bRIDGE Bridging the gap, by Trevor Rosacker

STEP 1: PROBLEM STATEMENT (AND BRIEF LEAD UP)

PRE-PANDEMIC

• 61% of adults and 81% of teenagers use social media
• Multiple studies link social media use to depression
• Top 5 social media platforms worth combined $757.89B

POST-PANDEMIC

• 36% of Americans report feeling lonely
• 61% of 18-25 year olds report high levels of loneliness

PROBLEM STATEMENT

In a world where everyone is connected, it seems as though we as individuals have never felt more alone.

SURVEY DATA:

THE MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

• 60.4% of respondents identified as male, while 37.5% identified as female
• 93.8% of users are in their 20’s
• 56.5% find difficulty engaging in meaningful, engaging conversation about their interests
• 93.8% of users already use social media, with 81.8% using for more than an hour per day
• 33% of users felt they didn’t have anyone to engage in conversation with
• 89.6% would be interested in an app designed around hosting conversations
• 87.5% of feel that there is a disconnect in communication between individuals

STEP 3: REFINING THE SEARCH BY CREATING A PERSONALIZED SURVEY

WHO?

From the general survey, a sample of 3 women and two men, all in their 20’s was chosen to be interviewed for a better, more in depth discussion. Interview subjects were chosen from a wide range of locations and professions in order to get data that could be widely applicable. The occupations of those chosen were firefighter/EMS, high school teacher, social worker, financial advisor, and a medical professional.

HOW?

Interviews were conducted over the phone in sessions ranging from 10-25 minutes. With initial questions designed around gaging the participant’s views on social media and how it affects society and inter-personal relationships. Questions then progressed to determine interest in an app designed around conversation, as well as various features/functions they would like to see in said app.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Participants were asked to elaborate on the survey questions as well as the following:

• Do you feel as though most people have someone to engage in quality conversations with?
• Do you find it difficult to find people with similar interests?
• Do you think any popular social media platforms promote good, healthy conversation between individuals?
• Do you use/enjoy using open forum platforms (ie. Reddit)?
• What are the problems you see in popular social media platforms?
• Do you have any niche interests/hobbies that you don’t have anyone to talk to about?
• In your opinion, has the mental health of America declined in the past 5 years?
• Which social media apps do you prefer using, and why?
• What degree of anonymity do you prefer when using social media?
• How do you prefer to communicate with friends (Facetime, phone call, text, etc.)?
• Do you feel comfortable conversing with people who you don’t know well?
• How do you feel about targeted ads and data collection?

STEP 4: EMPATHY MAPS

EMPATHY MAPS- WHAT WE LEARNED

From the interviews and Empathy Maps, we have learned a lot about our potential users. Firstly, most users aren’t opposed to downloading and trying a new social media app, but they do have reservations about it and are more inclined to download if it is well regarded among their peers. Second, we learned that people would potentially use the app for a wide variety of interests and hobbies. In addition to this, we learned that many potential users feel that there is a large problem in society with people not being able to connect with others on a personal level. Those interviewed also expressed concern with the privacy of their data and interests as well as their level of anonymity while talking to strangers. Everyone interviewed stated that they would not be comfortable sharing anything more than their name and potentially a photo.

STEP 5: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Through the general research, surveying, interviews, and Empathy Maps, we can draw some interesting conclusions.

PEOPLE FEEL ALONE

Feelings of loneliness and depression are at an all time high for Americans, with younger generations feeling it at a disproportionally high rate

PEOPLE USE A LOT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

The Social Media Industry is worth hundreds of billions of dollars and is consistently growing.

THERE IS A NEED FOR HUMAN INTERACTION

Despite the prevalence of social media and its large number of users, many people feel like there is a lack of interesting and meaningful interaction in their life. Access to the internet and media has led people to develop a wide variety of hobbies and interests, yet there are relatively few places to actually get into contact with people who share these interests. Open forum websites like Reddit and Twitter try to provide, but often end up with the few speaking for the many to gain popularity and “internet clout.” The people need someone to talk to.

GENERATING A PERSONA

From the survey, interview, and empathy maps, it was clear that there was a wide variety of people this app will need to provide for. Interests ranged from cooking to crocheting, and occupations varied from firefighter to airplane mechanic all the way to financial advisor. While it would be impossible to design something on the front-end that would cater to each individual's interests, it was clear that potential users all had similar drives and desires. They all wanted someone to talk to, and they all were passionate about something. Keeping this in mind, a User Persona was generated, meant to represent what the user wanted from the app, not necessarily what they would use it for. For this User Persona, a stand-in named Michael was developed meant to personify the average user. While the interests and hobbies of the user persona may not represent every potential user, their feelings, struggles, and desires are universal to the average consumer.

