EMPLOYER

Loopchat

MY ROLE

User research, Prototyping
UI design, Design system, Graphic Design

PROJECT YEAR

2020

Fast-paced environment.
Rapid prototyping. Problem Solving.

During my time at Loopchat, I have worked along-side a multi-discplinatary team to develop viral features and improve the user experience. Being the sole UI/UX designer in the US, I have been at the forefront on many design efforts. I have learned to work in a fast-paced environment and combine rapid prototyping, interaction as well as visual design to tackle complex problems and tranform them into graceful and intuitive solutions.

LoopChat

I played a pivotal role in the rebranding and refinement of the Loopchat app by making the UX less segmented and features easily accessible and discoverable, which led to an increase in feature usage and app retention rate.

One feature that I am really proud off that I helped bring to the app is Group Notice. It allows members of a group chat to quickly get access to important information pertaining to the group chat such as group rules, class links, reminders etc.

I was also heavily involved in the redesign and rebranding of Circle, a space where users can share their lives with other college students. Circle has now been rebuilt from the ground up and renamed College Circle and has been growing in popularity among Loopchat users.

More, I initiated Live Rooms, our response to Discord audio channels. it allows user to connect live, using audio. The feature is currently being tested internally.

design process

A great way to find out about non obvious UX problems is to spend time talking to users

When I joined LoopChat, the direction and vision of the startrup were already established. The framework of my work consisted in finding creative ways to bring some of these established ideas to life as well as suggest a new array of features and how to implement them.

As a designer, I believe in creating a product that is centered around people. To achieve this goal, I conducted 10+ focus groups and recorded 100+ user stories. We were able garner a lot of useful feedback upon which we relied to enhance and refine the app.

One constent criticism that kept coming is that the app felt too segmented and crowded with features. Users also thought the app wasn’t intuitive enough. Using this feedback I was able to gain a better understanding of the users’ needs and frustrations.

Following the result of the interviews, I was able to create more accurate personas that better depict our targeted user as well as user flows that mapped our user’s existing process and therefore better identified key pain points that needed to be addressed.

Uncovering the right problem is the foundamental part of designing the right solution

With the data gathered and the guidance of the team, an abstract idea of the product and list of priorities started to manifest. I began to conceptualize some of these ideas by sketching and making low-fidelity wireframes. After creating a few iterations, I would go back and forth with our stakeholders and consult once more the user to review and validate the udpated changes.

One thing I had to quickly get comfortable with is that, in the design world, one must not be too attached to an idea. Ideas can change and at times steer in a completely different direction, in which case the designer may have to redo a design from the ground up.

I believe in validating changes and user experience through user stories and interviews as well data. Doing so allow us designers to able to come up with more informed designs and actually make and deliver a product for the user, and not just an idea of what we think the user may want.

After the validation process was completed, I went ahead and finilized the feature for the minimum viable product or MVP. I polished our final sets of wireframes as well as prototypes before presenting them to the dev team.

Conclusion

Working at LoopChat has been a great learning opportunity; It thought me how to be more resilient, responsible and better at working with tight deadlines and in team. It also taught me how to get outside of my comfort zone and try out new ideas and tools.

Key Takeaways

Embrace constructive criticism and learn from it

Develop and establish a clear method of communication

Don’t be afraid to try and learn new tools

Asking questions help you better understand project expectation and help you learn new things.

EMPLOYER

MY ROLE

PROJECT YEAR

Fast-paced environment.
Rapid prototyping. Problem Solving.

LoopChat

I played a pivotal role in the rebranding and refinement of the Loopchat app by making the UX less segmented and features easily accessible and discoverable, which led to an increase in feature usage and app retention rate.

live rooms

group Notice

circle

loop.pay

A great way to find out about non obvious UX problems is to spend time talking to users

Uncovering the right problem is the foundamental part of designing the right solution

Conclusion

Key Takeaways

Thank you for reading

Next

EMPLOYER

MY ROLE

PROJECT YEAR

Fast-paced environment. Rapid prototyping. Problem Solving.

LoopChat

I played a pivotal role in the rebranding and refinement of the Loopchat app by making the UX less segmented and features easily accessible and discoverable, which led to an increase in feature usage and app retention rate.

live rooms

group Notice

circle

loop.pay

A great way to find out about non obvious UX problems is to spend time talking to users

Uncovering the right problem is the foundamental part of designing the right solution

Conclusion

Key Takeaways

Thank you for reading

Next

Fast-paced environment.
Rapid prototyping. Problem Solving.