Designing A Social Meetup App
Midpoint is an app (concept) that finds a fair midpoint or meeting place between 2 or more friends based on their interests — factoring distance, time & cost for all.
The application recommends plans using a unique algorithm that factors in:
- Distance
- Time
- Cost
- User preferences (interests e.g. coffee, music festivals, ramen etc.)
The app helps people maintain relationships by making it more convenient and cost effective to make successful plans with friends and family.
Context
8 months ago, I moved to Toronto from Mumbai (January 2018) to further craft my UX skills and work in the booming startup ecosystem of Toronto. Once here, I tried to reach out to my friends from India who’ve been in Toronto for sometime now. 8 months later and I haven’t met anyone.
It’s relatively easier to manage your social life in India due to convenient travel options, shorter distances and of course the culture. I set out to create a platform that allows people to manage their relationships with ease.
There are dozens of app that help you meet strangers but not too many that help you stay in touch with friends you already have. “Have you heard of ‘Facebook’ Karan?” — Yes, but don’t you still have a friend/s you’ve been meaning to catch up with for a long time now?
Market Research
Below you’ll find the research I conducted to identify and validate the need for a product like Midpoint.
- Average no. of friends a Canadian possess
- Average time spent with friends
- Average spend on Food & Beverages
- Ease of Commute (Global score for cities) in Toronto
P.S. Scroll through the graphs and head to the findings summary below :)
Summary of Findings
With a major decline in time spent with friends, yet a considerable rise in spend on restaurant & café meals hints at the difficulty in maintaining relationships.
Commute time in Toronto has skyrocketed in the past 5 years which poses as a barrier to decision-making between friends with some distance between them.
Torontonians being quite price-sensitive (since most of their salary goes towards rent & commute) and looking for affordable options in the city to hangout at.
User Profiles
The next step was to define my audience (Primary and Secondary Users).
Primary Users
The app was intended for all. Though the promotional strategy will be targeted towards youth from the ages of 18 to 35 years.
Users segments:
1. Young executives
2. Students
Both segments are price conscious and practical. They are logical and usually commute using public transport. They have a relatively busier social life. Always enthusiastic to try different things and experiences.
Secondary Users
1. Tourists
2. Professionals over 40
Tourists would use the app to meet friends in the city, to explore more and make sure it’s convenient for all. The app’s suggestions are curated and can provide a unique experiences for all stakeholders.
Professionals over 40 who are tech savvy and would like to streamline their workflow by setting up meetings using Midpoint. The app allows an option to make the plan a formal one, allowing professionals to use it to set up meetings that are fair to all parties involved.
Personas
It’s critical to chart out your personas before you begin designing. I always have someone in mind when I design. Someone who definitely needs the solution I’m designing. Helps me get rid of some biases I might have.
For Midpoint I created two personas that represented my core audience best. Focusing on their needs and frustrations.
Needs:
1. Something to successfully make plans with college friends
2. To know when friends are free to meet, or when their schedule opens up
3. To discover cool things happening in Toronto
Frustrations:
1. Friends don’t respond on time
2. Having back and forth discussions on where to go or what to do
Needs:
1. Connect with friends and family in Toronto
2. Discover new things he would like to do in the city
3. Make sure he doesn’t spend too much on commute
Frustrations:
1. Friends don’t seem to have the time
2. Toronto is massive, distances are too much to casually meet someone for a coffee
Features & User Journey
User interviews & personas helps in understanding the problem better and discover use-cases that hadn’t been explored earlier. Initially Midpoint was to give you recommendations and you would coordinate with your friend on WhatsApp or call to meet at the recommended restaurant/bar/café. After user interviews we discovered valuable use-cases like ‘track your friend’, ‘chat’ etc.
Wireframming
After a rough first draft of initial sketches in my notebook I created a paper prototype to test with friends and family.
Post user feedback I jumped to Sketch to create the wireframes. I prefer using Sketch over Axure because I’m comfortable with the software. I try to keep wireframes as basic as possible. I want to the user to provide feedback strictly on functionality.
High Fidelity Designs & Prototyping
Designs were created on Sketch. Icon pack from Flaticon.
After multiple iterations on design, the personality of the brand started to shine. Bright and exciting. The app should excite a user to create plans and invite friends. The colour palette and iconography were decided keeping this in mind.
The final prototype was created on InVision.
Reflection
Being able to personally connect with the problem helps designing the product. There sure were some personal biases in design decisions which in an ideal Agile Project would be erased with multiple user tests at every stage.
Often when I hear someone say, “God I need to meet her! It’s been so long.” I whisper to myself, “You need Midpoint”.
