Role
• User Research
• Product Strategy
• UI Design
• Interaction Design
• Usability Testing
Tools
• Figjam
• Notion
• Maze
• Figma
• Otter
Timeline
• 5 weeks
The Problem
The main problem we identified is that MyPlace currently does not provide a way for users to create their own groups on the platform. Instead, the team at MyPlace must create the group for the user and give admin privileges to only one member to manage the group. This results in users abandoning the platform.
The Solution
Our solution focused on designing a smooth group creation experience that would be accessible to all users on the platform empowering them to share their home with their friends and communities.
Usability Review
To better understand the product and empathize with users, we conducted a usability review and highlighted pain points and wow moments in the existing experience.
User Pain Points
Following our usability review we defined the primary and secondary user pain points.
Primary Pain Point
When creating a group users are limited or restricted from being able to create a group which results in loss of autonomy and excessive friction in users adopting the group feature of the platform.
Secondary Pain Point
When creating or joining a group users are experiencing a lack of personal security and agency which results in users feeling powerless and less trusting of the MyPlace experience.
Competitor Benchmarking
Next, we conducted competitor benchmarking to help us understand the existing patterns and solutions in other products. We chose to focus on Figma, GroupMe, Facebook, and Meetup not as direct competitors, but as products with successful approaches to group creation.
Problem Space
Combining our initial usability review and competitor benchmarking helped us identify the problem space and outline our research goals to prepare a script for our upcoming interviews.
Summary of Problem Space: All users aren’t given equal permission to create and regulate groups resulting in a lack of autonomy and security for other group members.
Summary of Research Goals: Identifying ways to make users feel more secure and empowered when sharing their home.
How Might We…
Starting to understand the problem better, we then formed a “how might we” question in order to decide a direction for the upcoming ideation phase.
How might we provide a smooth group creation experience so users feel confident sharing their home securely in a way that allows for more people to use MyPlace?
User Interviews
In order to gather qualitative data and empathize more deeply with users needs and frustrations we embraced user interviews as another research method. We began by creating a research interview script that aligned with our primary research goal. We prioritized objectivity by asking open-ended questions and clarifying follow-up questions. Below is a screenshot of my teammate Kathleen conducting a user interview.
Affinity Map
We then transcribed our interview using Otter.ai to visually organize the conversation in a way that could be parsed and annotated.
To validate the initial observations made from our usability review and competitor benchmarking we synthesized the data using Dovetail. By incorporating tag taxonomy to highlight nuggets of information within the interviews, we were able to identify the key problems they experienced.
Information Architecture
Next, we mapped the current information architecture to better understand how we might improve it so users can easily adjust to the functionality of the product and find everything they need with ease.
User Flows
After mapping the existing information architecture, we moved to mapping the current user flow to empathize with users on the existing journey and highlight any areas of friction they might encounter within the flow. From there, we created an improved user flow focused on eliminating those friction areas.
Ideation
Once we had our improved user flow and determined our “how might we” question, we moved into the ideation phase. Rather than jumping straight into designing hi-fidelity prototypes, we wanted to invest time into rapidly generating ideas so that we could find many unique solutions and pick our best idea to move forward with in the prototyping phase.
What can we add
The highest priority addition is giving all users the ability to create groups.
What can we improve
The highest priority improvement is giving users the ability to manage the privacy settings of their groups.
Rapid Prototyping
We started the prototyping phase by sketching collaboratively in Figjam, and then moved into Figma to generate mid-fidelity frames that helped us quickly iterate on our original ideas and visualize a solution without sinking time into hi-fidelity screens prematurely.
Styles & Components
Before creating the hi-fidelity prototype we established the product styles and created interactive components in Figma to ensure an efficient and consistent design as we moved forward.
High Fidelity Prototype
Below is the hi-fidelity version of the prototype we created. Our prototype focuses on allowing users to create groups on MyPlace with ease through a guided process starting with a clear call-to-action on the home page. Users now have the ability to edit group settings and manage members directly from the group page. These two improvements result in users being able to create and manage their groups with ease.
In addition to creating a solution for our defined problem, we also made sure to address insights we gathered from our user interviews related to group privacy.
1. When creating a group, admins can select whether the group will be visible to or hidden from the public. To prioritize users' privacy, a "hidden" group is the default option. Once a group is created, group visibility status is always displayed at the top of the group home page.
2. When creating a group, admins have the option to add guidelines or required questions to create a common understanding of expectations before admittance to a group. These can be updated at any time from the admin settings tab.
Usability Testing
With the prototype created we formed a testing script with scenario and tasks for the user to complete to validate the prototype with real users. To test the prototype we used Maze and gathered feedback following every task.
Test Outcomes
Having tested the prototype, I learned that users were able to find the initial call to action button quickly and move through the group setup process with relative ease. This should improve the number of users creating groups on MyPlace and give users a sense of empowerment.
Key Lessons Learned
1. It is important to stay obsessed with the problem, not our design solution. The solutions will always be iterative and adapting to user needs and business goals.
2. Design thinking is not always linear. It requires the ability to pivot as the problem becomes more focused and revisit previous stages to clarify that focus.
3. Businesses won’t always have a clearly defined problem in their brief. Be ready to ask clarifying questions and don’t be afraid to push back on ambiguity to get a deeper understanding.
Next Steps
While the results from my unmoderated usability test included many positive outcomes, they also presented opportunities for me to learn where further iterations to the experience could be helpful.
If I were to iterate further on the product based on these results, I would focus on simplifying and potentially removing the "group questions" page from the initial setup process as this section could be a barrier for users.