{"id":122,"date":"2023-12-13T02:01:04","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T02:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carterbell.net\/?page_id=122"},"modified":"2023-12-20T09:07:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T09:07:11","slug":"grouplink-case-study","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carterbell.net\/index.php\/grouplink-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Study GroupLink"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UI\/UX Design<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Project Overview<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GroupLink is a prospective mobile app which helps keep people traveling in groups on the same page- without frustrating group chats or miscommunications. <\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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My Role<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a solo project, so I was GroupLink’s sole designer, researcher and prototyper over the course of its\u2019 3 week window. <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Design Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I worked on this project in 4 core phases:
1. User Research 2. Definition 3. Iteration and 4. Prototyping
You can navigate to each phase via the table of contents below<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Design Software<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Figma<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Illustrator<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Procreate<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Table of Contents<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Introduction<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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User Research<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Problem Statement<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Iteration<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Prototyping<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Conclusion<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Introduction<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Robust, efficient and accessible, GroupLink could stand as the perfect way to keep an abroad family, group of friends, or students, on the same page.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The GroupLink prototype is an exploration of the concept of a mobile travel app that multiple travel companions can use to schedule, add plans, concerns and dreams for long trips.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Phase 1: User Research<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Beginning the process I created an interview plan to ask interviewees about their feelings on travel.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Number of Interviews:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Interview Length:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

30 – 45 min.<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Questions I was most interested in the answers to:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

– What is most challenging for you when it comes to general travel?
– Does that challenge remain or get exacerbated when traveling with groups?
– How do you manage all of the things you want\/need to get done during a trip? Do you use a planner or notebook?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIf you\u2019re traveling in a group and everybody has different expectations and needs then it definitely gets worse.\u201d<\/p>\n– Anonymous Interviewee<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Phase 2: Problem Statement<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Traveling in groups is confusing, and can be challenging without consistent communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A mobile app which can organize a travel group\u2019s plans into a single place, for all of them to access.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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While User Personas aren\u2019t always my favorite tool, I chose to use one here to better capture the essence of the user whose problem I was trying to solve.<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Phase 3: Iteration<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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It was now time to draw inspiration from deemed competitors to begin designing the app\u2019s interface.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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It was now time to draw inspiration from deemed competitors to begin designing the app\u2019s interface.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I chose to analyze these three mobile apps as they all utilized organization components and onboarding processes. They all centered around travel, and I took the calendar of Rail Planner, the Chat and Events of Hostelworld and the aesthetic style of Airbnb to sketch out GroupLink\u2019s first rendition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Phase 4: Prototyping<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Time to start building out the app\u2019s architecture. To keep it simple and accessible, I limited each tab to a single function: Settings<\/strong>, Calendar<\/strong>, Home<\/strong>, Chat<\/strong> and Profile<\/strong>. Each tab could navigate to one another within relevant connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I tested this Mid-Fidelity prototype at the end of this 3-week project\u2019s second week- with the goal of figuring out what pieces needed to move around, what was working, and what wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Number of tests:
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Test Length:
5 min.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While the test script was very general, I learned a lot from it:
– The Profile should exist in the top right
– Each calendar item type should be color coded
– Chat should be a deemphasized feature, as it\u2019s likely the group members are already in contact<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With these changes in mind, I designed the High Fidelity prototype that would implement color, iconography and specific fonts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Conclusion<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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This was an excellent project to work on alone, as it helped develop my skills as a designer and was a product I could actually see people using. I do plan to continue fleshing GroupLink out into a pitch-ready, viable product. Perhaps full scale development is in its\u2019 future as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THANK YOU!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Take a look at the finished product!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UI\/UX Design Project Overview GroupLink is a prospective mobile app which helps keep people traveling in groups on the same page- without frustrating group chats or miscommunications. My Role This was a solo project, so I was GroupLink’s sole designer, researcher and prototyper over the course of its\u2019 3 week window. Table of Contents Introduction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-122","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterbell.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterbell.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterbell.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterbell.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterbell.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/carterbell.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455,"href":"https:\/\/carterbell.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122\/revisions\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterbell.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}