Polarlight

An easier way to connect with the things you love.

Overview

Entering the workforce can hinder people’s ability to connect with their passions and relationships due to work and personal responsibilities. Maintaining friendships requires regular interaction, but without hobbies outside of work this can be challenging. Polarlight is a mobile app that equips users with essential tools to connect with their passions and loved ones.

Role

Research, UX, and UI Design

Scope

8 weeks

Tools

Figma

Miro

InVision

Process

Research

Ideation

Design

User Testing

Prototype

Reflection

Problem

The scarcity of dedicated mobile applications, websites, and similar platforms for searching and exploring new hobbies compels people to rely on search engines like Google. However, this often leads to various frustrating scenarios:

  • Numerous disorganized links

  • Spending more time searching for activities than actually engaging in the things they love.

  • A Lack of direction. This makes the search process intimidating and frustrating, especially for beginners, because it’s difficult to determine where to even begin.

  • Limited availability of beginner-friendly options.

Solution

Polarlight is a mobile app designed to alleviate the overwhelming process users often face when searching for hobbies. It offers a comprehensive resource where users can search, explore, and save hobbies all in one place.

  • Search for specific interests based on location.

  • Filter interests by community, distance, level of difficulty, etc., thus giving users control over their searches. This feature is also useful for beginners who want access to beginner friendly options.

  • Users can personalize their app experience by adding their interests to their profile. By doing so, they will receive activity recommendat-ions on the homepage.

Research

Primary Research

The objective of my research was to:

1) Understand the challenges working adults experience when they’re exploring and/or starting new hobbies.

2) How do they overcome these obstacles to try new interests and make new friends.

Screener Survey

In order to identify potential research participants, I created a screening survey and distributed it through various social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.,). The survey helped me identify research participants with the following characteristics:

  • Individuals who work full-time.

  • Individuals who are interested in hobbies and have a desire to start and/or explore new hobbies.

  • Individuals who express interest in making new friends.

  • Individuals who have attempted to make friends in the last 2 years.

I interviewed six participants and conducted 30 - 45 minute interviews in person and via zoom.

Interviews

I was able to identify four themes among all participants.

  • Searching for and finding new hobbies is overwhelming and frustrating

  • Things that participants mentioned could improve their experience.

  • There is a lack of resources dedicated to searching, finding, and exploring new activities in general.

  • In general, people who are interested in starting a new hobby are intimated by the process and don’t know where to begin.

Affinity Map Based On Participants’ Research

Empathy Maps + Personas

Using this information, I was able to narrow down my findings into two main categorizes and develop two personas: the pro-hobbyist and new hobbyist.

The pro-hobbyist

Users who engage in activities regularly during the week but face significant professional and/or personal obligations have limited time to dedicate to searching and researching things to do. They seek a convenient and efficient solution to quickly search, discover, and explore new hobbies.

The new-hobbyist

Users who have an interest in initiating new hobbies but are uncertain about where to begin their search. They find the current process to be overwhelming and seek a simple and quick way to explore and discover beginner-friendly options.

How Might We

Using the previous research and personas, I developed four How Might We (HMW) statements to highlight the main issues users are experiencing:

  1. How might we relieve the sense of confusion that people feel when they search for hobbies?

  2. How might we help people find and explore different hobbies in a quick, safe, and effective manner?

  3. How might we make sure people feel confident they have all the information they need to start a new hobby?

  4. How might we help people with shared interests connect?

Ideation

Brainstorming

Using the HMW questions and personas, I began brainstorming and sketching potential solutions to user frustrations.

User Stories

Following sketches, I employed user stories to structure and prioritize my ideas. I categorized user stories by most important, least important, and not important at all. This is how I was able to identify which features were necessary and unnecessary in the final design.

  • As a hobbyist, I want to quickly search & find different activities so that I can try new hobbies.

  • As a hobbyist, I want to view recommendations so that I can spend less time searching for things to do.

  • As a new hobbyist, I want to read reviews about activities so that I can decide which hobbies to start.

  • As a new hobbyist, I want to have access to beginner friendly options so that I can feel comfortable starting a new hobby.

  • As a hobbyist, I want to personalize my profile so that I can receive recommendations based on my interests.

Site Map

Polarlight was designed with young working adults, between 21 to 30 years old, in mind. Given their familiarity with technology, my goal was to minimize the time they spent learning how to navigate the product and instead encourage them to focus on exploring activities. To achieve this, I placed emphasis on developing a navigation system that resembled popular apps like Kayak, while incorporating a touch of social media through personalization features.

