Problem
Moving to a new city alone, and settling in a strange environment especially when you don’t have any friends or family to support you can be very challenging and represents a life-changing event.
Finding people, getting accustomed to the city, forming a healthy lifestyle, and getting accustomed to a new role are some of the challenges faced by users. Social isolation can lead to loneliness and impact mental health.
Research
When it comes to finding guidance or support during a life-changing event people are seeking meaningful connections, reliability, shared experiences, less superficiality, and genuine support. People believe that shared experiences are instrumental when embracing change.
Research
1:1 Interviews
Survey
Affinity Maps
User Archetype
Design
User Flow
Wireframing
Prototyping
Style Guide
User Testing
Strategy
UX Strategy​
Brand Positioning
Competitor Analysis
Business Model
Solution
Bud’n is a social platform that helps you form meaningful connections in the face of change. Our matching system facilitates connections based on shared experiences between people who wish to buddy up while facing a new chapter (our ‘Newbies’) and those willing to share their experiences! (our ‘Buddies’).
Buddying up in the face of change!
Three Pillars!
Bud'n three-step process stands for Credibility & Trust, Meaningful connection, and Growing Together.
Compatibility!
Bud'n lets the newbies enter their concerns, lifestyle choices, interests, and hobbies. We ask similar questions to buddies specifically to understand their strengths and mastery.
Choices!
Based on this data our system creates a compatibility index and suggests matches to both parties. However, they get to choose from our list of suggestions and decide their match based on profiles.
Go beyond screens!
Bud'n encourages users to take the connection beyond the screens, with the unique chat feature. The chat expires in 20 days if you don't meet your connection physically. The system will send a reminder when you are a week away from losing your chat.
To ensure "Trust and Credibility" the app recommends its vetted partnered venues for the first meet-up.
Let's incentize the journey!
To promote life beyond the virtual Bud'N also curates a pool of exciting events happening around the city, that our users can explore and book easily from the app. The premium members get access to exclusive Bud'N events.
Every time our newbies and buddies meet, they earn reward points, which help them purchase coupons and redeem them at their next hangout.
Process Overview
We planned our research and design activities around the double diamond design process model; originally proposed by Bela H. Banathy.
Analyze: Market Analysis
Identify: Opportunity Statement
Empathize: User Research
Align User Archetype,
Process Overview
I designed this process map suited for our project as an adaptation of the double diamond design process model; originally proposed by Bela H. Banathy.
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Market
Research
Opportunity
Statement
User
Archetypes
Key
Insights
User
Research
Eraf
Map
Target
Audience
Value
Prop
Business Model
Key
Drivers
3 Value
Pillars
Design Criteria
Competitor
Analysis
User
Flow
Wireframe
Design
User
Testing
Brand
Styleguide
Hi fidelity
Prototype
Logo
Design
ShowReel
Video
Marketing
Poster
Let's dig into the scrappy process!
Goal ~
The goal of the project was to identify a unique opportunity space and to develop a niche social media platform that solves a specific problem of the target users by facilitating a connection.
PHASE 1
Market Research ~
This was in the form of secondary research which included: brand studies, SWOT analysis, social media trend Reports, Global Trends reports, and Tech Trends. These revealed a few key themes for the current and future social media landscape.
These trends reflect user behavior and motivation and The hero insight that connected all of these themes was the rise of "Genuinfluencers". These are people who want to genuinely be a positive influence on others' life without any personal interest in earning money.
PHASE 2
Opportunity Statement ~
Based on our research, we identified an opportunity space and defined a broad but crisp opportunity statement, before we dive into field research and identify a specific problem that needs to be addressed!
"How might we enable people to make genuine connections that encourage empathy, promote authenticity and facilitate growth?"
PHASE 3
User Research
Our primary research was carried out through two main activities: an initial survey to understand the context and reach potential users, and a series of interviews to gain a deeper understanding of how our social network could be designed to assess our user’s needs and wants.
The survey was used to generate challenges from a bigger sample size. Based on the high-frequency responses, we built our discussion guide for our interview participants, to dig deeper into the "Whys".
We further conducted affinity mapping for the responses to generate our key Insights!
A Majority of the participants showed interest in a platform that enables the development of meaningful relationships based on one-on-one guidance in various aspects of life.
User quotes:
What are they looking for?
