Explore Your World!

VIEW PROTOTYPE

THE BRIEF:
Design an MVP for a new lifestyle app.
THE ROLE:
UI/UX Designer & Researcher
THE TIMELINE:
5 Weeks (April - May 2024)
First, let’s set the scene...
Research / User Interviews / Competitor Analysis
Faced with the open-ended prompt of designing a lifestyle app, I first thought about what daily challenges or annoyances I faced in MY life, and I reflected on conversations I had with family and friends.
The Problem
“THERE’S NOTHING TO DO HERE!”
Where I live in the California Bay Area, residents of the suburbs outside of San Francisco seem to not be aware of the events, activities, and new businesses that they could be enjoying on their days off. As a result:
・
Residents feel more negative about their own cities
・
They potentially waste time, money, and gas going to farther cities for fun.
・
It’s also bad for local businesses and events when people aren’t aware of them.
Ask Yourself These Questions:
When was the last time you tried something new in your area? Have you ever missed a local event because you didn’t know about it? How much time do you spend deciding where to go?
And so, to test my hypothesis, I conducted user interviews with 5 residents in my area. Here’s what they had to say:
“No, there’s literally nothing to do here. There’s too many academic centers. Can we get more cafes to sit in? With outlets?”
“There’s not much to do here. I want more Cool things, like co-working places, nice bars and clubs. And less SAT camps!”
“When I go out I do feel like sometimes i don’t know what to do or where to go, even with friends.”
“Well, there’s lots of stuff in the area I haven’t done yet. But sometimes I have a hard time deciding what to do or eat.”
“I think that there’s plenty of things to do in the Bay Area, but it’s just hard to keep track of it all.”
Most of the interviewees agreed there simply wasn’t enough to do in the area, and even those who disagreed admitted to having trouble with deciding WHAT to do.
So, I asked them: “What apps or resources do you currently use to find new things to do or places to go?”
I performed a competitive analysis on the top 3 apps they mentioned, plus another app, AllEvents, that I found during my research.
KEY INSIGHTS
from Competitive Analysis
1
Instagram can be a good place to discover places/events, but you have to dig for it and know what accounts or hashtags to follow
2
AllEvents isn’t well known, but it seems like a great place to learn about events but it’s only useful for that.
3
Google Maps and Yelp both are actually very robust apps for daily activity planning, but most features are not promoted well.
But one big missed opportunity in ALL of these apps was GAMIFICATION. In fact, this idea was brought up in one of the interviews:
“Maybe find a way to gamify [the app]. Make it fun. Like ‘oh you gotta find this random crevice in this nature spot. Like a scavenger hunt - maybe you get points for going to different places.”
And so I thought: perhaps there’s a way to reward users for going to places/events. Which brought me to my central question:
How might we help Bay Area residents discover things to do in their area and reward them for going out and exploring?
It’s time for solutions.
Brainstorm / Develop / Feature Set / User Flow
After some brainstorming, I landed on the idea of a digital stamp rally app.
Photo: Tokyo Weekender
What is a stamp rally?
Popular in Japan, a stamp rally is “a course where you visit different locations in order to collect stamps, often sharing a common theme. Stamp rallies are often organized by train operators, tourist association and shops, so the goal is to make you use their train, their store, or visit a location of interest.”
-- Japan Travel
And while they’re popular in Japan, with some apps available, a Google search returned nothing of the sort made for use in the United States. So, here were some other considerations I made at this stage:
To add to the uniqueness of this app, I considered opening the creation of stamp rallies to the users themselves. Of course, for the MVP, I knew my primary focus was on discovery, in order to solve the original problem my interviewees raised. However, user-created content would ideally make way for a wide diversity of different types of quests and even appeal to niche interests.
In the future, this app could also make partnerships with local businesses and event organizers and offer real-world rewards such as deals and coupons.
