Project
Remotely - IOS Native App
Role
Concept, Research, Visuals, Branding
Scope
-10 Week Timeline
-Academic Project
Tools
Figma, Notion, Zoom
Project Vision
Remotely is a travel service that primarily allows for users to find workspaces around the world and connect with other workers. With current travel applications, the information targeted towards remote workers is either non-existent, very limited, or extremely outdated. Remotely aims to fix that by bridging the gap between the niche remote work travel resources and remote workers themselves.
Challenges
1 Eliminate barrier to entry on application startup
2 Design a cohesive interface for familiar and unfamiliar users
3 Create a minimalistic UI while keeping the content as the focus
01
Kickoff
Starting off, I asked myself a few initial questions. Who is our primary user? What kind of goals do they have? Why would someone want to use this application? Just how large of a scope do I want this project to be?
As this was quite a large project to complete within the required time I began by mapping out my UX roadmap to help me determine what I could accomplish.
To understand the problem space further, I wanted to find out what people working remotely and traveling had to say, so I began browsing facebook groups and reddit threads to fully understand the needs of potential users.
02
Key Research Findings
To inform my design decisions I analyzed my key research findings to determine my core demographic and the issues they face.
This led me to focus on Millennials & Gen Z as the key demographic, as they are more likely to prioritize the experience of traveling over just working.
The Future of Remote Work
Research shows that remote work will continue to grow over the coming years. More people will adopt and prioritize a remote work lifestyle, while taking advantage of the extra freedom it offers by spending more time traveling.
This will drive more people to look for information online about traveling while working remotely, prompting the need for a digital solution.
03
Understanding Users
To better understand the problem space and demographic, I conducted user interviews with five separate participants.
Analyzing the interviews provided me with the following key findings:
04 Meet Kai
With my research insights, I was able to craft my persona to have a clearer image of the demographic that would use my app
05
Sketching the concept
To begin Ideating my concept, I sketched some possible solutions of onboarding, search functionality, social connection and locating co-working spaces.
06
Putting it to the test
I began turning my concept sketches into wireframes and creating tasks to be tested out. I completed two separate rounds of user testing with 5 users. The user testing was done fully remotely on zoom.
07
Revision & Second Usability Test
After my first round of testing I determined some key usability issues, and refined my wireframes to allow for my tasks to be better completed in the next round.
The second round of five user testers proved to be much more successful than my first, reiterating the importance of testing your designs for usability.
08
Final Design
After my two rounds of usability testing, I was able to move on to complete my final designs.
I made some more changes to my final design after my second round of testing and incorporated better search functionality.
I focused on a clean and minimalistic UI that allows for the content to be the main focus.
Branding
Moving onto the branding, I was able to explore what overall feel I wanted for the product by creating a mood-board, finding key words, creating a wordmark, app icon and marketing website.
Marketing Website
I Developed a marketing site concept that establishes my brand and conveys the idea that working remotely can open a world of possibility
01
Takeaways
Exploring various levels of qualitative research yields insightful understanding of the user’s needs
This was the first UX project I completed at this scope on my own, which gave me a first hand experience on how the full design process moves into branding development. I learnt a lot about the booming field of remote work and how to blend various aspects of design to create a seamless experience for the user. The thorough research that was conducted through this project helped me make design decisions that could be augmented in my prototypes.
Moving forward, I would explore the other design concepts I had come up with during ideation and dive deeper into the social aspect of the platform.