Reach Out Party is on a mission to transform the way people think of networking. The greatest things happen when we reach out to others, and the Reach Out Party makes that easier. By approaching networking differently, and framing it as connecting with others through intentional interactions we can get to know more people and create our own luck. I worked part-time with the founder to design a mobile application that allows users to reach out.
To begin, I conducted interviews with five college students to learn more about how they currently view networking, how they network, and what they wish was available to them. I found three major themes that came up across all interviews:
The client had a good amount of features to already include in the app and we worked together to ideate potential features and where to fit them in. We wanted this to be more than just a CRM and something that actually kept users coming back and engaged.
Since I was designing a mobile app and adding in more graphic elements, I was able to build upon the existing brand that only exists on the website. I added color shades for more variety and usage opportunities and designed icons that represent party materials and more. The goal was to keep the youthful and fun energy and go slightly in the hand-drawn direction.
Throughout the process of the lo-fis, I designed several iterations of different features. There were lots of ideas flowing and I tested things from challenges and learnings to leaderboards and more. The client and I worked together to narrow down ideas and prioritize certain features for the MVP.
The Reach Out Party is a mobile application that transforms the way we approach networking. Instead of traditional, transactional interactions, we encourage users to set a goal and follow through with it through reach outs, challenges, and intention.
As users work towards their goal, they build up a guest list and can collect party supplies by completing challenges, which adds some fun into the experience. The overall goal is to complete 27 reach outs to turn networking into a more fun, personal, and approachable experience.
Upon signing up, users will learn about why reaching out is important , allow users to select goals, and how to change the way you network.
Once signed up, users can invite guests to join the party! They can see statistics, challenge completions, and even nudge their friends to keep going.
As reach outs are logged, their dashboard, guest list, and stats will be updated. Users can add someone to the guest list or reach out to someone new at any time.
Each day, users will get prompted to answer a daily question. The daily question is meant to form a community without completely turning the app into a social media app.
This was my first time working with a client on my own and I learned the importance of discipline, setting a schedule, and trusting myself. This project was super importance in terms of how to approach freelance work.
Next time, I would define MVP features earlier and move onto hi-fis ASAP. There's so much to ideate on which can lead to a continuous cycle of lo-fis and testing. Instead, I would work faster, fail faster, and pivot when needed.