Capstone
For our capstone project, we were instructed to pick an existing app/service and create a competing service based on our research. I chose the service "Nextdoor" as my starting point, as effective hyper-local information/communication is something I'm particularly interested in. This was our most involved start-to-finish project, and I really enjoyed every piece of the research, design, testing, and redesign.
To research Nextdoor I set up a login, went about setting my preferences, notifications, etc. I took note on a bunch of features, then, after getting a good feel for the app, read an abundance of articles about Nextdoor: perceived pros and cons, financial posts, etc.
There were a lot of interesting things I discovered in my early tests of Nextdoor. First and foremost, that when making newsfeed preferences selection, your selection only sticks for 60 days.
To research Nextdoor I set up a login, went about setting my preferences, notifications, etc. I took note on a bunch of features, then, after getting a good feel for the app, read an abundance of articles about Nextdoor: perceived pros and cons, financial posts, etc.
There were a lot of interesting things I discovered in my early tests of Nextdoor. First and foremost, that when making newsfeed preferences selection, your selection only sticks for 60 days.
There were also an overwhelming number of notification setting options.
I interviewed a mix of neighbors and coworkers about Nextdoor, whether they'd heard of it, used it, what they thought of it. After that, I put together a survey and posted it to my local Nextdoor feed. Turns out, folks on Nextdoor have a lot to say about Nextdoor!
Typically, most folks used Nextdoor to browse posts or directly contact other individuals on the site. A moderate percentage used the service to buy something, and a very few folks had attended an event listed there.
Typically, most folks used Nextdoor to browse posts or directly contact other individuals on the site. A moderate percentage used the service to buy something, and a very few folks had attended an event listed there.
One thing I found incredibly interesting was the response regarding the Nextdoor Discover feature. While familiarizing myself with all the facets of Nextdoor, I decide to try out the Discover feature. I wondered how many people had tried it out, or used it regularly. Out of 45 responses, only three users reported having ever tried the Discover feature, and none reported a particularly good experience.
After surveying and interviewing users to see what they liked, disliked, and generally wanted to see on a Nextdoor type app, I started with some lo-fi prototypes. It was fun getting to debate the pros and cons of different programs in class, as some folks liked to start with ultra lo-fi paper prototypes, and others liked to immediately jump to Figma. I've found that I personally like to "think through things" in Balsamiq. I know a lot of designers who consider it "old," or, to "save time," jump right into Figma, but I personally like the combo of ease and limitation afforded by Balsamiq. It keeps me from getting hung up on the wrong thing at the wrong time.
After testing the lo-fi prototypes with a number of users to get feedback, I moved on to more high fidelity mockups in Figma.
