A social app that promotes community-building through friendships, events, and groups
Roughly 27 million Americans move per year and many of them consider it a stressful experience since they often do not have the social resources to help them adjust to their new neighborhoods.
I designed an app that helps people find their communities within new neighborhoods, providing them ways to effortlessly discover new friends, local events and groups.
Research shows that 64% of Americans view their most recent move as one of the most stressful things they had ever experienced. Other studies find anxiety and depression to be the most common emotions after moving. In general, people move most often in their 20s and 30s since this is a phase in which many changes take place, such as relocating for work or starting families.
Knowing that many 20 and 30-somethings move for various reasons, I wanted to see if there was any way to improve American young adults' social experiences after moving. To get started, I listed out 4 research objectives to guide me throughout the research phase.
I conducted 6 user interviews to collect data on people's moving journeys and consolidated my findings below.
Based on my findings, I discovered that although building solid friendships and engaging in communities were important for users after moving somewhere new, most people were really only meeting new friends through existing friends and in some cases, classes. Users found it challenging when they didn't know much about the new cities or have many connections to begin with.
Pros and cons of existing social apps
In addition to sharing about their experiences post-moving, users described the tools that they used along the process – the pros and cons of social apps.
In summary, users utilized social apps to find like-minded individuals and place/event recommendations. Overall, these apps helped users achieve their goals but shortcomings such as missing information and lack of filters to personalize the experience introduced usability friction that kept users from staying engaged on these platforms.
I looked into social apps for making new friends to learn about the features that competitors offered and to identify possible opportunities to solve problems that haven't been addressed.
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Despite providing users with interest-based groups and the ability to connect with other users, none of the competitors curated content specifically for each user. They didn't learn users' behavior and needs over time, displaying arbitrary events and groups to users, which made the home and explore feeds less captivating to scroll through.
I compiled the strengths and weaknesses of these competitors to determine any gaps between what they provided and what users wanted.
My research revealed insights about people's sentiments, goals, and frustrations after moving. To empathize with target users, I identified two personas – Elise, an outgoing mom in her 30s looking for new friends to explore activities with and Ryan, an introverted incoming grad student who hopes to branch out in a new city.
Through the exploration of this user persona, I learned that users wanted ways to connect with people outside of their existing friend circles and ways to discover exciting information about local events and groups.
meet new people outside of their existing friend circles?
discover fun things to do?
reduce overwhelming environments through inclusivity?
I created a feature roadmap to prioritize which features to include, based on the following importance ranking – must-have, nice-to-have, surprising and delightful, and can-come-later. This table helped me visualize where content might go on Hygge.
Going down the list of features from must-have to can-come-later in my feature roadmap, I created a sitemap to organize all the features and to see how they related to each other hierarchically.
After constructing the site map, I explored the main functions on the app – signing up and logging in as a first-time user, finding a new friend to message, and registering for an event that interests them.
Referencing the sitemap and task flows, I sketched some key screens on the app – the Explore tab, Message tab, and user profiles. In Explore, users can discover new friends, upcoming events, and groups based on their interests and personal preferences (specified through search filter). In Message, users can see all their messages and send messages to other users. Under Profile, users can customize their accounts by adding details such as bios and interests.
To create a community that is welcoming, inclusive, and fun, I went for warmer colors as they are more commonly associated with warmth, energy, and sociability. I also wanted to incorporate a bit of green to convey fresh starts and growth. Ultimately, I picked a sunny orange-yellow as the primary color and a soothing green as the secondary color. To complement the colors, I chose Nunito, a rounded font that radiates vibrancy.
After creating the style guide, I applied colors, branding, and images to my mid-fidelity wireframes, keeping hygge's brand identity in mind and prioritizing both usability and visual appeal.
The high-fidelity prototype provided three core features all located in the Explore tab:
1. A friend page where users can friend and message other users
2. An event page where users can register for events
3. A group page where users can join groups that interest them.
A total of six people tested out my prototype. During each usability test, users attempted to complete tasks that directly addressed the three core features.
In addition to collecting user feedback, I made several observations during the usability tests. The main confusion users faced was attempting to click on the search bar first rather than scroll to find things. Their first instinct was to turn to the search bar, which had not been implemented for the test. Other pain points mainly centered around language choice or UI element placements. For example, a user did not expect "Get Started" on the the hero page to immediately take them to creating a new account.
Aside from pain points, users generally found it fairly easy to complete the presented tasks. The task completion rate was 100% and average difficulty rating for all the task flows combined was 2.13 out of 10 (with 10 being the most difficult). Everyone thought that the UI elements were familiar and standard.
ONBOARDING
EXPLORE events
EVENT DETAILS
A concern that users had was the possibility of encountering scammers or other untrustworthy users when trying to connect with people on the platform. To make finding friends a secure experience, I decided to add a verification feature. A user would verify their identity by uploading photos to their account and snapping a selfie that matches a pose requested by hygge. A hygge member would then review the photo and confirm or deny it. If denied, a user can retake and resubmit selfies until accepted.
After a user is verified, the user would see a verified badge next to their name, which would appear to other users as well. This whole process is to help users build meaningful friendships that are safe and genuine.
This updated solution kept onboarding brief, polished visual hierarchy, and clarified event details to help users understand upcoming events better.
COMMUNITY-BUILDING MADE EASIER
SEARCH FILTER
90% of potential hygge users were satisfied with the product, finding the app easy to use and relevant to anyone who's moving somewhere new. 100% of the users are interested in using the app if released.
If given more time, I would look into new features to incorporate. A “stories” feature where users can see what other users are up to (similar to Instagram) could potentially help users stay connected to each other. An interactive map for neighborhood restaurants could also keep users engaged.
