FOKUS is a photo editing app that helps users make their photos look awesome before sharing them on Instagram or other social media.
Product: FOKUS Photo App.
Role: Product Designer (User Research, UI Design)
Process: GV Design Sprint
Duration: 40 Hours
Research Tools: Affinity Mapping, Usability Testing, Prototyping
Design Tools: Figma, Adobe Creative Suite
OVERVIEW
This case study explores how geolocation functionality helps people quickly zero in on the best picturesque locations to shoot.
The company wanted to expand on the core functionalities of its app to include a feature where it can help its users find the best spots depending on their location.
PROCESS
Due to time and budget constraints, we adopted a 5 day GV Design Sprint to prototype design ideas and test them rapidly to come up with key MVP functionalities and features.
Day 1
Define and understand the project scope
Day 2
Lightening Demos & Sketches to create ideas
Day 3
Discus and Decide on the most interesting solutions
Day 4
Translating ideas into interactive prototpes
Day 5
Translating ideas into interactive prototypes
DAY1: UNDERSTANDING
Examination of the existing research documentation provided by the company and the personas to get a clear picture of the problem space, customer needs, and pain points.
Event Producer
27 Years old
SARAH
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Time Crunch
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Not enough knowledge about what's in her vicinity.
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Wants to plan ahead before heading out to the photo location.
Visual Artist
30 Years old
NICK
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General FOMO of a good photo op.
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Looking for locations with an artistic appeal.
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Needs inspiration from other's photos.
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Wants to see locations off the beaten path.
Location, Location, Location.......
Through the preliminary research, it was discovered that most users do have a vague idea of the type of photo they want to shoot, but are having a hard time finding the information ready at hand regarding their desired photo location.
So, how might we help Sarah and Nick find their desired photo
location in a limited amount of time?
DAY2: SKETCHING
User flow sketches to map out step-by-step interaction with the product in order to spot pain points and identify opportunities to create new and improved user experiences.
A deep analysis of direct and indirect competitors related to FOKUS's vision, to examine what kinds of solutions already exist and what we can improve on.
FOTOSPOT
DAY4: PROTOTYPING
The Catagory Screen is meant to take the user to the information they need swiftly and quickly. The categories that will be featured on this screen, will be the key differentiator of FOKUS from its competitor apps.
Speed & Ease of Use
Finding the right unicorn photo to shoot and being able to share that experience have equal importance in the overall goal of these apps. The focus should therefore be on niche location search for various User needs. Speed and ease of use should also be essential. So it goes back to the importance of location, location, location.
Story board screens
Searching and finding the desired photo location.
Story board screens
User searching for their desired photo location.
User Flow: Searching and finding the desired photo location.
DAY5: USABILITY TESTING
I carried out usability testing on 5 individuals who have an interest in social media photo sharing. The main takeaway was that the Home Screen threw off more than half of the participants. They were not sure why they were seeing the Most Popular locations screen as the first main screen of the app. Categories Page felt most important and primary and Most Popular felt secondary.
So we made the tweak.
The Category page became the Homepage and a CTA was added on the Catagory
screen to link to the Most Popular screen.
TAKEAWAYS
Carrying out this design sprint for an existing product facilitated the high-velocity delivery of solutions to the problem space. Being able to test out the User Flow solution really quickly from the conception phase enabled the designer to validate a hypothesis about the design solution without allocating too much time and resources to it.
Also, it became more apparent that customization is key in optimizing the experience of the User's journey through the product. Geo-location is one method of tailoring experiences for each user to meet their needs.
NEXT STEPS
The next step is to make the above changes to the prototype and if it is within the overall project plan, to retest the second iteration on the Users. Features to include in the next sprint:
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Edge Case User Flow scenarios where User can't find the location or category etc.
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User Profile Page
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Personal Gallery
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Social Media Feed
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Photo Editing features