Marshmallow Studios company project
March 2022 - May 2022
LearnActive is a multi-platform web app on mobile and desktop viewports that tackles active sports access limitations with local instructors and affordable learning sessions.
Highlights
Browsing local instructors teaching in preferred sports categories
Organizing classes flexibly and managing booked sessions with ease
Staying motivated via redeeming customer loyalty program points
85%
Customer Satisfaction Rate
Challenge
Active sports, inspiring individuals to break free from their comfort zones and achieve remarkable feats, consistently captivated enthusiasts...
Limited access problem...
However, with venues as the only touchpoint for active sports lovers and instructors in most cases, the experience became cumbersome and deficient with limited access between them.
I, together with tech startup Marshmallow Studios, had the ambition to reshape the experience.
Constraints
What constraints held me back...
Designing for a tech startup that looked to launch its first product ever, I anticipated that there could be constraints holding me back from a implementing perfect design process.
With that in mind, I had an onboarding meeting with internal key stakeholders, where I got a rough idea about the scope and timeline of the project, as well as limitations including the following 3 aspects:
Working under a tight schedule, there was not enough time assigned for detailed user interviews and wireframing
The company had limited resources for conducting detailed user interview and usability testing
The development team leaned on web experience a lot in the past but had limited experience in mobile app design
How I raised workarounds actively...
To maximize my design viability under the limitations, I decided to proceed with the following workarounds:
Taking advantage of insights from stakeholder interviews and combining them with quick secondary research
Starting from MVP for informal walkthroughs to get quick and high-level feedback
Goals
How the dilemma impacted sports lovers...
From key stakeholder interviews as well as some quick secondary research, I found that the active sports learning dilemma was a two-sided issue for both learners and instructors.
Aubrey Issac
Age 26
Location Ottawa, ON
Occupation Freelance Artist
Personality Energetic
Aubrey's frustrations
Has to pay expensive fees to learn and do active sports
It’s hard to accommodate classes into her personal schedules
Aubrey's goals
Find well-vetted local instructors that teach their favorite active sports
Book affordable learning sessions flexibly and securely
Braxton James
Age 31
Location Ottawa, ON
Occupation Swimming Coach
Personality Friendly
Braxton's frustrations
Only earns a small portion of the fee since the major part goes to facilities
Can hardly promote himself to attract learners and make money otherwise
Braxton's goals
Attract and teach as many learners as possible
Can hardly promote himself to attract learners and make money without facilities
What to achieve for business....
Additionally, I found that user demands came from not only product end users but also the company side, with a set of milestones to be achieved during the process.
To deliver a product with high brand trust and customer satisfaction and fulfill revenue goals in a short amount of time
To achieve long-term use of the product by executing a tier-based customer loyalty system with redeeming options
Ideation
How LearnActive would achieve user and business goals...
With all the prerequisites collected, I started to conceptualize potential web app features as design decisions and mapped them to user and business goals to ensure viabilities.
From features to an integral web app...
I then built a site map with all the ideations transferred into web app pages, together with a user task flow diagram showcasing how active sports learners and instructors accessed the platform and reached out to each other.
Visualization
Design responsively...
As per the business expectation of gathering as many users as possible across multiple platforms, a consideration of both mobile and desktop layouts was prioritized for responsive design.
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Visualize from scratch, but not fully...
As a brand new startup, it was inevitable for me to build a design system from scratch. Yet Marshmallow Studio had a preference for how Soft UI Design System was visually enjoyable and accessible. Therefore I built the new design system accordingly.
Find instructors by location + Checkout without redeeming
Find instructors by sports category + Checkout with redeeming
Retrospective
Internal stakeholder insights matter...
Although internal stakeholders may not fully speak for end users, they could potentially have unique insights while articulating initial ideations, which could become precious assets with limited enough access to first-hand user insights.
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