Revolutionizing Community Engagement
Designing an engagement community for residents coming together
Client
What’s Cookin
Scope
User Interface Design
Tools
Figma, Miro, Typeform
Role
UI Designer
Project Overview
What’s Cookin serves as a vibrant online gathering place, uniting a diverse community under the shared passion for discovering and sharing exciting experiences across the United States. From local events to music festivals, the platform offers a dynamic space where users can connect, explore, and enrich their experiences. The goal is to design the interface responsively across devices and implementing best design practices along with key features.
Problem Prompt
What’s Cookin face challenges in building trust and engagement across diverse backgrounds. It’s proven difficult to foster active participation and encourage users to share offers within their respective cities. The problem prompt: How might we design a user-friendly platform that provides trust and encourages seamless sharing of offers within local communities?
Research Outcomes
The screener survey aimed to discern the user experience between two distinct age groups within What’s Cookin. As I analyzed the results, I discovered that participants are concerned with the message, feeling it lacked a distinct community-oriented identity, instead it's more of a food-centric platform.
Insights uncovered:
Over 60% of users aged 19-25 found the offers unappealing and experienced disorientation with the provided content.
Approximately 40% of users aged 25-34 reported feeling disconnected from the information presented in the offers.
Visually, the utilization of icons with varying sizes for sidebar navigation, posed challenges for participants, straining their visual experience.
As we analyzed the survey results, we created a user journey map to enhance the platform's usability and visual interface. The key insights from this process highlighted pain points around branding confusion and content, while also providing opportunities to improve the visual appearance and UI components to better attract users.
Ideation
I conducted an insight matrix session to brainstorm and refine potential design solutions aimed at addressing our client’s challenges. By utilizing insights from our surveys, I aim to streamline the process of creating offers and joining events with key features to enhance user engagement and satisfaction.
Wireframes
I design the responsive interface using What’s Cookin style guide and implemented an existing design system library for the components. The designs are incorporated with insights gained from the screen survey session.
Next Steps
Utilize additional tools for usability testing to gain deeper insights
Implement additional features allowing hosts to create their events seamlessly
Learning Outcomes
Throughout this process, I’ve gained valuable insights into the importance of prioritizing user needs and preferences when making design decisions. Previously, my focus was primarily on the aesthetics of the design, but now I understand the critical role of user-centric design in creating a seamless navigation flow. As a designer, it’s essential to always keep the end-user in mind and provide design solutions to meet their needs.
Thank you for reading!