Project Overview

During the summer of 2020, I joined Design Co's Level Up fellowship, a 10-week design program that allowed students to address real-world challenges and connect with seasoned industry professionals as mentors. In a team of four, we focused on designing digital solutions for small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, seeking to help them recover and thrive during and after the crisis.

Problem

The COVID pandemic hit personal service small businesses hard, causing a decline in customers and financial hardships. Consequently, both customers and businesses faced new concerns about safely navigating the pandemic, creating an atmosphere of fear, distrust, and disconnection.

Goal for the Project

Our team aimed to enhance the Yelp App by incorporating three key features:

1. In-App Appointment Booking: Enabling users to book appointments directly from the service providers' business pages.

2. At-Home Appointments: Introducing a new option for at-home appointments, offering increased comfort and safety precautions.

3. In-App Gift Card Purchases: Allowing users to buy gift cards, boosting businesses' cash flow during and after the pandemic."

Approach

Our team adopted a comprehensive, user-centered design process to tackle the challenges faced by small businesses during the pandemic.

We started with in-depth research, including market analysis, user interviews, and surveys, to understand the specific problems encountered by personal service small businesses. Based on our findings, we brainstormed various digital solutions, such as providing online tools, creating a dedicated app or website, and integrating features into existing platforms like Yelp.

To empathize with our target audience, we developed personas and user journeys, which helped us visualize the desired experiences and identify potential pain points. We then created low-fidelity wireframes, iterating on them based on feedback from mentors and peers, eventually developing high-fidelity prototypes that incorporated our proposed features into the Yelp App. Usability tests with target users guided further design refinements, culminating in a final presentation at the end of the 10-week program where we present our solution to industry professionals and fellow Level Up participants.

My Contribution

As a collaborative product designer, I made substantial contributions to the project by actively engaging in various stages of the design process:

1. Research: I participated in initial research, identifying the personal services industry as the sector most affected by the pandemic.

2. Ideation: I was instrumental in brainstorming different ways to support the personal services industry through digital solutions. I contributed to the exploration of online tools, dedicated apps, websites, and integrating features into existing platforms like Yelp.

3. Product Strategy: I played a key role in defining the product strategy, aligning our design solutions with the needs of small businesses and their customers. This involved evaluating various ideas, prioritizing features, and ensuring that our approach addressed the challenges faced by our target audience.

4. Design Collaboration: Partnering with another product designer, I played an active role in the design and ideation process for Yelp's enhanced appointment features. Together, we developed low-fidelity wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes, iterating on our designs based on continuous user feedback and usability testing.

Outcome

At the end of the 10-week sprint, we showcased our final presentation and final prototype solution to industry professionals and fellow Level Up participants. Our innovative concept earned the "Thoughtful Adoption Strategy" award, as the judges deemed our integration into Yelp as ready for immediate deployment, benefiting small service businesses, customers, and Yelp itself.