DAANIARAO
CLIENT PROJECT
Skolay
Skolay is a mobile platform for 1:1 conversations between writers & readers.
THE PROBLEM IS
Readers want to interact with their favorite authors to have an impactful and meaningful conversation, yet they lack such remote resources in the literary world.
SOLUTION
An app to create a correspondence platform for the literary world where writers (fellows) and readers can have more in-depth, meaningful conversations. Skolay aims to create an empathetic, dynamic and engaging community.
We researched, designed, and delivered around our key objectives:
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Accelerate user acquisition
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Increase brand visibility and retention
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Reduce the barriers to recruiting authors, especially older users (a primary demographic)
Project Timeline
6 weeks
Team
Daania: UX Design
Thomas: UX Research
Kiki: UX Reasearch
Platform
Beta-IOS
Tools
Figma
Maze
Research deep dive
To start our journey with Skolay, we began by researching Skolay, their needs, pain points, and goals to understand how we could benefit them.
After conducting the initial interview with Skolay stakeholders, we sought to gain insight into the competitor space that Skolay is also deep diving into in need of the reader and writer interaction.
Interviews
10 interviews
Usability testing
10 responses
Key insights
We began user research by utilizing a questionnaire and a series of one-on-one interviews to gain a deeper understanding of trends within the questionnaire.
We designed our questions to learn more about:
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Users reading behavior
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Reader and writer interaction
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Building connections
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Engaging in audio calls or video calls
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New application usage
01
Social media impact
Social Media plays a vital role in reader/ writer interaction in today’s digital world
“Social media makes it easier for me to interact with and see content from writers I like.”
03
Conversations causes anxiety
50% of users would have hesitations having a 1:1 with a fellow stemming from anxiety.
"Anxiety-provoking to be honest. I think the fear of not being able to verbalize effectively in situations with strangers would be detrimental"
02
Making informed interactions
Users would like an in-depth Fellow bio before they schedule a 1:1
“I like to see the bio of an author, his recent books, past books, or any potential future books in work. ”
04
Building trust
Users build trust in newer apps through data privacy, and testimonies.
"Easy of use and privacy and also if my friends recommend it will help me in deciding to use app"
Testing Beta app with users
We tested beta Skolay with 14 participants using Maze. This test aimed to identify users' pain points while completing the scheduling, preparation, and participation in the 1:1.
![[14] PeerSchedule_New 1.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cd5b06_b6c626ee65db4fd28166d948672f3603~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_53,h_115,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_avif,quality_auto/%5B14%5D%20PeerSchedule_New%201.jpg)
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Home screen
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Lack of visual hierarchy
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Unclear user flow for action
Fellows profile
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Lack of information on fellow profiles.
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Clarity needed for talk now feature.
Calendar view
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Users directed themselves to this calendar screen in hopes to attend the scheduled call.
Active call
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Users cancelled the call on this screen i/o attending.
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Anxiety built up in users when fellows abruptly called.
Now that we understand user, we refined our problem for our primary user and Skolay to guide our next steps.
Users need an accessible, intuitive, and trustworthy way to connect with their favorite fellows in order to have engaging and meaningful 1:1 conversations about their inspirations & creative process.
Designing towards solution
We started the design phase by sketching wireframe solutions based on the synthesis of our persona of Sam, our problem statement, our beta app testing, and the features Skolay required.
With sketching, we kept some key aspects about users in mind.
Reduce anxiety within users
Building trust in Skolay’s platform.
Help users make informed decision
Providing clear experience for joining 1:1s
REDESIGN HOMESCREEN
Personalized homescreen
We redesigned the home screen to present information more streamlined and personalized way. Furthermore, as we planned to introduce onboarding to retain more users, we thought it would be a great way to ask users about their interests during the onboarding process and recommend fellows based on users' interests. This would help to create a more engaging experience for first-time users.
Fellow cards to show their subject expertise and cost for the 1:1
'Talk now' feature for users to see which fellow is available to have a conversation at that moment.
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Redesign helped in the easy exploration of fellows
Added filter option to make fellows more scannable
UPDATED FELLOWS PROFILE
Added reviews, works and posts
We also revised the fellow profile page to include a list of their works, reviews left by users who attended 1:1s with them, and social media functionality so fellows can communicate with their readers within the app. Our goal was to allow users to make more informed decisions about which fellows they schedule 1:1s by utilizing these features.
Providing opportunities to users to interact with fellows by either sending message or follow
A floating action button is available on all profile screens for calendar visualization.
Working with and donating portions of fellow's earnings to charities. A business initiative to build community spirit.
