Final deliverableSenior project 1 capstone

ESIGNITY

SARAHLEESY

WHATISDESIGNITY?CURRENTPLATFORM

Introduction

What is it?

•  Incubated by E-Lab at SDS's MS SDM program•  1,400 members and returning users•  Technology startup•  Networking site for designers / artists•  Design / freelancing platform•  Portfolio website•  Project management•  Competitors: Upwork,

99 designs, Behance, Linkedin

Design Technology

AREAOFFOCUSTHESISTOPIC

Thesis proposal

Area of focus

User experience / user interface (UX/UI) à Front-end development

In this class: research

Thesis topic

My work will explore user experience design on the web application

www.designity.com

INITIALQUESTIONSFORINQUIRYFOCUSEDGUIDINGQUESTIONS

Guiding questions

Initial questions for inquiry

•  How can the platform’s usability be improved?•  What features do users want?•  Which features should be most accessible?•  How should images, icons or visuals be used?•  How can marketing pages be better designed?•  How can the dashboard’s interface be better

designed?•  How can we improve the business model?•  How can we market the product in the best way?

Focused guiding questions

•  How do we improve the most popular existing features?

•  Which features are needed but missing from the platform?

•  How can we improve the overall look and feel of the platform?

•  Can we design new tools to help designers and employers collaborate better?

IMPACTSTATEMENTAREASOFINVESTIGATIONRESEARCHTOOLS

Methodology

Impact statement / statement of intention

My goal would be to improve the current beta interface of the designity site,

designing a product that is suitable for

public launch.

Areas of investigation

•  User research (people) – including designers, artists, employers, faculty, etc.

•  Competitors – other networking sites, other freelancing sites, other portfolio sites

•  User experience design components – wire framing, front-end design, functionality of current technology, programming languages

Research tools

•  Focus groups•  A/B testing•  Interviews with users•  Conversations with developers (front-end,

back-end), managers, founder & CEO•  Prototyping / wire framing•  Secondary research on competitors•  Secondary research on front-end design

FIELDRESEARCHPRECEDENTANALYSIS:COMPETITORSECOSYSTEMMAPS

ResearchINTERVIEWSEXPERIENCEMAPRESEARCHARGUMENTDIAGRAM

Field research

•  Date/time: 09/15/16 1pm @ Eugene Lang building 12th Street 6th Avenue

•  Interview questions:•  Do you have a portfolio? If so, is your portfolio

online?•  What platforms do you use to connect with other

designers and artists? How much do you pay for it?•  Do you use any networking sites to find work or

projects?•  Do you work online or offline?•  Do you work in the city that you live in?

Field research: document the ecosystem

•  The design ecosystem is made up of more than just students and employers, they include freelancers, faculty, etc.

•  Most designers have their own website or use social media as their online portfolio

•  Designers value networking as a priority•  College is also a networking opportunity for designers and artists•  Designers said the look and feel (aesthetics and usability) of a

portfolio/networking site would affect if they chose to use and re-visit the site

•  Designers are skeptical about the limitations of a portfolio site in terms of ability to showcase graphics and customization tools

•  Most designers work in the city they live in due to the need for in-person communication

Precedent analysis: competitorsCompetitor Strengths Weaknesses

Linkedin Large user baseMassive professional networkMessaging systemComprehensive resume systemJob postings availableBlog / good SEO

Lack of exclusivityNo collaboration toolsNon-design specific portfoliosBusy homepage design

Upwork Comprehensive freelancing baseOnline payment systemCollaboration toolsMessaging systemDesign portfolioSuperior user experience

No full-time job postings toolLack of feedback systemNon-design specificSmaller professional networkLack of jobs for inexperienced designers

99 designs Exclusive to designersFocused on graphic designCompetition based systemFreelancing systemHigh quality results for clients

Smaller professional networkCompetition based system creates a waste and inconsistency in pay for designersMedium to high cost for services ($600 for logo and brand identity pack)Lack of jobs for inexperienced designers