CREATING THE BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS

Our business model canvas was based off that of major social media companies (Facebook, Twitter) but was altered to better represent what we bring to the table.

CONCLUSIONS, KEY FINDINGS, AND TAKEAWAY

After generating and analyzing the user persona and business model canvas, here's what we've concluded:

Our users are varied, but their needs are similar.

Although our users will have a wide range of interests, they fundamentally all want the same thing: an outlet. People want to interact with each other, to discover new interests and broaden their knowledge of things that interest them. We don't need to cater to each individual niche, but we need to allow every user to reach out to those with their interests.

Nobody likes knowing their data is being used.

Targeted advertising is the future. People's data is being shared and sold to corporations which makes it difficult for users to trust the apps they user. We can't sell random products to our users just for profit, but we can and should encourage them to invest in products that they might actually want and use to increase their enjoyment from their lives and interests.

We need to cut out the fat.

Interaction is the name of the game and the fundamental goal of this product. Resource division needs to predominantly focus on creating a space where people can talk openly, not just copying and pasting another app like Reddit.

We need meet the user's comfort level.

Human interaction can be anxiety-inducing, and forced interaction is a nightmare for a lot of people. We need to allow our users to interact organically, with their preferred degree of anonymity, and allow them to stop conversations or leave interactions when they want with no hang-ups or feelings of awkwardness.

MIND MAP

KEY FINDINGS

We started the Mind Map at the center: our brains. From here, we brainstormed what the most important aspects of our app would be, both from a physical (UX/UI) standpoint and from a hierarchal standpoint. We realized that there were four key pillars of our app:

COMMUNITY

If our app doesn't create a sense of community, we failed. The whole point of this app is to make people feel less alone, to help them explore their interests and passions. However, where we differ from other apps is that our community isn't a huge page of people talking over each other, but rather the feeling of community you get when you realize there are others like you.

COMMUNICATION

There can be no community without communication. These things are intertwined. To foster a community, we need to facilitate communication between users in the way they feel most comfortable with.

ORGANIZATION

Organization is critical to the success of any app. Our users can't get community by communication if they can't figure out how to use the app. It needs to be simple, straightforward, and inviting.

DEVELOPER TOOLS

We can't build this house on sand, our developers need to lay the foundation early to create the best app possible. If we start with code soup we're going to end with a mess.

The Lo-Fi (Theory)

Once we had the Mind Map made, the next step was to develop a lo-fidelity prototype by sketching the general layout on paper. The lo-fi prototype was then used to help guide the hi-fi prototype made in Adobe XD

The general layout is outlined here in the lo-fi prototype. Users would first see a login screen, where they then had access to the home page. From the home page they could navigate to settings/preferences, chat records, or start a new chat.

The Hi-Fi

As previously stated, the lo-fi prototype was used to develop the hi-fidelity app prototype. The video below demonstrates how the app flows and some of its basic functions and features. It is worth noting that I am NOT an Adobe XD "x-pert," so some dynamic features had to be represented with static images.

Usability Heuristics:

In order to create a successful design, all 10 Usability Heuristics were used in some way, or will be represented some way in the final design (again, I'm not an XD expert yet).

1. Visibility of System Status

This heuristic states that people should be provided immediate feedback when interacting with a system. In this case, circular loading icons are generated when the app is trying to match you with someone, so you don't think your app is frozen. I couldn't figure out how to add dynamic features, though, so in future versions every button you can click will move in some way. The home and settings icons will expand when clicked as well as provide haptic feedback. The sign in button will fade white when you sign in and the "Start Chatting" button will expand when clicked.

2. Match Between System and Real World

This heuristic has to do with the fact that the app you interact with should be intuitive/familiar. We put this in our app by having the gear icon navigate the user to settings, and the home icon navigating the user to the home page.

3. User Control and Freedom

The user needs complete control and freedom over the entire system. To do this, we allow our users full control over their profile and privacy preferences, as well as allowing them to control things like light/dark mode (TBI- to be implemented), different color themes (TBI), and language (TBI), as well as allowing them to anonymously interact with people, end conversations, and find other matches for conversations instead of the first one found. They also have complete control over which subject they want to talk about as well as their method of communication.

4. Consistency and Standard

This app should be consistent and intuitive to use when compared to other apps. To implement this, we used Google's UX/UI Light Theme Library's tools to enforce standardization to the Google/Android platform. We used the same icons they do and put them in relatively the same places (home button on top right, back button top left

5. Error Prevention

The very nature of the app makes it virtually impossible for someone to mess up. There are essentially no required actions/items, and if a user, say, tries to find a match on the wrong subject, they can just abort the matching process and try again.

6. Recognition Rather Than Recall

In order to minimize the use of user's memory, we made our app such that you never need to remember any of your preferences/topics of interest. We default to them, but every time the user starts the matching process they are again asked to specify their comfort level and pick the topic they wish to interact on.

