branch out

B2C app; a business directory app catered to incoming Gainesville college students looking to get to know their new community.

Tools

Adobe XD Figma Zoom

Role

UX Designer Team of 4

Duration

5 months

Introduction

Problem Statement —

Incoming college students moving to Gainesville stay within their university or college and don’t explore their new community.

 

Problem Solution —

Help incoming Gainesville college students explore their community easily and find places catered to them.

User Personas

Market Research

Secondary data was collected to identify potential opportunities and threats. We identified who would be involved and our target market.

Target user —

This app is mainly targeted towards incoming college freshmen, transfer students, and international students ages 18-24 and living in Gainesville. Their income is not likely to exceed $28,000, since they are still students.

Market Trend —

Our main goal in our market trend research was to examine the effectiveness of online reviews in convincing the target users’ opinion about a venue and leading them to explore themselves.

Outcome —

  • 91% of millennials trust online reviews as much as friends and family (Influencer Marketing Hub,  2020)

  • 50% of consumers took some action after reading a positive review. (Influencer Marketing Hub,  2020)

  • A thousand responding acquisition/attendee marketers said social media was: 30% = very effective, 60% = somewhat effective, 10% = ineffective in attracting new attendees.

81% of event organizers use Facebook to promote their events (Bizzabo, 2016)

Collecting research about the usage and effects of online reviews, we were able to observe a large percentage of users, professional marketers, and business providers trust online reviews to provide them reliable information and attract users to come to events. Thus, we came to the conclusion that online reviews are very effective in informing and persuading users to visit the featured services. 

Competitor Analysis & SWOT

User Research

Participant Demographics

Number of Respondents: 34

Age group: 18-24

Education level —

Out of 34 respondents, 35.3% Freshmen 32.4% Juniors 20.6% Seniors 11.8% Sophomores

Modes of Transportation —

Out of 32 respondents, 75% Bus  75% Walking  53.1% Personal car 43.8% Carpooling  3.1% Biking  6.3% Other 

5.9% of all respondents were international or transfer students

Findings

User Journey Map

Key Takeaways:

From our survey, we were able to decipher what features our users wanted to see more of and what they could live without. The top three features they used were reviews, an integrated map, and a cost filter. Some frustrations included unspecific information, not enough reviews, and a lack of finding new, unique places. It was also essential to learn that our users had limited modes of transportation and heavily relied on walking or the bus, meaning they required nearby locations. Finally, we found what types of places our users would be most interested in seeing, which will guide us in deciding what places we should incorporate into our app.

Following the user persona of Angelica Tang, or the “Home Body,” we created a map outlining the steps Angelica would take using her current resources to find a new study spot off campus.

Our team then developed three user personas with different goals and needs to better understand our target users and determine what design features they would benefit from most.

Design Requirements

Design Requirements

Taking our survey findings and task flow into consideration, our team was able to identify 6 design requirements:

  1. Search bars

  2. Recommendations

  3. Filterable searches

  4. Reviews

  5. Map with bus stops

  6. Gamification

User Flow

Wireframes

Style Guide

The main task for our users is to find a new venue to go to, whether they know exactly what they’re looking for or not. In this case, we decided to focus on a specific case of a user with the intention to find a coffee shop.

Search bars and review features were the most prioritized design requirement, as they were voted as most-used features on pre-existing location finding apps. Filterable searches and recommendations would help direct users by specifying and eliminating results, so they aren’t burdened by information overload. 

A map with bus stops was critical because maps were also voted one of the most used features, and 75% of our participants responded that they took the bus to travel. Lastly, we thought gamification was an important requirement to keep the users entertained, leading to frequent and constant use.

The App

Reflections

What Worked Well —

  • Design appeared to be consistent with similar applications

  • Navigation between pages was easy and intuitive

  • User was pleased with the inclusion of useful features they hadn’t seen before

  • Sorting by discounts offered

  • Prioritizing friends’ recommendations

  • Liked the layout and soft/muted color scheme (wasn't too bright and distracting)

  • Enjoyed seeing the friends reviews on certain places & their rewards points for each friend

  • Liked the search bar feature and the many options to filter through

  • Loved all of the sections in the Profile page & the Saved Places page

  • Easy Navigation

What Needs Improvement —

  • Amount of color not cohesive throughout application

  • Start-up pages and app content can be inconsistent in design

  • Users experienced confusion between the wording “sort” and “filter” 

  • Venue pages lacked proper descriptions

  • "Photos & Reviews" page only shows photos

  • Not everyone wants to share their location with the app all of the time

  • Users missed/didn’t immediately understand the “hashtags” search function

  • Maps feature not very easy to find

Refinement —

  • Incorporate the yellow color from the start-up page in the rest of the application, to make the design more consistent and appealing overall 

  • Replace “Sort” with “Order by”

  • Add detailed descriptions to venue page so users get a better idea about each place

  • Replace the “Menus” page with “Reviews” page

  • Make it obvious that the locations are shared only when the user is using the app, and add an option to type in address in the profile section when needed

  • Make hashtag feature more apparent, possibly by including a pop-up notifying first-time users of its function

  • Include a map button on each venue page