Social Network for Goals

Company: Linkagoal • Project Length: 6 months • Role: UX Designer and UX Researcher

This was a project for a client called Linkagoal, a social networking site for people who are passionate about achieving their goals and empowering others to do the same. Linkagoal approached EchoUser, the UX design agency where I worked, with one major problem - poor user engagement. My team was tasked with redesigning their application to make it a more complete and engaging experience using the framework and principles of the existing product. We used an end-to-end UX process including User Research, Usability Testing, Interaction Design and Visual Design while working with the stakeholders closely. 

I was one of four UX designers on the project. My role was mainly around designing the Dashboard, Search and Settings aspects and also leading User Research and Usability Testing efforts. 

PROJECT OUTCOME

The end-to-end user-centered design process helped the second generation Linkagoal application increase user engagement. Also, infusing user evaluation throughout the design process, the Linkagoal team and my design team could solve uncertainty and move on a single design direction. The result was an application to delight both people who potentially will be using it and the Linkagoal team. It also led my design agency at the time to receive an extension of work to design their mobile app.

User Research 

Our team used the first month to dive deeper into the product and learn about the users. I conducted six user interviews to understand their general goal achieving processes, their motivations and how they used the social network. Additionally, we conducted Heuristic Analysis to examine the current application.

Ideation Phase

Based on results from the User Research, our team came up with ideas for the redesign. For the dashboard design, I came up with two different concepts, then narrowed down to the just one concept based on feedback.

Wireframing and Usability Testing

We went through a few design iterations. Once we felt that our design was good enough, we jumped into usability testing. I conducted two rounds of usability testing on clickable prototypes, and that helped our team to further solidify the design. 

High-Fidelity Wireframes 

Based on findings from the usability testing, I designed high-fidelity wireframes for the dashboard, search and settings. 

iOS Mobile App 

After the successful redesign of the Linkagoal web platform, the Linkagoal team came back and requested our team for a redesign of their mobile iOS app. Our goal was to design an app that helps users interact with the platform on the go and focuses on making core daily tasks easy to perform. Because we had a limited time frame and resources, we used the Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation method to quickly come up with design ideas and evaluate them. It has helped my team to apply the user-centered design for the mobile app. While I was engaged on a different project at the time, my contribution for this phase was to mentor a junior UX designer and guide her through the interaction designs and usability testing.