7. Flexibility and Efficiency of Use

All users should be able to use this app, regardless of familiarity. That is why we have navigation shortcuts to settings and the home page at the top of every page (even the home page and settings pages, for consistency's sake). In the settings menu, you'll also find a question mark icon, this will link you to our web page where we offer troubleshooting and FAQ's. There is no skill required to use this app, we're with you every step of the way.

8. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

The heuristic title speaks for itself. I'll be honest, the color scheme could be improved but I did the best I could with my skill level (it takes an expert to be great with XD, but anyone can use bRIDGE). I at least was able to maintain a minimalist design, with no extra images or colors past what is necessary to relay the information displayed. Different, yet related pages such as the chat pages and the different settings choices are distinguished by the implementation of tabs, which negate clutter on any particular page.

9. Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover From Errors

Again, the heuristic name speaks for itself, and again, my knowledge of Adobe XD held me back from implementing these fixes. However, in future prototypes (and the finished product) the user will be greeted with a warning on sign in if the email they input wasn't linked to a particular account, or if the password is incorrect. This will be done similar to the image below. Other than sign in, there really aren't a lot of places the user could even have an error. If they, say, upload the wrong photo for their profile picture, they can simply reupload. No stress, no mess.

10. Help and Documentation

We need to provide help to our users when they want it, or, rather, when they need it. That's why we implemented a feature in the settings tab to help users troubleshoot. If you click the question mark icon, you'll be redirected to our webpage filled with troubleshooting and FAQ's.

Background, Methodology, and Results

In order to develop a useful (just because an app is cool or good, doesn't necessarily mean it's useful) application, user testing and investigation. This section will explore the thought and methods that went in to trying my solutions.

What, Where, Who, When

In order to get a good sense of if the app worked, and if it was usable, multiple people were interviewed and got to test the app out. The five candidates who were selected for the empathy map were also selected to help review the app. Initially, each candidate was given access to the prototype so they could use it on their own computers (it's designed for a mobile phone interface) and 20 minutes to get experience with it (it's pretty barebones so most were done in less than 10) and asked questions about their experience. The interviews were conducted over the weekend of Nov. 26-27th, the participants accessed the prototype in a quiet room (usually their bedroom) and were FaceTimed with the camera pointed at the screen so I could get a sense of what they were looking at. The questions asked were:

1. What did you like about the prototype?
2. What did you not like about it?
3. If you were designing this, what would you change or do differently?
4. If you could add any feature, what would it be?
5. What, if anything, felt unnecessary about the app?
6. Was anything confusing or non-intuitive?
7. Would you use this app?

From the interviews, we gleaned some very useful information. Generally, people responded pretty well. All of the candidates said the app was very straightforward to use and that it flowed well (with 3/5 of the candidates expressly stating that they liked the transitions between different pages). They said that the way people chose which topics they wanted to chat and the matching process were well done, with a few commenting they would like the topic chooser to be done in a breakdown menu, where you choose the general topic/area, then have a list of more niche topics within the general area to choose from or be able to write in their own. Every tester, however, was not a fan of the color scheme (which I completely understand, I'm not exactly an artist). They suggested a more modern, soft color palette such as this:

That being said, the response received was predominantly positive. After interviewing these 5 candidates, 5 more were chosen in the target age range (18-30) to perform specific tasks within the app. The tasks were to: navigate to the settings, navigate to their account profile, and match with someone for a topic. Each task was performed separately, and the time-to-completion as well as the number of clicks was recorded and a python script was created to analyze the data. Participants were given sent the demo so they could access it from their computers, and each conducted the test in a quiet room (usually in their bedroom). The participants were then FaceTimed with the camera focused on the computer screen so I could measure clicks and time accurately. The key findings are shown below:

From the script, we determined that:

From the data, we can see that users figured out the app pretty quick (after all, that was the point). After their first test (finding their account settings), users easily found their app settings, which comes from the fact that you can see where your app settings are from the account settings. Users took a little bit longer to find a match, but that was primarily due to the fact that they would spend time on the "Active Chats" page before moving to "New Chat." Overall, prototype testing went well, and the users stated that after the first 10 seconds of interaction they had a pretty good sense of how to get to the desired features and functions.

Findings and Recommendations

To summarize, here's what we found:

Users liked the app, but didn't love the colors.

Users got a little lost trying to find a match, we need to streamline this process by creating a direct link from the home page to the "New Chat" page, perhaps something to how Twitter has a little bubble that is always present that allows you to write a tweet.

The first 10 second is critical. Users spent the first 10 seconds getting their bearings, so we need to make sure it's clear and obvious how to navigate and where to click from the get-go.

*For in depth exploration and explanation of our results, see the "Background, Methodology, and Results" section *

Appendix