Watch, Create, and Share Content. Your Way.
Overview
Dooyah is a social platform for "Do It Yourself"ers.
Users can search, post and engage with each other’s content. It also allows users the ability to connect directly to thriving DIY community groups.
Project Type
UX/UI Design Capstone
Timeline
6 weeks
Role
Product Designer
UX Researcher
Product Strategist
Crafting a digital space for the DIY community
The Story
One day, I was speaking with my sister about her knitting adventures in New York. She regularly knits on her commute to and from work and often sparks conversations with people from all backgrounds because of their curiosity or shared passion.
I asked her if there was anywhere online that she felt she could connect and have conversations similar to the ones she had on the subway. Her reply, “sort of. I mean I watch tutorial videos here and there.” This led me to ask myself a few questions to identify and further clarify the challenge presented.
Challenge
How can we increase the sense of community and belonging in the online DIY space?
A few questions came to mind:
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What makes someone feel connected in the online DIY space?
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Where are DIYers currently posting content and engaging with one another?
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How do they feel about their current interactions on these platforms?
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How can this experience be improved?
User-Centered Approach
Design Process
Empathize
Define
Ideate
User Stories
Test
Prototype
Low-fidelity wireframes
User Testing
Incorporation of Feedback
Prototype
High fidelity wireframes
Secondary Research
Primary Research
User Persona
Empathy Mapping
Sketching
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Understanding the Challenge
Preparing for Research
I set out to better understand the DIY community. I wanted to identify which platforms and methods were the most common when looking for niche content. Were there specific products that DIYers preferred for connecting with one another? I also focused on gaining insights to determine how this task can be made more efficient and enjoyable in order to provide a deeper sense of community.
Method 1: Secondary Research
I clarified and tested my hypothesis via exploratory research. “DIY communities need a product that will foster deep community and allow users to connect effortlessly.”
I analyzed sources that discuss the condition and status of DIY social platforms.
Method 2: User Interviews
As I moved on to conduct user interviews I thought it would be easy to find DIYers amongst our peer space groups and facebook groups. However, with little feedback and the deadline approaching - I reached out directly on our competitions websites and asked those who were active in forums to participate in our study. I was able to gather the following information:
>80%
agreed
Inadequate Community Feature
Lacking interaction
Upload Restrictions
agreed
>60%
agreed
>50%
Defining the Problem + Goal
Improving the user experience
Users need an efficient way to share their ideas with DIY peers because the current platforms are limiting. It's imperative to apply the findings from the study to design a platform that give Diyers the freedom to post various kinds of content while also providing the opportunity to connect deeper within their communities.
Measurability of Success:
User Retention
Posts, shares & comments
Content Uploads
Ideation
Translating Ideas to Sketches
As I moved on to the ideate stage, I found that I was inspired by some indirect competitors such as Reddit's "subreddits" and "communities" as well as Youtube's videoplayer and Pinterest's recommendation and search.
Building the design
As I moved onto low-fi prototyping and further explored my ideas and study findings, I found that I was torn between optimizing for "mobile" in the vertical format or going with the more traditional format of "horizontal" video play.
Ultimately, I would find my answer in the usability study.
Desktop
Mobile
Usability Testing
Pain Points
This usability study started off smooth on the homepage and content pages, but things quickly turned interesting as users reported struggling to find the community "Hubgroup" page. They also struggled to successfully complete the comment and download tasks.
90%
Difficulty Locating Community Page
70%
Comment feature
80%
Download feature
Solutions
Implementing feedback from users
I gathered the insights from the usability study and changed the "chat" feature to reflect "groups" to more clearly indicate to users that this was the feature to engage in hubgroups, our niched community groups.
01
Community made easy with Hubgroups
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Clarified messaging
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"Chat" to "Groups"
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Thumbnail Orientation
02
Take the guesswork out with curated content
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Content or Hubgroups
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AI Learning
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Efficient Search
Accessibility
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I ensured colors used met WCAG 2.1 AA standards to account for color contrast ratios.
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I increased the font size from 9pt to 16 pts across all designs for those users who are vision impaired.
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I integrated voice to text features on all search capabilities across the desktop and mobile sites.
