INTRO:

Starting up with soona

soona is a unique start-up revolutionizing the way businesses acquire high quality images and videos to generate a stronger online presence. They offer services that allow customers to ship their products to the soona studio or come onsite to view the shoot as it happens. soona specializes in being a friendly voice in an otherwise unforgiving industry. This is accomplished by offering an affordable, fast-casual experience of producing images and videos, while ensuring the customer’s vision is at the center of the shoot. 

 Queueing up the Questions

Some of the main questions I wanted to answer while working with this client were:

• How do I create a process that’s easy yet informative?

• How can I strike a balance between providing services for people who range novices or experts?

• How do I convey the client’s business model in a way that makes sense to users and sets the client apart from others in this space?

• How is it possible to encourage detailed creativity in users?

RESEARCH:

Checkin’ out the Competition

Completing a competitive audit was crucial to understand what kind of an ecosystem soona’s business operates it. Companies that offer similar services as soona were compared, but I was also looking for areas where soona set themselves apart. soona operates in a niche environment where they offer a quick, friendly experience to users who want high quality images. There is currently no other company that offers the same services as soona.

 Bonding with the Business

A stakeholder interview was a great space to have easy access to insider information. The client already identified areas where they had noticed disengagement with users: 

• booking process 

• shotlist builder 

• post-shoot clarity

This information provided a clear starting point for research and key details as to how the business operates. By understanding their approachable nature, start-up speed, multi-location environment, and small staff, it was easier to ideate solutions that would work within their setting while also creating a logical, friendly path for users. 

DESIGN:

Rapid Prototyping 

With this information in my mind, my team and I hit the ground running to create thoughtful and intentional rapid prototypes. Over a hundred wireframes were produced that provided solutions ranging from updating copy to using AI to help users create more distinct shoots. I focused on wireframes to create a more descriptive booking process, revise the current shot list generator to be less overwhelming, and come up with ways users could visually describe their desired shoot style. 

Engineering Estimations 

We met with soona’s full stack developer to fully understand the work it would take to implement our features. Seeing the developer move through the wireframes helped me assemble the moving pieces involved in making updates. By partnering with the developer in this way, I had a sight line into the company's inner workings. The proposed features would need to work as part of a larger system and would need to be integrated carefully and purposefully.

Deciding with Dots & Kano Analysis

With the insight from the developer, each member of the team voted on features to move forward. Dot voting allowed us to quickly decide on 10 features to test with users. The phrase “the more, the merrier'' may evoke the warm fuzzies in people, but that isn’t always the case in UX. Too many new features causes a backlog of work for developers, and it can be difficult to get business leadership on board with all proposals.

I was provided a “budget” of 40 developer hours that I could use to implement my ideas. In order to make sense of what features would have the greatest impact on users, a Kano Analysis was conducted. The framework of this analysis methodically asks users to rate features based on how they would feel if that feature was or was not present. The responses were used to create an informed list of items to develop into high-fidelity prototypes. 

PROPOSE:

Providing Problem Solving

Before creating prototypes based on the Kano analysis results, I went back to the goals established by soona. They identified their objectives as wanting to generate potential customer engagement & conversion and create a stronger brand reflection in anytime dashboard. I used that information to answer my initial questions.

• By baking details regarding soona’s process into the booking flow, users would be able to easily move from step to step while feeling confident about the decisions they are making.

• Both novice and expert needs would be encompassed by allowing users to determine their level of creative input.

• A sense of understanding and trust will be instilled in users by creating visual references and descriptive text around what soona offers and how they accomplish it.

• Users will find the shotlist and prompts to provide creative direction on their shoot to be more approachable when soona gently prompts users to provide examples of their visions for the shoot.

I chose to move forward with seven features that focused on allowing users to make informed decisions throughout the booking process, take effortless creative liberty in their shoot, and clearly understand and the post-shoot process.

Paving a Path

In order to display where my changes would fall into the user’s journey while engaging with soona, I created a a user journey map.

CONCLUSION:

Concluding with Context 

Working with soona allowed for an opportunity to triangulate the needs expressed by the business, the ideas generated during prototyping, and the goals of the user. Checking in with the many players throughout the process created a consistent understanding among all parties involved about the direction of the work being produced. soona has a strong framework in place, which allowed me to weave and build solutions into existing flows.

This approach resulted in a relatively small chunk (34.5 hours) of development time with the greatest return to users, who simply want to confidently make decisions on soona’s site. Developing a concise contextual understanding of the client allowed me to deduce what users were experiencing quickly and design ideas that will help them reach their goal of obtaining high-quality images and videos for their products.