Behance Exclusive to designersPortfolio focusedSuperior professional network in design industryLiking and view count systemDiverse design categories

Inferior job postings systemLack of freelancing and collaboration system, cannot be paid online

Precedent analysis: competitorsCompetitor Strengths Weaknesses

Freelancer All freelance categoriesSuperior SEOLarge user databaseSuperior freelancing and collaboration tools

Lack of full time job postingsLack of jobs for inexperienced designersInferior user experience design

Design crowd Design specificLow cost

Smaller professional networkInferior user experience designInferior example products or portfoliosLack of full-time job postings

Guru Sleek and professional portfoliosSkills tracking systemPer hour payment systemFeedback and rating system

Lack of users and SEOInferior user experience design

Working nomads Includes full-time to part-time jobsFocus on remote jobs

Narrow segment of remote jobsLow number of users and job postingsNo other features apart from job postings (freelancing and collaboration tools, etc.)

Coroflot Superior visual portfolio systemJob postings systemMessaging system 

Lack of users and SEONo freelancing or collaboration toolsCannot be paid online

Envato studio Freelancing and collaboration toolsFeedback and messaging systemOnline payments

Lack of users and SEOInferior user experience designLack of tools and landing pages for designers

Venn diagramNetworking and collaboration

Freelancing and paymentsUser experience design and aesthetics

X Linkedin

X Working nomads

X Behance

X Coroflot X Guru

X Upwork

X 99 Designs

X Freelancer

X Envato

Biggest competitor

Value webFaculty / teachers

Employers

Society / culture / consumers

Professional designers

Students

Influences design choices

Influences what products to make

Values

Which values to teach students

Teach

Become

Design products for

$ Pay

$ Get paid byWork for

Produce products for

$ Buy products

Semantic profileStudents Professionaldesigners Employers Faculty

Pricesensi<vity

Availabilityoffeatures

Userexperiencedesign&aesthe<cs

Networking&collabora<ontools

Shahrouz VarshabiCEO / Founder

Designity

Doris LeeFashion Designer

Parsons BFA

Ronnie YountsPrinciple / Design Director

Younts Design

Interviews

Interview questions

•  What are your overarching concerns and needs with the business or application?

•  What are some of the existing features that serve your needs best?

•  Do you have any requests or ideas for new features to help serve your needs?

•  How does social media relate to your productivity?

Interview with ShahrouzConcerns:•  I need to be able to generate revenue from the business in

order to attract investors and financing. We are at the stage of the business where funding is necessary in order to further build and support the platform

Best features:•  The job postings platform because of its ability to generate

sales from charging flat rates for each freelance job post. We are priced competitively from other sites like Upwork and 99 designs so we have an advantage

New features:•  Eventually after receiving more funding and hiring more

developers and sales people to develop better finance pages and secure payment systems

Social media:•  Very important for marketing and publicity. We have blog posts

every week shared on social media and Linkedin to attract traffic to our domain

Shahrouz VarshabiCEO / Founder

Designity

Interview with Doris

Doris LeeFashion Designer

Parsons BFA

Concerns:•  Does this site actually generate enough traffic or jobs to support my

freelance career? Can I at least find a job that is full-time through the platform? It would be great if I could support myself fully just through freelancing and I could keep re-using the site’s services

Best features:•  The portfolio page is pretty well designed and showcases my work

elegantly. However, it can still be improved•  I also like the members page, it’s more transparent than a lot of other

sites that hide their members. It is important to me as a designer that I can see other artists’ and employer profiles

New features:•  Definitely new and better tools for collaborating, better messaging

systems to send high quality images and sketches. Most of the time I resort to other ways of communicating after getting connections from job sites

Social media:•  I have a Facebook page, Instagram and website to showcase my work

and for my own personal use. As a designer, social media presence is essential nowadays, so much so that I have separate accounts for my portfolio work as a designer

Interview with RonnieConcerns:•  Is this site going to drive up costs for me? I work with a lot of freelancers

and require constant hiring, thus have to think about agency and recruiting fees

•  On the other hand, am I going to find the right designers for my project at the right price?

