Umm App Internship
Context: In 2021, I worked as an intern for the Umm app team. Umm is an app that was created amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to offer people a platform to find nearby activities to help cope with isolation. Under the mentorship of 2 senior designers, I developed a project allowing users to plan events and outings and discover events around them.
Problem: Users reported that the earlier designs’ experience was unclear due to an inconsistent and non-comprehensive presentation of information. Users did not know of certain features the app had to offer while they were using it because they were not displayed in areas that were easily visible. Umm’s objective is to facilitate the process of meeting people and engaging socially where one may not know how to start, themselves. My challenge was to target user needs and use those needs to determine what they would like to know in return.
Timeline:
5 months
Tools:
Adobe XD, Trello
My Role:
UX/UI Designer
The Process
Research —> Ideation —> design —> test
Research
I started with some heuristic analysis to pinpoint usability problems in the interface. Next, usability tests were done to discover user pain points and problems they ran into. Participants were asked to complete a series of tasks on the mobile app.
Usability Test Insights:
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Users found the information on the Discover page to be overwhelming
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Users had difficulty finding event details for venues
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Users wanted a way for groups to stay in communication when planning a Happening
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The app crashed multiple times
Ideation and Design
After research was conducted and key insights were gained, my next task was to ideate. I wanted the designs to solve the main problems found during the usability test.
Discover Page
The Discover page is the main explore page of Umm, where the user can view, as well as search for, events and activity prompts near their area. Here are a couple of designs for it.
Venues and Events
These screens expand on the venues on the Discover page. Previously, there was no way for users to know the details of certain venues, like hours and contact information, so this design allows for all that information as well as informing the user of the events and activities taking place at that particular venue. Here are the designs for that.
Group Activity Chat
One of the newer features on the app was the option for groups to be formed around a particular event or activity (called a “Happening”) and a chat feature for everyone in the group to remain in communication with one another. The chat feature also allows for details about the Happening to be easily viewable, so information like location, time, date, and whether or not that information has been decided on yet are neatly folded away.
Test
With the redesigns, users more efficiently understood the functions of the venue page and the chat section, especially with the Happening details, and saw it as a more legible display of important information pertaining to that activity. Users felt confident that details about a Happening with their group would not go unnoticed by members after getting comfortable with the screens.