)
Devices
Mobile
Desktop
Tablet
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How can we streamline Group Hangouts through Collaborative Decision-Making?
PROBLEM
Ever Struggled to Find the Perfect Place that Suits Everyone When Planning With Friends?
Finding suitable group hangout spots is tough. Current platforms like Foursquare lack collaborative decision-making for such outings. This leads to tedious and time-consuming selection processes. A solution is needed for groups to easily pick places that cater to all preferences.
GOAL
GroupGather: Where Preferences Unite for Perfect Meetups!
SOLUTION
Find Place; Your Ultimate Hangout Guide
"Find Place" is your go-to online platform for discovering nearby venues and events tailored to your distance, traffic, and preferences. It simplifies the process of finding suitable hangout spots. Ensuring equitable accessibility in terms of distance and traffic, the platform provides personalized suggestions, making decision-making swift and enjoyable.
Empathize
RESEARCH
Understanding the Needs
As part of the design process, I conducted 4 user semi- structure interviews.
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After organizing my interview results I have found some similar problems that all interviewees were facing.
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Results showed frustration with finding suitable places for socializing in terms of distance, time, traffic, and amenities.
Also users prefer places reachable by all equally, considering time and traffic.
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Discovering locations across various websites and sharing them among friends on other platforms can often be time consuming and confusing
Experiencing the challenge of severe traffic congestion while going to the selected gathering spot, resulting in a tiring experience
Users need information about the facilities available at the location
DEFINE
Persona
After synthesizing my interviews into insights and pulling out a key pain points to focus on, I developed a persona and empathy map to to better understand users needs.
"Designing Happiness: Mina's Quest for Perfect Hangouts"
Goals:
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To simplify the process of coordinating plans with friends, making it easy and efficient to organize gatherings.
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Ensuring that the chosen gathering spot offers equal convenience to all her friends in terms of distance and accessibility
Frustrations
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the time-consuming task of searching multiple websites for suitable places and then sharing them with friends
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Concerned about understanding all the features and amenities of potential venues, which adds to the planning stress.
Age: 30
Country: Iran
Education: Master's degree
Occupation: Designer
Family: Single
Bio
Mina, a 30-year-old designer who finds joy in spending time with friends. With a packed schedule, she values her limited time for socializing. Mina's preference is to choose hangout spots that are not only accessible and free from traffic hassles but also resonate with everyone's tastes. She takes pleasure in making decisions that makes every one happy.
Problem Statement:
Mitra, a social and active designer, who enjoys hanging out with friend, But the process of picking a venue often proves time-consuming, and the combination of long distances and traffic woes acts as a barrier, preventing her from participating in these gatherings.
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Competitive Audits
an audit of a few competitors' products provided direction on gaps and opportunities to address with finding a place and making a plan with groups.
IDEATE
User Stories
In order to begin brainstorming the functionality and features of my solution,I utilized user stories and epics to develop the core features for the application.
As A busy person I want a solution that suggests hangout venues considering factors like accessibility, traffic situation, and the preferences of all attendees, so that I can avoid the hassle of long distances and heavy traffic.
As friend group I want to collaborate with my friends in real-time to decide on a gathering place, so that we gather in place that suits everyone's preferences, thus ensuring a seamless and inclusive planning process.
Ideation
I conducted a rapid ideation session to generate solutions for addressing the gaps identified in the competitive analysis and addressing user pain points. My primary emphasis was on developing a collaborative platform that enables users to interact with each other while seeking out places that cater to everyone's preferences.
Design
Low-fidelity Prototype
After ideation and drafting some paper wire frames, I created an low-fidelity prototype for the find place dedicated mobile app to prepare for usability testing. This design focused on exploring places based on group members' preferences and locations.
Test
User Testing
After making the first version of my prototype, I tested the first version of prototype with 5 users to understand whether the digital product is easy to work with it. After noting a set of necessary changes to make, Irepeated the process with 5 different users and made some more alterations.
Usability Studies Findings
Users want easy access to detailed information about the recommended place features.
Users had difficulty finding suggestion through messages
People wants to track others while getting to place
Refine
Iterations
Based on the insights from the usability study, I applied changes like:
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Designing a separate section for suggestions which can help users make decisions better.
​​Additional design changes include adding "view details" buttons for places for getting more information. I also added a plan page for submitted plans.
Key Mockups
Try Hi- fidelity prototype
The final high-fidelity followed the same user flow as the low-fidelity prototype, including design changes made after usability studies.
Responsive Web Design
Site Map
Desktop
Mobile website
Tablet
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Try Desktop prototype
What I learned
I discovered that while existing apps addressed the issue I aimed to resolve, a meticulous journey through each design phase, closely attuned to distinct user requirements, led me to devise a fresh solution that crafts a meaningful user experience.