Jack Case Study
Rekindling Relationships
Keeping users connected by empowering them to reach out and streamlining communication with actionable assistance.
Role
Product Designer, UX Researcher
Team
Timeline
3 weeks
Toolbox
Figma, FigJam, Notion, Canva
Introduction
About the Final Product
An early-stage startup for a community-based platform, Jack provides shortcuts to initiate and sustain interactions and relationships. Leveraging AI and cross-platform integrations, Jack reduces the barrier to reaching out and converts plans into imperatives.
Project Goals
The 3 main wants for this project.
Identify pain points and validate the need for a product like Jack.
🔎
Create a launch point for a proof of concept with wireframes.
🚀
Create an interactive demo mockup experience.
👆
User Interviews
Interviewing 3 relationship styles.
Parents & Children
👪
Familial relationships between parents and their children.
Friends
🧑🤝🧑
Direct or group relationships between platonic persons.
Partners
💑
Direct relationships between romantic partners.
Interview Inisghts
The 3 main interview findings.
😵💫
🥺
🤓
Important information gets lost in chats.
The desire to connect/reconnect exists but does not always occur.
People prefer to use systems in order to plan in advance.
Personas & User Story
Meet our users.
Cypress Sharpe
Sophomore Undergraduate
Northwestern University
Fountain Valley, CA
Katie McGowan
Sophomore Undergraduate
University of Washington
Santa Ana, CA
Cypress & Katie’s Story
🏫
🥲
🫥
Cypress and Katie have been friends since high school. Despite growing up in different cities, they were always able to rely on seeing each other every school day from 8am-3pm.
After ending their high school chapter, they now live divergent lives in different universities. The only opportunity they have to reconnect is when they are both back in their hometown for school breaks.
Unfortunately, as more time passes between each encounter and the reality that it is difficult to keep track of so many things in their lives, Cypress and Katie are struggling to reach out and make plans.
Problem Statement
Pain Points
Individuals need a way to coordinate plans without disrupting the conversation to prevent significant details from becoming lost so that they focus on rekindling relationships.
HMW
How can we help?
HMW organize casual conversation?
HMW finally make the first move?
HMW track important information?
Competitive Analysis
What are others doing?
Messenger
Prioritizing viewing messages in their screen space, they tote a simple and intuitive UI that is popular with many.
A pain point shared by many, users struggles to sort through large quantities of messages. Especially, in group chats where conversations can occur without everyone's involvement.
Google Calendar
Providing a comprehensive and detailed template, they also create a simplified experience when adding events and tasks to your calendar.
While it is a powerfully integrated tool, it is limited in its ability to collaborate, elaborate, and discuss event details.
Brainstorming
How can we make it better?
Modular Template Builder
Inspired by Google Calendar, users are able to create prefilled event templates. With the ability to drag and drop relevant details, the intention is to reduce the time spent on scanning and filling in every input field.
While convenient in the long run, it requires the user to anticipate and create these templates ahead of time.
Quick Access Menu
With an easy-to-access button, the intention of this design is to give the users the ability to make plans without exiting the conversation.
While the addition of this feature appears to be minimally disruptive, it adds a complex layer on top of a simple activity.
First Iteration
Keeping it simple.
Focusing around messaging, our first solution was a simple one. Combining the communicative benefits of messaging and the organizational structure of calendar events, events would automatically be generated based on your conversation with others.
messaging
➕
events
🟰
events suggested from messages
The solution.
Track all engagements.
To prevent the loss of information, Jack’s home screen tracks all of your engagements prioritizing recency and providing intuitive navigation.
From one screen, you are able to create, send, and open invitations for any occasion.
Reach out with ease.
Leveraging AI to reduce the guesswork, auto-populate fields with suggested information that guarantees amicable availability.
With a template to follow, users like Cypress and Katie can focus more on that initial act of reaching out and starting a dialogue.
Carry on the conversation.
In the end, making plans is still a conversation. Utilizing the same auto-suggested feature when generating an event, users can convey and track information while carrying out a conversation.
With the ability to respond with a few taps, users spend less time making plans and more time executing them.
Cypress’ POV
Taking the first step, Cypress decides to send out invites to all of her friends from high school to catch up for the holidays.
Katie’s POV
Checking on what she has planned for her break from school, Katie notices she received an invite from Cypress.
Future Directions
Ideas for future iterations
The following are features and ideas that are to be implemented in the next phase of a product.
Explore More Use Cases
While demonstrating a specific use case, Jack is intended to be used for a myriad of purposes. An example scenario is sharing a collaborative grocery list or to-do list.
By defining broad uses for the platform, we are able to build out templates that accommodate these collaborative activities.
Invites and Onboarding
Creating a fun and diverse set of invites allows users to become more playful in the way they reach out to others. Helping to break the ice, these invites can change or set the tone as they are literally how others receive them.
Another aspect to consider is how users who are not part of the MyWorlds/Jack platform are able to interact with these invites. Invites are a possible medium in onboarding new users.
Reflections
What I’ve learned
⚖️
Balancing Client Wants And User Needs
A struggle at the beginning of the project was objectively defining user needs while validating assumptions of what the client wanted.
Ultimately delaying the project, by taking the time to reaffirm user needs provided a product that both the client and I could confidently take stock in.
⚛️
Work Smart, Not Hard
Utilizing tools such as components and local styles, we were able to pivot easily between iterations. Establishing these design systems early saved us time from recreating pieces with each revision.
With a simple and thought-out guide, we were able to design effectively drawing upon pre-fabbed building blocks that ensured consistency and accessibility on each and every screen.