UX/UI, WEB based software, SOCial media, PRODUCT DESIGN, USER RESEARCH, PROTOTYPING, USABILITY TESTING, FIGMAnewbie:
your friendly neighborhood guide!
Product Designer:
Danessa Santana (Product Designer)
Project Scope:
80 hours~ November 2022
Stakeholders:
DesignLab UX Academy Capstone Project
Background
Whether it’s finding the best café in your neighborhood, knowing your way around by heart, or meeting new people that share your interests, there are many ways to ingrain ourselves to our new communities.
COVID has created a surge in individual and temporary moves all across the US and the world, according to a study presented by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Problem
Moving alone can be challenging when we lack the social network to support us or knowledge of what day-to-day life looks like in your new community.
I reached out through social media to gather as many participants as possible asking an opening question and clarifying that I will reach out to interview them. I had the theory that people within my network close to my age group would have the most responses.
Audience
People from all age groups and backgrounds are moving: we will focus on single young adults as this makes about 10% of the people who moved in 2020 and 2021.
People who Work-from-Home currently or looking for remote work opportunities.
People Moved to Suburbs Outside Big Cities and vice versa.
People who have moved back home after many years away and want to catch up with the changes.
People who recently moved somewhere they’ve visited previously.
Findings
Our research participants are mainly in their 20s to mid-30s and move to more affordable locations for work, studies, or cost-cutting opportunities.
They prefer to move to locations they have visited before or where they have connections (friends, family, school).
Finding grocery stores, for sustenance, and a variety of restaurants, for entertainment, is a priority for them when moving. Many users have difficulties finding food options in lower-income neighborhoods.
They enjoy walking, playing sports, going to bars and restaurants, and discovering events through word of mouth or social media.
Almost all users worry about gentrification, inflation, landlord tension, safety, and feeling isolated from their community as newcomers.
Insights
Our user moves for better life conditions.
Users seek similar communities.
Our user resists app dependency.
Users value keeping their lifestyles and connections.
Themes
They move due to life changes, preferring familiar places or those with existing connections and seek cultural familiarity, and close to groceries and restaurants.
They worry about expenses, safety, community acceptance, and gentrification.
They prefer to discover businesses by word of mouth or walking, and resist admitting to app usage.
Solution
Our users prioritize having essential businesses nearby, affordability, safety, community acceptance, and maintaining their lifestyle in a new space. Their concerns center around safety, gentrification, costs, and lack of access to resources.
To address these concerns, we can provide a better platform to connect with neighbors, local businesses, and community groups, improve transparency in pricing, and address safety concerns on the streets.
Newbie: your friendly neighborhood guide
Newbie: your friendly neighborhood guide
I chose the option of "Newbie" inspired by the User Interviews, as it conveys friendliness and positivity, it's short, memorable, and contains phonetically pleasant sounds for English speakers. This word tested really well with participants in an informal survey, as well as in Group Crit with fellow users.
For the logo icon, we selected the sprout following the idea that when you move to a new neighborhood you are planting a seed of what your life can be. The more you water the seed, the more likely your sprout grows into a tree, a cherished part of the landscape community.
About our platform
Newbie is a mobile-first platform that connects people within their local neighborhood’s happenings, events, and businesses by providing updated listings and map access.
Newbie’s platform allows users to browse events based on location and category using a map feature, giving the user a clear visualization of the distance between themselves and all active listings.
Additionally, there’s a toggle list-format for viewing these events, allowing the interface to be more accessible for screen-readers.
Newbie also features rating and review postings to help other neighbors looking for recommendations, motivating businesses to improve their services.
why Newbie?
why Newbie?
We want to create a platform that will give the user ease to connect with local businesses to build social bonds with their community, giving them a chance to create a positive impact in this neighborhood.
The main business impact we’re looking for is to be able to earn revenue for giving special features and ad space to local businesses and events.
The user impact we’re striving for is in creating an easy to navigate platform that facilitates finding local events and community groups, as well as finding reviews on local businesses and on safety.
Newbie Features
Discover
Our homepage contains the map explore feature with a list-view toggle showcasing popular or trending “hot spots “, available offers, new business spotlight, as well as listing upcoming events and meet ups specific to their ZIP Code.
Search
The Search page would have suggestions including trending keywords from their area, as well as keywords from past searches
Community
The Community section would contain a listing of local events and open businesses as well as listing community groups by interest.
Registered users can also make their own postings for this section, rather than businesses, to allow them to connect neighbors directly through their passions.
Personalized Access
Creating an account is optional:
Unregistered guests can freely access all postings and information, read reviews, as well as searching through the database and sharing postings with friends.
Registered users can save their preferences, write reviews on local businesses, as well as being able to create private or public postings for specific interests or events, and receive notifications on specials and discounts from local businesses saved under their “favorites”.
UI: From Product Roadmapping to Interaction Design
Part of designing Newbie relies on understanding how our user moves through the world (and their phones!) with task flows.
A sitemap was also developed out to set the structure for Newbie: this connected with our feature set, task flows, and wireframe designs to create an engaging navigation experience in many circumstances whether our user is in a rush or leisurely scrolling as they familiarize themselves with their new surroundings.
Designing the visuals
We want to reflect visually our design choices guided by the brand values of: curiosity, friendliness, spontaneity, and optimism. We wanted to reflect this through rounded corners, light lines, soft shapes and punchy accents.
Type
The typeface selected are Comfortaa Bold for the logo and Quicksand for the interface in many weights: rounded, friendly typefaces, showing newbie as a personable alternative to other event-browsing and community-building based platforms in the market.
Colors
Newbie’s platform is designed in “dark mode” due to current user trends using dark mode on their mobiles, considering Newbie might also be used outdoors or at nighttime. Personas helped me decide the color scheme through consideration of our users' resistance to admitting Technology-dependence for exploring their neighborhoods, meaning we have to stick to reassurance and well-established design patterns, as well as how to use color psychology that appeals to our personas’ values.
Accessibility: Newbie for all
Large texts and buttons for visibility and motor ease-of-use
Visual contrast in color schemes for visibility
Clear labeling for all features to help navigating through screen readers
Input fields have mic access or automatic location finders to ease hands-free navigation
Usability Test Findings
User Task Goal:
Find what events are happening on local Bars using three different paths / features.
What are the paths of exploration our user takes through the platform and its features to achieve the task of exploring/finding events and local businesses?
What are the easiest to use features on Newbie and which ones are skipped in the prototype?
Understand what opportunities for improvement can be integrated in our interface.
Results
• Users related to the friendly tone of Newbie’s brand
• Users liked the intuitive navigation with recognizable design patterns
• Users found all relevant information at first glance
• Users were excited to explore the content on the app
Next Steps
After final testing, our users would still like to see:
“new” tag for recently posted events
more icon visual shortcuts inside the map feature, and
a photo gallery feature to listing’s details page.
In conclusion
Newbie is only one of the many tools that can help our user establish themselves as part of the community, to discover everything their neighborhood has to offer, and to find local events, courses, and causes.
The rest remains up to our users living the newbie values of curiosity, friendliness, spontaneity, and optimism.
Happy Exploring!
meet newbie
Take a minute or two to learn more about newbie!
(Opens in new window)