THE PROBLEM

Individuals often have trouble making their own decisions -- leading to increased stress and wasted time.

INITIAL RESEARCH POINTS

Before asking "this or that" ...

My family, friends, and I would have a very difficult time making a simple decision. Common questions I would hear are: "what should we eat?", "what should I wear?" The only applications that I found were roulette wheels or choosers in which the decisions were random with no valued opinions.

Research indicates that...

An average person makes about 35,000 decisions a day

Approximately 20% of adults are indecisive

Adults spend an average of 2.5 hours a day on everyday decisions

Bigger life decisions taking at least 60 days

2 out of 5 people reported feeling stressed or anxious when making a decision

Questions to consider that will help guide us in the right direction:

1. Why do people struggle to make decisions?

2. What motivates people to seek opinions from others?

3. In what scenarios do users need to seek feedback?

HOW WE ANSWERED // OUR FINAL SOLUTION

Reducing stress through a decision-making social app

#1 FEEDBACK SIGNIFICANCE

Posting Polls

Others can help you make easy to complicated decisions through an simple voting system when a user posts a poll.

#2 POST FLEXIBILITY

For Every Instance

Users have flexibility when creating polls, such as using images, text, and even adding a reference image.

#3 FEEDBACK TIMING // PRIVACY

Chats + Push Alerts +
Expiration

(Chats) To ensure privacy for some decisions, users can message others or create group chats to ask for private opinions

(Push Alerts) Users can notify user(s) of choice if they need immediate feedback by sending a push alert.

(Expiration) Furthermore, users can set an expiration date & time for their posts so they can make their decisions in time.

#4 FEEDBACK QUALITY // QUANTITY

Opinion Posts

In addition to polls, users can post opinion posts in order to get recommendations mostly when they do not have any initial opinions or want to gather ideas from others.

#5 URGENCY // BENEFITS

Pinned + Saved

(Pinned) Posts can be pinned on top of profile to showcase priority.

(Saved) Users can tag/link products, places, etc, and save posts they might find useful in the future to reference.

BUILD-UP TO INITIAL SKETCHES + USER JOURNEY

What features should be considered

Upon brainstorming, I came up with 4 pages that we definitely needed to include: 1. news feed/home page, 2. create a post/poll page, 3. profile page, 4. messages page

After sketching the main screens, I thought of 4 rough user journey flows for each page in order to better understand the most optimal user experience.

FIRST ROUND MOCKUPS

Creating the first look

After creating the lo-fi wireframes, I came up with the project's visual identity using various pinks to create a calming atmosphere while encouraging creativity in bold decision-making -- still taking into account visibility.

INSIGHTS THROUGH USABILITY TESTING

Can we improve in any way?

In order to come up with the best solution, I asked 10 target users (self-reported "indecisive" individuals) to test out the initial hi-fi prototype and give feedback.

Decision Timing

Users were worried about not getting the feedback in time when posting last-minute.

Benefits + Engagement

Some were worried about engagement and benefits for voting on or saving other polls.

A Need for Initial Options

A few users wanted a way to ask for options when they had none.

IMPROVEMENT #1: AIDING LAST MINUTE DECISION MAKING

A call for urgency -- "push" notifications for decisions I need to make right now!!

To solve the issue of 01 Decision Timing, we decided to add push alerts for users to alert their friends to help when they need to make a decision soon. We decided to limit the alerts to a small amount so that users do not abuse the frequency of these notifications, making them no longer "important."

IMPROVEMENT #2: ALLOWING USERS TO COLLECT "HEARTS" // ADD LINKS + TAG INFO

How can users benefit from voting or saved posts?

For 02 User Benefits + Engagement, we added 2 features to the profile page to encourage user voting, as well as highlight the benefits of saving posts.

IMPROVEMENT #3: ADDING OTHER TYPES OF POSTS TO GET OPINIONS + MAKE DECISIONS

How can users create a poll if they can't think of any options to choose from?

For 03 A Need for Initial Options, I added an option for users to post a question or thought for users to comment on.

WHAT I LEARNED + WHAT I WANT TO IMPROVE (?)

Reflecting after the project ..

✰ Consider every single idea (even the ones that seem dumb)

Being creative is about brainstorming and writing down any idea that comes to mind. It's important not to think any idea is not good without expanding or trying to back it up.

✰ How can I improve in making better data-driven decisions, specifically in UI?

It's hard to make the call in personal projects when I am doing everything myself. Most of the times, I use my own logic to find creative solutions. How can I find ways to learn more about other designers and their approach in design decisions?

this or that .

THE PROBLEM

✴︎ let's create something together ❋