Role
Designed and programmed an android application. My role involved ideation, wireframing, prototyping and front-end programming.
Living in a modern technological era
In today’s world, ways of creating connections have become more streamlined and innovative. From LinkedIn for business, to the wide, wide host of apps for dating, building relationships via these platforms - both professionally and personally has become ubiquitous. Social media applications like Facebook and Instagram have taken over the world but they kind of expect you to already have friends. What if you just want to meet some people to hang out within your city? Everyone complains about it being tough to make friends in your 20s, and for a lot of people, it can be hard to make friends at universities. Keeping this in mind, Mufee was born.
Mufee allows you to break the proverbial ice and help establish friendships quickly
Design Process
Problem Scoping
The need to connect with other human beings is programmed in our DNA. We are wired for social connection. Since prehistoric times, people have lived together in groups where they found protection, help, support, a common identity, and shared knowledge. However, our gregarious behavior changed with the progress of technology. Social groups provide us with an essential part of our identity; more than that, they teach us skills that help us prosper in a complex environment. Feeling socially connected, especially in an increasingly isolated world, is more critical than ever.
While having plenty of social connections is good, the more connected you are with other people, your life becomes more enriched. Of course, it's not just about the number of connections you have. It would help if you also focused on the quality of these social connections and how they contribute to happiness and positivity in your life. Keeping this in mind, Mufee was born. A mobile application focused on helping university students find meaningful connections with similar mindsets and ideologies!
Research
Identifying Your Audience
Interacting with different people helped us understand which demographic would most benefit from this product. This app is intended for university students for now.
Think Aloud
Besides studying few dating apps on the market, think alouds with users helped create a more usable and logical flow
Insights
Wireframing
The research helped us envision a tangible product and direct the wireframing process. The process was inspired from the Crazy 8 design sprint. We addressed some concerns that users had in our next release.
Prototyping & Implementation
After implementing the app, I realized that the app was failing most of the heuristics principles of design. It was during this project that I had my first eureka moment. I realized that the app was not only failing in its UI but also had usability issues.
1. The sign-up flow was long
2. The color contrast made it harder to see
3. There were inconsistencies in the call-to-action buttons
4. Redundant call-to-action buttons on the home screen
5. The user had no way to edit their preferences
6. The user couldn't find their previously matched connections
7. There was no way to save contacts from reaching out later
8. The UI lacked intuitiveness and standards
The first step to solving these usability issues was establishing a design system to help standardize the various elements we intended to use for creating the high-fidelity prototype.
Design System
The colors selected provided maximum contrast. The application used 'Lato' as its font family. The set of icons from the Google icon family.