Best features:•  The members page is the most unique thing about the platform, because I

can view all users and filter designers I am looking for by skill type and experience level. It is, however, a downfall that most users haven’t filled in complete information or uploaded their portfolios

New features:

•  I would like to see better interviewing and communication tools for hiring, specifically integrating a video chat feature

•  Also, the site needs better tools for tracking approvals and contracts before payments to ensure greater confidence and security

Social media:•  If I could find designers through my social network somehow that would be

great•  I don’t really use social media personally to reach out to designers, but I do

use professional networking sites like Linkedin before making a hire

Ronnie YountsPrinciple / Design Director

Younts Design

Interview conclusions

•  Significant advantages can be made by improving these areas:– Redesign the finance page for secure

payment systems– Redesign the messaging page (integrating

video chat and document transferring functions)

–  Integrate social media links into member profiles, also allow connections to be made via mutual networks

Experience map

Platform discovery Job completion & rating system Re-application / re-hiringWork processesPosting / applying for jobsProfile completionSign up process

Clear information on packages,

prices or income per project

Free project evaluations via

consultation pages create confidence

Feeling of connectedness through

the discovery of other members

Ease of signing up via social

media / email

Lack of confidence

Tedious due to time and effort

to complete profile & portfolio

Fear of giving out information

Transparency to browse,

compare and select

candidates at a competitive

price and skill level

Finding appropriate and

consistent freelance work

for free (networking)

Fear of not being selected

Time gap between application

and selection periods

Organization and

communication

difficulties especially working remotely

Difficulty to manage, monitor and track

activities of entire team

Gap between project

completion and

receiving payment /

income

Rating system provides

motivation leading to

quality work

Rating system also creates fear

of having a permanent bad

review on one’s profile and thus discontinued use of the platform

Permanent connections made and

visibly recorded, company may

re-hire designer for future projects

through the platform

Benefits and ease of adding completed projects with ratings to

one’s portfolio in order to apply to

next jobs or freelance projects

Research argument diagram

Teamworking is the most important aspect of the Designity platform

The platform is the most efficient and competitive service in the freelancing market

Freealancers will choose the platform over competitors and/or offline freelancing

Interview research with designers (students and professional designers)

Acknowledgements and responses: Q: What about other aspects that have to be considered to make the site successful (for example, portfolio, marketing, aesthetics, etc.)? A: I have decided to focus on the teamworking scope during the semester because of its ability to add the most value in the shortest amount of time to the platform. This is also due to the time and resource constraints of the single semester as an individual student.

because of based on

ESIGNITY RESEARCH ARGUMENT DIAGRAM SARAH LEE SY

INSIGHTSTOOPPORTUNITIESNEXTSTEPS

Analysis

Insights Principles Individual opportunities

System opportunities Strategy opportunities

-  Most designers do not trust networking sites

-  Most designers have their own portfolios showcased using their own choice of media

-  Most designers have a social media page

-  Most designers work in the city that they live in

-  Designers often need to communicate face to face when working in teams

-  The platform must put networking as a a priority and allow designers and employers to find each other and connect seamlessly

-  The platform’s portfolio feature must be flexible and customizable in order to present graphical works elegantly

-  The platform should allow designers to connect with social media

-  The platform should have tools to connect online and offline activities

-  The platform should have efficient communication tools

-  For designers: a platform to find opportunities, freelance and earn income

-  For students: a platform for academics to work on real world projects for extra cash

-  For employers: a way to find the most suitable designer for their project

-  For faculty: a platform to improve academic credibility and to reach out to students