PICTURE THIS:
STAMP QUEST — an app where you can create and participate in GPS-based “quests” that encourage you to explore the real world around you, while earning digital “stamps” and other rewards.
For example, there could be a quest called:
“My Top 5 Favorite Italian Restaurants in New York City”
or maybe...
“The Best Cafes to Get Work Done in San Francisco”
or even...
“10 Locations in Oakland That Were Featured in Movies.”
“5 Unknown Spots to do Nature Sketching in the East Bay”
So, I started developing STAMP QUEST further. I got to work on a Feature Roadmap...
...and a user flow, with the goal of Starting and Completing a Quest.
Let’s say you and a friend are free today and have no plans. So, you look in your Stamp Quest app for a new quest to work on. This user flow illustrates the actions of browsing quests, selecting & activating one, earning & claiming stamps based on your GPS location, completing a quest, and viewing all your completed quests and stamps in your profile page.
From concepts into reality.
Sketches / Wireframes / Usability Testing
From there, I  I moved into designing STAMP QUEST’s wireframes. Starting with rough sketches,
and developing them into a testable mid-fidelity prototype.
For this project, I decided to conduct user testing with these mid-fidelity wireframes so we would truly be testing the functionality, not the visual style of the app. Plus, any revisions I may need to make at this stage will be much easier to implement.
...and test I did! I gathered up 5 more participants, and had them try these tasks:
1
Select a quest from the home screen
2
Activate the quest
3
Get a stamp
4
See other active quests
5
Check profile and view Stamp Book
As expected, it wasn’t a total success. While the tests went smoothly and all of the users expressed that the prototype was straightforward, here were some of the complaints.
“The home page feels very busy”
“lot of cognitive load on homepage.”
“It’s weird how there's a small “Get Stamp” button that just leads to a big “Get Stamp” button on the next screen
“The text might be too small.”
“It would be nice to see the number of stamps for each quest in the Stamp Book page.”
So, I got to work on revisions based on all the feedback I received.
In order to streamline the Home Page for users, I changed the focus to be on a user's Currently Active Quests and Bookmarks.
And I moved the Search and Browsing sections  into the new “Discover” tab.
I made other changes such as adding the distances for each location so users know how far they are before they can claim the stamp,
as well as adding thumbnails to the location markers on the map so they could be distinguished between each other.
The finishing touches.
Branding / UI Component Library / High-Fidelity Prototype
And with testing and revisions complete, I moved on to creating a high fidelity prototype. The process stared with branding and typography.
Then, I designed UI components for the final prototype.
AND NOW... INTRODUCING
Explore the world around you in this virtual stamp rally game! Create your own quests or embark on ones by other creators. Collect stamps and earn rewards for visiting local business, parks, events, and more!
1
On the home page, see your Current Active Quests and the Quests you Saved for later.
2
Discover quests made by local creators like you. Save them for later or tap them to learn more.
3
Before you Start a Quest, read the description and learn about the Stamp Locations.
4
Earn stamps by traveling to the locations in the real world. Be sure to turn on GPS location services!
5
Check your profile to see your Stamp Book, Active Quests, and Saved Quests.
TRY
FOR YOURSELF!

VIEW PROTOTYPE

NEXT STEPS
1
Test and iterate on the final designs and current user flow.
2
Design and test the secondary user flow - Creating Quests.
3
Prepare files for hand-off to developer team.
My Other Work

End-to-end mobile site for Japanese-learners who love manga

End-to-end mobile app to help you explore your local area

JAPAN RAIL PASS

Responsive website redesign for a popular Japan tourist pass

If you’re interested in my UX Design services, or you just want to chat, please feel free to email me or connect with me on LinkedIn!

andrehuang98@gmail.com

ANDRE HUANG

UX Design
TokuJapan Rail PassLetterboxdStamp Quest
Marketing
Beauty Fair3rd Anniv. FesHoliday Ads
Animation
AnimationsStoryboardsIllustrations
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