POSTUP

Mobile Application Design

Project Overview

PostUp is a start up that makes it easier for freelancers and remote workers to find great coffee shops and public spaces to work from. Conducted a 5 day GV design sprint to determine an effective user-centric solution and develop a prototype. The goal for the design sprint was to have a working prototype by Day 5 that has already been reiterated after usability testing. The prototype focuses on one special feature of the app, for POSTUP the screen that was the main focus involved the user finding a space to work at that has their own personal ideal work conditions. In my design sprint, I decided to take things one step further and created a High Fidelity prototype of the screens after completing the sprint. These can be found at the bottom of this case study. This study will focus on each day of the sprint and what was conducted on that day. Below I have also shown a brief overview of the GV Design Sprint timeline.

Deliverables

User Research Insights

Affinity Map

Persona

Sketches

Style Guide

Low Fidelity Wireframes

High Fidelity Wireframes

Usability Testing and Research

Prototype

Completed

February 2024

Collaborators

Elle Mahoney

Tools

Figma

My Role

UX Research

UI Design

Prototype

Usability Testing



"After spending a lot of time looking for a place to go, often the locations end up not working out due to the lack of information that was first given to the user."

Context

The design brief given for this GV design sprint was: "POSTUP is a new startup that focuses on helping remote workers and freelancers find a coffee shop or other public space to work from."

Problem

There is no efficient system in place that will provide users all the necessary information that determines if a location will be a good work environment, resulting in users blindly choosing where to work.

How might we ensure a location meets all the requirements prior to showing up to the location?

solution

Create a fast and efficient system for locating the coffee shop or public space that best fits the users', freelancers and remote workers, ideal work conditions.

  • Customize their search process by prioritizing what their ideal work conditions are.
  • Results are categorized based off of how closely the location represents your preferences.
  • App provides a button that will allow the user at any point to redirect them to their chosen location.
  • Prioritizes the details that matter the most to the users.
  • Highlights many photos of the location's physical space.
  • Encourages user's to provide reviews and updates after trying the space to help inform other users.

Most importantly POSTUP takes an inefficient and inaccurate way of trying to find the best place to work remote from and provides a system that gives the user control over what is important to them. The user is able to determine what the best location near them in three easy steps, and is provided the evidence of why the location is the best choice.

Defining The Process

UX Research Methods and Insights

Secondary Research

I was provided with the essential information of my target demographic and learned about their current frustrations as well as pain points of trying to find a work environment away from home.

  • Users reported that the location has to have the essential amenities -- at least WIFI and restrooms.
  • It was important for the users that the location would not be over crowded and would have a table available for them to work at.
  • The users would like the environment to be quiet but still feel free to talk at a respectable volume in work zoom meetings.
  • Users find the process of finding somewhere to work while in an unfamiliar location particularly difficult for them.
  • How good the coffee or food at these locations is extremely low on the priority list and was considered more of 'bonus points'.
  • The users valued photos and the reviews of the locations to decide if the location will fit their criteria.

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User Surveys and/Or Informational Interviews

I was provided with a prerecorded user interview, the participant was given the task to find a place that they would typically consider a good place to work at. The user quickly jumped on google maps and began.

  • The first thing the user looks at is the photos of the location. The user wants to see if the space has big enough tables to work at and that the tables are spread out.
  • The user will go to amenities second and ensure the location has wifi and restrooms.
  • The user checks google's insights to see when the coffee shop is the busiest. The user would like to know if there are seats still available.
  • The user prioritizes the location being close by.
  • The user will scroll through many reviews to get more information that was not provided by Google Maps.
  • The current solution takes a ton of time and often comes up with unreliable results.

Insights

Themes

A non crowded space with seats available.
Location is quiet, however users feel like they can still talk at low volume.
The location's distance is very close.
Viewing many photos of the space prior to going.
Location has all their necessary amenities like wifi and outlets.

Affinity Maps

Personas

Red Routes

Wireframing and User Testing

Sketches

My first step into depicting the solution was creating some rough sketches of the screens from my red routes. This was an low-cost way that helped me learn about certain constraints of the app.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Once the sketches had been finished, I moved on to creating the low-fidelity wireframes on Figma.

Visual Design

Style Guide

Usability Testing

Final Outcome

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