HOMIE
"Homie"- A social media just for the family members. To let family members know each other's life well in long-distance, "Homie" creates a simple way to share life with a small group of people and get more connections from the interaction. So the target audience is those people who are in long-distance with their family members and don't want to miss each other's daily life.
Compare with other social media, such as Instagram and Facebook. "Homie" focuses more on a small group of people and provides more connections between each other through interactions. Also, people have fewer worries when they use "Homie" to share life. They don't need to overthink about the photos or the words while they are sharing life, because they only share staff to their most closed people who will never judge them.
HOMIE
"Homie"- A social media just for the family members. To let family members know each other's life well in long-distance, "Homie" creates a simple way to share life with a small group of people and get more connections from the interaction. So the target audience is those people who are in long-distance with their family members and don't want to miss each other's daily life.
Compare with other social media, such as Instagram and Facebook. "Homie" focuses more on a small group of people and provides more connections between each other through interactions. Also, people have fewer worries when they use "Homie" to share life. They don't need to overthink about the photos or the words while they are sharing life, because they only share staff to their most closed people who will never judge them.
Problem background
Annie study abroad in the United States and lives far away from her family. Annie and her family members can’t chat a lot because of the time difference and the long distance. In that limited time, Annie and her family members can’t always have a good time. Because they don’t know each other’s lives, they don’t have topics to communicate, which cause the fact that they don’t understand each other.
Problem
How might we help those family members who are in long-distance know each other’s life well in long-distance?
01. Research and Survey
The total number of people who took the survey is 389. There are 77% of people in the survey feel the distance affects the connections between family members. Most of them are international students and parents. The reasons which will affect the connections are time difference, long-distance, too busy, and forget to share, etc.
01. Research and Survey
The total number of people who took the survey is 389. There are 77% of people in the survey feel the distance affects the connections between family members. Most of them are international students and parents. The reasons which will affect the connections are time difference, long-distance, too busy, and forget to share, etc.
02. Branding
The concept of the brand is "Relatives are the best friends, wherever and whenever." It can be seen from the logo, No matter where the family members are, it is always a group." The colors used are bright and lively, which fits with the family topic.
02. Branding
The concept of the brand is "Relatives are the best friends, wherever and whenever." It can be seen from the logo, No matter where the family members are, it is always a group." The colors used are bright and lively, which fits with the family topic.
03. Solution
A simple way to share the life with a small group people and get more connections from the interaction
Let's see how the app works by Annie family's story.
Homepage
After Annie studied abroad, all family members join the app to see everyone's daily life.
All the family members can swipe to see all members' post events.
Post
Family members can swipe left and right to see multiple pictures in one post shared by the family member.
Comment
Family members can leave a message as a comment to get connect with others. All the comments will be shown on one page, and users can also see the history of viewing, which is another way to interact with others.
Comment Interaction
Family members can @others in the comment. The purpose of that is to let family members get more connections. The interaction allows people to communicate with each other during browsing.
Voice Message
Because there are a lot of older people using the app, and the survey shows that most of them seldom text and they like to leave a voice message. Based on such group people in the target audience, the app allows users to leave the voice message, which actually creates a lot of convenience for older adults in the family.
Emoji Interaction
Family members can also send the emoji to interact with each other. However, it is a specific interaction, which is 1v1. It means not everyone can see it. The purpose of that is to be more focused on the particular person's connect, which is actually more strong than other interactions.
Emoji Receive
The specific person in the group will receive the emoji, so here on Annie's page, she will see the emoji first, and then the detailed information of who sends the emoji will show on the left side. And when Annie learns that she can click it, it will disappear.
Switch
Family members can click the member's photo to go to a specific person's page. After they click the portfolio photo, there will be a list that comes from the downside. People can pick the person from the list.
04 Design Iteration
Here is the original version of the app. After the user test, the feedbacks say using too many colors. Those colors are too childish for the adult to use. And the features are not clear, it is confused for users to use. Last but not least, the interaction is messed up, which is not clear.
The first big change is to make the photo to be the full screen. The purpose of that is to let people more focused on things family members shared. Other changes are clearing the feature and the interactions. And making the entire user experience more interesting.
05 Next Step
Expand some features & Connect with some devices, such as the App watch, to connect with features to create more interactions.
Thanks for watching :)
Contact
New York City, New York, 10010
Phone: +1 347 735 0896
Email: taokaiwen.design@gmail.com
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/kaiwentao/
© Kaiwen Tao
Product designer