Remote workers and freelancers often need to find public places to complete their individual work, participate in phone calls, or hold quick meetings with clients. It takes a high amount of effort and can be time consuming to find a location that offers the features that workers need.
In interviews, potential users were asked about their experiences finding a public place to do remote work from. When searching for a location, users are most concerned with the following:
Nina is a Freelance Copywriter from Boston, Massachusetts, who spends three days per week traveling around the city for remote work and client meetings. Her main frustration is that she spends too much time finding a location to work. After the stress of searching, she realizes that the location does not even have the proper amenities after she has already settled in. Nina's main goals are to spend less time finding a place to work, and more time actually working. She would like to easily find places that have the basic amenities she needs.
After familiarizing with the provided research and goals for the project, I created a map of a possible end-to-end experience for the PostUp app.
I drew inspiration from applications that have the following features: interactive map, shop reviews, location search.
I selected the search function and map screen as my critical screen for a Crazy 8s sketching exercise. This screen will most likely be the main feature and would be used by all PostUp users.
The last sketch from my Crazy 8s exercise provided the starting point for my solution since it seemed to be the cleanest way to present and filter information for the user. I sketched the home and location description screens as well. The focus was to keep the designs simple, while providing all necessary relevant information so that the user can quickly make a decision and complete their work without wasting time.
I created a storyboard for a potential red route for the PostUp application, where a user would need to find a place to hold a video call. The storyboard walks through the process of starting a search, applying filters for what the user needs at the location, and getting directions to the chosen location.
I utilized Sketch and Marvel to create an interactive PostUp prototype, with minimal color and a clean font to keep the focus on efficiently moving through app interactions to find a place to work. Interactions that were modeled were applying filters to searches, transitioning between screens, and expanding information for individual locations.
The main goal of testing was to determine whether or not the user can successfully and efficiently navigate through the application to find a location that fits their needs. I also wanted to find out which features may be missing for a user, and get feedback on the visual design and interactions of the application.
Users who participated in testing had experience with remote work, studying in various locations, and traveling on work trips. Participants were also familiar with using smartphone applications.
During user testing, participants tended to go to the Map page of the app first when looking for places nearby and used the filters immediately to narrow the search. Users did not use the “Find me somewhere to…” feature on the home page, but did find it helpful to see all the ammenities offered when viewing a location.
The main findings from testing were that users:
This design sprint was challenging, but led to a viable product that could be further developed in many ways to widen functionality. The biggest challenge for me was not being able to conduct the user interviews in the research phase. I found myself wanting to ask potential users more questions regarding their behaviors or habits.
Since I have had personal experience with often trying to find places to do remote work, it was easy for me to empathize with the persona, Nina. However, I had to make sure I was not simply projecting my own preferences, but referring back to research from day one to guide design decisions.