The spreadsheet
The concept for a habit building networking app stemmed from a spreadsheet created and shared publicly by our client.
The spreadsheet’s main objective is to help users maintain relationships with their professional contacts.
The tool achieves this by reminding users to re-connect with contacts every 30, 60, or 90 days.
The opportunity
Once the tool was circulated and in use, the client learned about some interesting user behaviors:
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Users began to feel a sense of accountability to reconnect with contacts on time and repeatedly.
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Users modified or added categories to the spreadsheet based on their specific needs.
Understanding these behaviors helped convince our team that we could create an app inspired by the success and growth opportunity of the tool.
The audience
The MVP
We did not have resources to conduct user research for the first round of designs. Therefore, we relied heavily on feedback the client had gathered from users to identify the MVP:
Habit formation - We knew that users wanted to take a step past feeling a sense of accountability and start building lasting networking habits.
Version 1
Progressive web app
The initial plan was to build the product as a progressive web app (PWA).
Business needs/Assumptions:
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Single code base
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Bring the app to market faster
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Easier to implement updates in the future
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PWA native capabilities would be enough to support the MVP product features.
User Assumptions:
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Users would be less likely to download the app
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Importing contacts was not a necessity
PWA Design Explorations
Moderated user interviews
I teamed up with our Director of Strategy to conduct 7 user interviews using the Lookback software.
Users interviewed:
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New graduates
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Job seekers
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Professional networkers
Questions that unpacked:
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Current networking process
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Thoughts on our initial product
2. Audience change
3. The redesign
Users were introduced to each feature of the app. Their insights were invaluable in our redesign and increasing the apps Habit formation success.
Habit formation
How to create a habit
Creating a habit that sticks is tough for just about anyone. That’s why our team tapped into the psychology of habit building to increase our users’ networking success rate.
We followed a commonly referred to habit building framework.
Set goals
The first step of habit building is setting measurable goals for users to work towards completing over a set amount of time.
Considerations:
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Goals: What are common networking goals that are easily quantifiable?
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Time: How long do users need to achieve each goal?
PWA Designs
PWA Insights
Native app design explorations
Native app design solution
Cue
The dashboard is a constantly changing feed of people to reconnect, ranging from every 30, 60, or 90 days.
To help make habit building feel approachable, we broke cues into two sections to help visually prioritize contacts:
Past due - Contacts that have surpassed the reconnect date by 10 days
Upcoming - Contacts that have recently reached their reconnect date.
PWA Insights
Native app card solution
Native app design solutions
Action
So, you get a cue that it’s time to reconnect with a contact. Time to take action!
The act of reconnecting with a contact, is referred to as “Add Activity”.
Reconnecting with a contact is a task that currently happens outside of the app. The goal of the app is to help users log actions, therefore building a relationship history between user and contact.
PWA Insights
Native app design solution
Reward
Every step toward reaching a goal deserves a reward.
The stats section of the dashboard is key in increasing and sustaining users motivation over a long period of time.
Every “action” completed brings users one step closer to increasing their monthly streak.
PWA Insights
Repeat
Unmoderated user testing
In partnership with the Director of Strategy, I set up an unmoderated user research session.
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I created 6 tasks for users to complete alongside a clickable prototype that utilized Figma’s new variables feature.
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The objective was to observe how users went about completing a task and to identify where they got stuck within each flow.
Accomplishments
Flexibility
I am incredibly proud of how the team handled change in direction with enthusiasm.
Habit Building
The team educated themselves about how to pair the psychology of habit building and technology.
