Unity Uplift

UNITY UPLIFT

A Community Building Application

Context

Solo Project done for a UX task in 1 week.

What was my role?

Secondary Research
Primary Research
Surveying
Ideation

Sketching
Prototyping

What was the problem?

Due to fatigue from working long hours, lack of quality time away from work, and being away from his family and friends in the new city, Ashish is mentally overwhelmed and extremely homesick.

What problems are people really facing?

Homesickness

Need of Quality Time

No Work Life Balance

Fatigue

So, I started off with some desk research to get an idea of the current scenario, and it helped me understand that -

Prevalence of Homesickness: Homesickness is widespread, affecting a significant percentage of individuals, with studies showing rates between 50% to 70%.
Impact on Mental Health: Homesickness can lead to various mental health challenges, including feelings of sadness, loneliness, anxiety, and depression, along with issues like sleep disturbances and decreased motivation.
Work-Related Stress: Individuals relocating for work face additional stressors such as long hours, performance pressure, and adapting to new environments, contributing to heightened homesickness and mental health issues like burnout.
Age and Gender Differences: Younger individuals, especially college students and young professionals, may be more susceptible to homesickness due to transitional life stages. Gender differences exist, with women often reporting higher levels of homesickness, but this can vary based on cultural factors.
Coping Strategies: Despite challenges, individuals can adopt coping strategies like maintaining connections with loved ones, building support networks, engaging in enjoyable activities, practicing mindfulness, and seeking professional help if necessary.

Then, I decided to conduct a Survey to -

Get user insights on their current situation with respect to homesickness and work related stress.
Get as much quantitative and qualitative user data as I can in a short period of time.

Survey Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1HcCyJGyN-166-dWfyl_PTzP8VkEoTPYyjme5Izu1tXDz4A/viewform?usp=sf_link

Survey Results

The results showed me that,

23.8% work 40+ hours which is more than expected.

More than 50% are not satisfied with their work life balance.

Many people have felt their mental health has deteriorated after moving to a new city.

Target Audience: 25-40 years old.

What the target audience felt

‘Sometimes very long working long hours’
'Work pressure’
‘Not meetings friends often’
‘I have no time for anything apart from work. I want to make meet new people outside my office environment. I dont like my office environment.’
‘Something that makes me happy’‘Meet like minded individuals and spend time more often’
‘To be able to talk to people’

After a not so intense thematic analysis...

These were the main themes -

Need Time Off Work

Do something that makes them happy

Find things that feel like home

Need to make new friends

Work life balance

Want to meet like minded people

I created a persona to better understand my user

Now on the basis of the ux research and my user, I came up with a solution

Ashish needs to do the following in order to reduce feelings of homesickness and work fatigue while continuing to work at the same time.

Make new like minded friends.
Do fun activities or go to events after work or on weekends and take time off.
Join different clubs and have meetups with people from same hometown.
Talk to people going through same things and have discussions about how can they cope or be better.

And.... the solution was - UnityUplift!!

A community application that connects like minded people based on their hometowns and interests and allows them to explore their new city through events or activities of their interest.

Features:

Connect with new people based on their interests.
Explore local events, attend meetups based on user preferences.
Join Discussion boards and have conversations with people about coping with homesickness and work fatigue.
Complete an onboarding to create a profile based on interests and personal information to get event and friend recommendations.

I knew my user, now I needed to see how they would use my app so I created a user flow...

Figjam Link

It was now time to begin designing, so I started off with some rough (allowed to draw badly :P) sketches.

Pinterest/Dribbble time for some inspiration!

I started off with some low fidelity prototypes!

For my design system, I did some research to see what suits

my app the best

Color Palette:

For a community app aimed at fostering connections, promoting well-being, and facilitating communication, a calming and inviting color palette can be ideal.

1. Soft Blue: A soft, calming blue as the primary color for the app's main interface elements. Blue is often associated with tranquility, trust, and communication, making it a good choice for a community-focused app.

2. Warm Gray: The warm gray tones complement the soft blue for text, icons, and secondary interface elements. Warm gray adds depth and contrast while maintaining a sense of warmth and sophistication.

3. Green Accents: Green as accent color throughout the app. Green symbolizes growth, harmony, and balance, reflecting the app's focus on mental well-being.

4. Soft Pink: Subtle pastel shades such as light pink adds a touch of softness and playfulness to the design, enhancing the user experience.

Typography:

1. Clean and Contemporary Design: Poppins has a clean and contemporary design aesthetic, which aligns well with the app's focus on fostering connections, promoting mental well-being, and facilitating communication in a modern digital environment.

2. Variety of Weights and Styles: Poppins offers a variety of weights and styles, including regular, medium, semi-bold, bold, and extra-bold, providing flexibility in design and allowing for emphasis on important elements or headings within the app.

Here are the high fidelity prototypes!

Onboarding

Find and attend events

Join Discussions

Find new friends!

Chat with Friends

Try out the prototype -

What's next?

Conduct better user research by conducting user interviews.
Create Prototypes for remaining user flows.
Perfect the visual elements, add more iconography.
Create components and fix layouts.
Conduct more design iterations.
Build a complete mental health solution by including features like Meditation, Self help podcasts, consultation with therapists, communities etc.

What did I learn?

I learned how to work on a project solo.
I learned how to select the best possible UX research method to conduct while having limited time.
I learned how to analyse a problem statement and design the best possible solution in a limited time frame of 1 week.