User Flows

When users use Polaright, they should be able to:

1) Search for different eventshobbies.

2) Personalize their profile by adding their interests; this feature is important for activity recommendations in the homepage.

3) Filter activities by distance, community, level of difficulty, etc.,

To streamline the user experience, I employed user flows as a valuable tool. They guided me in creating a straightforward navigation path, determining the content layout for each screen, and removing any superfluous steps that could potentially impede user interaction. By utilizing user flows, I ensured the development of an efficient and user-friendly product journey.

Sketches

Initially, I considered implementing a hamburger menu as the primary navigation option for space-saving purposes. However, upon completing my sketches, I came to the realization that a bottom navigation bar would be a more suitable alternative. This decision was influenced by the fact that bottom navigation bars are widely recognized and familiar to a larger user base, including the general public. By opting for a bottom navigation approach, I aimed to enhance usability and improve the overall user experience.

Mid - Wireframes

Design

Mood Board + Design System

My mood board was heavily inspired by the northern lights. I incorporated a lot of the colors seen during this phenomenon in my design system. To remain consistent with the planet and space theme, I replaced the “O” in Polarlight with an image of Saturn because through Polarlight you can explore the impossible.

Prototype

After finalizing the high-fidelity screens, I developed a prototype for user testing. View prototype on the left or here.

HI-FI Wireframes

User Testing

Participant Characteristics + Recruitment

For usability tests, I recruited five participants with similar characteristics of potential users:

  • Full-time working adults, ages 20 - 30, who actively participate in hobbies outside of work. 

  • Full-time working adults, ages 20 - 30, who are interested in starting a new hobby but don’t know where to begin.

Objective of Usability Tests

  • Evaluate whether users can effectively search for, discover, and explore new hobbies and events

  • Assess the usability of the interface for users, particularly those seeking beginner-friendly options, by evaluating their ability to navigate and utilize the filter feature.

  • Observe users' interaction with the interface to identify any issues or areas of improvement.

  • Gather insights into users’ impressions and thoughts about the interface

To gain insight into the user’s initial impression of the app, I asked user’s to click around the app and share their thoughts. I used this opportunity to observe how user’s interacted with the interface and whether they were able to navigate app without any major issues. In addition, I had users complete a few tasks to evaluate their experience and identify any issues with the app’s primary task flows.

User Tasks

  1. Use the app to search for Spanish events and save an event to your favorites.

  2. Use the app to filter and find beginner friendly options for Pilates, and then save an event to your favorites.

  3. Add your interest(s) to your profile.

With observations, follow-up questions after each task, and user thoughts I was able to identify design flaws and develop a plan to make appropriate design changes that would reduce mental processing and provide users with simpler and better user experience.

Usability Testing

1) The labels on the filter page were not clear without context.

  • I changed the labels from “Sort By” to “Level of Difficulty because it’s more appropriate for the purpose of this section which is to filter events and hobbies by level of difficulty since many participants expressed concern over starting new hobbies as a “beginner.”

  • “Event Type” was confusing to many users so I changed it to “Sort by Community” which is more fitting since this section is meant to help users find activities for specific communities (LGBTQ +, Women, etc.,)

2) The back button is not consistent throughout the interface and users are hesitant and/or didn’t use the back button at all.

  • I enlarged the back icon and changed the color to make the CTA stand out.

3) In certain places, elements were too crowded which led to users clicking on the wrong elements and actions.

  • I redesigned the navigation bar and added space between icons and elements.

  • In the filter screen, I moved the elements, icons, and labels around to make sure they weren't too close together.

  • In the events card, I removed unnecessary text and only kept the event name and location.

Final Design

Reflection

Through this project, I learned the importance of asking questions and valuing feedback from users and fellow designers. Despite the challenges, I found joy in the design process and applied my psychology background to create a meaningful product for users to explore their passions. The most cherished moment was witnessing users' initial impression and the positive impact the app had on them.

Given more time, I would have dedicated it to enhancing the user interface. While prioritizing user experience, I had a keen interest in UI and wished to invest more time in it.

During usability tests, users showed great interest in the "For you" section and "Favorites" on the homepage. Unfortunately, time constraints limited my ability to fully develop these features, but I would have loved to work on them further.

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