<h3> Design Statement </h3>
<p> <em> How might I design an accessible digital experience that shares information, events, and builds community for middle aged women? </em> </p>
<p> Currently, reigning social media apps (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) battle to become the top host site to connect people on a global stage (boasting millions of DAUs) . While this is important, I realized that, especially with quarantine, we were losing sight of organic relationships we fostered before social media; with our neighbors. Too often it is easier to simply connect with strangers online than to know your neighbor's name. I sought to build a niche social media platform that was catered to rebuild that trust and authentic friendships with those we live with. </p>
<p> Middle aged women, in particular, lie at a point of society where meeting strangers online is an extra security concern. I designed with them as a target audience in mind becuase I wanted a platform that was safe (vetted neighbors) as well as very easy to use and onboard due to middle aged women's busy lifestyles. </p>
<h3> Competitor Analysis and Heuristic Evaluation </h3>
<img src="meetup.png" width="300" height="300" alt="Meetup App Screenshots"> <figcaption> Meet Up </figcaption>
<img src="neighborhood.png" width="500" height="500" alt="Meetup App Screenshots">
<p>I started this design process by analyzing top comptetitors in the "neighborhood" social media space: <b>NextDoor</b> and <b>Meetup</b>. This included a heuristic evaluation and usability testing with participants and detailed process and findings can be found <a href="https://github.com/annielieu/DH150_AnnieLieu/tree/main/assignment02">here</a> and <a href="https://github.com/annielieu/DH150_AnnieLieu/blob/main/README.md">here</a> .
In general, participants found that Nextdoor was too cluttered with information, making it <em>frustrating to navigate </em> for certain tasks and information. Specifically, there was a lack of filters, organizational structure, and overstimulation of categories. On the other hand, participants found Meetup <em>underwhelmingingly too simple and generalized </em> to host a broader span of interests/important information to build a community. Specifically, instead of building a general sense of community, Meetup served more as a temporary function to host niche groups' meetups. </p>
<h3> User Research: Contextual Inquiry </h3>
<p>
After reviewing feedback from the prior usability testing and heuristic evaluation, I conducted further user research using an contextual inquiry interview. My main purpose was to narrow down key pain points and needs in users when they are seeking to build community within their smaller networks. <em>What isn't working? What is? What would an ideal neighborhood platform look like? What is the root cause they are using such platforms? </em>
</p>
<p>
The detailed process and findings of my contextual inquiry can be found <a href="https://github.com/annielieu/DH150_AnnieLieu/tree/main/assignment4">here</a>.
</p>
<p>
General findings showed that having more structure and filters overall would help improve user experience on these social media platforms that often host a lot of information. Whether that be hosting down to specific categories/specific kind of information users are looking for, or being able to navigate towards "favorites" category.
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<h3> User Experience Storytelling </h3>
<p>
With the foundings from the contextual inquiry, I was able to scope out user personas and scenarios with "loved categories" and "structural filters" in mind. Specifically, I focused on two middle aged women who were using this new app, CityPost, in for two different specific tasks.
Detailed findings and process can be found <a href="https://github.com/annielieu/DH150_AnnieLieu/tree/main/Assignment5">here</a>.
</p>
<p>
As a successful product manager and mom, our first user Mary Jane starts her working day with checking her emails as she cooks up breakfast for her two middle school aged kids and makes sure her high school son has everything ready before he leaves. Between juggling her mom life and her career priorities, Mary wants to find a simple way to meet new friends and practice some selfcare in her city that won't need her to onboard another complex system to keep track up. With the new <em> filter categorization feature </em> that had been lackign in previous platforms, Jane is able to successfully find events nearby with minimal tiem and effort and build genuine connections faster. </p>
<img src="maryjane.png" alt="Meetup App Screenshots">
<h5> Mary Jane's Journey Map </h5>
<img src="maryjanemap.png" alt="Meetup App Screenshots">
<p>