-  A way to shift the design community online

-  Changing the design industry as a whole

-  Allowing ‘anyone’ to be a designer / creating opportunities for new designers

-  Revolutionizing how stakeholders of the design field connect

-  Changing designers’ place in society

-  Making human capital more accessible

-  Focusing on the networking feature of the platform when building pages

-  Creating new and innovative tools for designers to collaborate and/or work with employers (teamwork)

-  Creating a way to take the ‘offline’ experience online

-  Focus on integrating social media into the platform through sharing buttons / signing up through social media

Insights to opportunities

Next steps

q Redesigning networking pagesq Think of new and innovative tools for

designers and employers to collaborate online (research on Upwork’s platform)

q Thinking of new ways to integrate social media into the platform

How? Prototyping & wire-framing à user research, user interviews à final prototype

PROTOTYPEFOCUSGUIDINGQUESTIONSCOMPETITORS

PrototypingLO-FIPROTOTYPEHI-FIPROTOTYPE

Prototype focus

•  Area of focus: messaging page or system

Guiding questions

•  What are the features that are most needed?

•  How can we make the messaging app competitive and therefore of choice for teamwork?

•  What are some unexplored tools we can create to add to the app?

Prototype focus

•  Features and functions to include:– Project filter– Contact filter / search– Video call / calling feature– Group call / chat– Sending files / screen sharing– Profile pictures– Email / phone number integration– To-do list

Competitors

Skype

Canvas

CompetitorsWhatsapp

Gmail

Messaging app: low fidelity wireframe

Prototype focus

•  After talking to the CEO Shahrouz Varshabi

•  In developments: the tool for employers to select multiple candidates for a freelance job

•  Redefine thesis topic•  To improve the existing features or create

new features to enhance the team working capabilities of the platform

Prototype focus

•  Area of focus: application page or system

Applicant page: low fidelity wireframe

Applicant page: low fidelity wireframe

Applicant page: low fidelity wireframe

Applicant page: low fidelity wireframe

Applicant page: high fidelity wireframe

Next steps

•  Any other pages to re-design•  Getting input via user testing and

interviews•  Building high-fidelity wireframes•  Building interactive prototypes with

Invision•  More user testing…•  Refining look & feel

PosterINTRODUCTIONFresh graduates and professional designers struggle to find consistent and quality work, and therefore a sustainable source of income. The design industry operates in a way that forces a decrease in the benefits to designers due to the high costs of recruitment and other uncessary costs. Our freelancing platform aims to address this problem, which makes the freelancing process more effective. The aim is to improve through the platform with a better and more comprehensive user-experience design.

DESIGNITY’S UX DESIGN IMPROVEMENTSRe-designing or creating specific tools and features for the platform to improve the user experience design of the platformKeywords: User Experience, Usability, Functionality, Teamworking, Sustainability, Cost-efficency

PROJECT PROPOSALProject opportunity: designing a competitive and profitable platformMain goals: identifying most important features, identifying the best features to improve, identifying the best new tools and features to add to the platform. Focus on teamworking aspect of the platform.Operational context: online platform, hired UX/UI designers, front-end and back-end developmentPartnerships: the design industry including academic institutions, agencies and professional freelancers

APPROACHThe first steps were to identify which pages of the platform had to be re-desinged: the messaging and application page -- which would add the greatest value to its teamworking functionalities. The following steps include making a relevant list of features to include (via interviews and research methods), making lo-fi and hi-fi wireframes, before final development.

Value web of relevant stakeholders

Lo-fi wireframe of the messaging application

EARLY FINDINGSThe platform must put networking as a a priority and allow designers and employers to find each other and connect seamlesslyThe platform should allow designers to connect with social mediaThe platform should have tools to connect online and offline activitiesThe platform should have efficient communication tools

FUTURE DIRECTIONSGetting input via user testing and interviewsBuilding high-fidelity wireframesBuilding interactive prototypes with Invision

Strategic Design & Management BBASenior project 1 capstoneFall 2016

Sarah Lee Shan Yun

SUMMARYOFSENIORPROJECT1CAPSTONE