Poosh
An all-new visual-challenge social networking app that offers users the ideal opportunity to showcase their talents and make friends, altogether while generating income either via winning cash rewards through challenges or by donations made through giveaways from loyal fans.
Role
UX Designer
Platform
Mobile App
Type
Social Media
Core Responsibilities
5W's Framework
Who
Content creators and individuals with access to social networking apps.
What
A new visual-challenge social networking app that offers users the ideal opportunity to showcase their talents and make friends, altogether while generating income via winning cash rewards through challenges or by donations made through giveaways from loyal fans.
When
Users can visit the social app at any time to either create content or enter a challenge pool to earn rewards.
Where
Users can access the app on any device with a connection to the internet.
Why
Users want an opportunity to earn a living through creating content while still networking in a friendly manner.
Problem Statement
According to a survey conducted, it revealed that most social media users create various viral video or photo challenges on their social media platforms, either on TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram, etc.
But a major setback is that the creators are rarely credited or influenced by their innovation. It showed that over 90% of content creators would love to have a social media platform which can generate a sort of income for their creativity while still maintaining a friendly, social interface.
Goals
Create a video-challenge social networking app, where challengers earn real cash rewards.
Creating a source of income for every user/customer of the app. (Side-job)
Cash Reward for users/content creators via challenges or Give away with E-wallet for depositing and saving cash rewards
Design Process
Double Diamond Approach
Using the double diamond design thinking approach, we were able to take the design challenge using the duality of divergent and convergent thinking.
Competitive Analysis
TikTok
Short-form Video Platform
TikTok is the Chinese creative social media platform primarily driven by short-form video content. It launches challenges of various types to tap into the creativity of its users and generate engaging (if not addicting content) accessible via an infinite feed.
Strengths
Market Share
Approximately 1.1 billion people are estimated to be active users of TikTok as of 2021. The video-sharing social media platform operates in over 154 countries across the globe, with approximately 60% of its users being Gen Z.
Free Service and Ease of Use
In the years before the introduction of TikTok, many video editing was done by professionals using very complex software. TikTok, however, allows users to quickly edit and create high quality short videos with ease. Additionally, it is free of charge, just download and start using the app.
User Safety and Privacy
Direct private messages cannot be sent to a content creator on TikTok if they are not a follower. However, the platform provides the content creator option in the settings whether to allow followers to leave messages or not. It demonstrates how much the platform values the privacy of its users.
Teamwork Culture
Friends, family, and acquaintances get together to make videos, which is a fun activity.
Weaknesses
No Equity in Income
Although there are ways to earn income on TikTok such as:
- • Management services: Creating strategies to boost views and followers
- • Donations: Coin donations from viewers via Live
- • TikTok ads platform: Selling products via ads platform
However, the most prevailing is Product Influencing. The drawback is that users with smaller followings are underrepresented because they are less likely to land influencing gigs and are not able to monetize their content.
Addictive and Time Consuming
As much as the company wants to be profitable, nobody is really scrutinizing the users' mental health. According to a report by Wallaroomedia, the average TikTok user spends 52 minutes per day on the app. 90 minutes per day are wasted by kids between the ages of 4 and 15 on TikTok. However, they access the platform about 5 to 8 times per day.
Opportunities
Improve its reputation: Recently, TikTok has come under fire for its light-hearted content. Many people have criticized it, claiming that it harms society.
Threats
A controversy has arisen surrounding this app, which has sparked the suspicion of governments around the globe, who are debating whether to allow the app to operate in their countries.
Visual Content Platform
Instagram is another social media platform driven by visual content for followers to interact with through likes, comments, and shares.
Strengths
Cross-Platform Integration
With Instagram, you can post photos and videos across multiple platforms easily.
Innovation Pioneer
As one of the first social media platforms dedicated exclusively to photos & videos, it is a great example of innovation in social media.
Massive User Base
The number of registered users on Instagram exceeds a billion.
Facebook Partnership
With Facebook as its parent company, Instagram can leverage its strengths. Its affiliation with Facebook has provided it with a strong talent pool, allowing it to continue growing.
Weaknesses
Privacy Concerns
Certain Instagram users have raised concerns about privacy and data leaks.
Market Share Growth
Limited market share growth due to many similar social media platforms e.g TikTok.
Opportunities
- • Increase in smartphone users and internet usage
- • Rapid technical advancement might aid in brand expansion
- • More marketing and promotion can raise consumer awareness
Threats
- • Innovation is essential to keep users interested
- • Intense competition can erode user engagement of Instagram
User Research
Understanding User Needs
To better understand the pain points of users of social media apps, we collected over 70 user surveys on the current social media apps that were already functional. We gathered all the information and synthesized several root problems and potential solutions through product mapping and user journeys.
Personas
Using the statistics and data gleaned from user interviews and surveys, I created two personas that represented the target users. For example, Chloe is a representative of many young girls who is attempting to make it as influencers and use various social media apps to propel themselves to the spotlight. These personas were referred to throughout the entire app development process.
Proposed Solutions
Challenge Money Pool
Creating a money pool where different challengers can participate by placing a bet/bid on their respective visual-content entry with any amount of Poosh coins. Winners take a percentage of the lump sum based on their bet amount.
Give Away (Donations)
Creating a Poosh-coin feature where loyal fans can support their content-creators through donations. These coins are automatically converted into real cash rewards through the app's e-wallet feature. 50 Poosh coins = $2.
E-Wallet System
E-Wallet payment adds efficiency to the transaction process by eliminating the need for users to collect and process payments outside the app. Maximum security and transparency guaranteed.
Wireframes
During the ideation process of the design I created low-fidelity wireframes for testing purposes using Adobe XD. These wireframes helped establish the basic structure and user flow before moving to high-fidelity designs.
The wireframes focused on the core functionalities: challenge creation, user interaction, and the reward system interface.
Payment Use-Case Diagram
This UML diagram further buttresses the sitemap of the payment system, showing the relationships between users, the e-wallet system, and the various payment flows.
The diagram illustrates how users interact with the Poosh coin system, challenge payments, and donation mechanisms within the app architecture.
Key Learnings
User Research Power
Never under-estimate the power of user and market research. This helps during feature prioritization.
Iteration is Key
Iterate as much as possible. Remember the product is for the end-user and not your personal project.
Embrace Feedback
Embrace feedback as it helps to improve the product and create better user experiences.
Final Design Showcase
Onboarding
Challenge discovery
Login Page
Welcome and user setup
Create Challenge
Challenge setup
Profile
User management
E-Wallet
Payment system
Participate
Join challenges
Features
Styling
Social
Community features