PostUp

Overview

PostUp is a new startup that allows freelancers and remote workers to share tips and advice. Recently, PostUp has seen lots of posts about finding good places to work quietly or take phone calls and client meetings. PostUp wants to make it easier for remote workers to find great public places to work from.

Before beginning my work on this project, PostUp had already conducted user interviews and gathered lots of insight from potential users. Some of the top needs uncovered during the interview process were:

Making sure there's good wifi, bathrooms, and outlets
Ensuring the space isn't too crowded or noisy
Whether or not the space is work friendly

PostUp also created a persona named Nina who is looking to spend less time finding public places to work from and more time actually getting work done. She wants to find places that have basic amenities such as wifi, bathrooms and outlets, and aren't too crowded or noisy in case she's there for a meeting or needs to take a phone call.

Process

Now is when my work comes in. For this project I followed a GV (Google Ventures) style design sprint in order to come up with my final prototype. The process was split into 5 days as follows:

Map
Sketch
Decide
Prototype
Test

Day 1: Map

The purpose of day 1 was the familiarize myself with the problem at hand, read through research, and map out the new feature's most important user flow. After going over the project brief, research, interviews, and persona I came up with the following end-to-end user flow:

The flow begins with the user opening the PostUp app and searching for a coffee shop or workspace. She can then browse different options and look through photos, reviews, etc. as needed until she finds a location to work from. The flow is very similar to other apps that have a map search feature, but I did this on purpose to ensure that the feature is intuitive.

Day 2: Sketch

Lightning Demos

Day two began with a solo version of lightning demos. For this I looked at different products that solve a problem similar to the one I was trying to solve. From my research I discovered three different competitors:

Th3rdwave

Th3rdwave is a social media/e-commerce platform that helps users find coffee shops near them. Within the app users can share photos, comments, and reviews of coffee shops they're visited. as well as collect punch cards from participating locations. Th3rdwave also offers a subscription box on their website.

Homepage

Map Page

Location Page

Th3rdwave's solution was by far my favourite out of the three competing apps I tried. I thought the UI was clean and overall the app was really easy and fun to use.

Workfrom

Workfrom promises to help users "find the best places to work-anywhere". Though I liked the idea behind the project, it seems like it has been forgotten about since its inception. The UI was outdated and overall the app was glitchy and confusing. That being said, I really liked the info they showed on their Location Page.

Homepage

Map Page

Location Page

Google Maps

Google Maps is a tried and true solution for searching for locations. On top of its initial purpose of providing users with directions to get to where they need to go, Google Maps also provides information, photos, and reviews of stores, restaurants, and coffee shops.

Map Page

Location Page

Google Maps does a really good job of presenting important information to the user, however it can take some digging to find good photos of different locations and other information the PostUp's users are looking for.

Sketches

Crazy 8s

For this exercise, I took inspiration from the three competitors I analyzed and mixed and matched elements until I found something that I was happy with. I knew that I wanted the map screen to be as minimal as possible, so that's why I decided to go with a full map view rather than splitting between map and list. A full list view should also be available, but this is a much simpler screen to design so I decided not to include it in this sprint.

Solution Sketch

My favourite version of the map page ended up being the last one I sketched. I wanted to give the user a snapshot view of the location's information without having to open another page of the applications. I chose to have a horizontally scrollable footer open up when the user selects a location, where the order of the items in the footer should be the selected location first, followed by the next closest location and so on. The footer will only be visible when a location is selected in order to minimize visual clutter.

Day 3: Decide

Day 3 was storyboarding day. I wanted to make sure that the user flow through the feature was as simple and seamless as possible. My hope is that, with a very minimal UI, the user will be able to search for coffee shops more quickly and efficiently.

Day 4: Prototype

Finally on day 4 it was time to create some mockups. I wanted to ensure that my prototype was as simple as possible while still displaying all the information the PostUp's users requested. I chose to display a box containing the map on the homepage, as well as some "Featured Locations" for quick access (note that for the real product the "Featured Locations" will change depending on the user's location). I was curious to see if users would understand that the map box is selectable, or if they would select the map icon in the header to access the map page.

The rest of my mockups mirror elements found in other apps that have a map search functionality. In so doing it was my hope that the app would be intuitive and easy to navigate. I did my best to provide icons that represent different pain points when searching for somewhere to work (ie. how busy it is, if there's wifi, bathrooms, outlets, etc.), and I prioritized ratings overall since users don't want to go somewhere that has bad reviews.

Homepage

Map Page

Location Page

Day 5: Test

Once my prototype was complete I conducted 5 remote user interviews to test my designs. From my interviews I learned the following:

There isn't enough information being displayed in the footer cards on the Map Page
The busy icon is confusing at first (but well liked once the meaning is understood)
Some info is missing from the Location Page

Overall, the design were very well received. After reviewing my notes from the interviews here is what I would change:

"Featured Locations" on the Homepage on the Homepage should be "Nearby"
Opening hours and distance should be added to the footer cards on the Map Page
- This would require increasing the size of the cards as well
A tooltip should be presented on the Location Page to explain the busy icon

Conclusion

Working on this GV design spring really helped me with time management and efficiency when it comes to creating designs. I like that I had to push myself to get everything done in the time allotted, and also push myself out of my perfectionist comfort zone.

In the end, I'm very happy with the solution I was able to design for PostUp. I believe that it's a feature that will drastically cut the time it takes users to find a suitable workspace, and significantly increase their productivity and love of the PostUp community.