Community Gearbox
Redefining ownership
For my HCDE Senior Capstone, my team worked with Community Gearbox, an early start-up. Our focus was primarily on improving the current user flow, adding features to create a more rewarding experience, and making UI/navigation changes for a better user experience and brand alignment.
Duration
Jan - June, 2023
Team
Angela Liu
Emma Sadjo
Jency Clement
Key contributions
User research
Interaction design
Design systems
Illustrations
Client communication
CLIENT CONTEXT
Community Gearbox, a social inventory platform, aims to facilitate easy item sharing among social circles, challenging consumerism, fostering sustainability, and reducing barriers to accessing items like outdoor equipment.
However, despite great interest in the app, its current state suffered from engagement drop-offs and usability issues based on early pilot studies.
PRIMARY DESIGN QUESTION
How might we improve the item-sharing process to be more personable and rewarding than just renting and borrowing?
THE DELIVERABLE
Making sharing simple and rewarding
After extensive research, design, and user engagement, we addressed significant heuristic issues and added new features to boost engagement, as showcased in this product video.
DISCOVERY
PRIMARY RESEARCH
Diving into the problem, we focused on our primary research goals for this design space, aiming to understand the intricacies of item sharing. The team also consulted with our sponsor on project alignment and inquiring about their research resources, including talking to recommended mentors.
What is our impact?
.png){kind=small}
Disrupting consumerist culture & promoting sustainability, a prevalent topic today where consumerism has been directly linked to negatively impacting the environment
Supporting outdoor orgs, especially focusing on removing barriers of access for people traditionally underrepresented in this space, e.g. low income, queer, and people of color
Supporting climate resiliency/disaster response groups who have expressed an interest in the platform
OVERARCHING RESEARCH GOALS
1. Understand what types of sharing users are interested in partaking in
What are some non-traditional use cases for Community Gearbox?
2. Understand users' current comfort level with sharing possessions, who they're sharing with
What establishes trust for sharing objects?
What makes sharing rewarding?
3. Understand the usability roadblocks to using Community Gearbox
Round 1/3
Sponsor-conducted usability tests
Prior to our collaboration, the two co-founders of CG conducted 22 usability tests of the app in its early iteration. During these interviews, participants were asked to complete a series of tasks thinking out loud, including setting up a profile, adding an item, coordinating pick ups, among other core features.
We analyzed 5 interviews from this study to dive more deeply into our third research goal of understanding the usability roadblocks to using CG.
Highlighted findings & recommendations
Trust and Motivation
Even within known circles, there is a certain hierarchy of trust. Participants share more with people they trust more and indicated a great discomfort with sharing with strangers
UI/usability issues
There are inconsistencies with app design and confusion on terminology
Community Building
Lenders want to see how borrowers are using their items in context (i.e. pictures of adventures)
High-level brand identity
Users struggle to distinguish CG’s current design/functionality from competitors like Facebook
Borrowing/sharing logistics concerns
Users’ biggest concerns were in their possessions being damaged and wanted clarity on return dates
Increase the control lenders have over the process of picking up and dropping off
Incorporate features and/or an accountability system to build trust
INCREASE FLEXIBILITY
Revise for understandable terminology and consistent navigation and content that translates outside of the context of CG
BETTER TERMINOLOGY
Increase engagement within communities through encouraging storytelling/posts around shared items
ENCOURAGE STORYTELLING
Distinguish CG’s design and system from existing competitors for a clearer identity
CLEAR BRAND IDENTITY
Increase transparency on item return dates, costs in case of item damage, and what condition items should be returned in
LIABILITY TRANSPARENCY
New architecture
The beta version of the app had many navigation issues in terms of information overload, users being unable to locate essential features, and general disorganization.
Previously
Dual menus (hamburger and nav bar), high-traffic sections were hidden (messages, exchanges) or duplicated (alerts vs notifications)
New design
Placing primary sections in the nav bar for easy access; messages and notifications stay at the top across relevant pages
MID-FI TO HI-FI PROTOTYPING
Summary of my iterations
Iterations were made based on the insights gathered from usability test participants and design team feedback. For an in-depth breakdown of our usability findings, see this document.
Fulfilling a wish/request
[Key goals]
Simplify the process of sharing, increase retention
As my team worked on the feature of being able to request items outside of groups, I explored the parallel user experience of fulfilling a request. Iterative decisions were made based on usability feedback to ensure that the process of offering to share was fast and intuitive to complete.
Visiting community pages
[Key goals]
Capture unique brand identity, fix inaccessible/inconsistent UI
One of the main features of CG is the ability to create community groups to share in a private circle. The original community page was reminiscent of Facebook groups, a point often mentioned by users in early usability tests.
On top of that, it was riddled with heuristics violations like overusing iconography, low readability, and did not have clear distinction between posts and requests.
Final design
The new community page is simplified and has its distinct style that fits CG's brand while not overwhelming the user. Typography and spacing rules are updated.
Button styling is unified with the rest of the app, and item display is designed to prioritize the most important information (item owner, availability) and actions (save, report).
Navigation is now consolidated - requests and posts are distinct from one another.
Taking inventory in the profile
[Key goals]
Build sense of trust, increase items exchanged
I worked on reorganizing the navigation of the profile page to include the user's items. Our goal was also to include useful statistics and way of displaying badges as a new reward system the team was introducing.
Final design
User profile pages are revised to be clearer on terminology and more useful statistics based on user feedback. For those with many items, I implemented a list and card view for easy access.
Saved items are also further distinguished from the items the user owns. The overall UI is refreshed to align better with the inviting, colorful brand.
Badge system illustrations
[Key goals]
Capture unique brand identity, build positive accountability system and trust
My team built a badge reward system based on the research insights from participant stories of bad vs good experiences (i.e. having their item returned in good condition). This system is designed to provide incentives for borrowing and lending by building accountability and trust for one another, without deterring people from participating based on one negative experience.
Appreciation messages
[Key goals]
Encourage storytelling, increase user motivation and impact
After receiving feedback from our sponsor, a key discussion point emerged: the badges still didn't meet the design requirement of encouraging storytelling.
Despite introducing a post-exchange reward system, lenders remained unaware of the impact they were making, which users had suggested as a motivation for lending their items.
Final design
A new messaging mode between borrowers and lenders, featuring:
-
A distinct celebratory state for appreciation messages
-
Populated text suggestions to show appreciation
-
Encouragement to attach photos of the item in action, or in general what the borrower is up to
Next Steps
If we had more time, I would definitely want to continue with further user testing. Some questions I would explore include:
-
Are badges motivating users to lend/borrow more?
-
How intuitive do users find the consolidated navigation bar? Are they easily able to find what they are looking for?
-
Are we able to observe success metrics such as increase in engagement rate and positive exchange experiences?
-
Working with Community Gearbox’s engineers to discuss feasibility and implementation of our features and designs.
This 6-month project was incredibly rewarding and a significant learning experience in my career in working with start-ups. I'm super thankful to my amazing team members - go Team Duck Tape!
