Client
Singapore Memory Portal
Institute
General Assembly
Project Type
School Project
Role
Design Lead
Year
2022
The Story
The Singapore Memory Project (SMP) has recognised that their website and services to the general public are not keeping up with the latest digital trends such as usability and accessibility of information and services. They are unsure what exactly can be improved and will need you to advise them on this.
The Challenge
To revitalise a slowly dying platform and converting it into an active, transformative and cultural platform.
Insights and Discovery
Our group qualified and selected our target users for this study to understand their goals, interests, motivations, and pain points through user interviews and at the same time went through usability tests on the current platform to get feedbacks.
We also produced a competitive analysis on other platforms that are parallel to Singapore Memory Project. You can visit the current platform below
Who are we designing for?
Our group synthesized the user interviews and findings resulting in 2 target users profile, George (SG Boomer) and Mandy (Hippy Social) which shows a generational gap. This will help us bridge the gap and guide us to our solutions.
We mapped out our user’s journey through a Journey map to further validate our assessment.
Key findings
We have compiled and documented data from user interviews, usability tests, and general feedback and found out their pain points, motivations, and goals for the platform therefore we have identified opportunities to tap on.
- Gamification
- User Rewards
- Cross-Generational Content
- More Compelling Content
- Saving and Curating Posts
- Geolocation for POI
Framing the problem
George needs an avenue to engage with Singapore’s past and present. He surely is motivated to share his memories in Singapore and loves to reminisce on how much Singapore has changed, while Mandy needs a way to share about the present and learn about Singapore’s past so that she will have a chance to engage and curate.
The problem statements were created with a generation gap in mind because it is a key component to have a cross-generation involvement.
Solution
Based on the research synthesis and connecting the dots. We are now able to develop solutions that will help promote and improve the platform which consists of a Mobile App, Engagement generating activity, enhanced branding narrative and a better web experience.
Content Strategy
We applied a creative approach to the structure and content of the platform to deliver unique headlines and gain interest below is the content strategy goals:
- Transformation of Singapore through imagery, stories and audio.
- User Engagement
- Discover Interesting Contents
- Increase curiosity
- Reach
- Onboarding
Visual Development
Our visual development have several guidelines to be able to set the tone and manner of the interactions and aesthetics:
Prioritising Key features namely, Quests, Featured Stories, Collections and, Discover are key to having a structured solution in this iteration and providing logical functions in this iteration of the platform.
Developing the initial phase of the platform visual is plotting the User flows for our personas namely:
- Joining a quest
- Browsing a collection
- Sharing different types of memories
- Finding interesting stories.
Rapid sketching wireframes is imperative for quick visualisation of the web and app layout.
This is the set a guideline of the “look and feel” of the overall visual aesthetic.
In Summary, with a refreshed brand approach, the platform itself will be better recognised and will be easier to market to users of different generations.
High Fidelity Visuals
Creating the high-fidelity visuals is guided by our reference point by the colour palette and a visual moodboard to get the look and feel consistent.
Web Platform
Mobile App
Testing and Improvements
Based on the research synthesis and connecting the dots. We are now able to develop solutions that will help promote and improve the platform which consists of a Mobile App, Engagement generating activity, enhanced branding narrative and a better web experience.
Usability Tests
Our Group conducted a series of individual usability tests with users via Zoom to test out the initial prototype and get feedback.
Apart from our positive metrics, the most important feedback we got from the initial prototype was “Feature stories are not compelling” and what are “Quests”?
Improvements
With the consolidated feedback, we had from our users. We initiated some improvements to solidify the context and usability.
Featured stories with more compelling titles instead of stories with generic headers.
‘A man’s fight towards UNESCO award for SG’s hawker culture’ VS ‘SG’s hawker culture’.
Revised into infinite scrolling instead of “load more” to encourage content consumption. Footer information will be accessed via the main navigation bar.
Added onboarding for website as well so users will be familiar with the various functions:
- Missions
- Explore
- Connect
Key Learnings and Future Considerations
Even though I and my groupmates tested the app and the website with good feedback from our users, I wish we had been able to try and test on a bigger scale. Like giving more strenuous testing with the QUEST feature.
This type of social media cultural project needs a better test run with more users with different perspectives. With a better scale, we would have better metrics and we could test out the quests (USP) better.
Our findings with the cross-generational relationship (Old and New) will help with the engagement of different age groups to reinvigorate the platform (Old, New, and Transformation).
Working on this project was astounding. Digging deeper into ideas, empathising with the users, critical feedbacks, and crossing out assumptions was a great exercise.