My Framer Site

After doing my competitive analysis and user research, I found that users enjoyed spaces where they were able to connect and interact with friends. Creating a personal community to connect with other people might encourage users to engage more with the app.

Groups is a way for users to share their experiences with close friends and encourage one other to interact with Shades articles though leaderboard and challenges.

Design Choice 1: Small or Large Network?

Would users engage more in a social feature that allows them to interact with a larger network of people? Or would they engage more with a close group of people they’re familiar with? On larger social media platforms, users are exposed to a large network of individuals, but seem to benefit from interactions amongst close friends (i.e. liking and commenting on posts). To test this, I conducted several user interviews and received feedback on what communities individuals interacted with.

“I would more likely explore new news topics if my friends are learning about them too.”

“I’m more likely to share my thoughts with my close friends rather than the broader community because it’s less daunting and I trust these people.”

“I like using social media to talk to my friends. I don’t really interact with people I don’t know unless they’re celebrities.”

Implementation

Users preferred to socialize with their friends over strangers. From this feedback, I began to build out the Groups tab, with a feature that allows the user to either:

Create a new Group

and send invites out to friends

2. Accept invitation to a Group via Activities tab.

Design Choice 2: Collaboration or Competition?

Woulds users engage more with the Shades app if they worked together with their friends to meet a common goal? Or would they be more motivated by competing for challenges and rewards? Observing popular educational platforms like Duolingo, Quizlet, and New York Time Games, each of whom has a distinct challenge/achievement based feature, users seem to be more motivated to learn when they’re competing with friends and striving to beat a goal.

“I’m very competitive and would want to win in a weekly leaderboard.”

“Games or rewards-a fun and engaging learning environment motivates me to learn.”

Implementation

From my research, I determined that this feature would benefit from leaderboard-style challenges, where friends in the same group compete to complete and win prizes. Challenges have users interact with the app by having them read a certain number of articles or get 100% on a quiz. Scoring higher on the leaderboard is rewarded with prizes such as unlocked minigames.

Leaderboard and Challenges

Rewards Screen

Design Choice 3: Messages

How do we create a more accessible and interactive messaging platform for friend groups? Shades currently has no group messaging feature, making it difficult for friends to communicate and connect with each other. For this part of the new feature, I designed a simple group messaging system and incorporated a “Shared Favorites” function for deeper discussions.

All Messages

Message Thread

Favorite Articles

Final Interviews

I reviewed the final app with interviewees, who expressed general positive remarks about the Groups feature. 70% of interviewees would use the feature and 90% felt that it would bring more engagement to the Shades app.

“I think this feature elevates Shades to a new level. It’s a great way to get people to educate themselves while having fun with friends!”

“I would definitely use this feature because I get to learn multiple sides about a topic, chat with others about their thoughts, and compete against my friends with fun task.”

“I like how it makes Shades more fun and interactive.”