Maya Castro Gutiérrez

Client

LivnList is a group messaging app that focuses on Video Invites™ in order to easily plan group events and trips. The main goal of this app is to get people from communicating online or digitally to meetings friends and family in real life. 

It’s a productivity app in which users will be able to consolidate all relevant information about events and trips into one simple app. By streamlining the calendar events through group messages, users will know exactly what each group message is about and what calendar event it corresponds to.

Research Methods

• Usability Testing - Existing
• Business Model Canvas
• Competitive Matrix
• User Interview and Affinity Mapping
• Key Insights and Features
• Personas
• User Journey
• APIs
• Competitive Feature Analysis
• KPIs
• Feature prioritization/MoSCoW
• Next Steps

Usability Testing - Existing App

The first step we took as a team was to conduct a usability test on the current app. This allows us to understand how users are thinking through the current LivnList app and let us know any pain points that arise. To begin with, we didn’t have any data to go by so this was going to be the first time we were going to get valuable feedback on the app. 

We understand that users were not too keen on the design, specifically the front-facing camera that appears as you open the app. This feature left users feeling confused and uncomfortable because of the unexpected and unpleasant view of themselves at any given angle. Users also had difficulty completing the three tasks we gave them because the app itself was not intuitive enough or user-friendly. Users explained that the design of the app was confusing and they spent more time trying to figure out what everything meant. The navigation bar was not fixed and interrupted the experience. One of the more frustrating qualities the current app has is in fact its actual formatting, in which it has only been made for iPhone 8 users and those with other versions experience an uninterrupted view. For those with Android or different versions of the iPhone, they weren't able to access the navigation bar as easily since it kept getting cut off.

Key Takeaways

• Users did not enjoy the front-facing camera that immediately appears when you open the app.

• The navigation bar was difficult to understand due to no labels on the icons and its placement on the top of the app

• Some users found it difficult to send an invite because there were no clear directions on how to do so.

• The app was not intuitive or user-friendly and was unique in its design.

Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas provides a better understanding of how a business works; in this case it would be how LivnList works as a business and in relation to other similar companies. 

We learned that the company is currently not making any money and that is intentional as stated by the founder and CEO. The reason behind this is that the CEO wants to gain traction and users to build a reputation among younger demographics. It stands alone and has no key partner(s) and concentrates on creating events through Video Invite, his trademark camera feature that allows users to send event invites via video (or photo).

Competitive Matrix

Aside from learning about the business end of LivnList we investigated what companies would be on par as competitors. We elected to dive deeper into Facebook, Whatsapp, iMessage, MeetUp, IRL, email and Hobnob due to their similar mission statements of bringing people together, whether it be digitally or in real life.These companies also use their platform to help users plan events. 

Facebook stood alone as the only company that was more general and virtual while the other companies were more specialized just like LivnList. Hobnob, MeetUp and IRL were the only platforms that facilitated meet people in person after using their services.

User Interviews and Affinity Map

Once we had a firm grasp on the company and how people were interacting with the existing app, we were able to proceed with interviews. These interviews would help inform both qualitative and quantitative data. We found out that many users use our competitors because the apps were convenient and their friends already use them: it wasn’t hard to suggest an event outing in the same text message they were already messaging on. The most enlightening information we received was how people greatly enjoyed personalizing their messages and love using features like filters, GIFs and themes because it made planning or sending messages that much more fun and exciting.

Our affinity map highlighted behaviors of how our users became increasingly more stressed out and overwhelmed the bigger the event or trip. Users preferred to add friends as co-hosts to alleviate some of the stress from planning whenever possible. Receiving constant notifications pester users so having the ability to mute conversations was important.

Feature Prioritization Map and MoSCoW Map

After gathering all of our information and synthesizing our data, it was time for us to create a Feature Prioritization Map and a MoSCoW Map. The Feature Prioritization Map allows us to contextualize what features we are to implement in the redesign based on how essential and how much it is going to cost the company. Some of the features we decided to incorporate are split itinerary, push notifications and reminders, send videos, calendar, upload media and a home button. These were features our users stressed that were important to them in their current use of other apps when planning. 

The MoSCoW Map was a way for us to see what should, could, must and won’t be on the redesign. We saw that we have a lot of things under Must, including history of events, Video Invite, polls and on-boarding, which are all features to better assist our users. Even though users liked face filters, that feature was moved to Should due to time and budget constraints.

Problem Statement

Even in today’s world of constant communication via social media, people still make plans to meet their friends in person. However, it is not always convenient, given friends’ conflicting schedules and differing interests. 

How might we help friends find an easy way to communicate in order to plan events with each other?

User Journey

When all was said and done, it was important for us to do a user journey of our primary persona without using the LivnList app to experience what it would be like to plan an event and how LivnList can be used afterwards to make planning easier. With our persona of Simone we have a better understanding of where in the planning process she would feel frustrated. 

We understand that she felt annoyed when her friends didn’t reply to her messages about the trip and also when everyone’s opinion was divided. Even though Simone was happy at the end of her planning, there were still some pitfalls that were still not satisfied.

Design

The redesign saw us introduce the key features that we previously learned about that were vital for our users like polls, filters and splitting itineraries. 

On-boarding was implemented to best assist users in understanding the premise of the app and annotated screens for when you first make a Video Invite to send to your friends. 

Wireframes

Mid-Fi and Hi-Fi wireframes were made for the final prototype of LivnList. Below you will find some of the final Hi-Fi wireframes that were made.

Next Steps

1. Adhere to the WAVE rubric in which the app is accessible to individuals with hearing or sight impairment.

2. One more round of usability testing in which other features are included for users to test out, based on our user interviews.

3. Integrate necessary APIs to help users have a better experience.

4. Send information to developer to carry out upgrades.