Alfred - An Industry Design Project
Within this 5 week project I worked directly with a team of myself and two other UX/UI designers located within different time zones (PST & EST). Throughout this project our design team also worked internationally with the Founder and CEO of Alfred located in Brazil. Alfred is a mobile application that connects business owners in the hospitality industry with local and ready to hire freelancers. The overall goal and task that we were given to accomplish in the 5 week timeframe was to implement a new style guide as well as create and test new designs for the business owner side of Alfred.
UX/UI Designer
Roles: UX Researcher, UX Designer, UI Designer
2021
Problem:
Alfred has two different sides, one for the freelancers and one for the business owners.
A new style guide was created and implemented by a previous design team on the “freelancer” side.
Our design team came in at this point and was asked to implement this new style guide as well as create and test new designs for the “business” side.
Process:
Initially after reading a project brief, our team decided to reach out and set up a meeting with the previous design team in order to get a better understanding of their process and gather more information on where they left off.
Then we had a kick off call with the Founder and CEO of Alfred in order to discuss the various aspects of the project brief, business goals, and any constraints and set expectations.
After this kick off call we then met as a team to discuss our timeframe and create a roadmap to present the following week.
From there we worked as a team on different aspects of the “business” side from checking accessibility standards via color contrast, prototyping, usability testing, etc.
By the final week we had created a presentation in order to illustrate what we did, our usability testing results, as well as included recommendations.
Lessons:
Having good interpersonal skills in communication, relationships, and having a good team dynamic are incredibly important in a project running more smoothly.
Asking clarifying questions will help in avoiding miscommunication and overall will save a lot of time.
There is a lot of negotiation that goes on between and as part of the design process.
I can work alone if needed as I have on previous projects; however, I definitely prefer a team environment. I really enjoy having a sense of camaraderie, being able to bounce ideas off each other, and that each member is able to often bring a different perspective or idea to the table.
Overview & Background
Within the hospitality industry it can be hard to find freelance workers. This is what the Founder and CEO of Alfred aims to solve by having Alfred bridge this gap and connect the hospitality business owner with local freelancers. Alfred has two sides; one being the freelancer side and the other being the business owner side. The MVP version of Alfred for both freelancer and business app has been launched and is currently active in Brazil. A previous design team created a new style guide and implemented this on the “freelancer” side but was not brought over to the “business” side. The overall goal and task that we were given to accomplish in the 5 week timeframe was to implement this style guide as well as create and test new designs, features, functions for the business side of Alfred.
Design Process:
Discover & Define
Our team did not have direct access to Alfred’s business owner user base but we did ask for any user research that had been done in order for us to get a better understanding and be able to empathize with their pain points. From here one of my teammates translated the report and used this information in order to create an empathy map that we would be able to refer to and keep the users at the top of our mind while we continued on in the design process. From here we split up different tasks and flows we would work on, for my part I took on the login/onboarding process and the gig management section.
Business Discovery Report: (Q1)
Survey Questions:
Empathy Map:
Ideate
In order to better wrap my head around something, it usually helps me to just grab a pencil and start sketching or listing out whatever is in my head. I find this helps me get everything out at one time and then I am able to better reorganize and articulate when needed.
Paper & Pencil Thoughts:
Initially I worked on the login/onboarding process. For this I did not do any prelim sketches as I had MVP screens as well as the login and onboarding screens from the freelancer side to go off of as the login/onboarding process was pretty similar to what the previous team fleshed out on the freelance side.
MVP Alfred Login/Onboarding Screens:
My Updated Login/Onboarding Screens:
The next thing I tackled was gig management. I first utilized my initial rough notes, our teams empathy map, as well as the previous teams freelance side of the app in order to sketch out a rough idea of how business owners would be able to manage their various gigs.
Paper Sketches:
Prototype & Test
After drawing out the above sketches, I actually jumped to high fidelity mock ups in Figma so I would be able to show and get feedback during upcoming call from Alfred’s Founder and CEO. After this I created a working prototype for the flow of reviewing applicants and hiring a freelancer in order to usability test it, although we were not able to really test with Alfreds business owner user base it was really helpful just to get several different people’s eyes on this and gather some valuable feedback.
Prototype Link
High Fidelity Usability Test Results:
Overall no major usability issues were identified to where participants were unable to complete tasks
Within the prototyped flow the participant is forced to choose a backup. After confirming their selection, the gig card has a “choose backup” secondary button which caused some confusion as participants had already chosen a backup within the flow.
One participant was initially unsure of the expand and collapse arrows
One participant thought there were too many notification icons within the gig card itself.
Conclusion
For our teams wrap up call we created a presentation with a recap of our project for future use, our usability test findings, as well as ended with some recommendations. Overall I had a really fantastic time working on this project, it was a really great experience! I also had a fun time using Figma for this project as my previous projects have all been in Sketch. I feel as though this project really helped me become a stronger designer and I was able to work in a UX/UI team setting which I thoroughly enjoyed. Team dynamics are extremely important and I feel our team had a particularly awesome dynamic in working together, bouncing ideas off one another, and in some necessary cases making decisions together via discussions so we were all on the same page. I definitely came away with the conclusion that although I can work on projects alone if needed I do prefer a team setting.
Next Steps for Alfred:
Make a few more changes for the color contrast around the main CTAs in order to further expand Alfred’s accessibility
Additionally update Alfreds website with the newer style guide as well so website aligns with updated apps
Test further with Alfreds current business owner user base
Formal persona creation and validation
Pair up with developers to review specifications to update the business app
Once the updated version is live:
Can implement A/B testing
View app metrics in key areas (ie onboarding, scheduling a gig, gig management, etc)
Test and iterate designs further
Create and test with possibly adding new features or modifying existing ones