Devi Payne - Fun In Covid

Life in a global pandemic is frustrating, isolating, and confusing. The 'Fun in Covid' app combats those feelings and brings people together in a safe way.

the problem and the solution

Problem: Existing platforms like Yelp, the Young Scot, and Google Maps offer location services, diverse activities, and Covid precautions individually. None provide all these services in one place.

Observation: People aged 10-22 often break Covid protocols for social reasons or feel lonely while adhering to them. Confusion about Covid guidelines leads to unsafe actions or frustration.

Solution: 'Fun in Covid' app aims to address these issues with a user-friendly, colorful interface. It caters to users aged 10-22, offering location services, diverse activities, and current Covid precautions all in one streamlined and playful platform.

the idea comes to life

A storyboard is conducted to bring the solution to life!

building the solution

Three tasks were designed: know precautions, find the 'things to do' page, and get directions. Design critique feedback included suggestions to display the group size on the location page, differentiate between things to do at home and out, provide a way to decide quarantine, detail precautions, add a direction button, incorporate novel suggestions/activities, and use real-life examples with specific content and locations for practical usability.

Based on feedback from the critique, complete wireframes are created.

learning from users

To determine the success of the project, I needed some answers. Can users complete core tasks on the app? Can they clearly understand precautions and covid policies of their locations? Can they find things they like to do? Do they have the information they need? So, I conducted usability testing and analyzed the results.

Goals: Understand what users want, fix problems, and make the app easier to use.

People: Three tech-savvy users aged 10-22 from different COVID-risk places, found through social media and interviewed on Zoom.

Tasks: Do three things—know precautions, find stuff to do, and get directions.

Steps: Follow a plan—contact the participant, show them how the tasks works, participants complete the tasks, and I analyze the results. Participants 'think out loud' while performing the tasks.

Notable insights: Good things—app is simple, location works well, and it's easy to use. Tricky parts—confusing drop-down menu, 'I quarantined' button, and 'More' button. How to make it better—add a 'welcome' button, and use colors for the 'precautions' button.

Usability issues are analyzed based on testing results. The frequency with which the problem occurs and the impact of the problem if it occurs are the most important issues in usability testing. Emphasis is placed on the frequency and impact of problems, assessed through severity ratings from 0 to 4. Color-coded severity ratings indicate the importance of addressing issues, with darker red indicating higher priority.

Midjourney (AI) and devi collab

hi-fi prototype happy flow

Content is written in a casual, friendly tone to convey a sense of fun. Language is kept simple for ease of navigation. The map UI elements are modeled after industry standards for familiarity.

All elements are rounded to reinforce a sense of friendliness, and to create consistency. Buttons are color-coded with their meaning (e.g. the precautions feature is orange) and are large for accessibility. The background is warm with pastel and neon accents for a sense of playfulness. The font color is dark brown because pure black typography is jarring to the eye.

Challenges

Usability testing the lo-fi prototype via zoom screen-share was tricky, so results may be skewed. To prevent skewed results in future designs, I could perform the scientific method, used in research Psychology, to do more thorough usability testing.

Lessons Learned

'You are not your user'! I learned to put myself in the user's shoes during the design process. If I were to improve 'Fun in Covid', I would continue to refine the filter feature. For example, I could add a filter for 'Restaurants'. I also learned how to work with AI. Turns out we make a great team.