Encompass

Role: UX/UI Designer, Design lead

Deliverables: Feature road map, User research analysis, High fidelity wireframes

Tools: Figma, Google Docs,

Context: Team: Jonathan Noel (Solo)
Project Time frame: 2 weeks

View Prototype

ℹ️ About Encompass

Encompass is an application that houses multiple social media platforms into one experience. Users are able to engage with their respective communities, followers, and newsfeeds interchangeably within the app. Other features include quantifying the metrics of interactions, followers, and user engagement.

🤔The problem

Engaging with multiple social media platforms is a tedious task for some users such content creators and avid users because they have to make time for engaging with their communities or navigating through multiple applications

🎯The Goal

To create an application that provides an all in one experience for users to engage with their social media communities and newsfeeds

In order to get a better understanding and direction of how to solve the problem, conducting user Interview Questions followed by How Might We statements. Provided a good foundation in other various research methods that were conducted.

Research Questions & Assumptions

  • Is interacting with just one single application for all your needs sound bad or does it sound enticing?

  • When was the last time you posted & was it part of your schedule?

  • What type of content creator are you?

  • How long have you been making music or posting content on social media in general?

  • How many social media platforms do you currently use?

User Interview Questions

As a result of my interviews, I constructed an affinity map of “I statements” and personal feelings. Frustrations and personal preferences dealing with current social media platforms were illuminated. After studying the data, I came up with five key takeaways.

Affinity Takeaways

Posting Consistency

Engagement Issues

Timely Task

Navigation Issues

Business Goals

  • How Might We Showcase an interface that is both familiar, yet unique for users to interact with and feel comfortable connecting their socials platforms to?

  • How Might We Display analytics and key metrics to show user engagement for users that want to grow their online presence?

  • How Might We Market this application to not only content creators, but also avid users that just want the simplicity of using one application?

  • How Might We Incorporate most, if not all social media applications so users no longer have to navigate multiple platforms?

Persona: In contemplation of understanding who a potential user could be and other factors that could help to further development of this application , I conducted a persona that may fit the ideal user of the platform Encompass. The persona consists of goals and frustrations geared towards a busy individual with a life outside of dealing with social media platforms, but still wanting to stay engaged with their communities and newsfeeds.

User Flow: By conducting a user flow, I was able to make an ideal flow for users to navigate an application with straight forward purposes. The flow consist of a starting point, but then breaksdown to an avid user flow for users that just enjoy engaging with their feed.Then the user flow breaks down to a flow for content creators that are trying to post to multiple applications and grow their engagment in one shot.

Site Map: To develop the visual UI elements of Encompass, a site map was conducted to ensure all components that were being used was helping guide the experience in a positive direction

✍🏾 Sketch & Wire Framing

After my research, I applied the information that was learned during early stages of discovering and defining the problem. I was able to produce a variety of sketches that outline how the app could potentially be designed. After sketching, I utilized Figma to reproduce them as greyscale wireframes.

Although the complete sign up/sign in flow was now complete. The Notification & Analytics screen was still in development. I was only able to conduct usability test on the main user flow, which was the sign in/sign up process.

Usability Testing: After producing the grayscale wireframes, I conducted a usability test using a prototype that was built from the frames I designed. During this process, I had individuals perform various task. After these tasks were completed, I requested if there were any suggested opportunities for improvement in the design. With this information in hand, I designed my reiterations and applied color.

🎨 Reiteration & Design

Creating concept projects takes a lot of understanding of user expectations. Due to the limited amount of competition and examples in this specific field, it can be difficult to gauge exactly what direction to go towards in terms of user experience. I realized through the research process how crucial the user data contributes to the success of demonstrating the story and keeping users interested.

🎓 What I learned

  • Make advancements on the home interface to be more suitable for other applications that could be linked to Encompass.

  • Expand upon the analytics page in terms of features and other charts, adding user goals to expand their following.

Next Steps