Provided visibility to users to find more information on fellows' work and reviews.
WAITING ROOM
Over-designing for anxiety
To alleviate the anxiety and confusion users felt while waiting for the 1:1 to start, we added a waiting room. This serves as an area for the user and fellow to meet before the 1:1 starts. This allows both parties to collect their thoughts and receive visual feedback before the 1:1 starts.
Communicating to users about the need to join waiting room
An option to send messages to fellow if 'running late' at any last minute
Made active audio calls interactive
Testing and iterating
With our mid-fidelity prototype completed, I conducted our next round of usability testing. For this session, we conducted both moderated and unmoderated maze-based testing.
Our main tasks covered scheduling a call with a fellow and completing a 1:1 audio conversation to meet MVP, and our sub-tasks covered exploring the app and home screen and trying out the onboarding process.
90% of our users completed our major tasks by following the expected path and described the entire experience as ‘intuitive’
Majority of our testers appreciated our onboarding flow, adding questions for 1:1, and exploring & discovering new fellows within literary subjects.
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“Onboarding experience is intriguing and captivating. I also do appreciate the ‘skip’ option”
“Thinking ahead of time in a meaningful way was very important”
“I appreciate the category icons and exploration of fellows through subjects”
1. Adding clear information about cost for 1:1
Users were caught off guard when after the scheduling flow, they were asked to enter payment information for the said 1:1.
To work on this callout:
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We redesigned the fellow card and fellow profile to clearly display the pricing and payment options.
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We increased font weight and added session length for 1:1.
An animated gradient around fellows' profile to indicate active fellows
2. Adding sub-copy on home screen
Users were curious about how they received recommendations on their home screen and what each section on the home screen meant.
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In high fidelity, we added sub copy to all sections.
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We provided an engaging onboarding experience to curate content based on users' selections.
Users can choose to follow fellows they like, and then the algorithm could curate home screen content based on the selection.
3. Adding new 'Feed' screen
All of our testers were confused about the value proposition 'following a fellow' offered them.
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Introduced a feed page to consolidate posts by all fellows that users follow.
Users can also see recommendations from Skolay for more fellow posts and have a chance to follow them.
Accessibility by design
I made text and UI more accessible in our redesign in Skolay and buttons easier to spot, primarily because of our target group is the older generation who loves the clean experience.
I used discoveries from our accessibility findings to make an update on Skolays primary colors. We updated the brand color to a darker & richer ‘AA’ score to make it more legible.
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Style guide
We built a style guide for future development of the Skolay platform after we worked on the screens. To increase brand visibility and retention, we wanted to develop a concise and distinctive visual motif that can be used across our app, social media, and marketing materials.
Final Design
With all the updates we proceeded to a high-fidelity solution and finished up our MVP product for the Skolay team. We compiled all our files in one Figma file and handed it off to the Skolay team for future use.
Based on usability testing we received the below results:
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80% reduction in click error rate by simplifying user flows backed by usability testing of the app.
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Increased user confidence from 30% to 60% in scheduling audio calls by providing tools for verification.
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Grew app interaction by 3x with the addition of open forums for users to interact with the community in trials.
Fellow's profile
We built flows that showed our fellows' profiles in detail. Our prospective users can see profiles, work, reviews, and availability before making an account.
Creating user profiles later in the flow helped acquire valuable users while avoiding overflowing ghost accounts.
Interactive audio call
Given how we had technical limitations of Skolay being Audio only platform, we built a concise interactive experience.
To alleviate users' anxiety and confusion while waiting for the 1:1 with a recognized fellow, we ensured all interactions kept our users engaged on the platform.
If I had more time...
1. Conduct usability testing on high-fidelity prototype
We would like to test and iterate the high-fidelity prototype to see if users are still able to find what they are looking for.
2. Create adjacent fellow screens with improved user screens
Create the adjacent fellow flow for scheduling, joining, and attending a call, as well as profile personalization
3. Clean up some screens and UI
Given the limited time, we couldn't iterate on a way to remove more clutter from the Home screen. In the future, I would like to spend some time ideating solutions to remove sections and find home for them elsewhere within the app.
My learnings
1. How to communicate complex ideas?
The scope of our project was quite large, with ambiguity and strategic considerations This challenged me to learn how to communicate complex ideas into easily understandable concepts to our stakeholders and adapt my storytelling based on my audience.
2. Open communication with client
With my first client project, I learned that I must keep open and frequent communication with clients to set the project's scope from the beginning when working against the timeline.
3. Constant iteration
When working towards a solution that facilitates multiple users, I learned that various rounds of iteration are always essential to receive buy-in from users and clients.