Overview

Project: User Experience class
Project type: UX/UI Design
‍Timeline: Sep-Dec 2020
My role: User Research, Strategy, Interaction Design, UI Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing
‍Tools Used: Adobe XD, Whimsical, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

EMPATHY

WHAT IS NATIVELINK?
Nativelink is an app that I came up with during my study at George Mason University. I worked on Nativelink during the pandemic and I had to collaborate remotely. Although it was challenging to adjust at first, I learned to communicate and work together effectively despite never meeting my professor and colleagues in person.

Nativelink helps users to connect with other foreigners in order to practice the native language while living abroad. For some users is very important to be able to meet with other foreigners if they feel homesick, or just want their children to be able to talk to someone in their native language.

RESEARCH PLAN
The Research Plan was created in order to help define the target market and to discover their behaviors and views towards finding other foreigners. I wanted to find out if the users would be interested in an app that would help them meet other people from the same country.

SECONDARY RESEARCH
I conducted additional research to find out if there are apps that let users to search for others with similar backgrounds and roots. 

MARKET RESEARCH
I started my research to asking the questions such as “what do people want”? “Is there need for this product in the market”? I decided to start with a broad question in order to get the general idea about foreigners and how to make the product meet their needs. I figured out that the best way to learn if the users would use this product is talk to them.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Next I worked on competitive analysis in order to to identifying competitors and evaluating their strategies to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to my app. This step was very critical in my research because I was able to learn from the competition what “mistakes” they did that I could avoid them in my app.

PRIMARY RESEARCH
I conducted qualitative and quantitative user research in order to get to know my users’s needs and behavior. I created survey using Survey Planet and developed interview script. Below are some surveys responses from my users. I received feedback from 62 people and I interviewed three users.

DEFINE

PERSONA, CONCEPT MAP
After identifying user behavior and need patterns I created my primary persona, Anna. Anna comes from Poland but she moved to the USA ten years ago because of work. Now, she is a stay at home mom and she enjoys spending time with her family.

After chatting with Anna there were no pain points that jumped out at me so I started a concept map to organize my thoughts and search for any pain points. After mapping out Anna’s notes and surveys notes, I started noticing small pain points from the information they shared with me.

EMPATHY MAP
To further explore relationships and develop the persona that emerged from the data I’d gathered and mapped, I created an empathy map made up of observations and statements from user interviews. This helped me understand the emotional state of the user and the world they live in. It also allowed me to discover common patterns within user data from which insights could be identified.

I found out that users do not want to travel long distances to meet up with other foreigners that they already know. They are happy to make new friends that live close by if they are from the same country. However, they do not have resources to find others and connect. Also, practicing their second language is very important for these users that have children and want them to be bilingual.

STORYBOARD
Following the persona I created a linear sequence of illustrations, arrayed together to visualize Anna’s story.

Problem statment:

How might we help users to find another foreigner living close by so they can practice their native language?

IDEATE

USER FLOW
To better understand how I would construct the core experience for Nativelink, I designed a user flow. This helped me focus more on the experience and needs of the user and less so on details that I would solidify later. It also allowed me to communicate the entries and exits more clearly so I would have a better understanding moving forward. 

I created paper low-fi wireframes using an app called POP in order to check the user flow.

MVP
In order to reduce features in my app I created MVP. Thru research, I’ve discovered that most people aren’t fans of products with too many features. In fact, based on studies done by professor Sheena Iyengar, there is a limit on the number of things we can choose from before we start feeling overwhelmed. My app definitely has to have easy search option and receive notifications about friends requests, messages and calls.

CONTENT STRATEGY
I started to work on content strategy in order to have a deeper understand what I want Nativelink to help users.

Why: Business objectives. What are you trying to accomplish? How does that match up with what your users are trying to accomplish? 
My app will help users to connect with other foreigners living in the United States. Many foreigners struggle to find other people speaking their native language and Nativelink is there to help. Some users have bilingual families and they want they children to speak two languages but it is challenging to encourage kids to speak the second language if all their friends only speak in English.

What: What is the message and tone of your content?
Nativelink will provide thoughtful, positive, friendly voice to find fast and easy to understand solutions. 

Who: Who is the audience? 
The audience could be anyone who wants to practice the second language. However, the main audience is foreigners between 25 and 50 years old. 

Where: Where will content appear? 
The content is going to be designed for apple devices. I found out from my research that 77% users use iPhones therefore I have decided to design the content for Apple.

How: How will content be presented?
The main content is going be a map showing users nearby. The map and the text are going be the main content.  

When: When will content be published? Once upon development or continuously?
The content is going be published once upon development. 

WIREFRAME
After working on my content strategy, I started to put together some of the fundamental framework for Nativelink. The main idea for this app is to search for foreigners in the area and let users connect and build relationships and communities. There, my goal is to keep the user experience simple and effective.

PROTOTYPE

MOCKUP
In putting together the final wireframes, I kept my user personas in mind, keeping structure to my design process. I created a high-fidelity prototype of the main user flow using Adobe XD. This enabled me to put my designs to life, seeing how the interactions flowed in real time, allowing the features to really come to life.

TEST

USABILITY TASTING
I tested Nativelink on five users and I received positive feedback. All the users were able to complete tasks that were assigned to them and the users mentioned that liked Nativelink’s visual design. The users liked the simplicity and the main purpose of Nativelink, finding other foreigners. However, one user mentioned that there is no “deactivate the account”, or “remove the account”. Therefore, the next step would be to add that feature.