CatchUps

What is CatchUps?

CatchUps is a service that helps busy, far away friends stay in touch by scheduling phone catch ups, reminding them when the catch ups are approaching, and initiating the call to both users so that neither friend feels like she is the one always reaching out.

The Prompt

The prompt was very broad for this class project. We had 3 weeks to design any service that we desired from beginning to end. The objective was to gain experience with the complete design cycle and to build a working proof-of-concept. Based on our team’s shared values & passions, we decided to help strengthen long-distance friendships.

The Outcome

In 3 weeks, our team designed a service & mobile app based on real user research. By the end, we had a working prototype of the app through development in Android Studio. Our team won the $1000 cash prize for the best team project and were offered guidance from a local startup incubator to formalize this idea into a real product.

The Process

User Research

Our Primary Users

With a survey, we affirmed that young, professional women are our target population. Based on the data, women were more likely to value catching up with far away friends. Furthermore, women in a busy professional lifestyle especially faced challenges in doing so.

We then created personas to empathize with our users. This also helped the judges of our competition (mostly male) gain an understanding of the problem at hand.

Letting The Research Guide Us

Personal interviews provided a more human dimension of information. When we first explored the design space of staying in touch, we thought periodic reminders would be the answer. However, personal interviews taught us that scheduling is actually the biggest pain point. Users struggled with the back and forth involved in finding a mutually agreeable time. This insight changed the direction of our app completely.

“Reminders wouldn’t help because making time to schedule something that works for both people is the biggest issue.”

Interviews also revealed an interesting social dynamic in maintaining friendship. Friends are very aware of who is taking the initiative, and resentment can build when the effort is too far off balance.

“I want to talk to my friends but I hate being the one to always initiate the call.”

Understanding The Problem

To empathize with our users' frustrations, we illustrated the user scenario that led to the scheduling pain point. This also helped us communicate the problem to stakeholders.

Solution Design

SCHEDULE THE CATCH UPS FOR OUR USERS

Our research revealed that scheduling and follow through were the biggest breakdowns for our users. Our app stores the availability of its users and takes on the onus of finding a common time for a phone call. It prompts both friends to either confirm the catch up or to reschedule. Additionally, if either friend misses the phone call, the app automatically reschedules so that the ball is never dropped. The burden is taken off the users and put on the app instead.

INITIATE THE PHONE CALL SO NEITHER FRIEND HAS TO

Our service initiates the phone call between friends so that both of their phones ring. This way, neither friend feels like she is always taking the initiative. Our research showed that this can be a sour point in many friendships. Our app could have direct implications for the number of friendships that survive far away circumstances.

System Architecture

When designing the system architecture, I gave consideration to privacy and security. Any personally identifiable information (e.g. a user's contact list) is only accessed once the user gives explicit permission. The data will be encrypted, and stored in the server only for as long as it is needed. Twilio will ensure that a secure phone call is made to connect the two parties.

UI Design & Testing

Paper Prototyping & User Testing

After the research phase, we created paper prototypes to ideate on UI designs. We tested the sketches with users through a think aloud exercise as they walked through the workflow. We iteratively improved the sketches until users were able to go through the workflow smoothly.

Designing Digital Wireframes

I took on a personal project to redesign this app to practice my interaction design skills. You'll notice I designed it as an iOS app even though our original project was an Android app.

Setup Workflow