OVERVIEW:
Real Social is a mobile App that helps people bridge between virtual and real networking conversations.
PROJECT:
- Duration: 90 Days
- Final Deliverable: Clickable Prototype
- Role: UX Research and Design Lead
- Design Methods: Lean User-Centered Design
DESIGN TOOLS:
PHASE ONE: DISCOVERY
Problem Statement
Many people are very comfortable networking online but they don’t fully realize the value of their connections because they are not as comfortable engaging people in person. The difficulty bridging from online activity to personal engagement limits collaborative potential and meaningful associations.
Proto Personas
User Interviews
Questions
- How do you find the right people who can help you achieve your professional goals?
- In the last two weeks, how many times did you arrange to meet up with someone you’re connected with online?
- Of the connections that were initiated online, how many would you say you’ve met in person?
- What’s the most frustrating part of engaging with new and existing members of your network?
- What do you do to explore a persons potential for collaborating or being helpful to achieving your professional goals?
- How do you develop and deepen connections with existing members of your network? Behaviors: Coffee? Social events? Conferences? Lunch?
Responses
I find that sometimes its easier for people to contact people through social media. It’s an easier experience. Although the connections I make tend to me to be a little more shallow.
Yes I do. I do use LinkedIn. I’d say that I do more networking on Face Book. It’s easier to navigate.
I love networking. Sometimes I’ve felt brutally disappointed by people when they’d say oh I want to work with you and I spend a couple hours out to meet with them with someone and then they disappear off the planet.
Its safe to say that the last two conversations I had face to face were much more meaningful and professionally profound.
User Problems
I have lots of online connections but I don’t feel truly connected to most of the people in my social media networks.
I don’t know how to approach and ask someone to meet me in person.
When someone accepts an invitation, I’m not sure how to present myself, gain useful information and give back something of value to the person I’m meeting.
User Goals
I’d like to have a way to identify the best, next people to meet in person based on common interests and experiences.
I’d like to have a collection of templates to support in person engagements that are easy to personalize and use.
It would be really helpful to have a way to simply and effectively organize my online and offline contacts that helps me plan an approach to engage my network in person.
Competitive Canvas and User Goal Overlay
User Scenarios
- You’re riding the train to work one morning and remember that you want to change jobs before the end of the year. You have targeted a new field in technology. Who can be helpful to you?
- It’s Sunday night and you are thinking about the week ahead. You’re starting a new project involving new learning methods and need to build a support network.
- You’ve built a huge following on LinkedIn; over 500 connections are in your network. You don’t have a very deep relationship with many of these people and you’d like to change that.
- For the past six months you’ve been hyper-focused on a project that’s now winding down. It’s been awhile since you’ve engaged with your network and aren’t sure about how to reach out and talk to the right people in a live, face to face conversation.
Concepting:
TOP
PHASE TWO: CONCEPTING:
Feature Sketches:
Site Map Sketch:
User Flows:
Wire Frames:
Design Goals
Create a mobile app that gives the user a broad visual perspective of her network that shows the best-next persons to engage with by phone or in person using support tools to increase productivity and conversational capabilities.
Design Solution
Provide tools with a map-like visual interface that depicts a personal social network as a web of nodes and connectors.
The map interface will highlight the areas needing contact and key individuals that match a set of criteria for determining the top five best-next people to pursue and engage.
Format: Mobile App
A set of support tools are then activated and pre-populated with the contact’s personal data.
Support tools include:
- Email templates for invitations
- Venue selection menu & map
- Conversational content preparation
- Audio recorder for practice, review and confidence building
Testing
TOP
PHASE THREE: PROTOTYPING AND USER TESTING:
Mock-Ups
Prototype
User Testing
Next Steps
Examine implementation of Real Social as a web-based application.