Role
User Research
Product Strategy
UI Design
Interaction Design
Usability Testing
Tools
Figjam
Notion
Maze
Figma
Otter
Timeline
5 weeks
The Problem
Currently, there is no option for users to create their own groups. The team at MyPlace can create a group for you, and give admin privileges to one person to manage the group.
The Solution
My teammate and I created a simple structure that flowed for individuals to develop their groups on MyPlace. We created a solution that satisfied the business need but addressed users' concerns around privacy. For the solution, we leaned into simplicity, creating a straightforward, pleasant experience that was relevant and smooth.
Usability Review
To better understand the product, we conducted a usability review to identify pain points and wow moments in the existing experience. We determined that the colour palette was in resonance with their brand, as comfortable and welcoming, but some improvements on hierarchy and adding friends to groups were needed.
Business & User frustrations
Primary Frustration
When trying to create a group users are not allowed to have specific privacy settings which results in them not feeling comfortable with MyPlace and the concept of home sharing.
Secondary Frustration
When creating a group, there is only one admin, which does not allow for flexibilty within the group.
Competitor Benchmarking
Once the usability review was complete my partner and I moved on to competitor benchmarking to help identify standards and potential solutions in competitor products.
We selected a direct competitor, Air BnB and one indirect competitor, Discord. Discord is a virtual place for communities of many sizes and it was interesting to see how they structured their group creation.
Problem Space
New users, are uncomfortable with the concept of sharing homes online. There can be reluctance to add their home online, or see the benefits of it, and there is currently no way for users to add groups. The problem occurs during the onboarding process of the web application, after registration. Users fear or lack trust regarding who they share their home with. This is imperative, for the platform as it needs homes and groups in order to grow.
How Might We provide a smooth group creation experience?
User Interviews
To understand what users felt and thought about the concept of home sharing and the MyPlace platfrom, we conducted interviews. To include different cultures, and see if there is variation, we had a western and a Latin American participant, each representing the independent and interdependent culture. Here are a few questions we asked:
1. Explain how you define the concept of "home" and what would "home sharing" means to you.
2. Tell me about the last time you hosted a visit and how you felt hosting your friends or family.
3. Walk me through how you would find accommodation when travelling.
4. What makes you feel comfotable and uncomfortable when sharing your space?
Affinity Map:
We synthesised the insights from user interviews into themes in order to form our primary and secondary insights.
Primary Insight
Home is a place you share with the people you love and a place you safe and secure in.
A common theme mentioned by participants was that they want to feel safe and secure in their home. This translates directly to a platform where these safe spaces are shared, individuals should be aware of how their information is available to others.
Secondary Insight
Introducing people online can feel uncomfortable to some.
To help introduce people online, ease worries and help people feel comfortable with having others in their home, it could be beneficial to include filters and reviews, personal write ups and group privacy rules.
Information Architecture
The current experience feels rudimentary, but we mapped the IA to breakdown each lever at page, section, and component level.
Ideation
We conducted ideation techniques including mind mapping and shared a few laughs during 4 squares. These exercises allowed us to think big and consider an array of solutions that could best solve our problem.
What can we add
Personalisation and flexibility during group creation, allowing for specific privacy settings.
What can we improve
Clearer guidance and hirarchy when sending invites for the group
User Flows
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.
High Fidelity Prototype
Below is the final version of the prototype that we created. We included interactions and transitions from Figma to best match the products flow.
Usability Testing
To test the feasibility of our initial mock up we used the Maze testing platform to have usability testers participate in a various set of scenerios and complete tasks. After the tasks were completed we asked for feedback.
Test outcomes
Having tested the prototype, I learned users were able to find the initial call to action with ease, and liked the privacy settings. However, the hierarchy of the home page needed restructuring. This should improve the number of users creating groups on MyPlace and give users a sense of empowerment
Other key learnings
Next steps
If we had more time to iterate, we would like to continue making refinements to the design based on our users' feedback. In addition, we would love the opportunity to conduct moderated testing to better understand users' feelings and thoughts during the group creation experience on the modal.
I am very proud that, as a team, we took learnings from our previous case study and applied them to MyPlace. The most prominent example is constantly returning to the business and user goals to remain focused on the current problem. Our case study quickly became very concentrated, and we could create a simple solution that satisfied both user and business needs.