EMOTIONAL SUPPORT
TANGIBLE SUPPORT
TRUST
ENCOURAGEMENT
INFORMATION
GUIDANCE
"I feel helping each other move through similar experiences is a great way to give back to the society"
"Moving to a new city alone was hard, I don't want anyone to go through what I went through"
"I would love to guide someone to overcome challenges"
"We are in a generation the idea of connection is through social media, and it's so superficial"
Eraf Map
This helped us understand and outline interconnected, interdependent relationships between our stakeholders and their attributes.
PHASE 4
Key Insights
Synthesis revealed 7 Key insights. These insights helped us align on the specific problem that our application would solve.
Moving to a new city represents a life-changing event. Getting used to a new environment, new people, and possibly a new role is never easy. The majority of our audience was seeking support in situations like these. Additionally, we discovered people feel more comfortable sharing this with strangers to avoid “bothering” their relatives and friends.
At the same time, most people feel helping a stranger through an experience they went through themselves is a way of giving back and it can be rewarding in itself and also helps in making lifelong connections.
User Archetypes
Newbie
The one without any clue
"I don't know what or how"
Newbie
The one with the footprints
"I have been there"
Buddy
Buddy
The one who "kind off" knows
"I know what, show me how"
The one with the footprints
"I have seen this happen around me"
PHASE 5
Value Proposition
Moving to a new city comes with its own set of challenges. Especially for the ones who take this journey alone like students, single working professionals, single parents, or at times even couples!
When it comes to finding guidance or support during times of change, people look for meaningful connections, genuine support, and less superficial interactions. Most people also feel helping a stranger go through an experience they went through themselves is a way of giving back.
Curious about the business strategy? View the business plan here.
Click here to view our brand positioning and strategy.
Product Value Pillars
Between our users through a verification process and with our users as a trusted platform
Credibility & Trust
Meaningful Connection
Facilitated by us for our users to enable a community centered on genuineness and empathy.
Mutual Growth
We encourage our users to grow together, & also grow with our users to provide better services.
PHASE 6
Design Criteria ~
MUST HAVE
SHOULD HAVE
COULD HAVE
WON'T HAVE
Check balance to ensure credibility
A thorough profile development model
Icebreakers to start interactions
Defined boundaries on usage
Features to monitor foul communication
Various categories of challenges
Facilitation of mental health counselling
Allow for self-promotion of users
Phygital face to face interactions
Compatibility index (Based on shared ex)
Testimonials or feedback feature
One on one + group experiences
Accessibility for language translation
A freemium
model
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Paid
Promotion
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Easy to use & accessible interface
Freedom to choose your connection
Gamified system to
motivate people
A space to own
and publish blog
Different levels of usage
Features ~
We identified 12 features based on the design criteria that would best represent our product. These features were then used to create a blue ocean strategy framework and conduct a competitor analysis to identify the white space and define USP.
We identified 12 features based on the design criteria that would best represent our product. These features were then used to create a blue ocean strategy framework and conduct a competitor analysis to identify the white space and define USP.
Socially Driven
Matching Index
Thorough Profile
Face to face interaction
Element of Choice
Ease of use
Feedback System
Credibility of Information
Cost to user
Content Moderation
Transparency
Supplementary content
PHASE 7
Wireframing
PHASE 8
Feature Priority Matrix
Based on the design criteria and blue ocean strategy we listed the 13 most important features of our product. However, due to time constraints and the accuracy of research results, we wanted to focus on limited features for the testing.
We used a measuring matrix to select the necessary features to test. Our 3 measures for prioritization were: Risk, Business Impact, and User Impact. The calculated rating helped in identifying 6 features for the user testing workshop.
User Testing Toolkit
Activity 1: Create your own Profile!
What? We provided the users with a bunch of category cards. They could play around with the cards to make an ideal profile page.
Why? To understand what type of information would they be willing to share and what information points were important to them when choosing a buddy.
Activity 3: How to break the ice?
What? The users were provided with a bunch of cards to play or draw on. This helped them express their ideal way of breaking the ice with a stranger.
Why? To understand if the app needs to facilitate the interaction.
Activity 2: All in one vs three separate ways?
What? We provided the participants with three cards to understand what journey would they take once on the home page.
Why? To discover if we should create a new user journey for three aspects of moving into the city or keep a singular journey with sub-categories.
Activity 4: Let's check the feel-good factor!
What? The users were provided with a bunch of images that represented different reward systems. (Rating, points, testimonials, coupons, notification)
Why? To understand the ideal reward system to keep the buddies motivated and incentivize face-to-face interactions.
Key features post testing
Personality avatars
Verification System
Multiple Categories
Matching system
Phygital experience
Coupon Reward
Event Suggestions
PHASE 8
