“The new Social Media designed for actually being social”
BUSTLE
We saw a danger in the way that platforms calling themselves “social” were making a profit. With their key income being ad revenue from selling users data, companies like Facebook and Instagram inherently want to encourage increased engagement with their services - engagement which translates directly in screen time. We saw this coincide with an issue at the micro-scale, that being the increasing difficulty of organising meaningful social activities with such busy lives.
So, we created Bustle: a social media centred around exploring events based on group availability, interests, cost, and other important features. Bustle operates on a disruptive business model, using commission on ticket sales to fundamentally profit off user engagement with meaningful interactions. Furthermore, we have created a transparent shared data scheme, whereby we give back to our users by rewarding them with perk-points to spend on the experience economy, funded by revenue from event-only targeted advertising.
UI/UX DESIGN
To compete with social media giants, we needed a unique yet familiar user-experience.
This prototype was built to demonstrate how the app would be used in detail, based on research. My design was shortlisted for the Adobe Digital Edge Awards 2022.
Based on the initial data collected via user-centred research, I created an app mockup on Adobe XD.
This was designed alongside other versions of the same interface in order to conduct A/B testing to further shed light on which format would be ideal.
RESEARCH
This project relied heavily on human-centred research, and we conducted many different forms in order to develop the most frictionless app design and efficient marketing strategy. One key finding that informed our work was that of the Circle Influencer, the notion that there is a leading group member in almost every social circle that has a critical role in organising the group. We decided to target these users in our take-off phase as they have greater friendship networks and more influential power.
We conducted a wide variety of research methodologies throughout the project, from auto-ethnography and open-ended interviews to surveys and focus groups.
BRANDING
I took the opportunity to develop Adobe-based design skills within this project. I worked on creating a brand that communicated our company’s values of healthy media consumption, as well as both fun and inviting social interactions. I learned about the advantages of building a brand early on and continued to create content for followers on both Instagram and TikTok.
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