Problem Brainstorming

This quarter was the first time all of us have taken a virtual class via Zoom. As we got to know each other more, we discovered that one of our teammates was having a long-distance relationship. Since all of us have never experienced quarantine lives before, we start to wonder how the current solution to online communication holds up. We all concluded that even though our friends are one phone call or text away, they felt extremely far to reach as quarantine gets longer and longer. 

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Since the general users of social media platforms are the younger generations, we narrowed down our target audience to those who are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and use social media platforms on a daily basis. To gain a deeper understanding of our audience, we conducted research through multiple interviews (all different demographics and characteristics) and online research. 

User Research & Personas 

We interviewed 3 people all in different stages of their romantic relationships and friendships. We found out that no matter what age group one is in, long-distance relationships are not only hard to maintain but online communication apps are considered to be more and more forced for many reasons. When we dug more into the problems, we found out that

• People are lacking the motivation to communicate

• Coordination from both sides is not as natural as before

• People are using apps as memory storage to re-live past moments

• Communication between both sides is easily forgotten as lives become dull.

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Our main takeaway is that people are merging their social life and personal life to a point where the motivation/incentive to communicate is missing.

We also created two personas to get a better grasp of what our target audience is undergoing:

Persona 1​

• Name: Dwayne

• Gender: Male

• Education: A Junior Student at UW 

• Relationship Status: Long-distance relationship 

• Pain point: Dwayne is in a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend, who is studying in UIUC. This year is the third of the long-distance relationship. The lack of intimacy and the fact that they were separated most of the time in the past three years have become a major issue in their relationship. Even though they make phone calls and video chats every day, it’s becoming more difficult for them to make meaningful conversations rather than monotonous conversations about daily life. Sometimes they felt that video chatting reminded them of the distance between them and made the long-distance relationship even more difficult. Therefore, Dwayne is looking for activities that he and his girlfriend could engage remotely and to be a part of each other’s life even though they are not together physically.

Persona 2

• Name: Dannie

• Gender: Female

• Education: A Senior Student at UCSD 

• Relationship Status: Single 

• Pain point: As an International student, Dannie hasn’t gone back home for over 2 years. She is graduating this year and planned to go home to visit her family after graduation. However, due to the pandemic, her travel plan is affected and the flight tickets have been canceled several times. Facing the uncertainty of the current situation of pandemic and the frustration of the changes in travel plans have increased her feeling of loneliness and anxieties. Rather than making phone calls and video chatting with family and friends, she wants to spend more time with her family and friends to do some fun activities and ease the loneliness, however, due to the time difference, she only has limited time to talk to her family and friends back at home.

In a world of a pandemic, how might we regain closeness with each other in a natural way?

Define Requirements​

Before working on prototypes, we defined a few functions we want to include in our solution:

• the app should be an incentive tool

• using the app to communicate with other people shouldn’t be a burden 

• include a place where people can see their past memories 

• keep users wanting to come back to the app and make more meaningful connections with loved ones 

• offer users a sense of having a "shared space"

Design concept​ and Wireframes 

After tons of research and brainstorming, our initial solution was similar to Snapchat's AR function, which projects an object on screen through the camera lens capturing one's surrounding space. I brainstormed through a lot of objects that could be included in the app, such as furniture and decorations. Users can create a space, whether it is a space that exists or an imaginary space, and decorate the shared space together. 

However, we realized that the "recreation of memories" is not a big incentive to encourage users to communicate. It could be just a one-time thing, creating a space and revisiting it once in a while, or it could also be a hassle to create since any detail missing would reduce the intimacy of the shared space. 

We thought of the idea of "raising a pet", similar to the early pet game, Tamagotchi. People nowadays are not capable of raising pets due to environment and financial constraints, but having a pet is still a life goal of many.

Our final solution incorporates the ideas of creating the incentive of communication without burden through raising a pet together (later we came up with the name "chotchkee" for pets), storing memories of the activities/collaboration by both sides (later named Memory Palace), and decorating a shared space curated for the pet.

Design Rationale​

For the design process to be smooth and without confusion, Tommyhil and I created a simple design rationale of how our design should look like in terms of the appearance of the app.​​

For the color palette, we chose the teal color to make a connection with the app name “Nurture” as it shows the growth of a chotchkee and two people in a relationship. The orange and purple add brightness to our app to give users a sense of sweetness and wholesomeness. The beige color softens the harsh and plain white and so is the light gray. We chose the light gray as the background color and dark gray like most of the fonts’ colors.

For our font choice, we chose the Gotham font to convey clean typography that is easy to read and yet modern. We also included different variations of the Gotham font to help direct users in the user experience. 

User Journey & Final Prototype​

The final prototype of our app includes these pages and functions:

• Initial sign-in/sign up page

• Activity page

  • able to start an activity with another person​

  • take a picture of the activity (et. watching Netflix together)

  • the more activities are done, the healthier the chotchkee will get, and the more skills it will get

• Chotchkee page 

  • shows all the chotchkees raised with loved ones​

    • shows the selected chotchkee's age, parents, and the skills it has (activities done by both parties)​

    • shows the "shared space" or chotchkee's home decorated by both parties

    • shows the Memory Palace, which stores the activities done together

• Friends page

  • shows all the contacts a user has

  • able to invite a person to start an activity 

  • simple editing of contacts

We also created 5 user journeys:

1. Signing in/logging in Nurture

2. Inviting a friend to raise a chotchkee

3. Starting an activity with a friend

4. Reflecting on a piece of memory and visiting a chotchkee's house

5. Reviving a chotchkee after low and inconsistent engagement with a friend 

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Below are three user journeys of the high-fidelity prototype.

Video Prototype​

We also made a video prototype demonstrating the reason for designing the app. Enjoy! :)

Reflection​

​What went well:

• Multiple brainstorming ideas and user research gave us insights into what users wanted and what ideas would not interest users.

• Sketching and wireframing lead us in the right direction, even though they were just rough sketches.

• Responsibilities were clear and collaboration was smooth even though some of our teammates were living in different time zones. 

Opportunities for improvement:

• Doesn't work for people who are content with their relationship and are not looking for a way to improve their bond together.

• Doesn't work for those who are not seeking relationship commitments.

• Teamwork via Slack is a little slow.

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