Research Goals

We want to know the goals, needs, and frustrations people have towards booking travels, as well as motivations, attitudes, and concerns people have towards time travel trips so that we utilize this information and build content.

Research Objectives

• Identify the target market and its demographics.

• Understand direct and indirect competitors’ offerings and their strengths and weaknesses.

• Understand the frequency, length, and payscale of freelance jobs in different industries. 

• Discover the job processes and experiences when completing freelance jobs. 

• Understand potential users’ attitudes towards the idea of trading services and skills.

• Understand people’s opinions towards digital currency systems.

Research Questions

• What are the target market’s demographics and key characteristics?

• What are people’s experiences like when they are providing/receiving freelance services?

• What makes skilled people think their services are being evaluated fairly?

• What are their typical experiences, processes, and flows from when they find clients, communicate with clients, complete the job, and receive the payment?

• How do people evaluate fairness, credibility, and safety when trading services?

Research Methods

• Market Research -To study the trends of freelancing jobs as well as people’s attitudes towards trading services.

• Competitive research - To identify direct and indirect competitors, including service trading apps, goods trading apps, and freelance jobs apps, to see what our competitors offer and their strengths and weaknesses.

• User interviews - To hear from potential users firsthand on their stories and opinions on service and skill exchange.

To better understand our users — their key goals, needs, motivations, and pain points — I conducted 10 remote interviews that consisted of open-ended questions about their freelancing (and hiring freelancer) experiences and processes, their attitude towards skill sharing, concerns, and frustrations,

Participants

• Web developer / DJ / Sound designer, 34, male, Canada

• Game streamer / Social media influencer, 28, male, USA

• Business consultant / Entrepreneur, 26, male, USA

• Film director, 30, male, China

• Personal trainer, 29, male, China

• Tattoo artist, 23, male, China

• Dance teacher / Masseuse, 26, female, Canada

• Small business owner, 26, female, Canada

• English tutor / Babysitter, 29, female, Italy

• Photographer, 32, female, China

Results

Based on the notes from the interviews, I gained some very helpful insights.

Since the research is telling us that people in the creative/entertainment/service industry are more likely to use this product, I then created two personas to present the target audience group. Having the personas identified can help us empathize with the target users better.

Meet Mila, a freelancer and an inspired digital nomad. And Tyler, a leader and a team manager.

We want to dive deeper into Mila and Tyler’s minds. So I brainstormed on some of things they may say, think, do, and feel.

After empathizing with our target users, I was able to identify the key problem statement of what we are trying to achieve, as well as finding common grounds between business goals and user goals.

Since the idea of this product is more innovative, it is important to come up with useful features that would enhance users’ experiences. After carefully comparing the user insights and our project goals, I then created a comprehensive Product Feature Roadmap — a list of key elements that should be included in the product’s design.

After defining the problem solutions, I created a sitemap to help plan the structure and organize the contents of the mobile app.

It could be overwhelming at first to understand such a large product that includes many features and screens. To break down the necessary steps for users to do certain tasks, I made a task flow to ensure we are designing thoroughly.

The main 4 tasks users face are:

1. New user registration & complete profile

2. Make a post to offer a service

3. Get service from others

4. Join an community

Since we have figured out the information architecture of the product, I started sketching out the basic layouts of each screen. I then developed high-fidelity wireframes in Figma and wrote copies for contents. Having wireframes allowed me to translate my ideas into tangible visualization.

Please see the full list of wireframes here.

What is TalentShare? It should be modern, clean, comfortable, creative, relaxing, united, and enjoyable. And the logo should present those. I thought of using shapes and different colors for that abstract creative feeling. So I sketched and digitalized a few versions of the logo, and decided on one that I think represents the brand culture of TalentShare most.

To maintain consistency, I developed a modular design system based on reusable components and their states, such as cards, list items, and controls. Every component can be rearranged and combined with others while maintaining design consistency and recognizable UI patterns for the user.

And now we are putting the visual design together! I created 60+ screens including launching and splash screens, sign in/sign up and profile creation screens, home screen, communities screen, explore and search result screen, single product and view profile screens, chatbox and scheduling screens, my booking & write review screens, and digital wallet screens.

After having the full UI design, I created a prototype on Figma to show the navigation flow. This prototype is later used for usability testing.

Please find the full prototype here.

Test Objectives

• Test whether the users can get clear information on what TalentShare is about.

• Test whether it is easy and straightforward for users to navigate.

• Test how easy it is for users to create profiles, join communities, and make bookings.

• Note any generation hesitations, confusion, difficulties in the process.

Test Subject

A high-fidelity prototype (from Figma) that contains fully completed mobile app UI design.

Test Methodology

• A 15-second test on the screenshot of the landing page created on Usability Hub.

• Remote, one-on-one test, via Zoom with screen recording.

Test Participants

• Female, 38, University Teacher, Canada

• Male, 28, English Teacher / DJ, Poland

• Male, 26, Personal Trainer, USA

• Male, 28, Content Creator / Photographer, Canada

• Male, 32, Data analytics / Photographer, Canada

We’ve definitely got some helpful feedback from the usability test! Now it’s time to organize the findings. I used different colored Post-its to note my observations and their feedback. I then sorted by tasks and created an affinity map. It helps me gain insights and decide on design recommendations to apply to the iteration.

So people loved it!

That’s amazing to hear - not only did they find the user experience easy and clear, but they were also keen on the idea of this product, its features, and the overall aesthetics. A few of them would even like to see it become an actual app.

And of course, they also provided some feedback on where they would like to see improvements. So I did some revisions to the design.