Omego
An easier way to establish connections in your community
Timeline
January - February (6 weeks, Spring 2022)
Role
User Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Tools Used
Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop, Marvel
The Problem
Every year millions of students move to college, and many of these students go through obstacles when creating new connections and relationships with other students. There are many causes to this problem such as social anxiety and the fact that the world went through a global pandemic and was locked indoors for almost 2 years with no physical social interaction.
Social media apps that are being used today also does not encourage students to get outside of their comfort zones and physically meet other students rather than virtually. There is a need for a way for students to engage with one another in a physical manner rather than commenting, reposting, and messaging online.
A design challenge emerged…
How could I design an application that will help students overcome the obstacle of creating meaningful relationships with others and maximize their college experience?
The solution
Introducing OMEGO, an app that allows the user to personalize their account with their interests and match with other users based on commonalities. The user can then request to meet other users and will be generated with locations that they would both enjoy based on their common interests for their meetup! This is a great way to force the users out of their comfort zones and physically meet to make new friends and long lasting relationships.
Research and Analysis
Beginning with my own experiences as a college student who had a difficult time creating connections with other students, I conducted a thinking process of my behaviors and observations of how other students created connections around me. The main points I learned during this thinking process were:
Students used social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to connect with other students by following them and liking their posts.
Many students end their communication at the following stage. They may occasionally like their posts, but almost never messages others to create relationships.
There must be a way to force students out of their comfort zones in order to meet others in person and create physical connections.
Social media platforms being used today has made it very difficult to physically meet people due to the fact that many user only follow to follow without having any intentions of creating relationships with others outside of the social media platform.
User Interviews
From this thinking process, I then conducted user interviews and asked 5 students various questions regarding how they dealt with the process of creating relationships when moving to their universities.
Some questions I asked the users were:
What barriers did you have when creating new relationships and friends in college?
When you find yourself looking to make a new friend or connection, what is your motivation behind it?
Tell me about the first close relationship you had with another student when coming to college and how you met?
Tell me a time when you could have made many great connections and friends but did not act upon it?
Where would you say is the best setting when creating new connections and why?
Did you take advantage of school events and organizations?
As a college student myself who went through almost half of my university experience online due to the pandemic, I realized that many students, including myself, have lost touch with our social skills.
Analyzing the Data
After conducting the user interviews, I then began affinity mapping to find the main themes and insights from the users. Through this process, I collected 60+ data points, 9 insights, and 3 themes.
Insights + Themes
User Personas
Once I completed my user research and collected data using the answers from student interviews, I created 2 user personas for my product that fit the different results from the interviews.
User Flow
After conducting user research and creating a user persona it’s finally time to begin the ideation process. Creating a user flow became much easier once I knew what the user needed and needed on the mobile application.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Based off of the user flow and the needs of the user, it’s finally time to start the ideation process in paper prototyping. In the initial sketches I wanted to create a great experience for the user to create their own personalized profiles with with their interests and to create a way for new users to understand how the app functions through an onboarding process.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
Using Figma, I then began creating the low fidelity wireframes in order to be able to have a user testing cycle where I can get feedback from potential users of the application.
Usability Testing (User Think-a-Loud)
After creating the low fidelity wireframes, I then began to test the product with the potential users. For the usability tests I asked the users to complete 3 tasks:
Create an account and go through the onboarding process
Find a potential match and request to meet them by messaging them.
Go to your calendar page and check for the requested event date.
As the usability tests were occurring, I asked the user to speak everything that was on their mind on each page in order to maximize the feedback I can receive from them. Based off of the usability testing think-a-loud, I concluded 3 major design improvements.
3 Major design improvement based on user feedback
Major Improvement 1
Improved home page:
1. Users wanted to see other users interests as well as their commonalities.
2. Users wanted the profiles social media linked.
3. Removed the “Skip?” button because the users preferred swiping than tapping on the screen for every profile displayed.
Major Improvement 2
Request to meet page:
1. Users wants a way to search for places to request along with the generated recommendations.
2. Users wanted to know the exact distance of the generated location from their current location.
Major Improvement 3
Calendar Page:
1. Users wanted to know who they were going to meet with while viewing their upcoming events, so there is now an added profile image of the user they are meeting with in the upcoming event tab.
2. Users wanted to see all upcoming events rather than just the next event in their calendar.
Final Prototype + User Flows
User Flow 1: Onboarding process
The onboarding process screens are to help new users know what the apps functionalities are and to give them a better insight as to what they are signing up for.
After onboarding, users are able to personalize their profiles. They are asked to provide their name, age, university, and to write a short bio of themselves for their future connections! They are then asked to choose their interests and hobbies in order to narrow down their matches.
User Flow 2: Match Page
In the match page, the user is navigated to who their best matches are based on similarities in hobbies and interests. In this user flow, they are able to navigate to the next user flow of messaging and requesting to meet another user.
User Flow 3: Requesting to meet another user
Once you have made the decision to meet with another user, you are able to do so in the messages page. After clicking the request button, you are given locations based off of your commonalities with the other user. This is done in order for both users to have a great experience when they meetup!
User Flow 4: Calendar Page + User Profile
The calendar page is where the user is able to view any upcoming event they might have including profile icons of who is attending the meetups as well.
They are also able to navigate to their own profiles and update their profiles of any new hobbies they would like to add or remove.