Context
From catastrophe compassion to everyday sharing
In reading what Jamil Zaki has summarized as ‘catastrophe compassion’, I was interested in designing something that promoted community development and cooperative behavior. Several things inspired this idea:
- The rise of mutual aid and universal generosity and empathy that came out of Covid
- Financial concerns and resource shortages due to Covid, and in general among Millennials who entered the workforce without gaining financial security
- Wanting or needing certain single-use items, tools and equipment that one can’t necessarily justify purchasing
- Desire for a more sustainable consumption model among the younger generation, who take issue with the linear consumption model of ‘make – consume – dispose’
problem
Things people need but can’t justify buying
Problem
Household items can be expensive and not cost-effective for lots of people, especially items that are only used a few times and left to gather dust.
Objective
Design a way for people to get access to home and resource needs through borrowing and lending, and strengthen community engagement and development while doing so.
Research and insights
Understanding the users’ need for trust
To see how Neighborly would compete in the market, I researched similar secondhand and rental apps and did a heuristic evaluation of each. I found that UI and clarity of instructions contribute significantly to ease of use and confidence in an app.
What 8 users valued
I got insights from 8 users through a mix of interviews and survey responses, all of whom have experience using at least one of these platforms.
To start, I wanted to know which platforms the participants preferred, and what features they valued. Among the 8 participants, the most favorable secondhand app was Facebook Marketplace. Users valued the ability to see other people’s social profiles, with trustworthiness being the common denominator.
“I like FB Marketplace because I’m more confident in the person if I can see their Facebook profile.”
Attitudes on lending and borrowing
While my target audience is young, digitally savvy users who prefer consuming secondhand, there is an obvious difference between shopping and selling vs. borrowing and lending.
Most participants do lend and borrow occasionally (sometimes frequently): items such as books, games, small specialized kitchen appliances and baby stuff. This allowed me to gauge the kinds of items and categories needed for Neighborly.
When I proposed the Neighborly app idea, participants showed interest based on two mental models:
Renting mental model
Saving money on one-off items
“I’m a creative so I do some photography and art work, and I can see myself using this to rent props and equipment for photoshoots.”
Listing mental model
Earning passive income
“I’d probably use something like that. It’s a good idea for earning passive income.”
Define
Who are we designing for?
Primary and secondary research revealed that users have different motivations for using an app like Neighborly. Using use cases mentioned in user interviews, I created different user types, with a focus on supporting the goals of Michael and Aaron.
These scenarios (needing equipment for creative projects, a desire to know and engage with neighbors, the ability to make passive income) gave me a clearer picture of who to design the app for and what motivates them.
With that in mind, I mapped the whole process of listing and renting in a spreadsheet, split into before, during and after using the app. This clarified the tasks, big and small, that needed design attention.
Mapping the emotional journey
I took the skepticism from my interviews and envisioned a worst-case scenario, as well as the aspirational emotional states I wanted my design to create. Visualizing the emotional journey of using the app helped illuminate user pain points and the design opportunities to address them.
Process
Sketching out the idea
I had a visual idea in my head from the start, and as the sole designer, I worked rapidly, jumping straight from sketched wireframes to a prototype in Sketch. I kept any features and notes I needed to refer to in a spreadsheet, which became my feature roadmap.
I wanted to test a working prototype with users as quickly as possible, and focused on two primary user flows, borrowing an item and listing an item, and one secondary flow, helping a neighbor in need. The designs were completed in Sketch, but because of Sketch’s limits with interactive prototyping, I used Adobe XD to communicate the app’s interactions and transitions.
As soon as all the frames were designed, linked, timed and animated, I tested the app with 4 users and asked them to go through all three flows: renter, helper and lister.
Testing and iterations
What usability testing changed
Testing showed four places where the design didn’t match what users expected or why they came to the app.
01 · Home screen
Making a first impression
The first iteration of the home screen gave focus to the community feature. In usability testing, participants revealed that renting and borrowing are the key reasons they would go on the app, not to offer or ask for help.
“I think people tend to be selfish before they are helpful.”
02 · Messaging
A new kind of transaction
I asked participants to first play someone who wants to rent a pasta machine from Michael. They were mostly satisfied with the renting process, and most of the confusion was in the messaging used to arrange the transaction.
One participant noted that messaging made sense because the transaction isn’t a traditional buy/sell and is within their neighborhood, but they were unsure what to write when they landed on the messaging screen. So I added pre-written responses, and had the lister start the conversation, like the Airbnb model.
03 · Mutual aid
Lending neighbors a helping hand
The mutual aid feature highlights community that comes not just from sharing material resources, but also from lending a helping hand. It brokers interaction between helpers and those in need.
I created two versions of the help board: one where people publicly comment to offer help, and one where they directly message the person who posted. A/B testing showed there was no need for the privacy barrier of DMs. One participant noted that without public accountability, there’s little incentive to reach out.
04 · Listing prices
Guiding the user through a clear listing process
I took design inspiration and patterns from Facebook Marketplace’s and Airbnb’s listing flows, and wanted each step of the process to be straightforward.
However, one critical point that confused users was adding different price rates. Based on the layout and lack of instructions, participants didn’t realize that not every rate (hourly, daily, weekly and monthly) had to be filled out.
By changing the layout to “Add rate” buttons, adding different rates became a decision for the lister, rather than form inputs users expect to fill.
Final designs
Three core flows
The videos below show the final iOS app designs.
Rent anything
List and earn
Help a neighbor
Reflection
What’s next for Neighborly
If I were to continue developing this idea, I would do more extensive testing and take the design to a high-fidelity prototype, with profile and account pages fleshed out, an onboarding process and different incentive avenues.
Takeaways
Content strategy is crucial
A lot of time was wasted because I didn’t conceptualize the content from the beginning. I spent so much time mapping flows and user journeys that I ultimately had trouble articulating the brand’s personality and tonal direction when it came to the design stage.
Allow usability testing to reveal issues
While my initial goal was to create a prototype and test as quickly as possible, I spent a lot of time overthinking and designing parts of the app that were unnecessary and outside the flows. As a designer, it’s easy to overanalyze and get into the details. This was a distraction from the bigger issues that needed a step back and an outside perspective, which I could only get through usability testing.
