Share Scoops

Empowering younger generation to make confident financial decisions.

Project role and responsibilities

  • Project team lead

  • UX research: Secondary analysis of previous studies, design audit, usability test, competitive analysis, affinity maps, user journey maps

  • UX and UI design: sketching, wireframing, prototyping

Tools:

Figma, Canva, Slack, Google Suite

Context:

  • Project for Share Scoops startup company

  • Duration: 4 weeks

  • Team of 3 people

  • Project scope: redesigning a user voting flow

Deliverables:

  • User research results

  • Low-fidelity and mid-fidelity wireframes

  • Prototype

Overview

Amid the current economic environment, many individuals opt to remain spectators, missing out on chances to enhance their financial well-being and actively influence the corporate world, whereas companies focusing on profits lose sight of social and environmental accountability. 

Share Scoops

Share Scoops is a fast-growing startup with a mission to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. Its mobile application provides a solution for: 

→ users to understand the economy and corporate impact on our society and planet, react to it in real-time, and invest with confidence.

→ companies to hear directly from an informed audience, and to earn customers, employees, and investors through transparency and responsible decisions. 

Main Project Highlights

  • A significant aspect of business model involves enabling users to share their opinions about companies and their decisions. Share Scoops aims to streamline this voting process, making it user-friendly, intuitive, and engaging.

  • During our research, we examined users' voting experiences on two platforms: the MVP newsletter and the beta mobile app.

  • The primary common issue that hinders user engagement is the lack of clarity regarding the purpose of voting and the personal benefits to users. 

  • Drawing from our research findings and client design preferences, we developed low-fidelity and mid-fidelity wireframes to tackle the identified voting process challenges.

Problem

Share Scoops wants to increase user engagement of the voting process of the beta mobile app by gaining insights into users, their behavior, and any difficulties they encounter while voting, and by addressing UX shortcomings.

Goals:

  1. Reveal the pitfalls and stumbling blocks of the mobile app voting flow.

  2. Understand users’ behavior when users refrain from engaging and express their opinion in the voting process.

Share Scoops beta mobile app voting flow.

Solution

In this section I showcase mid-fidelity design, as it was the requested deliverable.

Simplified home page

  • Clear layout makes the screen easy to skim and allows users to navigate from one section to another. 

  • Dark background helps users be more focused and engaged.

Streamlined voting flow

  • Enhanced voting flow with clear calls to action, diverse category choices, and relevant information significantly improves user experience.

  • Results are visible immediately after voting and contain all relevant information in a simple form.

Emphasized role and benefits of voting activity

  • The voting history page emphasizes the significance of individual contributions to fostering an inclusive and sustainable economy.

  • Voting sections are equipped with information icons helping users understand the purpose of voting and its related benefits. 

Research Methodology

Share Scoops initially trialed its voting concept on two distinct platforms: Instagram Stories and the MVP newsletter. Currently, the voting flow exhibits slight variations across these platforms, as does user engagement. In our research, the objective was to scrutinize user voting experiences on these platforms and identify any obstacles or challenges.

Questions to answer

  1. Are users clear about the purpose of the voting process?

  2. What UX and UI elements in the voting flow prevent users from engaging? 

  3. Is the current beta app effective enough to encourage users to vote?

  4. Do users trust the app? 

  5. What hinders users from voting?

  6. What kind of incentives would help to encourage users to vote? 

Research methods

  1. Secondary analysis of previous studies. Share Scoops shared with us the results and interviews of previous research so that we could dive deeper into the problem.

  2. Audit of the voting flow. We conducted heuristic analysis of the voting flow at two platforms, MVP newsletter and beta mobile app. 

  3. Usability test. To understand how the beta mobile app is perceived by new users, we did a usability test with 6 participants. 

  4. Competitive analysis.

Research Insights

Secondary analysis of previous studies

Most of the previous research was done to test the MVP newsletter. People who participated in the interviews followed Share Scoops Instagram or subscribed to MVP. These returning users, despite sharing vision and conscious approach of the product, expressed uncertainty about the purpose of the voting process. They were confused by some UI elements, and tried to avoid voting when they felt there was not enough information to support their voting decisions. 

MVP Newsletter

Audit of the voting flow

After evaluating the voting process on Insta Stories, the MVP newsletter, and the beta mobile app, we arrived at these findings:

  • The mobile app offers a positive user experience but can benefit from improved consistency, standards, and better help/documentation to reduce user confusion and cognitive load.

  • The effectiveness of the MVP newsletter voting flow could be enhanced by ensuring consistency of design elements, clarity of displayed information and offering a user more control in the process.

  • Instagram Stories are highly engaging due to their simplicity, user familiarity with the platform, and certain user expectations and behavior on Instagram. 

Usability test

For the test we recruited 6 people within the 20-30 age group with different levels of financial literacy. All of them viewed the Share Scoops mobile app for the first time. Here are the main issues the new users encountered during the test:

Research Synthesis

Affinity Mapping

The research results were synthesized using an affinity mapping technique that gave deeper insights about the behavior of new and returning users.  

Note: Since we didn’t have enough data about user behavior on Instagram, and due to time constraints, we focused on users of the MVP newsletter and beta mobile app. 

User Journey Maps

To gain insights into users' thoughts and emotions throughout the voting process, we created two maps. The first illustrates the experience of returning users with the MVP newsletter, while the second captures the responses of new users to the voting process within the beta mobile app.

Wireframes

Home Screen

Our objective for the homepage was to reorganize the information, reducing cognitive overload while retaining essential elements, and making the page easy to skim. To improve the voting section, we introduced a prominent Call-to-Action (CTA), an information icon explaining voting benefits, and clarified button text. Following their vote, users are promptly presented with clear and straightforward voting results.

Company Scoops

We opted to redesign Company Scoops, relocating them to a separate page to declutter the homepage and provide users with the ability to select corporate news from various categories aligned with their interests. Furthermore, the proposed design will facilitate Share Scoops as it expands its corporate news offerings in the future.

Additionally, we improved the individual Scoop screens by adding more pertinent information, organized into three concise categories. This enhancement aims to empower users with the necessary information to make informed voting decisions.

Voting Results

We made sure this section presents comprehensive voting results in an easily understandable format. Users can now view not only the primary voting chart but also charts that break down information by specific categories.

Mid-fidelity Wireframes

After conducting a competitive analysis, we determined that dark backgrounds help users maintain their focus on information and UI elements, thereby enhancing engagement with the app. As a result, we implemented this concept by choosing various shades of dark navy blue while retaining a white background for substantial information sections.

Conclusion

Things that I learned:

  1. Synthesizing data using various techniques gives different insights. During the project, I realized that utilizing several data synthesis techniques, such as affinity mapping and user journey mapping revealed different aspects of user behavior and needs, as well as uncovered hidden patterns that are not immediately apparent through a single method. 

  2. Communication is the key. As a team lead, I discovered that clear and consistent communication is essential both within our team and with our client. Open and transparent communication helped us remain on the same page and resolve misunderstandings that could potentially lead to design misalignment and delays.

  3. Teamwork. Leading a team during the project underscored the importance of effective teamwork. It was essential for me to establish clear roles and responsibilities within our team to avoid duplication of efforts and ensure efficient progress. Also, we conducted regular check-ins and feedback sessions to maintain team cohesion and ensure everyone is contributing effectively.

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Bill Wise