A communication tool amid the uncertainty of Covid
The uncertain phases of pandemic reopening have brought new challenges when it comes to seeing friends and family in person. Social distancing and masks are concerns of course, but Covid-19 has made things that used to be non-issues suddenly questions of safety and comfort.
An event’s location (indoors, or outside?), headcount, or food and drink plan, are now real concerns that impact peoples decisions to meet. Over six weeks, my teammates and I designed a mobile web app to address this challenge and help people connect with confidence.
| Timeline | 6 Weeks |
| Context | Course project, Emily Carr IDES program |
| My Role | UX and UI Design, Research, Writing |
| My Key Contributions | Design system management Concept ideation User research Prototyping and animation Supplemental illustration |
The Research
Talking about getting together has gotten difficult
Norms around socializing are changing month to month. A simple group text invite for a backyard birthday party or drinks on a patio raises questions today that didn’t seem all that important before. “How many people are coming?” “Is there space to distance?” Suddenly, spending in-person time with those we’re closest to involves some calculation.
Unfortunately, we’re not that comfortable asking for the information that would help us most – no one wants to look like the Covid Cop! So how do we balance the intimacy of our friend groups with the need to keep them at a distance?
Several news articles have picked up on this trend:
Survey:
We turn down invites when Covid issues aren’t brought up
Over 50 people in our friend groups and professional networks completed our survey, which asked several broad questions about their behaviour patterns during the pandemic. Nearly three-quarters reported recently declining social invites. While that’s not necessarily a problem (staying home flattens the curve, of course), our data revealed that the context of the invite mattered.
The findings in our survey indicated that people weren’t only declining Covid-era invites on principle.
By providing guests with more event-specific information, we aim to help people reconnect with confidence.
Personas:
a Conscientious Host and an Apprehensive Guest
Our survey and the media coverage above, combined with insights from Zoom interviews that followed, shaped two proto-personas.
Both personas are socially-sensitive people who take to heart the emotional complexity of the pandemic era. They take Covid seriously – if they’re going to chill, they’re going chill responsibly.
Our personas kept us focused toward designing a solution that would prioritize starting awkward-but-valuable conversations to help our users feel informed and connected.
Our Challenge
To reconnect friends and family in-person during the Covid-19 pandemic by kickstarting new conversations.
Wait a minute – is this responsible?
As I write this, my city is well into its second wave of Covid cases – the full magnitude and duration of that wave are anybody’s guess. So what could the implications be, of an app that provides people more resources to gather in groups?
It’s not an easy question. But two key ideas guided us as we tried to address it:
- Seeing friends and family in person has mental health benefits, and is also public health concern worth addressing.
- If people gather (and many will), they should be equipped to so with a sense of confidence and safety. We do that by encouraging dialogue.
(BC COVID-19 Dashboard)
The Process
The initial outline:
Event Details, then Covid Stuff
Our first approach was to design a clear event creation process for Hosts – followed by a section that allowed them to address Covid issues. In our usability tests, this process seemed easy to follow.
However, our testers’ comments during those sessions made obvious that the majority of interest was in the Covid material at the end of the process. Had we back-loaded our app’s value by its most important feature at the end?
Promising feedback from
interviewees, but…
Our eight testers liked being able to include, skip, and customize messages about socially-distanced logistics. But after digesting the feedback, we felt this valuable content should be featured throughout the event-making process.
…we can do better
By providing Hosts opportunities to add messages at every step, the value of the app is top of mind throughout:
Collaborating, testing, and talking
Zoom-based testing sessions also prompted valuable, unstructured conversations about our topic. How had in-person gatherings panned out recently? Was our concept addressing their needs?
Don’t skip the onboarding!
In testing, our prominent “Create an Invite” button caused a few people to skip right past important content that sets the stage.
Changing the wording and adding a Skip option at a lesser hierarchy is intended to encourage reading.
“Can I see who else is coming?”
Testers in the role of guests were interested in who else was invited. Knowing the group ahead of time helps people make decisions that are safest for them.
In our revisions, we previewed more information here (the number of people who have currently RSVP’d), as well as reducing the prominence of the button to fight less with our “Covid Stuff” feature.
The Solution
Finding the right words to bring people together
Talking about our Covid concerns with our friends isn’t easy. Our solution makes it easier by helping users explore relevant topics, select, and write their own messages that will be included in an event invite.
Tapping on a topic reveals a list of related comments that answer some of the unspoken questions that guests have on their minds. With the option to write a custom message, users can also address these issues in their own words.
The revised interface lets users’ curiosity guide them and may also prompt ideas that weren’t there before.
Sounds fun…
Who’s gonna be there?
Knowing who is coming to an event has never been more important for attendees: both the group size, and having an idea of which of your party-hard (or higher-risk) friends are attending. This need for information was echoed by our testers early on. We present the option of either a traditional email-based invite, or, an invite-via-link in which guests RSVP by selecting their name from a list.
Entering friends names’ one-by-one is more work than dropping a message in a group chat, but we felt the benefit of transparency is worth it for our users.
Setting the right tone
Covid is a sensitive subject, so we aimed to convey an optimistic tone to help users to be more open to engaging. Over several iterations, we settled on principles that carried through the app.
- Conversational. SixFeetTogether isn’t a screening app, it’s a conversation-starter.
- Non-judgemental. Ultimately, users will decide for themselves what level of risk they’re comfortable with.
- Relatable. We don’t patronize users by repeating Covid guidelines they already know.
We relied on Pablo Stanley’s Open Peeps illustration library to bring a sense of friendly warmth. Supplemental illustrations and modifications were also added to help to complete the look.
“So…Can you make it?”
Now our guests are equipped to RSVP with confidence. The host has provided guidelines and useful notes that guests will review before responding.
The payoff! In addition to event details, Guests may view comments and Covid guidelines provided by the Host.
Reflections
This project challenged us to wrestle with how to address the sensitivity and complexity of our topic. Planning the logistics of two separate user flows made that task even more difficult. Despite the challenges, I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish in just a handful of weeks at long-distance, and that we put our energy toward a problem in need of a new solution.
To continue on with SixFeetTogether, there are a few areas we would focus on.
- Solidifying and refining our design system and branding
- Gathering and implementing feedback on the “comment exploration” interface.
Thanks for reading this case study. For another angle on this project, please take a look at my project partner Marianne’s write-up!
