WHIPIK | MOBILE APP REDESIGN

CLIENT

WHIPIK

MY ROLE

UX DESIGNER| HOME NAVIGATION

TIMELINE

2 WEEK SPRINT

A short story mobile IOS app relaunch designed to showcase personalized content and highlight underrepresented authors.

WHIPIK’S GOAL

Make content easy and intuitive to find for users

  • Assess Whipik's information architecture 

  • Suggest improvements to simplify navigation and content discovery

MY GOAL

Redesign navigational schema based on user behaviors, goals, and pain points from current mobile app.

WORK OVERVIEW

    1. Survey | 29 Participants

    2. Competitor & Comparator Analysis | Competitor Feature Analysis | Competitor Site maps | Competitor User flows

    3. User Interviews | 6 Participants

    4. Journey Mapping

    5. Persona Creation

      VIEW RESEARCH

  • How might we provide personalized content to users?

    How might we simulate a low-effort experience in terms of consuming content?

    How might we create a reliable way for users to discover trusted story recommendations from other story lovers?

    How might we showcase underrepresented authors and/or authors from diverse backgrounds?

    VIEW

  • VIEW WIREFRAMES

  • VIEW PROTOTYPE

  • Validating Iterations

    VIEW

  • My primary goal was to focus on home navigation but through research I found opportunity to build out:

    1. A more extensive onboarding process so we can understand the user’s preferences

    2. Public user profiles to be able to access recommendations from other story-lovers

    3. Have a notifications visible so users can see when an author they love posts a new story, when a reader they follow shares a story to a collection, ect

    4. Ability to create a story from home further breaking down the barrier from content creator and consumer

    VIEW

 

WHO IS WHIPIK?

A Nigerian-based short story app that is passionate about providing a paid platform for underrepresented authors to a global audience. Their goal is to tap into the GenZ user-base and swap out some mindless social media scrolling time to consuming story-like content from diverse backgrounds.

 

GAINING INSIGHT

My first goal was to understand Whipik’s competitors and comparators and find opportunities in features their users love.

What apps do you use daily?

29 survey participants

78%

Medium & Wattpad

100%

Instagram

50%

Tik Tok

 

LOOKING TO COMPETITORS | C & C ANALYSIS

 
 
 

100%

of competitors offer a discovery page with populated personalized content

3/4

have the ability to create content directly from home

100%

have the ability to share content within the app

 

WHIPIK APP | PRIOR TO REBUILD

Task analysis goals:

  • Observe how users will select a story of interest

  • Do users get enough information upfront to decide if they want to select the content?

  • How will a user save a story for later?

  • How do users feel about the navigation?

  • Do users want to use this platform?

TASK ANALYSIS | PRIOR TO REBUILD| SELECT A STORY

UNDERSTANDING OUR USER

AGES 18-24 | NIGERIA/ GERMANY/ USA | COLLEGE OR COLLEGE GRADUATE | SOCIAL MEDIA USER

  1. Users stay on the app for tailored content

 

2. Users like to engage in low-effort interaction with users (ex. IG stories)

 

3. Users value recommendations from trusted friends or accounts

 

MEET OUR FAVORITE USER, OLIVIA!

THE PROBLEM (S)

 

1. How might we provide personalized content to Olivia?

  • Show curated suggestions based on her preferences 

  • Craft an explore page tailored to her based on onboarding selections and saved content

2. How might we simulate a low-effort content consuming experience?

  • Easy and intuitive navigational experience

  • Less steps in achieving each goal, provide more info upfront

3. How might we create a reliable way for Olivia to discover trusted story recommendations from other story-lovers?

  • Easy-to-see rating system from Whipik users

  • Access to other user’s profiles, reading lists, people they follow

  • Create a method for her to share content with other users within the app

 

IDEATING THE RELAUNCH

HOME

IMMERSIVE VIEW

SAVING A STORY

ADDING AN EXPLORE PAGE

Removing search bar from home screen and collapsing to an explore page so users can get inspired

LIBRARY

Ability to save stories and create collections that can be made public so users can get recommendations and organize their content

PROTOTYPE

USABILITY TESTING

NEXT STEPS

  1. ONBOARDING

  • Opportunity for a more extensive onboarding process to access users personalized preferences

  • Opportunity to provide education around Chat vs. Prose

2. PROFILE

  • Collapse account settings

    • Opportunity to remove settings gear icon and combine with user profile

    • During usability testing many users made assumptions settings would be located here

  • See other users’ profiles

    • Public reading collections (similar to public Spotify playlists)

      • This is another way users get recommendations for what to read, from other trusted users!

3. NOTIFICATIONS

Users will get notified:

  • When a user they follow posts a story they loved

  • When an author they follow posts a story

  • When a user replies to your comment on a story

  • When a user comments on an author’s story (creator mode)

  • When a user gives a 5-star rating to an author’s story (creator mode)

4. CREATE A STORY FROM HOME

  • “Create” icon in navigation bar

    • Helps to break down barriers from content consumer to creator

  • Author onboarding flow would start here for new authors

  • Give authors prompts and ideas to jump start their creativity