ICEBERG - surfacing deeper connections

Mobile App Prototype

Skip to the prototype in Figma here. Read on for context.

My Roles

UX Writing

UX Design

User Research

Tools

Figma & FigJam

Miro

Google Workspace

Zoom & Slack

Timeframe

3 weeks, April-May 2021

Fully remote team

3 UX designers

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Forget what you may be thinking about lettuce or 1997’s Best Picture Titanic. ICEBERG is a mobile app that’s reimagining the way people connect with each other. When my team was met with the challenge to tackle this developing product’s design, we took a deep research dive to help bring it to life.

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Checking out ICEBERG’s waitlist site, we had a lot of questions. For one:

Isn’t there an enormous sea of social apps already?

To learn what would set this app apart from all the rest, we met with ICEBERG’s founder Ikram Hoque to better understand the busy young entrepreneur’s vision.

“I don’t know what I don’t know.”

-Iceberg founder, Ikram Hoque

What if in those moments when you’re standing in line, doing laundry, or stuck at an airport, you could instantly connect with someone in your network whom you know wants to engage?

Hoque said that ICEBERG, at its core, would digitize the experience of calling down a list of people in a more efficient and exciting way. ICEBERG would make downtime count.

When asked what research had already been done, Hoque said he’d interviewed many friends, classmates, and colleagues. Admittedly, this research was limited and likely biased.

Our challenge became clear: to discover more, we had to ask more questions.

👀 See what we learned about some of ICEBERG’s competitors.

We interviewed 8 Facebook users we didn’t know

I conducted 5 of 8 interviews my team held to better understand how people connect with one another, asking each person 20+ questions to gain insight.

I sourced men and women from across the US via public Facebook groups.

Mapping our interview data showed some trends.

👀 Take a closer look at the affinity map in FigJam.

Those interviewed shared similar pain points when describing their own barriers to communication.

And while busy schedules, anxiety, or fear could keep some from initiating conversations, everyone told us that human connection is extremely important.

Based on this info, we created 2 user personas to guide us as we learned more.

Meet Mark & Victoria

ICEBERG-persona.png

👀 See our customer journey map to take a walk in Mark’s shoes.

Victoria and Mark helped us define the problem we aimed to solve…

Users need a way to spark and maintain conversations with those who matter most, past and present, so they can experience the joy of human connection deep within their networks, on their time and without hesitation.

To the drawing board

Now research-fueled and user-inspired, our remote team brainstormed via Zoom. We kicked off our ideation sessions with a Design Studio.

sketches by David and Sam

sketches by David and Sam

We explored how we might leverage users’ downtime to harness joyful human connection via a mobile app.

Sara, David

Sara, David

We considered how ICEBERG might eliminate the anxiety of reaching out to someone “out of the blue.”

David, Sara

David, Sara

And, we experimented with ways the app might organize a user’s contacts to help facilitate easier connections.

Let’s get digital

David, Sam, & myself Zoomin’ toward solutions from three time zones

David, Sam, & myself Zoomin’ toward solutions from 3 time zones

When creating mid-fidelity wireframes in Figma from our hand sketches, we built out core ICEBERG features. To create a minimum viable product design in the next two weeks, we tackled:

  • Onboarding

  • Contact adding/importing

  • A “Queue” calling system

  • Calendar reminders & notes

  • “Question of the Week”

I focused on how users would understand ICEBERG and what joyful elements might set it apart without overwhelming users like Mark or Victoria.

Based on our ideas, I laid out an onboarding flow with concise welcoming copy to explain ICEBERG’s value and to help users set up quickly.

From the initial screen, users would scroll down, rather than right, as the UI colors become darker, to indulge in the concept of reaching deeper into one’s network.

Next I explored the idea of a question prompt feature. I imagined how a simple “Question of the Week” might spark conversations and become a joyful means to engage.

Could a simple weekly question prompt be the gentle nudge users need to overcome hesitation to connect? 🤔

The wireframes show how question responses of minimal character length would be displayed alongside users’ contacts to spark communication.

👀 See all first round wireframes here.

Meanwhile, my teammates took the lead on developing wireframes for other key features like ICEBERG’s “Queue” calling system. It would allow users to add any number of contacts to a list, and the app would call through to connect with someone who is available.

I experimented with clear and concise copy to introduce and explain the feature.

Usability testing

We knew there was room for iteration after putting our first round wireframes to the test. We asked 4 users to complete a series of tasks with little guidance.

  • Everyone found onboarding to be confusing and wordy

  • 3/4 testers understood what the Queue call function was, but they had trouble understanding how it worked

  • Only one tester was able to find and attempt to answer the Question of the Week without help

Changing things up

Based on testing feedback, we made several changes to improve how user’s might understand and navigate the app.

I focused on onboarding, better explaining the Queue calling feature, and making the Question of the Week feature more user-friendly.

👀 Check out all second round wireframes.

We switched the order of the onboarding screens, putting the app name, logo, and a revised tagline “Real Social, No Media” on the initial screen. (“Just Social” felt too limiting, too basic, whereas “Real” might appeal to Mark and Victoria).

I reworked the description of the Queue to see if revised language might help users grasp the concept more quickly.

We prominently displayed the Question of the Week prompt above users’ contacts and eliminated the pop-up overlay, while also making the icon smaller and less bold.

ICEBERG takes shape

After some changes, another usability test round told us that more iteration and testing could elevate ICEBERG.

With the mockup iteration that you can explore below, the majority of users still had some difficulty with onboarding and the Queue.

But, everyone found and navigated the Question of the Week with ease. We received lots of positive feedback on this feature from all users as well as founder Ikram Hoque.

What next?

We created this MVP in only 3 weeks. In a future sprint, we’d continue testing and iterating to build a better ICEBERG. Some specific areas we’d explore:

  • Tagging features for categorizing contacts into customizable groups (ex: family, gym buddies, college alumni, close friends)

  • Making onboarding and the Queue more intuitive and user-friendly

  • Access to Question of the Week history

  • Customizable “hide yourself” privacy features

  • Location-based features that would help users facilitate joyful or “serendipitous” connections in real life

Gone deep!

Reflecting on this project, I better understand and appreciate how invaluable research is to designing meaningful user experiences. Taking a deeper dive to find what users really care about allowed my team to explore viable product solutions in just 3 weeks.

I learned that less is more. We were so excited to explore multiple ideas that we got caught in some “what if” rabbit holes. Moving forward, focused attention on fewer ideas, with plenty of research and iteration, will create solid foundations for products that can make a real impact.