The Problem
During times of restrictive pandemic measures, we observe a decrease in social interactions among ourselves as well as friends. Meetings are held rarely and even the well-intentioned attempts via online platforms seem bleak.
To counter this phenomenon, we decide to use the course Mashup! Vol.2 as a starting point to develop a concept.
Design Process
To sharpen our rough idea around the topic of social interactions during the pandemic, we set up a survey that gives us insights into other people's experiences.
With a return of 65 response forms, we evaluate the results and adjust our idea of the topic. We quickly notice the majority of all responses come from a similar demographic as our own: Mid to late 20 years old and currently studying.
From this information, we derive the target audience for our app, as we can make the most informed statements for this group.
The demographic from our questionnarie is very clear and drives us to set the target audience accordingly.
User Interface
Our warm colors create a warm, pleasurable feeling while using the app and compliment the simple illustrations which add to a more diverse experience.
The navigation hierarchy is held simple and flat, so the minority of functions require a submenu to gain access.
The homescreen greets us with a proposed Daily Challenge.
The feed invites to explore Challenges and Articles.
Challenges contain a short description and a defined goal.
Personal Challenges can be created quickly with the help of presets.
If no preset machtes the user's desire, individual challenges can be created.
Each article has matching tags and proposes other challenges below.
Variants
On our way to the final screens, we tested many variants and discarded dozens of functions. Nevertheless, we are happy to show a selection of them below.
In the beginning, we named our app "Chatic" and focused on getting people to practice conversations again.
Our current Feed looks similar to our first homescreen, though we switched the functionality of the tiles.
Our second try focused on vikings and receiving achievements. We called the app "Valhalla Task".
These achievements were meant to play an essential role to motivate our users.
Outlook
After completing the semester project, we have no intention of execute the project in any way, but take away some instructive lessons from the process.
Further steps would include user testing with the target audience, as well as the technical implementation of the interface and features.
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