GramCity

VALUE PROPOSITION

Intinity allows for organization of bookings and itinerary creation amongst travelers and their friends & family. This app centralizes trip information in one spot for everyone to see.

WHEN

May 2024

RESEARCH METHODS

Research provided as part of the Google Design Sprint

OVERVIEW

Over the course of a week, I was given the task of conducting a Google Designs Sprint as a unit and project in my UX/UI Bootcamp with Stony Brook University. There were multiple design sprint challenges to pick from to work through over the course of the week and the one I chose was GramCity; a startup that has the goal in mind of helping people find the most instagram-able photos in any city they may be in.

OVERVIEW

Problem Statement

When it comes to finding locations for great instagram pictures in a specific city, every person has a different preference over the types of locations and pictures they take, the distance of those locations from them as well as the importance of planning their day around these locations or more naturally incorporating them into their day as they go if it makes sense.

Solution

It was my goal to create a mobile app that would take all of these preferences under consideration and give the user something that would be fully customizable to their preferences to find the photo-ops that most aligned with their wants and needs. Focusing on 3 key preferences; Types of photo-ops, Popularity and Distance. These photo-ops would be displayed on a map of the city and allow for the user to be able to search for them at home or in the heart of the city whilst going about their daily activities.

Roles & Responsobilities

My role in this design sprint project was to create a design solution using research, data analysis and personas they had created. Each day of the week I had a different role and plan of action that would help disperse the workload and allow me to focus on one deliverable each day of the sprint. Taking the persona’s needs of wanting to be able to find photo-ops on the go that were less popular while also still finding the crucial important places in a city as well as being able to plan which photo-ops at home prior and travel further distances to see them, I was able to use this information provided to begin my process and refer back to it every step of the way to ensure my feature for GramCity was with the users goals in mind.

Decide & Create a Storyboard

Once I decided on a solution and sketched out the critical screen as well as the preceding screen and following screen respectively, I proceeded to make the rest of the design through a storyboard. I wanted to include the importance of being able to use this app from your home prior to going out or being out and also being able to make use of it in joint with your daily activities. I also wanted to include the ability to share new locations to the app that were not previously pinned to create a community that would allow users to continue to share and add to the photo-ops that exist in a city.

This storyboard takes the user through the process of selecting their location, picking their preferences to the types of photo-ops they are looking for, and being able to share the location with everyone to add a pin to the map.

Validate

For my user testing I conducted 5 tests with 5 participants, ranging from the ages of 20-50 and a 3/2 split of Boy to Girl. My goals when testing this prototype is to view the functionality and usability of the feature that was designed. I want to test if the elements on the screen allow the user to intuitively use the app without struggling to understand what to tap or what to interact with next in order to achieve their goal. I hope to learn if the app is functional and to get feedback on what can be improved and if there is anything missing that could be added to further enhance the app and add to the goals of the user.
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Testing Themes from 5 Participants
- Asked questions about the differentiation of the pins on the map that indicate photo-ops and if they were all the same color or different based on the filter tags
- Asked what the benefit of using the in app camera was over the camera app
- Thought the tags were redundant at the end but was explained to that this would be if you were adding a new photo-op and not one found in the app already through the search filters

The takeaways I had from testing were noticing which comments and issues arose with multiple participants and identifying those as improvement points. Indication of pin colors and if they were all the same color or if different types of locations would have a different color. The inclusion of the camera for easy in app access once at a photo was explained to them as a benefit as you would be able to share your photo with the community to further validate the legitimacy of a location by allowing others to view your pictures taken.

Thoughts & Wrap Up

My experience with a one week GD Design Sprint was a successful one. It forced me to work quickly and smarter about every step I took to make sure I was making the most of my time on each day. I was initially concerned with how to make a prototype in a day but with the help of pre-made assets, I learned you could put together something visually representing your ideas and still be able to test them even if it is not high fidelity.

For future iterations to GramCity’s application feature that I designed, I would consider using color to represent the location type (ex. Art = Red, Monument = Blue) to establish a relationship with users to gain that knowledge of a visual representation of colors for certain meanings. I would also like to add more of a community feel to it by recommending pictures people have previously taken on a screen to give a user inspiration if they have nothing in mind.