Circle
A personal relationship management app for maintaining a strong network.
My RoleProduct Designer. I worked on user need-finding, visual and interactive prototyping on Figma, and user testings.
TeamRui Maki (Product Manager), Michelle Wan, Michael Schwartz (Product Designers), Troy Anderson (Engineer Manager), Tejas Advait, Jason Guo, Evan Wang, Johnny Luong (Engineers)
TimelineAug - Sept 2020 (8 weeks)
This project started at RISE, an 8-week-long summer internship program, in Summer 2020.
Background
Circle is an app that guides new career seekers by streamlining the networking process and help to maintain their personal relationships. After noticing the increase in anxiety for students caused by the pandemic and lockdown isolationism, my team decided to tackle the issue of maintaining better relationships for individuals.
The Problem
College students are often told to network for opportunities but struggle to form and manage their professional relationships.
“How might we help students in isolation maintain and strengthen their connections in order to increase their confidence in communication?"
User Research & Insights
Based on our qualitative data, many college student interviewees expressed a fearful mindset toward the status dynamic in professional relationships.
To specify what type of relationship problems social-distancing college students were struggling with, I conducted several interviews over Zoom to compare how they are currently feeling about their social and professional relationships.
We originally were planning to design a social relationship tracking device. However, throughout user research, we realized a larger problem lies in uncertainty about their career prospects and opportunities.
Results of “How satisfied college students are feeling about their social relationships during quarantine?”
Results of “How satisfied college students are feeling about their career relationships during quarantine?”
We also asked how college students currently organize their friendships & professional network to better understand their current habits.
Main Pain Points
After Michael and I consolidated the data from surveys and interviews, we sorted the information and compared overall insights about professional versus social relationships with the team.
Due to time constraint, our team decided to cut down our scope. We mainly focused on tackling the “Unprepared” and “Passivity” pain points. The “Anxiety” pain point requires a social platform that involves designing for both sides of the conversation. For the purpose of simplifying, we want to focus on creating a personal app and not a social app.
AnxietyBefore speaking with a professional, college students generally feel anxious and are afraid of rejection.
Unpreparedness During an interaction, students often stress about thinking of questions to ask. It becomes difficult to establish a genuine relationship when the focus is on trying to make a memorable impression.
PassivityAfter the interaction, students don’t follow up because they often forgot what was said during the interaction. This ends up being a one-time conversation instead of building their network.
Students felt more anxiety towards maintaining their professional network rather than their social relationships.
Why?
1. Unclear Process
There is no clear and specific method to networking or finding mentorship.
2. Extraneous Stress
Students are already stressed with balancing their current school activities.
3. Status Intimidation
Students are reluctant to ask for help because they feel like they have nothing to offer back.
Market Analysis
While forming the structure of our app, I looked into other organizing/networking apps to gather pre-existing solutions and difficulties. We want to focus on having a streamlined process that guides the user through the networking process without having to re-invent the wheel.
The User Journey
After establishing our design strategies and user needs, we outlined what a typical user journey would look like. From here, we started to ask ourselves some important questions not only about what an ideal user flow would be but which main screens should the team prioritize for the MVP that would still allow for an intuitive user experience.
How might we reduce the status dynamic mindset and help guide a user throughout their networking process?
How should a user categorize individual contacts within their network?
What happens when a user wants to add several contacts at once?
At what point should the user be able to set reminders to reach out versus event-based reminders?
Design System + Iterations
Since Circle’s main purpose is to guide new users through the networking process, we selected a vibe that exudes reliability, efficiency, reflection, and softness for the user interface.
After incorporating the design system into the high fidelity design, I tested the prototype and simplified the user experience even further.
Final Comps
Team Showcase Day
After 8 weeks, I had the opportunity to present Circle to over 60 people! I explained the process behind defining the main features and design iterations. It was a really fun and rewarding experience!
Even though we’re zooming from different parts of the country, I felt like I really got to know them after working together for 2 months! I’m so glad to have such a wonderful team to work + socialize with. Thanks to Rui Maki, Troy Anderson, Michael Schwartz, Jason Guo, Johnny Luong, Evan Wang, and Tejas Advait. :)
What I Learned
Keep the problem in mind when designing. Sometimes, the problem might get lost due to constraints throughout the process. So it’s nice to pull back, really think about the direction the team is heading, and don’t be too married to the current ideas. Having initial research data is super important for designers because we want to be able to have data to back ideas up.
Settle disputes with visuals. During team meetings, there’s a lot of ideas bouncing back and forth. But sometimes conflicting ideas and indecision could bring the team to a halt. A quick way to help with settling indecision and conflicts within the team is to turn their ideas into quick prototypes and conduct A/B testings. This would allow others to visually judge whether it’s reasonable in practice. Having clear communication between team departments is so so so important to keep everyone on the same page and to move forward efficiently!
Next Steps
My team and I are planning to continue this project. Our goal is to release Circle to both the iOS App Store and Android Play Store. As a designer, I’m planning to:
Conduct more research on tackling the issue of ghosting and find ways to increase the receiver’s responsive rate.
Create marketing assets and partner with schools’ career centers to increase publicity for college students.
Collect data on beta testers to improve the app’s flow and add/remove/change any necessary features.
Examples:
Incorporate SSO log-in (Facebook, LinkedIn, Gmail, School Email) to speed up the process of populating the app.
Gamify the process of reaching out to network to increase affirmation and strengthen the habit.
A RISE 2020 Project