How We Came Up with Kin Appreciation Module
A couple of weeks ago, Kin’s product and design guilds got together for a day-long workshop to talk about one of the most important peer-to-peer interactions within the Kin ecosystem — the appreciation module.
Sharing Our Journeys
To get our creative juices flowing, we shared with each other some of our favorite mobile and online experiences. It was amazing to see the range of individual preferences and choices regarding what we expect from social apps and how we behave in them .
This exercise helped us bring honesty, authenticity, and variety to the table. Even though we use more or less the same apps — every person is having a very individual journey online.
As a product designer, l always try to keep it in mind, and that was a very real reminder.
Magic vs. Money
After warming up, we split into two teams, with product managers and designers mixed together. Each team received six trigger cards on the subject «magic vs. money». We had exactly one hour to come up with concept wireframes.
My team agreed on the significance of light and joyful user experience for the appreciation module. We wanted to make it enjoyable for Kin users to tip content that touched them. Sharing should be as pleasant as receiving, just like in real life.
It is about giving Kin as much as getting Kin.
Never Too Many Great Ideas
In an hour, two teams presented their concepts to each other.
Both ideas were brilliant.
We saw that Сoncept 1 is great for appreciation via feed, while Сoncept 2 works perfectly for appreciation via profile. So we decided to keep both.
What’s Next?
Next, we will test concepts we came up with during our workshop — to see how each feature and the combination of both work for Kin users.
As much as we believe in a good brainstorm, user testing is still the most meaningful stage of the design process that shows how good our ideas really are. It also tells us what we need to tweak and change in order to create a delightful experience for a heap of individual journeys through the Kin ecosystem.
