Postup
Postup is an app to help freelancers and remote workers to find public places to work from.
Role
UX/UI Designer
Time
5 Days
Team of One
Alex Wang
Process
Design Sprint
Day 1 Understand and Map
For freelancers who do remote works, finding suitable venues to work from can be challenging. Constant distractions and unstable wifi connections all add up to an unpleasant experience. Postup aims to make it easier for remote workers to find great public places to work from.
The function of "good day selection" allows you to choose when is a good day to conduct desired activities.
Affinity Diagram
Postup provided me with highlights from several rounds of user interviews. I was also able to review a phone interview with a freelance graphic designer based in NYC.
Key Insights
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Different users have different needs, some don't mind paying while others do.
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All users' needs can be further broken down into two main categories: The Must Have and The Nice to Have. Stable internet connection belongs to the former while good chocolate cake belongs to the latter.
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Reaching destination in shortest amount of time is critical as most users use Postup on the go.
Persona
Critical User Flow
With affinity diagram and persona completed, I worked on a potential user flow. I have drawn several flows and landed on the following one.
Day 2 Sketching
Lighting Demos
I reviewed three apps before sketching solutions for Postup
Opentable
1. A restaurant reservation app with well-designed location pings and elegant connection between map view to individual restaurant view.
2. Postup also requires venue selection, and I took inspiration from its flawless transition between map and restaurant view.
Meetup
1. A service app for organizing local and international groups.
2. I was inspired by its location search functionality in case Postup users prefer to find venues in advance.
Downdog
1. A personalized yoga app that I use from time to time
2. I am inspired by its interface design, specially the circular dial, containing all preferences in one screen without clustering it.
Crazy 8's
The most important screen is the one where users choose venue parameters. With Crazy 8, I came with 8 potential candidates for the screen in 8 minutes.
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Solution Sketches
With insights from Day 1, I evaluated all my candidate sketch based on how it best help user to choose venue. I combined sketch 3 and 8 into the solution sketch and added potential designs for screens before and after. Below is the three-panel storyboard.
Screen Before
Solution Sketch
Screen After
Day 3 Decide & Storyboard
I revisited solution sketch 3 and 8 and find it appropriate as it maximizes the screen real estate for map view users while allowing easy transition into list view for available venues.
Storyboard
The following storyboard allowed me to visualize user experience from the beginning to the end.
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1 to 3 is the onboarding flow.
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4 is venue selection with two main drop-downs of 'I Need' and 'Nice to Have.'
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5 appears when users tap on 'I Need' in Frame 4. There will be parameters such as 'Wifi,' 'Teamwork,' or 'Good Coffee.' Free version of Postup can choose up to three parameters.
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7 is the map view surrounding venues.
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9 is information about a specific venue, selected from 8.
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10 is map direction to the specific venue from 9.
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11 is an independent frame accessible from the bottom panel, and it stores favorite venues.
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12 is an independent frame for Premium Upgrade with unlimited selection parameters.
Day 4 Prototyping
Prototyping is time consuming as I created the High-Fi mock up within 8 hours. Skyblue was selected as the primary color to convey calmness. Below are selected frames, and the second frame on the left is a slight variation from the original design for better accessibility.
Clickable Prototype
After cleaning up the design, I have created a clickable Figma prototype
Day 5 Testing and Iteration
Five users were recruited: an interior designer, an architect, two consultants, and one college student. They were tasked with signing up, selecting venues, and getting direction for specific venue. These steps together make up the critical user flow, and results are as follow.
Task
Interior Designer
Architect
Consultant 1
Consultant 2
College Student
Sign up
Attributes Selection
Getting Direction
Success
Inconclusive
Fail
Insights
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Most usability issues are centered on Attribute Selection. The interior designer and architect both failed in understanding the meaning of 'I need to have' versus 'It is nice to have' (Right Image)
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Both consultants suggest me to add an arrow to 'I need to have' and 'It is nice to have' to make users understand what do these cards do and how should they interact with them.
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Getting direction isn't a big issue though the interior designer and consultant 2 suggest me to add minimum price of entry for each Postup venue. (Left Image)
Venue Selection
Attribute Selection
Retrospective
Reflection
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I realized the importance of allocating time correctly in a design sprint. Ideating often takes less time than prototyping, so doing work ahead of time is a good idea.
The Next Step
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The next iteration will include minimal entry fee for each venue.
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It's a good measure to recruit several extra users in the beginning of the design sprint so last minute cancellation wouldn't influence project completion.
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The screen of favorite coffee shop will also be designed and incorporated into the next prototype to see if users find the functionality useful
Thank you !