Circa
1. Overview
Product
A location-based online community for college students to connect on and off-campus.
Role
Product designer and manager
Goal
Design a location-based community for students to connect with shared interests and find things to do nearby.
Timeline
On going project
Tools
2.1 User research
We researched existing college online communities to understand students’ existing challenges and used an affinity map to identify patterns.
Making friends and being lonely was a recurring theme among students.
2.2 User interviews
We interviewed 25 people (ages 18-37) to understand their existing tools and communities and what they like and don’t like about them. Their responses were recorded in a spreadsheet and categorized by insights (e.g., like, dislike, behavior, or idea.)
Interview responses were categorized by solution, type of insights, and additional notes.
We filtered to view only dislikes to find a recurring pattern and potential problems we could address. The recurring theme was negativity in online communities.
Interviewee quotes describing how negativity occurs in existing solutions.
Users are not friendly. There is not enough emphasis on building community.
People being negative. Characterized version of themselves. There are no repercussions for actions.
Users are cruel at times.
Users are superficial.
I don't feel a part of anything.
People are always competing with each other.
We brainstormed and posted the question online and received the following, which helped guide the solution of a customizable local social feed.
"...if you want a way to fix the negativity, you have to actually give people a way to avoid it."
2.2 Competitor Analysis
Exploring social network interfaces allowed us to understand existing mental models (e.g., Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).
We combined social media design patterns with iOS Design Guidelines to reduce users’ learning curves and save time on development.
3.1 Problem Statements
1. Students struggle to make meaningful relationships when new on campus or living off-campus. Our solution should provide students with a local community feed to meet students with shared interests and to find things to do nearby.
2. Online communities prioritize popular culture content and users experience negative interactions experiences. Our solution should prioritize community building and positive experiences by giving users control over their feed.
3.2 MVP Scope
We defined the minimum features required to build a social network and then defined use cases (user abilities) the solution would support.
3.3 User flows
We defined all the steps users would have to go through to complete said processes and confirm designs included the required functionality to complete each task.
4.1 Wireframes
We outlined screens needed to design by first writing down the elements required for a user to complete the task and navigate to the associated screens necessary. We then sketched designs before pixel-pushing allowed us to test faster.
4.2 Grids
We used a 5 column grid with a 16px gutter and 4 pixel grid for consistent spacing and layout.
4.3 Low fidelity designs
4.4 Design iterations
4.4. Final Designs
Circa is available on the Apple App Store. The soft launch started in February 2022.
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