Overview

Anyone is an audio-based app that allows people to grab a five-minute call with anyone on the planet to answer any burning questions they may have. A marketplace for professionals to monetize their expertise by sharing knowledge with like-minded people. For this case study, we focused on designing an approachable experience that eliminates social anxiety and provides trust.

A Team of 3 Full-Stack Product Designers - Remote

The Problem

Anyone's users need to confidently and easily compare advisors and topics when they seek professional advice. Currently, the app presents gaps preventing users from paying for the service -limited information about advisors, too many advisors to choose from, and limited functionality to filter and sort, leaving users overwhelmed, confused, and uninterested.

This is how we propose to fix that.

Hypothesis

We believe that by providing users with sufficient information about the advisors' credentials, users would feel confident setting up calls and thus engage in calls and trust the app.

The Solution

Strengthen the information and reduce the steps to achieve approachable interactions with confidence and leverage user benefit by featuring:

• "Advisor of the week" section on the main page - approachable interaction, trust right off the bat. • Advisors profile links to reliable network channels (LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium) and video introductions - transparency, personality.

• Save advisors and topics as favorites to visit later.

The Outcome

The results from our unmoderated usability test gave us insight into what improvements and flows could be made to the design to enhance the user experience. Although the completion rate for each task set was high, feedback on open-ended questions provided us with qualitative data for the next round of tests.

First Questions & Observations

To help us better frame any problems with the product, we began by forming some questions and observations we had about the product. To easily document these, we followed the structure [situation], [response], [problem to business or experience] to ensure we are aware of users and business needs.

When searching in need of an advisor, users are required to explore an infinite scroll of profiles, which causes frustration and disinterest as there are too many options to choose from.

When browsing through profiles, users don't see enough information, which causes them to doubt the advisors' credentials.

When searching through popular topics on the home screen, users must scroll through a long list, which causes them to lose interest.

When making a call, users are required to enter their payment information then wait for advisors to pick up, which causes unease because there isn't an indication to know if advisors will answer the call.

Research

To confirm our observations and begin forming a hypothesis backed by data, we created a user survey to uncover the core problems with the product that we could prioritize for user and business needs.

Synthesis

Having shared our survey with users of the product, the next stage of our case study was focused on synthesizing the data to recognize trends and form a hypothesis. During the synthesis, we segmented user responses and used an affinity map to prioritize the problems of users in line with business needs.

Affinity Map

Validated observations

We validated our initial observations by conducting a moderated usability tests on the current app and having users complete two different tasks, which showed us the users' main pain points, frustrations, and motivations when browsing through advisors' profiles. By uncovering these main pain points, frustrations and motivations, we were able to define the main areas to work on.

How Might We

With a picture of the problem at hand starting to come into place, we jumped into the ideation phase and worked through the solution design model, identifying users' actual and optimal behaviors. This allowed us to form a how might we statement to begin forming a solution.

HMW design a flow that helps users feel comfortable in the credentials of the advisors?

Ideation

To avoid following the first idea, we conducted a series of ideation techniques. This allowed us to consider an array of solutions. Following ideation, we mapped what could be improved, added, and crazy ideas and prioritized them based on user value, business value, effort, and time.

Hypothesis

Having prioritized ideas based on what can be improved, added, or crazy ideas, we wrote a hypothesis that helps us frame the problem for the user and business goals.

Users goal: Increase credibility in advisors. Business goal: User engagement and retention.

We believe that by providing users with sufficient information about the advisors' credentials, users would feel confident setting up calls and thus engage in calls and trust the app.

Rapid Sketching

After creating our hypothesis, we rapidly sketched solutions in lo-fidelity. This helped us quickly map and understand the current product and consider options for iterating directly in the product. We began ideating solutions to improve the flow and maximize the user gain to ensure people are getting what they are expecting and paying for - education and confidence.

Wireframes

When users open the app, they land on the Explore Page, so I integrated affordances and redesigned features to establish trust through information and hierarchy to create a seamless exploration experience.

UI Styles & Components

The low fidelity prototype helped us recognize frustrations with the experience that we improved at the high fidelity stage. To create the high fidelity prototype, we inspected the product's style and followed the 8pt rule to effectively and easily create a prototype that was consistent with the product styling. Before creating the prototype, we defined styles and components to easily and quickly help us design consistently.

High Fidelity Prototype

Below is the final version of the prototype that we created. We included interactions and transitions from Figma to match the flow of the product.

Testing

With the high fidelity prototype created, we formed a testing script with scenarios and mission tasks for the user to complete to validate the prototype with real users. To test the prototype, we used Maze and gathered feedback following every task.

Overall completion rates of Mission Tasks:

Direct Success

Testers who completed the mission via the expected path(s): 66.7%

Give-up / Bounce

Testers who left or gave up the mission: 33.3%

Mission task #1: Direct success 50%, bounce rate 50%. According to the heatmaps and the follow-up questions/answers, we learned that most users preferred to use the search bar from the start. Since the search bar was not yet habilitated to interact within the prototype, this generated many misclicks when users tried - and failed - to find an advisor using this feature. This undoubtedly affected the Usability scores.

"Logically, I would not have thought to find bookings under the title Topics. Also, I imagine it might take quite a bit of time searching through profiles to find someone that is answering my specific questions. Perhaps, the search (if working) could simplify this. " "Finding out people in my field without having to click on their image."

Mission task #2: Direct success 85%, bounce rate 15%. We asked users to go to the advisor's profile and interact with it. Through Maze's report and follow-up questions, we learned about their experience,

"The video intro is nice to get a better sense of the mentor with the tone, inflection, and body language. "

"If discovery is of importance, maybe I'd scoot the featured advisors above the fold, so I don't have to scroll."

"Features, images, and descriptions were useful."

Outcomes and Lessons

Although the Anyone Case Study is still in progress, we were able to learn valuable information,

1. Research is fundamental.
2. Don't be afraid to show early/messy work.
3. Test early and often.
4. Better done than perfect.
5. Communicate regularly. Communication is critical, especially now that remote work is the norm.

If you have any suggestions or feedback, feel free to connect with me via LinkedIn or Email.