MAR 2023 / WEB / CASE STUDY

Postup - a mobile application for finding places to work remotely

OVERVIEW

Hybrid/remote workers are increasingly common and need places in the city. Despite the myriad of existing navigation apps, workers waste time looking for good places nearby because there isn’t a product designed for their specific needs. Post-up is designed to fill this need by showing remote workers quality places to work while on the go.

The design of this mobile application followed an agile, Google Ventures- style design sprint framework, and completed over 5 days. I was the project lead working remotely from Los Angeles.

ROLE

Lead Product Designer

TIMELINE

Mar 2023 (5 days GV Design Sprint)

DELIVERABLES

Demo UI/ UX, Research, User Testing

Search Nearby Tab

Find places quickly on-the-go

01

Find popular places nearby with a couple of clicks

Standard Search

Plan ahead using a standard search

02

Find places ahead of time using the standard search function

Primary Research

As a result of the app being developed within the Agile framework, research on Post-up’s target users such as interviews, personas and statistics, were provided before the design sprint. The target audience and their needs are summarized below: 

Target Audience: 

  • Younger, urban-based, professionals, 28-40

  • Works remotely 2-3 days a week 

  • Spends a few hours working in public spaces between meetings

User Needs: 

  • Spaces to do quiet work, take meetings and answer phone calls

  • Good wifi, open tables, restrooms and outlets

  • Easily assess if a place is a good fit, nearby and open

Pain Points: 

  • Google doesn’t have all the information available for their needs

  • They can’t see if a place is crowded, has good wifi or is suitable for meetings

  • They spend too much time sifting through reviews and websites to try to find the right info

Insights

  1. Users want to search places to plan their work ahead of time but also find places while on the go.

  2. Users need better information about each place that is suited to their needs

Day 1: Mapping

After analyzing the research, I created an end-to-end map of a user's experience. Users first search to find a place, either by looking at recommended places, a map screen or by filtering their criteria. After finding a place, they review its amenities, crowd level and distance, among other details. Finally, they can get directions to the place they choose.

Day 2: Sketching

I narrowed down the most important screen to the destination screen which provides high level information about a place’s amenities, ratings etc. I sketched this screen with different arrangements of information- applying what I learned from the apps I looked at previously.

High Fidelity Sketches 

Day 3: Decide

I narrowed down the most important screen to the destination screen which provides high level information about a place’s amenities, ratings etc. I sketched this screen with different arrangements of information- applying what I learned from the apps I looked at previously.

Day 4: Build

On the fourth day of the sprint, taking the insights from the research and lighting demos, I created a working prototype. The prototype simulates the key user flow of going to an unfamiliar place and quickly finding a place nearby to work.

I started by sketching the storyboard as a light-weight wireframe to guide my prototyping. The storyboard starts from the ‘home page’ where users can find popular places nearby. It then takes them to the place screen to review its amenities and crowd level, and finally ends at the ‘search screen’ to find places by location and filter their search

Storyboarding

High Fidelity Prototype

Using wireframe UI kits, I created a high fidelity prototype that completes user flows that use the apps ‘Popular Nearby’ page and the ‘Search’ function. 

Click here to view the Prototype.

Day 5: Testing Pain Points

To test the prototype I conducted (5) moderated interviews using Maze, asking users to complete a few tasks: 

1. You are working in an unfamiliar part of the city and want to quickly find a place close by to work for a few hours. Tell me how you would search for this place. 

2. Say you’re planning ahead of your meeting, and want  to find a place to work after. Tell me how you would find this place.

3. Say you are considering a place called Rosebud Coffee and want to see its availability of tables. Tell me how you would find it, and check its table availability.

4. Say you need to take an important phone call at Rosebud coffee and want to check its noise levels. Find where you would check its noise levels. 

5. Say you need to download large files and want to make sure its wifi speed is adequate. How would you check the wifi speed of Rosebud Coffee?

6. Say you want to check the reviews of Rosebud Coffee before making your final decision. Tell me how you would check its reviews.

Results

  • Users expected to see a business’s seating availability and noise levels on their card in addition to standard info like its distance, wifi, and overall rating.

  • Users successfully found information about a businesses availability, Wifi, and reviews intuitively on the ‘Place Screen.’ Although a few people said it would be nice for the detailed information, like Wifi speed, to live in drop-down modals on the main business screen.

Users were consistently confused by the ‘Home’ tab and ‘Nearby’ tab, creating misclicks for the first two tasks. However, they learned the functions of both tabs intuitively, commenting it was the just names of each that was confusing.

Redesign

After receiving helpful user information, I quickly redesigned the UI of the prototype, focusing on the ‘Search’ and ‘Home’ tabs, and adding expected information on businesses.

Search Nearby

Users commented on how they would have assumed the ‘Home’ tab would be named ‘Search,’ so I changed the name, and gave each tab a hover and select state to make the prototype more realistic. On the ‘Nearby’ tab, I changed the H1 text to say ‘Popular Nearby’ at a larger font and subtext to contrast more with the rest of the page for better clarity. I added filters for a quick search .

Users wanted to see more info about a business on its card, so I included seating availability and noise levels in the description in addition to standard info like its distance, wifi, and overall rating. I made the business pictures much larger on the screen-reducing the amount of information on the page. I also increased made the tab size larger and increased contrast using a dark grey as the background.

Conclusion

  1. Agile product development depends on quick prototypes, precise user testing, and redesigns to validate project ideas.

  2. Users appreciated multiple search functions because they don’t always know what they want. They liked the intuitiveness of the ‘Nearby’ tab but also felt the ‘Search’ tab was useful for planning.

  3. I would continue developing the app by testing the categories of businesses to give users another way of finding places to work easily.