Social Networking

Social Networking

Social Networking

Product design for a social networking application

Product design for a social networking application

Product design for a social networking application

Creating a socially conscious platform connecting people with others, brands and charities

I led product design from concept to commercialisation for a social networking platform connecting people with others, brands and charities.


Brands and organisations are looking for a deeper connection to their customers, where they can engage with them by striking up conversation and gaining a deeper understanding of them at the same time. Empowering users by being able to ask and respond to polls of any subject, users are able to gain rewards to use with the platforms partners.

I led product design from concept to commercialisation for a social networking platform connecting people with others, brands and charities.


Brands and organisations are looking for a deeper connection to their customers, where they can engage with them by striking up conversation and gaining a deeper understanding of them at the same time. Empowering users by being able to ask and respond to polls of any subject, users are able to gain rewards to use with the platforms partners.

Research Achievements

Research Achievements

Research Achievements

  • Interview target user base to understand motivations and user preferences

  • Facilitate usability testing rounds

Design Achievements

Design Achievements

Design Achievements

  • Interaction design

  • Low fidelity wireframes

  • High fidelity prototype

  • Design guidelines

User interviews created a user-led engagement strategy

User interviews created a user-led engagement strategy

User interviews created a user-led engagement strategy

Targeted at university age users, initial workshops with the client unearthed the opportunity to partner with businesses and creating a rewards system where users could answer polls and earn small rewards like vouchers and coffees. I conducted user interviews with university students, uncovering opportunities for an enhanced engagement strategy and rewards system beyond the initial brief.


Key findings:

  • Students wanted to be able to choose to donate to charities rather than always gaining small rewards for themselves

  • They would prefer a simple rewards system, for example 10 polls = 1 coffee rather than being entered into a lottery to win a larger prize.

  • They wanted to see how others on the platform answered the same questions

Targeted at university age users, initial workshops with the client unearthed the opportunity to partner with businesses and creating a rewards system where users could answer polls and earn small rewards like vouchers and coffees. I conducted user interviews with university students, uncovering opportunities for an enhanced engagement strategy and rewards system beyond the initial brief.


Key findings:

  • Students wanted to be able to choose to donate to charities rather than always gaining small rewards for themselves

  • They would prefer a simple rewards system, for example 10 polls = 1 coffee rather than being entered into a lottery to win a larger prize.

  • They wanted to see how others on the platform answered the same questions

Media content driven by user preference

Media content driven by user preference

Media content driven by user preference

Through a combination of users adding their interests to their profile and learning which posts users engage with most, polls can be targeted towards people of most relevance. I conducted interviews with the target users to uncover what sort of content they wanted to see on the platform.


Key findings

  • Users wanted to interact with varied types of content such as videos and articles

  • They wanted to see fun, casual content just as much as more serious topics

Through a combination of users adding their interests to their profile and learning which posts users engage with most, polls can be targeted towards people of most relevance. I conducted interviews with the target users to uncover what sort of content they wanted to see on the platform.


Key findings

  • Users wanted to interact with varied types of content such as videos and articles

  • They wanted to see fun, casual content just as much as more serious topics

Design Process

Interaction Design and Prototyping

Interaction Design and Prototyping

Interaction Design and Prototyping

After user interviews and aligning with the client on deliverables, iteratively designed varied low fidelity wireframes, up to high fidelity prototypes to test with end users.

After user interviews and aligning with the client on deliverables, iteratively designed varied low fidelity wireframes, up to high fidelity prototypes to test with end users.

Focusing first on the primary interaction mechanism, I created varied interaction concepts. A small number of chosen concepts were quickly tested with end users using paper prototypes.

Working up the most successful interaction concept into a mid-fidelity wireframe

Looking at how users can discover content of interest beyond the newsfeed

Looking at how users can discover content of interest beyond the newsfeed

After mid-fidelity prototyping and several rounds of usability testing and iteration, I created a high fidelity prototype and worked with our engineers to execute into a commercialised product

Design System

Creating Design Guidelines

Creating Design Guidelines

Creating Design Guidelines

After delivering the completed product to the client I created a design guide for their engineers and designers to follow when building on the work we had done

After delivering the completed product to the client I created a design guide for their engineers and designers to follow when building on the work we had done

This design guide has been created for use by designers working on the Poll It Social Networking mobile application. Desktop products should follow the same standards however may be altered to meet desktop requirements where needed. We’d recommend fine tuning design to meet design standards for Android and iOS.

Colour

Colour usage is overly white throughout to allow the focus to be put on useruploaded content. Where attention is required, the designer may use #E50F59 as abackground colour with #FFFFFF text or icons on top. #0FE5AB may be used whenan accent colour is required or for confirmation signifiers

Shapes

To create a fun and lighthearted feel, heavily rounded corners are used throughout.For brand consistency and recognition, we’d also recommend following the samestyle for any marketing material produced. This roundedness follows through to font choice and icon style as displayed bellow.

Text

Text has a focus on legibility, avoiding font sizes smaller than 16pt where possible. The target market is broad (although initially focused on students) therefore there is a likelihood of people with visual impairments using the application.

Icons

Icons follow a uniform outlined, rounded style throughout. We would recommend any new icons following this house style. The two exceptions are Charity Score and Tokens as these are icons designed to feel different and draw the user’s attention

Layout

During the project, thorough usability testing was conducted during each sprint with the initial target users (university students). Along with usability testing, some of the initial sprints involved split testing, this gave an indication of direction for layout, however as mentioned we’d recommend more thorough A/B testing in the future.