Olive
User Experience and Interface Design | Summer 2024
PROPOSAL
Develop a digital hub focused on advertising what you have to offer to your community and discovering what your community has to offer you. Users within a limited geographic area, city, or zip code will be able to offer and access services, items, and ideas, and collaborate with others to foster a vibrant and connected community.
Deliverables
Task Flow A
User creates profile and joins a community of interest to them
Task Flow B
User creates a post within joined community
DESIGN RATIONALE
Preexisting location based online community groups tend to be inactive, untrustworthy, and underutilized. By providing a space and for everything and everyone, community, members can easily find way to connect to those in their community. Emphasis will be placed on building up personal profiles, highlighting what skills, experiences, and resources users have to offer to their community and encouraging participation. The name olive and the red and green color pallete is a nod to the olive branch symbolizing peace, as well as a homophone for “all live,” because we all live in harmony.
BENCHMARKING
User research
Interviews were conducted to determine what users value most while participating in online communities.
Interview Guide
How do you prefer communicating with people? Why do you prefer this mode?
Can you tell me about a positive/negative experience you’ve had within your community? How did that experience make you feel?
Have you been interested in finding social events in your area? If so, have you found good social events that you have attended? How did you find these events; was it easy? What frustrated you about the process? What did you find helpful/successful?
Key Findings
Participants noted tendency to "lurk" in online communities rather than participate, prefer in person communication but are hesitant to talk to people they don't know
One participant noted that meeting people from online communities has led to meaningful, face to face friendships
Participants favor content relevant to their specific interests
USER PERSONA
PAPER PROTOTYPING
Information architecture and initial sketches were informed by creating an audit of all content and features to be included, writing items on cards, and having participants sort them into categories. Using these categorizations, sketches were made for users to test task flows.
DEMONSTRATION
