PostUp Design Spring Project
Designing a mobile app allowing remote and traveling workers to expediently find locations to work from.
Project Goals
Use the design sprint method to rapidly produce a mobile app connecting users to suitable working locations
Process
5-day Google Design Sprint process (map, sketch, decide, prototype, test)
Result
Produced a working prototype that quickly connects users to working locations fitting their individual needs
See the prototype here
PostUp Design Spring Project Background
My goal with the PostUp app was to find a way for remote or traveling workers to be able to find cafes or other quiet areas to work. Often, when individuals are between meetings or have a bit of free time to take care of some work, they need to search for these places with Google Maps. The environment in which they work depends on a great many factors, and it’s often hard to tell whether a location is truly ideal for setting up to work. Using the Google Design Sprint method, I set out to find a way to help users get a better picture of ideal nearby places to post up and get their work done.
The Problem
Remote workers and individuals needing to travel for work often need to find places to set up and work whether it be between meetings or if they have time to work outside of their homes. With few central apps for this purpose, many workers resort to Google Maps to search for ideal places to work.
However, it can be difficult to tell which places are actually ideal for work as different individuals have varying tolerances for noise, free WiFi without making purchases, crowd levels, and more. To address this problem, I set out to design a platform that allows workers to pick out their ideal work locations based on individual and specific preferences.
Users and Audience
With no time to create and get the results back for a screener survey, I decided to target this platform towards individuals who need to travel for work as well as remote workers seeking places to work aside from their own homes.
As this project was completed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to keep in mind that this platform would only be able to be used once the pandemic passes.
Scope and Constraints
As part of my Springboard UI/UX design course, this project was my first dive into working as a one-man design sprint. Following the Google Ventures idea for design sprints, I had only five days to complete all these steps.
Day 1 was the Map portion, Day 2 was Sketch, Day 3 was Decide, Day 4 was Prototype, and Day 5 was Test. For user testing, I needed to have volunteers ready before I began, and their availability on the test day was a key incentive to keeping me on task and on schedule.
Roles and Responsibilities
As a solo “team” working on this design sprint, I took the roles of UI designer, UX designer, and user testing moderator.
I handled the ideation, brainstorming, design, user outreach, and user testing for this platform.
The Process
Day 1 - Map
Having identified the problem of finding places to work, I took some time to think of what the user journey should be like for a user trying to find a place to work. I identified two ways for this to be done: finding a workspace solely by distance via a map as well as setting preferences for a place to work.
Two user journeys: one for finding a work location with map function, the other by setting filters with preferences
Day 2 - Sketch
Next, I set about working on out an ideal and easily navigable way for the user to go through the platform. To rapidly ideate, I used the “crazy eights” method of drawing as many sketches as I could, one minute each, as I could for eight minutes.
In doing so, I created two sets of sketches of the screens I’d expect to have on the user red routes. These would serve as my template for the prototype stage.
A set of sketches for individuals seeking a place to work based on proximity.
This set of sketches was to highlight the decision stage once filters had been set.
Day 3 - Decide
Next, I took my time in working out an ideal and easily navigable way for the user to go through the platform.
In doing so, I created sketches of the screens I’d expect to have on the user red routes. These would serve as my template for the prototype stage.
From the sketch phase, I picked ideas I felt would be of most benefit to the user and compiled them in the low-fidelity sketches shown here
Day 4 - Prototype
With the right screens picked out for PostUp, I began creating high-fidelity prototype screens to eventually upload to InVision for testing.
In a typical scenario, I would have created low-fidelity screens prior to this. Given the time constraints of a design sprint, it was possible to directly create a high-fidelity prototype after sketching.
Following in the footsteps of apps like Google Maps, a search bar takes precedence atop the home page while recommendations based on previous picks are listed below.
The filters were decided upon based on my own preferences for what would influence my decision to work or not to work at different locations.
Day 5 - Test
On the final day of the design sprint, I met with each of my test participants and conducted moderated remote testing on InVision. The testing was done via Zoom meeting. I was able to hear each test participant’s preferences as well as their pain points. I found that I had created a straightforward way for users to quickly and seamlessly find their preferred work locations. It was welcoming to hear that they would use such an app once it had come to fruition.
The location page provides information on the place in question as well as easy ways to reserve seats, find directions, or directly call the business. Should the user choose to reserve a seat, a pop-up window would allow the user to confirm the reservation as well as call a ride share.
Outcome and Findings
Upon completion of my first design sprint, I felt the most important takeaway was how to quickly ideate a product and bring it to fruition by designing and testing. I found that I was able to come up with ideas rather quickly that, when tested, participants seemed to enjoy. It was a rewarding experience coming up with an idea for an app such as this that people stated they would use if it was created.
With this project and experience finished, I feel confident that design springs (in teams or solo) can be solid ways to rapidly bring prototypes to potential users and drive product development processes forward efficiently.