As a senior product designer and product owner, I led a non-profit startup's mobile app development project from ideation to launch on the iOS App Store in just 3.5 months. Responsibilities included strategic ideation, UX research, concept development, prototyping, iterative design, collaboration with developers, and facilitating agile methodologies. Achievements included validating the first MVP design prototype through 25 rounds of usability and accessibility testing. Deliverables comprised defining Information Architecture (IA) and creating a Product Requirement Document (PRD) for effective collaboration. The outcome was a seamless user experience that resonated with our target audience, showcasing my expertise in UX design and product management.
Queer college students are looking for a positive affirming space to gain peer support for a sense of belonging and advice from lived experiences of other queer individuals and alleviate their anxiety about finding acceptance in themselves and society. However, few apps let users share queer-specific stories or easily find others’ stories in the LGBTQ2+ community. Plus LGBTQ2+ social apps are geared toward romantic and/or physical relationships.
Neesh, designed for LGBTQ2+ individuals in Canada, offers a secure digital space to foster belonging and alleviate anxieties about acceptance. Unlike other platforms, Neesh prioritizes peer support, providing relevant information, practical tips, and real-life experiences. Users freely express themselves, find solidarity, and gain the knowledge they need, empowering them to navigate their identities with confidence.
To verify our hypothesis from secondary research for the above problem and potential solution, I led the team to conduct 9 user insight interviews by recruiting queer participants in the beginning 2 weeks. And, we summarized the analysis with 3 personas to include 3 main different situations within LGBTQ2+ groups.
To enhance our understanding of the unique challenges and needs of LGBTQ2+ individuals, we meticulously distilled and reassembled the insights gathered from our user research efforts. Through this process, we crafted three personas that vividly encapsulate the diverse experiences and perspectives within this community.
According to the research and personas, we practiced 2-3 times of paper prototypes and bullseye to figure out and formulate an optimal solution from 0 to 1.
I led the team to run activities to gather our ideas for the problems, demand, and opportunities and discuss it as a team.
We engaged in a dynamic brainstorming session to generate a multitude of ideas, which we then meticulously assessed using the bullseye technique to pinpoint our primary areas of focus. Through this iterative process, we honed in on three key pillars that form the foundation of our strategy, enabling us to streamline our efforts and accelerate progress toward our goals.
According to the research and personas, I conducted the 1st version of User Flow and Functional Map to communicate with the product designers and developers.
With UX design and interaction design in mind, I had iterated them 4 times while the plan changes along with the team’s discussions.
Following the user flow and functional map, I led the designers to make 10 different versions of ios design prototypes on Figma and 3 testing plans on Notion for the usability testings by Aug. 2022. Here, I only list the 3rd usability testing (with prototype 0.8, as below) for building the 1.0 prototype, which is the one we sent to the UBC programming team to develop and collaborate.
In the user test, I recruit LGBTQ2+ users and participated by switching the roles of facilitator, observer, and note-taker to understand users’ live reaction and behavior.
The purpose of usability test #2 is to collect feedback about how users use Neesh app, what problems they may encounter using the app, what improvements they would like to see to make it easier to engage with (active) convos, tag system and profile, and what feelings they have to the visual and copy.
To have a better experience, please enlarge the prototype into full screen by clicking the icon at the top right corner. If you cannot directly access the 0.8 prototype on this page, please try it via this link: shorturl.at/owL45
The researchers also observed the usability problems and prioritized the tasks for iterating the experience. Here, I only list high priority recommendations:
Beside the iteration of UI/UX design, I also updated the user flow and functional map according to the analysis and takeaways after each user test.
After the 3.5 months ideation, implementation, design prototyping, and verification (user test), I wrote a Product Requirement Document (PRD) to build the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with the programming UBC and BCIT teams. It includes:
I clarified and simplified Target Audience, Problem overview, Goals & Success, Non-goals, and Risks to let the developers know the background knowledge and main purpose for this product.
I defined and prioritized the key features for Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with Timeline, User Story, Feature Description, Milestone, and Decision Log.
The 1st MVP is expected to launch on Apple Store by the end of April 2023 which mainly focus on the features comprising the pages and system of the Feed page, the Inactive Convo page, Tag system (explore), Start a convo, Reply system, and Notification (Activity) with user stories to let the devs understand the scenarios.
This is the 1st time I took charge of Product Owner and project manager roles with my UI/UX design experiences. With my passion to contribute to the LGBTQ2+ community, I learnt a lot during the whole process. Overall, I practiced various problem-solving skills, user tests, pitches, and collaborations.
- Recruiting more users in each LGBTQ2+ categories for primary research can make our ideas and final prototype more verified, convincing, and inclusive.
- The product and project works could block my way so dragging myself back with users is essential
- Importance of respect expertise and encourage various perspectives
- It’s challenging to find LGBTQ2+ users attending user insight interview in the beginning but I insisted to reach out and finally recruited 8 users.
- Your saying could inspire someone’s mind
- Just conduct your belief with rapid iteration
- Mistakes or failures can be my success friends
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