User Research
UX Design
User Testing
UI Design
Meerkats is a social application. The concept of the brand is that meerkats are social animals and will get depressed without friends or family, the same as humans.
This project aims to find approaches for young people to enjoy social activities, meet new friends, get fresh experiences, explore the world, gain better mental health, and reduce frustration due to fewer social activities during the pandemic.
Gain a large user adoption within a dense urban environment
Partner with large event companies and offer their services through the app
Increase user connection counts
Increase our referral counts
Create long lasting personal connection with other people
This project aims to find approaches for young people to:
Young adults with a need for social networking with online applications
What are their social networking behaviors usually like?
How do they generally make friends?
What communication approach do they prefer, online or offline?
What social application do they like to use for networking?
How does networking influence their mental health?
Are they interested in talking to random people online?
I prefer offline socializing. It helps a lot with my mental health. Offline social activities allow me to explore the world, know more people and learn new information. Therefore I can forget my little personal difficulties by looking at the bigger world.
I met one of my close friends online by noticing that we were following the same topic about a niche band. We followed each other on the social media and then went to an offline concert. After that, we became close friends.
Online socializing creates fragile ties. People can earn trust or catch information much more quickly when communicating in person. I like joining in voice rooms for online socializing. I feel voice ties people more closely compare to text.
The most important thing about socializing is to have an enjoyable experience or to exchange information, not just to talk with random people. Talking with random people without a purpose seems like a waste of time to me.
Current young people are used to digital applications and prefer online to offline communication.
Most interviewees prefer offline communication to online communication, saying that offline communication is more efficient and reliable, creates stronger connections, and positively influences their mental health.
People would like to socialize with random people online and talk about personal stress because it's embarrassing to speak out to people they know in reality.
Interviewees say they don't like to talk with strangers without common topics. Many of them pay attention to information and shared experiences in social activities, not to only talking with random people.
Young people would like to stay connected with friends made from the virtual community.
Although some interviewees say they have friends made from the virtual community, they became close friends only after they went to offline activities together.
Name: Sandy Social
Gender: Female
Age: 27
Occupation: Designer
Location: San Francisco
Family Status: Single
Sandy enjoys food, sports, and music. She likes to explore delicious food around the city and go to live music events. Recently, she started to learn tennis.
Sandy likes to explore new information through social apps during weekdays' spare time. In the meanwhile, she enjoys going to offline activities every weekend. That makes her feel refreshed and replenished.
Sandy wants to find likeminded people. Sandy follows a niche band, but none of her friends in her city has that same interest as her. She wants to find people nearby interested in going to live music events together.
Besides that, she wants to find a community for her other interests to get more information, meet new friends, and explore more activities.
I am Sandy Social. I am trying to meet likeminded people, learn new information, and explore interesting activities. However, I cannot find people nearby interested in the same topics as me, communicate with them, or go to offline activities together.
1. Find an activity request on the map and get in touch with your Meerkats friends.
2. Write an activity request and post it on the map.
3. Join an interest group and check on the group event.
The pop-up box is changed to a half-screen tab for more information, allowing users to know more about the post and the poster.
The workflow is clarified by chaging two icon buttons to one large button with a straightforward 'send message' text phrase.
The dislike option is now hidden in the three dots button on the upper right hand to reduce its impoartance in the hierarchy.
Took the case that the user has multiple posts into consideration and designed a workflow where the user can click to open up the tab to see the replys for each post.
Added the function to follow a person and designed an area called "My Friends". Users can see their friends' posts in the upper section of the chat page and can go directly to chat with their friends with posts.
Added a closable notification when there is a new event, making it easier for users to find the event information. There is a quick button to indicate that the user is joining in. The user can also click on the notification to reach a landing page of event details.
Logo
"M"
Meerkat
The onboarding pages introduce the app's main functions:
On the home page, the user sees floating icons on the map. By clicking these icons, the user reads the post content and can contact the user who wrote the post.
The user can post an activity request on the map by clicking the plus button, choosing the activity icon, and entering post content. The activity post with an icon will appear above the personal avatar after the user finishes posting.
In the group section, the user can explore interest groups and communicate with other users. A closable notification appears when a new group event is posted. Group members can click the "Join In" button to indicate they are joining the event.
