Yujuu! More fun, less headaches

A look at the Yujuu project!

Spanish Version here

Yujuu! has been my first approach to the UX universe. In this adventure I was fortunate to surround myself with the talent of my mates Beatriz Ahijado, Irene Fernández Luna and Celia Madrid.

Whether I have comprehended something about UX, it is that we are facing up to a discipline that seeks a goal as universal as problem solving. Though the bulk of the research at UX orbits around digital products, it’s necessary to clarify that it can be generally applicable to any process in which a user and a device interaction intervene.

With this in mind, it was clear to us since the very first moment that the project would go round a mobile app, as this kind of product can be easily taken as the most representative of the current digital era.

The method used to reach the final materialization of Yujuu! was the Design Thinking, with which every professional designer is well familiar. Anyway, it is always advisable to refresh the notion of that so-called method with this remarkable post from my classmate Uxue Sanz.

Returning to the subject, I shall focus mainly on two blocks of the project:

I. Mapping/research: including the app purpose, interviews, persona, customer journey map, pain points identification and insights collection.

II. Exploration: where the information obtained gains value through design challenges, a business model proposal and a value proposition.

Needless to say, I haven’t forgotten prototyping, architecture or wireframing, not to mention the entire design system. The decision to focus only on the two mentioned blocks is due to the special appealing I felt for them during the course. In this context, I was able to understand that it’s a fundamental mission of the UX to propose, filter and specify as many times as necessary both the “raw” ideas and the information obtained.

Throughout the research it was disclosed that taken-for-granted facts or arrogance have no place when it comes to UX works. The human dimension of the process must never be lost: our product is nothing more than a tool, and even further, a mediation between one person helping another.

This being said, let’s start with the ideas that brought Yujuu!

Mapping

Yujuu! focuses on the organization of bachelor parties, a thematic scarcely approached by the app market at the time the decision was made. We were aware of the challenge of creating an app where, rather than offering a product, it was intended to achieve a specific experience.

The starting point was a set of 15 personal interviews, with a target defined as follows: men and women aged between 25 and 40, who had recently organized a bachelor party and were not professional planners. As a result, some valuable insights were acquired as follows: “the most important thing is that everything is to the honoree’s taste”, “I can’t find the point neither on boys nor on strippers”, “it is very difficult to agree among a large group of people”, and so on.

These statements helped develop the whole process that a hypothetical user would go through to execute the task, not to mention the insights usefulness when it comes to define needs.

Therefore, the testimonies obtained served the purpose of creating an ideal user or persona who would work as a hypothetical reference to state and give meaning to the solutions that might turn up along the way:

So, once Andrea was with us, we were capable of figuring out how to help her in the best possible way. For this we designed a too broad customer journey map because we didn’t know how to restrict all the steps involved: transportation, accommodation, destination, the party itself, obtaining memories… Happily, once we observed the flow, we made the decision to just cover organization prior to anything else, as it raised the greatest number of “headaches”:

Besides, we extracted some pain points that would be the key to know what motivations and fears Andrea encountered when dealing with the planning. Likewise, these points led to sketch what functionalities Yujuu! should include to be genuinely worthwhile.

For instance, we found out that the need to know more about the bride and groom faced the motivation to organize an unforgettable event, which faced as well the fear of discrepancies among the guests. Added to this, the need for a budget faced the motivation of not spending too much, and the fear of advancing money just because your role as the organizer.

Exploration

Well, at this moment we had already realized what the users needed, how they expressed their pains and what chores they had to manage. Furthermore, the launching of design challenges were going to be a primary guide to forsee what the Yujuu! prototype should feature.

The design challenges were formulated as follows:

How could I…

… get the highest level of involvement among the guests?

… ensure that the bride or groom get the most fun possible?

… make a diverse group of people reach an agreement on date and budget?

… and make it also profitable?

Obviously, the question to close that series is the one regarding profitability, as our app should represent an opportunity to do business. To meet this objective, we proposed a business model canvas which pointed out the monetization chances of Yujuu!

Relationship with users:

Customer loyalty: photo album, anti-hangover kit, promotions, etc.

ASO, SEM.

Channels:

AppStore, Play Store and advertising on social media and YouTube.

Market segments:

Modern people, with little time, who want to avoid the stereotypes of traditional bachelor parties when it comes to get them planned.

Income sources:

Commission per lead, premium account, advertising, agreement with banks in order to get a joint account for the budget.

However, once we reached this first conceptualization, the project lacked a defining core, a kind of “heart” that would allow us to understand what we were up to. Naturally, that heart was found in the business proposal:

To all those with little time and even less need to organize a bachelor party and who want to survive the trouble, we are proud to introduce Yujuu!, which will help you plan all the event phases in a collaborative and painless way.

This language was intended to anticipate jovial identify marks that would motivate participation. In fact, getting to words such as “collaborative” or “plan” was a slight headache for us. Once more, concretion was revealed as one of the UX best friends.

And after distilling the essence of Yujuu!, we proceeded to start prototyping: the first concept sketch, wire framings, and so on. But that’s another story…

Concept sketch

Wireframe for the first stage

Features and design

Although talking about the interface is not my primary goal, I believe it’s worth to make a comment. In short, the design system (icons, logo, colours) had to capture the participative and cheerful personality of Yujuu!

And lastly, here’s a look to the features:

Our app had to set the foundations of cooperation among users from the start. Thus, it was not until having completed a survey on the profile of the honoree that decision-making could begin.

The honoree’s profile would be established to assist the users with a clear reference to be taken into account in all votes.

I must also note that, in order to enable the whole planning and avoid confusion as much as possible, each stage would not be unlockable until the previous one was clear, following a video-game pattern.

All of them would include a highly visible alarm system to keep all participants up-to-date on their duties to make decisions and engage.

And, of course, those alarms would also ring to notify agreements and completed tasks.

That bring us to the end of the Yujuu! tour. I hope that sharing my first UX experience has helped all of you who are also starting out in this fascinating discipline.

See you soon!