Time Capsule App
Redesign
OppJar/Airluum, 2020
In December 2020, I worked with two other designers to redesign OppJar, a mobile app that acts as a sort of crowdfunding time capsule.
The Research
Competitor Research
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We ran a heuristic analysis on a set of competitors, and found a few key considerations.
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Regarding user freedom and control, these apps had not provided for a lot of scenarios - only initial, primary red routes
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In terms of recognition rather than recall, we found that some actions were located separate places from other, closely related actions, for no discernable reason
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Flexibility and efficiency of use were clearly intended, but often missed the mark, with users having to navigate awkwardly in places.
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However, the biggest point we found was that no competitor provided both crowdfunding and time capsule memory collection in the same mobile app. So, OppJar has a unique double value prop, ready to go in the app store - it just needs some polishing.
User Interviews and Feedback Analysis
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The social aspect of the app means that new users join OppJar based on friend and family invitations. So, we needed to identify:
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Are new users somehow prevented from inviting family and friends?
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Are there reasons these invitees aren't then joining and using OppJar?
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Does the app have other issues that prevent users from happily using and recommending OppJar?
Time for user testing!​
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After five Zoom-moderated usability tests, watching target users (younger parents of younger children) set up and share memories in OppJar, we'd gathered some pretty consistent findings. In short, though testers loved the idea of OppJar, they didn't know how to make it do what they wanted.
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We divided the feedback up by levels of urgency, and marked up sketches to clarify each point.
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The Recommendations
We pulled together our own evaluations of the OppJar app, our competitor heuristic analysis and the collected user feedback, and assembled a full set of recommendations.
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The User Flow: Top Priority = Top Level
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In order to tackle all three of our objectives (easier onboarding, sharing the app with new users, and focusing on the "Share a Memory" feature, we needed to tackle the information architecture first.
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We found that certain items on the home screen and main menu (such as My Transactions and Add a Child) could be tucked away a bit, while some key actions (inviting new users, sharing memories) were buried and needed to be excavated.
The user would be onboarded, of course. On subsequent visits, they could immediately choose what they'd come into the app to deal with: My Children, My Village or My Account.
From there, actions are layered from most-frequently to least-frequently used.
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Onboarding Users
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We made two main changes to the onboarding flow, designed to get users moving forward as easily as possible:
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We added the 'Enable Gifting' step, legally necessary for cash gifting and previously buried in Settings.
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If users chose to permanently dismiss the onboarding prompts, we added visual nudges for them to complete the necessary steps.
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The Home Page Approach
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Once we had the site architecture laid out, the home page was a cinch to pull together. Ideally, we would simply present the top levels of the main actions. The trick was sticking to the top level while also providing easy access to common functions.
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We accomplished this by displaying one-touch access to each of the user's child screens, as well as a set of village members the user could 'pin' for easy access.
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Two Main Actions: One Floating Button
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The entire purpose of the app is to fill a 'jar' of cash gifts and shared memories. A user may be looking to see gifts and memories they or others have already shared, but giving is the primary purpose, and therefore should be the main call to action.
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Accordingly, we designed a floating button, front and center, which led to both options.
We set up a flow that worked for both sharing memories and gifting cash: fill in the form (very similar to a social media post), choose the child (or children) to send to, review, and send off.
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OppJar already had the ability to send songs, images, text and voice recordings; we altered the flow so several could be sent at once.
My Account vs App Info
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Both personal settings and app housekeeping were a bit scattered through the app: In the bottom menu, in the Settings, on the home page.
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With the new information architecture in the sitemap above, we were able to split these items into two areas: a 'My Account' screen for personal settings and a slide-out menu of static app info.
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"My Child" vs Village Child
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When parents set up their children to receive gifts and memories, OppJar generates a profile page for each child. Before our audit, the profile page seen by the child's parents was the same seen by someone in their Village. However, while per-child controls and information are most easily accessed on the child's profile, some should be limited to parents-only. So, we split the child profile into two versions.
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Creating A Place For the Village
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On logging in to the app, the dashboard displayed all the children in the user's Village, listed in the order they were added, with the users own children on top of the mix.
This is useful - likely, the user wants to interact with a child or village member - but does drop the user into a rather jumbled pile of profiles. A bit disorienting, especially when they intend to do something else in the app.
So, we removed the Village one level from the home page, and added a slew of orienting features: a serarch bar, a Sort function, family groupings, and top placement of 'pinned' Village members.
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Growing the Village: From Inside the App and Out
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The app already had a clear way to add current OppJar users to a child's Village. However, OppJar wanted new users, and users wanted Village members who weren't using the app yet. Technically, users could invite them - there was a 'Recommend the App' option buried in the Settings, which pulled in the phone's contacts.
We brought both invite-to-Village options together and relocated them to the 'My Village' page, where testers expressed interest in accessing them. We also added the ability to invite through the phone's default text and email apps, with (editable) pre-loaded messages.
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Notifications
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OppJar did offer notifications, however, they were limited to new invitations, presented in a plain list, and disappeared after being addressed. So, we designed a few upgrades:
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An increase in notification topics
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A split into child-related and village-related categories
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A visual indicator that a notification had been read or addressed
We also switched the notification icon from an envelope (which commonly represents email) to a bell.
