Actually
No, itās not Instagram
Actually is a new social media platform that tackles the current demands of social media for perfect, polished and curated.
Timeline
July - Sept 2023
My Role
UX Researcher
UX Designer
UI Designer
The Problem
But my initial problem space was FOMO, and I had assumed only one context.
Experiences from which one is absent
Comparing your experiences to others on social media
Secondary research led to new knowledge!
feel envious.
feel jealous.
feel sad.
Real People.
Real Problems.
I conducted interviews with my target users to learn about their pain points, motivations and behaviours in their experience with social media.
Participants
Young Adults
25-35 years old
Format
1 to 1 in Person
Video Call via Zoom
2+ hours daily
2+ hours daily
1+ hours daily
It came down to three things.
I wrote down pain points, behaviours, and goals onto sticky notes as āinterview insightsā. Through the affinity mapping process, I was able to identify 3 main themes.
Identity
Social Relevance
Quality Control
Remember the problem we discussed earlier?
Millennials struggle with comparing themselves to others on social media.
šš½āāļø
This was not the direction I had originally intended to explore.
šš½
So who is our target user?
Alice is a talented visual storyteller, finding joy in capturing genuine moments while grappling with the pressures of online perfection. She is a user persona created from the interview insights I received.
Considering people like Alice
Knowing that Alice feels the pressure to post perfect and curated pictures, I decided on an appropriate solution.
Creating an Authentic Post
As a Social Media User, I want to create a post that shows two sides to a story so that I can encourage and foster a more authentic experience for myself and my community.
I know, I know, Iām not an artist.
But these sketches were the humble starting point for what would eventually become the final visual design!
Feed
Photo Selector
Post Details
User testing my first prototype really humbled me.
What about a tab that you could pull down to reveal whatās actually happening??
I really thought that this was such a cool and revolutionary idea!!
Actuallyā¦
People are creatures of habit!
5 users later, noone tried to drag the tab.
I learned that my users were already used to a certain type of action (swiping across the photo) to receive what they were looking for (other photos).
But it led to a great final product!
Thereās always two sides of the story.
Your feed will contain posts that contain two sides to the story
Create your own authentic post
Cultivate a story that shows more to the story than what someone first sees
Share it with others
Be a part of the community that you want to foster greater authenticity in!
So have I solved identity issues for all social media users?
I donāt think so.
But in a social media world full of pictures of perfect vacations, relationships, and fancy dinnersā¦
Actually is a step towards greater authenticity
Itās really exciting to think about the other epics and how they might look like as additional features. I was considering an onboarding process that could understand a userās sensitivity and preferences and organize/curate their feed as appropriate!
As a whole, Actually and āFOMOā was such a rewarding and fun project to explore, and the time constraints of a Bootcamp meant that I had to focus on 1 Theme. However, I think Actually will be of greater value and impact to users as it tackles these other themes as well.
Thanks for reading!
Other Work
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Ā© 2024 Suph Sabanathan