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According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Since COVID-19, loneliness has been a increasing mental health concern in Australia with every 1 in 6 Australians reporting feeling lonely in 2022 that entails feeling a “lack connection to other people” and have a “desire for more, or more satisfying, social relationships”.
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We found that people were combatting feelings of loneliness with book clubs so we started to look into it. Book clubs developed communities, relationships and a sense of belonging, we found media can act like a social glue. With this in mind, we saw the opportunity for media to improve mental health and combat loneliness.
What is Clubby?
Clubby was designed to achieve meaningful and intimate social interaction and mindful media consumption over shared or new entertainment media interests.​
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We observed that popular social media channels and media related products are not meeting these goals, which is causing feelings of isolation, passiveness towards media and overwhelm when consuming and creating content.
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With our service, our customers are more successful based on reported sense of satisfaction with social interactions and media consumption, developing social connections, and increasing interest in entertainment media (eg.: tv shows, book, movies)
Role: UI UX Designer
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Project: Lean UX, Group Project
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What I did: UX/UI Design, UX
Research, User Testing
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Timeline: 2.5 months
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Tools: Figma, Miro, Teams
Design Process​
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In a group of four, my task was to design the end-to-end experience for anyone who consumes media and wants to develop or create connections! We began with a Lean UX process with the assumption of building a sense of community from an activity usually practised alone and at home. We realized there was an opportunity here. Young adults normally consume TV shows, movies, and books in isolation at home without much discussion or thought.
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The design framework we followed validated this assumption through user research, then shaped the solution by defining notable user interactions and testing and iterating on the designs. We wanted to create some more meaningful and intimate social connections!
Research & Define
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Understanding the user and problem space
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The first phase consisted of research and user discovery. We believe our app will encourage meaningful and intimate social interactions and intentional content consumption over shared entertainment media interests through online discussions, reviews, updates from friends and posts. This is how we plan to measure that.
We looked into the products that serve a similar purpose in the market. Apps such as Fable, Goodreads, discord, reddit, teleparty, kast and watch2gether.
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This table shows our comparison of the features all these applications provide, side by side, to understand the gaps and how they would compare to our idea and how to make our product unique.
Market Gaps​
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No platform gives a unified experience for reading and watching.
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No platform that customizes experiences based on their interests.
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Don’t inspire better habits in consuming media and entertainment.
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Most apps target wider social groups which need moderating and may lead to toxic behaviour.
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This may discourage people from engaging in the conversations fearing how other strangers may view them increasing a sense of isolation rather than giving a sense of community.
Through the findings we were able to conclude that there is a significant opportunity to address loneliness and enhance mental health through media-based community building. Our market research indicated a strong demand for platforms that facilitate meaningful and intimate discussion, content curation, increased privacy, and opportunities to create significant friendships. Our desk research reinforced this by highlighting the effectiveness of book clubs and entertainment media in fostering social connections and intellectual engagement.
Our Unique Selling Points
Who is the target user?
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Based on patterns in user behaviour and common traits from the user interviews, I created a persona consisting of users who want to maintain and build new social connections on common media interests as well as share content and discuss about them. Keeping in mind Clubby's goal of targeting younger consumers, Julia represents the needs and behaviours of one of the users from that particular demographic.
Meet our persona, Julia Sandoval. Julia is a 24-year-old marketing manager at a tech-based company. Julia was recently relocated to a new city by her company and has been struggling to maintain her friendships in her hometown and make new ones. She really loves her hobbies like reading, cooking and movie-watching but has been feeling they are not social enough for her new social needs as she usually practices them at home on her own. Because of this, she's looking for an easy way to meet new friends in her area who have similar interests.
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Defining Strategy & Usability Testing​
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The team conducted 10 rounds of participant interviews that helped inform us aboout our user needs. We then performed a usability test on our mid-fidelity prototype. The results were as follows:
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social, environmental and emotional context affects tv show tastes
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media can be a source of relaxation (nostalgia plays a large role in self-soothing media) or anxiety
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media is often used as a catalyst for conversation or connection
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media can be a source of new information of points of view for many
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people seek out media discussing the media they just consumed
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people feel strongly about the amount of media available and often get overwhelmed
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communication types and patterns depend on relationship type and physical and emotional closeness
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the intent behind communications can also change how something is said
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our demographic struggles to expand their social network
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often, friends share interests in media
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our users would like to make friends with similar interests and many specifically would like friends that share media interests
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motivation to finish media comes from interest in the topic and quality of content
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healthy habit-building can play a large role in finishing media
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people often watch media based on community suggestions (friends, social media, reviews, etc...)
Surprising card sorting findings
Wireframing​
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Once our MVP features were defined based on our user research, we decided to jump into our design process by wireframing our flows.
Brainstorm sketches on early concepts of content layout and dialog components.
High Fidelity Prototype​
The final style tile brings together UI elements that dictated the high-fidelity designs.
Next Steps​
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As we move forward with Clubby, our team is dedicated to refining its media-specific features and enhancing user experience for each. We will conduct comprehensive testing to tailor our offerings to diverse media types, ensuring a seamless and satisfying journey for our users.
Additionally, we aim to investigate how users interact with the app at various stages - before, during, and after consuming media - to gauge the overall value Clubby provides and how we can improve. We envision Clubby's future as a vibrant platform that fosters meaningful connections through a shared passion, ultimately creating a positive and inclusive social ecosystem.
Team Mates Reviews​​