Havanote App & Logo Design
Havanote
Role: Co-Founder, User Experience Design Consultant
Industry: Social Media
Users: People interested in finding new experiences around them and sharing them with others
Programs Used: Sketch, Figma, Miro
Description
Havanote is a location-centric social platform that connects people with their surroundings. Havanote users can upload content to their location for their friends to view when they get there. With Havanote, content never gets lost in the linear format of a feed and is always relevant to the user, wherever they go. It’s all about connecting people at places, across time!
Identity Design
​We wanted to incorporate the concept of location-based interactions by exploring three different design approaches: Altering the existing location icon, mimicking the physicality of a note, and merging the ideas of time, location, and connectivity.
Initial Identity Exploration & Designs
Updated Identity Exploration & Designs
Initial Screens
First Attempts
Initial MVP (2017)
Design Refresh (2018)
In 2018, we ran a design sprint with the team to update and modernize the application design. From here on, my role in the design was to oversee the design process, make design decisions based on research and expertise, and take part in discussions with development and Co-founders. Some of the decisions, include reducing the amount of features in the app in order to create a simple experience for the user, changing the theme to much brighter colors associated with travel and food, and introducing a more sophisticated map view that is interactive and immersive.
User Research & Usability Testing
User Research (2021)
In 2021, I completed a competitive analysis, looking at Yelp, Google Maps, and Instagram. I also conducted user interviews to better understand our target audience, 18 to 25 year olds looking for new experiences/restaurants in their surroundings. Each interview was about 30 minutes, and included questions about what social media they use, what experiences they look for, and who they rely on for recommendations.
Usability Testing (2021)
I continued with my efforts to improve our mobile application by conducting usability testing. Each test was about 20-40 minutes, and consisted of 3 tasks along with screening questions and follow up questions.
Personas
Challenges
Challenge 1:
Being a Co-Founder is a role I have never experienced before with a lot more responsibility and creative ownership than I had been used to.
How I Overcame It :
I embraced the exciting side of a new role and took advantage of having what I say really make a difference in the creation of the app. I participated in a myriad of meetings and brainstorming sessions along with the other Co-Founders to create Havanote and I learned the true benefit of having a cohesive team. I also saw it as a huge learning opportunity to understand how to create an app from scratch, how to manage a team, how to be a better designer and problem solver, and how to stay focused on the product vision.
Challenge 2:
Being part of a startup that you're passionate about, it becomes easy to get excited by all the ideas that can make it great and lose focus on the initial vision.
How I Overcame It :
As a Co-Founder with a strong user experience focused view, I constantly pushed to have less features and to stick to doing what makes Havanote unique really well and then add on as we progress. I strongly believe that to enter an existing market, you have to focus on what differentiates you from others to compete. Although we had a team full of people who had known each other for years, I knew it was more important, for the sake of the product, to voice this even if it wasn't the same opinion as others. Ultimately, we were able to compromise and vote on the features to narrow down our focus and that help keep us all on the same page and rediscover our original purpose.