“Remote working made it easy, I could quickly find cafes by viewing the stories of others”
Post Up is a startup with a broad community of remote workers and freelancers sharing advice, tips, resources, and more. Post Up has become well aware of the issues that remote workers and freelancers face when working from home, which sparked the decision to create an app that allows users to seek workspaces that fit their needs.
This project was a design sprint part of a team building excersize in which I was the sole UX/UI designer. I was provided with the design brief and other research data in order to complete this project.
Project Type:
Design Sprint, Springboard UX Career Track
My Role: User Research, Storyboarding, Interaction Design, Wire-framing, Rapid prototyping, Usability testing
Design Process
Day 1: Understand
Post Up has done substantial quantitative and qualitative analysis with users to understand the audience better. While synthesizing the research, I found several key themes surrounding what factors users consider when picking a spot to work from.
Considerations include:
An area to complete various tasks, do focused work, take phone calls, have meetings
Detailed photos of the location's workplace beyond the menu
Distance from their home
Significant distance between tables
The ability to find seating
Honest reviews
Post Up wants to develop a convenient solution that allows remote workers to find public places where they can work.
Currently, people would search for potential workspaces on Google, but this option has several limitations. Users want to see what the space looks like internally, its spaciousness, crowd levels, and more. They also rely on the reviews of other patrons to see if their requirements are met.
Day 2: Sketch
Lightning Demo
To get a better idea of other competitor solutions, I decided to conduct a mini Lightning Demo. I downloaded the app, navigated through it to get a better idea of the solutions and took notes of the ones I was inspired by.
Google Maps
Google maps is a great way to quickly find routes to your destination. It's also a great way to find coffee shops. You simply put in "coffee shops" and you're quickly shown several options with valuable information, such as photos, distance, reviews and, more. Although this information is helpful, it may not fit the user's needs and requires a lot of filtering to get the desired result.
Flow
Flow is an app that allows users to access the best coworking space, gyms, spas and experiences. Although it has lots of great working spaces, it requires users to buy a membership. It usually requires users to purchase 1,5, or 10-pass packs for them to use the app. This method, although inconvenient, is the most effective way to find a work place quickly.
Remotable
Remotely is an app that allows users to find work spots near them such as cafes, co-working, and outdoor. It includes the address, amenities, timings, and maps. Unfortunately, the app does not have reviews from people, so users won't be able to see accurate opinions. This is crucial when users select where they want to work.
Sketching possible solutions
After better understanding the problem and potential solutions from other companies, I started on my ideation.
I proceeded to do the “Crazy 8’s” exercise in which I made eight designs for the most critical screens. I got super creative with this step and devised many ways for users to find a convenient spot to do their work. The goal was to help users browse some areas until they found something that stuck out to them, in which they could then click and view more details.
Solution sketch
While evaluating my sketches, I decided to go with the sketch that has the stories. This screen allows users to view stories posted in the various potential workspaces. In addition, the story will include the location allowing users to feel free to access more details on these workspaces.
Day 3: Storyboard
I decided to create a storyboard to better understand how the product's navigation will go. This was a low-fidelity and lightweight sketch to prepare the final screens for my prototype.
Day 4: Prototype
Before making the high-fidelity mockups, I made another sketch to pick the final screens of my prototypes.
I used Figma to implement my designs and create my prototype while still focusing on the solution: finding the right spot to work.
Final Product
Day 5: Test
After completing my prototype, I tested it with five people who work remotely and often look for public spaces to do work. I conducted the usability testing in person.
Goals of Usability Testing
Can users easily understand the “story” feature to select a workspace?
Can users find the information they need to determine if they want to work in that location?
Do the users feel like the “story” feature is an excellent incentive to join?
Usability Insights
Participants understood the reasoning for the stories and the importance of real people posting their experiences at the workspaces.
Participants were fond of stories being available from cities nearby.
Participants reported that the app features met all their requirements to decide whether they wanted to go to a specific location or not.
Participants reported that they enjoyed story features from their social media platforms and liked that it was also available on this product.
Created by Aml Sultana