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Moment it’s a lifestyle platform designed to create a reliable space with the purpose of connecting like-minded souls, fostering new connections and cultivating more profound relationships through unique experiences.
Goal of this project is to conceptualize, design, develop, and launch the Moment Experience App from 0-1. This comprehensive endeavor encompasses crafting a seamless user experience (UX) strategy, establishing a distinctive Brand Identity, and creating compelling marketing assets.
IOS Download link
2021 - Now
Sole designer on the team
Product design;
Brand identity;
Visual design;
PM: Chang Liu
Developer: Jiaju Xu
Figma; AE;
Google Doc
We are a group of people who are passionate about travel and exploration. Initially, our product owner used to like organize group activities with others in the Bay Area through social media. Thanks to this, we already have a loyal user base. Based on this, we started thinking about turning this idea into a product to help more young and single individuals who find themselves confined by their current social networks and lifestyles who are eager to connect with like-minded individuals, fostering opportunities to unlock new and exciting experiences together.
In late 2021, a friend of mine, who is also a UX designer, referred me to her colleague—a project manager with a concept aimed at empowering people to discover exciting experiences and make new friends. This recommendation came at a time when I was grappling with the isolation caused by the pandemic. Sharing a common vision and goal, I began collaborating with the product owner. I am delighted to announce that our project is now in its final stages of development and is scheduled for launch in late 2023.
We belief that fostering positive human psychology is deeply rooted in real-world experiences and interactions. Unlike many other social media platforms, we have intentionally crafted our product to center around offline events and authentic communication. Our vision is to eliminate loneliness and depression on this planet.
So as a product designer how do I bridge the gap between the vision and final design?
Market Research
I looked into some competitive products, I found out an opportunity in the market—a white space where individuals can connect with like-minded people through unique and enjoyable real-life activities, fostering long-term and meaningful relationships, whether they are seeking dating or friendship.
Research: Understand Our User
Then we conducting a round of user interviews, and discovered that many young, single individuals are experiencing similar frustrations:
"I wanna do something but I do not know who to go with......"
"I know where to travel, but do not have a travel partner yet......"
"I do not know what to do this Weekend......"
"I want to find a learning or sports partner......"
Design Goal
Consequently, based on the PM's vision and what I get from the research stage, we collaborated to establish three main design goals aimed at realizing our long-term vision.
Help Users ( Main Foucs in here )
Empower people to create / discover new experiences, learn new skills and strike meaningful conversations & connections in real life experiences.
Help Venders
Offer a user-friendly platform for unveiling hidden and unique events to a wider audience.
Help Moment App Growth
Empower individuals to become influencers, allowing them to share, host, and monetize extraordinary "hidden gem" real-world experiences.
Signature Features
With the same design goal in mind, we collaboratively defined our signature features which will promote unique, personalized experiences, fostering deeper connections:
- Event: By understanding users' preferences in advance and using categories, we help others locate events that match their interests.
- Create: This feature empowers any user to host an event and promote their favorite hidden gems on the app.
- People: This section enables users to discover and connect with intriguing individuals through intuitive personal profiles.
- Match: It serves as a centralized hub for managing group event chats and individual chats.
Each signature feature is a product of insights gathered from prior research and interview. These interactions aim to address user pain points, enhance the overall user experience, and set our service apart as a superior option in the market compared to existing competitors
User Flow
I mapped out two user flows whose contain the most common and important scenarios for the app. This process helps me walk in an individual user's shoes, and clarify the connection and interaction between the four main features "Event", "People", "Create", and "Match".
Design thinking
As we continue to finalize wireframes based on the user flows, we conducted two rounds of usability testing: one during the mid-fi phase and another after reaching the hi-fi stage. The insights and feedback we gathered have been instrumental in steering our product toward a more user-centered direction. I'd like to share a few design thinkings that encourage users to discover, share, and engage in unique real-world experiences while fostering deeper connections.
Sentimental Signal in Event selection
Mutual interested means whether you or other show interest in people tab. This sentimental signal empowers users to make informed decisions. Don't let them miss out on any individuals who have the potential to nurture a meaningful connection.
Event/Hidden Gem Creation
We extend beyond vendors hosting events to actively inviting users to curate and contribute their own hidden and distinctive encounters. A streamlined and user-friendly creation process ensures frictionless content generation, subsequently boosting user engagement.
Playful & meaningful invite experience
When a user discovers someone they are interested in and wishes to invite them to an event, it becomes a pivotal touchpoint within Moment Experience. We wanted to create a dramatic interaction that could build anticipation and emphasize the act of receiving invitations. To make it meaningful I illustrate a flying envelop, and users gonna see a postcard with the invitation content appearing from the envelop.
Meet like-minded people
In the "People" tab, users can discover and connect with intriguing individuals. Prioritizing visuals for a more insightful understanding, we've made photography the focal point, with supporting text as secondary. This approach emphasizes visual clarity, reduces clutter, and enhances user engagement. Categories and multiple slides per section enrich the user experience, enabling a visually immersive journey to comprehensively understand each person.
Incentive system
Through crafting and sharing distinct experiences, users have the opportunity to earn the special title and gain more attentions. Additionally, once their posts are activated and generate earnings, authors can convert their efforts into actual monetary rewards. This economic ecosystem can lead to network effects, where the platform becomes increasingly valuable as more users participate.
As our target audience comprises young, single individuals, and our app aims to facilitate meaningful conversations and connections, I have crafted a warm and inviting visual style complemented by empathetic and inclusive language.
Consistent.
With a Design System
Having worked extensively with design systems, style guides, component libraries, and technical frameworks, I am skilled in contributing to these systems to maintain consistency and efficiency in product design & Developing stage.
"Life is about experiences, and there are so many undiscovered experiences in this world waiting for us. Let’s discover together." — Moment
My Learnings
Working as the sole product designer in a startup company
Working as the sole product designer in a startup company can be both exciting and challenging. On the one hand, you gonna have more ownership and flexibility; but on the another hand, it requires you have combination of design skills, business acumen, and effective communication. Prioritize my tasks by considering their impact on the product's usability, functionality, and user experience is a key when you are the only designer on the team.
Balance creativity & pragmatism
As a designer, we always want to design unique and creative design, but we have to remember that your designs must also be practical and feasible within the startup's resources and timelines.
Design for the most extreme situation
In the beginning, we didn't consider extreme situations like extremely long name/address, no user to view in people tab under certain filter selection, no wifi, etc while we were designing. And fixing problems later was costly. But it was a great lesson.