NoNu

Asset Library

Role: Designer & Student

Overview

As a design student within the Google curriculum, I was tasked with thinking of a broad and unique set of user needs ranging from accessibility and ethics, to usability and the next generation. It was a beautiful process and set of boundaries to imagine and create within. I learned so much about the process, what questions to ask, and how to think broadly and in the future rather than the past.

My final project was an app concept aimed at solving overconsumption that would allow users to share and monetize assets. The goal was to create an economy that could utilize currency or trust and allow individuals to access things they need from time to time but might not need to own and buy outright.

  • How to do it?

    The primary challenge is determining the most effective and simplest way to create a renting and borrowing system that works for every day people

  • Building trust

    Figuring out how to ensure the trust of users and ensuring that there are checks and balances and assurances within the app will be crucial to success

  • Making it easy

    Simplifying a potentially complex logistical process into a smooth and streamlined product that inspires confidence and positivity

Discovery and research

To begin, I assembled a group of friends who I knew owned nice and expensive things, and who also tended to complain about these things (the space they take up, the cost, how little they used or needed it, etc).

I figured there would be much to learn from my peers that would indicate whether this idea had legs and certainly regarding the features it should focus on if it indeed were to hit the ground running.

I wrote the research plan and scripts, conducted 1:1 interviews, and organized the data and insights into actionable snippets, personas and other useful artifacts.

Visualizing and ideating

I've been working on sharpening my digital wire skills, so in addition to paper idea sketching, I opted to practice wires in Figma. Based on my interviews and insights gleaned from that research I put together a few of the primary screens inside the app, that would later be refined and expanded upon.

I did some usability testing with my group in individual sessions to see if I was on the right track before moving to prototyping. I also used this time to develop a research plan for the next session.

I also brainstormed with a series of rapid story boarding and crazy eights sketches to quickly generate and feel out some ideas floating around from my interviews. In addition to this, we laid out some of the basic flow for the app in a whiteboard session.

Prototypes and flows

After thoroughly vetting the initial research feedback, ideas, and suggestions that came from the usability tests on digital and drawn mockups, I jumped to some mid-fidelity prototypes.

I focused initially on the primary user flow which would most likely be the user seeking to rent an item. I also made a number of user flow iterations for users and scenarios in the app.

For future projects these task lists, jobs to be done and other flows and journeys would need to be documented and expanded upon.

Final designs and thoughts

In testing, I learned from folks that a quick and simple registration was important. Sign-in with Google is must. Also, given some complexity in the system and the platform, onboarding is critical. This also serves as a chance to provide assurances to many of the concerns users had.

It became clear in competitive research and in conversations that simplifying choices and expediting selections and logistics were going to be critical. The app therefore is minimalist in nature and allows quick and easy filtering, sorting, scheduling and payment options.

I wanted to try incentivizing people to earn a currency known as "Karma" — which you get by letting people borrow for free. We'll see how this goes in testing without much explanation. It also came up in research, that users were concerned about renters/owners bailing on their agreement, so this is not a terribly easy process to do. It is easy however to find your pickup spot and to contact the owner if there are any issues.