An place

Website UX/UI Design

Case Study

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View Prototype

Timeline: 3 weeks

Tool: Figma, Miro

Prototype illustrations source: Freepik

Case study website illustrator source: Wix

Initial Idea

Psychology and mental health care are the two topics that I always love talking about, especially in this circumstance of Covid-19 still going on. That's the reason why I've been thinking about how I could use design—my strength—as a tool to improve human mental health. And in the winter of 2021, this idea came to me. I wanted to create a platform that could connect people to people, allow people to express their feelings and to make their holidays or special occasion become the most meaningful ever. It is called AN Place. "An" in "an yên", it's a Vietnamese word which means at ease, or the calming state of mind. "AN place" means a place that you can truly find peace within yourself by sending love, sincerity, gift to other people on special occasion.

From research to design

User Research

Market Research

Problem Identification

IA &

User Flow

Usability Testing

Prototype

"I would be the first to admit that since I became an adult, I have never really been big on giving or receiving gifts"

User Research

To gain the insights, I interviewed 5 participants over video conference, aged between 20–35 years old.

It would be helpful if there is a platform that can provide me guidance or recommendation on choosing presents to my loved ones.

I simply just need a place that I can write down my feelings whenever I feel lonely. Reading other people's thoughts also can cheer me up as well

Yongin, 26

Toki, 24

Finding results

3/5

Found the year 2021 very challenging and depressed

5/5

Having cutting down time spend on their phone for leisure purposes

3/5

Are dealing with mental health issues

4/5

Rarely send gift or show their feelings for their loved ones

Not really meaningful

Stay home and sleep

Feel bored and lonely

Want to have more interactive activities with people

Graph 1. Their thoughts about holiday season

Some reasons that make most of them don't gift

Don't know what to gift

Gifting is not their habit

Because of Covid, they don't really gather with their friends anymore

Too busy to think about this

According to the user research section, I found that the user faced significant pain points such as they have been facing quite a number of mental health issues and they can't find a place to share about it; they don't have a lot of interactive activities to do with their family and friends; holiday season began losing its meaning to them.

Inspired by this insight...

I thought it might be helpful if I can provide a platform that can:

Share your thoughts or feelings anytime without exposing your personal information
Help to organize a group exchange gifts to your loved ones
Recommend gifting options for you
Easily to help you invite people through social media

Market Research

Competitor Analysis

There are mostly three kinds of similar platform which are:

Gifting platform for company
Gifting platform for individual
Combination between the previous two

Figure 1. Similar platform

Figure 2. Similar platform (2)

Among the three types above, for now, I will mostly pay attention to the second one—gifting platform for individual. The objective of this project is to help people to convey care and concern to their loved ones so the goal for now is "Quality is more important than quantity".

I found Draw Names and Secret Santa by online researching and interviewing people. This two platform are the quite popular in Singapore. Their main functionality is to create a gift exchange group and they have been doing great on it. They only have one theme, Christmas, through out the whole year regardless other public holidays in Singapore. Nonetheless, my platform will be more than that. I will add on a new functionality that can allow the user to share their feelings, their thoughts to the community under a form of writing a card and hang in the wall. And further after the platform functioned well, I can develop it into a simple, friendly social network with a gift finder e-commerce market and I will have different themes following some public holidays as well.

Problem Identification

Here are some problems that I observed from the user's interview

Problem #1

I have a difficulty in choosing present for my friend

Problem #2

Because of Covid I can't go back home to meet my parents, so I can't send gift to them properly

Problem #3

I usually feel lonely during holidays

Problem #4

I want to share my holiday story

How might we statement

How might we provide a place to spread positivity and cheer up the user's feeling

How might we provide a platform for the user to organize a gift exchange group to their friends in special occasion

Information Architecture

According to my user research and interview, their needs of this platform are not just organizing a gift exchange group function, but they also want a place that they can always come to share their thoughts and feelings on a daily basis as well as give them advice on picking the presents for their loved ones.

Card wall

Read card

Write card

Home

Send message

Message box

Write message

Gift exchange group

My groups

Organize new group