Flowcom 🗣️

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Project Type: Project Exam at Noroff.

Timeframe: Spring 2024 - 5 weeks.

Main Roles: User research, facilitating workshops, wireframing and testing.

Background

The public speaker industry in Norway is highly competitive and saturated, and booking rates are still low due to the economic effects of the Covid pandemic.

FlowCom delivers lectures and workshops to companies, enhancing their employees' skills and knowledge. This company is owned by Nina Hanssen, a journalist and author with over 12 years of public speaking experience.

The Challenge

For this project I had the opportunity to work with a front-end developer and a marketing student. Together we developed a website for Nina Hanssen that showcases her work and simplifies the process of booking her for lectures and workshops.

Gathering Insights 🔍

I set out to identify the needs and goals of both public speakers and their clients. As such I conducted an exploratory interview with Nina Hanssen, literature review and collected client reviews. Lastly, I analyzed all data through affinity mapping and atomic research.

Main Findings

It’s important for a public speaker to establish a good reputation and a personal brand;
Clients want lectures and workshops that cater to their specific needs and goals;
Clients use contact forms to inquire about public speakers' services, but most of the booking process takes place through direct conversations.

Creating Personas 😊

Based on the data collected from my primary and secondary research, I created two personas to represent public speakers and clients.

Nifty Nancy, journalist and author

Pain Point: Public speaker market is very competitive and clients have high standards.

Main Goal: Define her brand and get more bookings.

Demanding Daniel, bank manager

Pain Point: Public speakers are expensive and he needs quality guarantee.

Main Goal: To improve his employees’ skills, knowledge and network.

Defining the Problem ✏️

To help define an actionable problem and keep a user-centered approach, I defined a main User Need Statement and “How Might We” questions. The focus was kept on Nifty Nancy’s goals and pain points.

User Need Statement

"Nifty Nancy needs to establish her brand as a public speaker and effectively communicate her lectures and workshops. She requires an efficient way to keep clients updated on her work, while continually improving her credibility to assure them of the quality of her services."

HMW Questions

How might we help Nifty Nancy establish her brand as a public speaker?
How might we enhance Nifty Nancy’s credibility and reputation as a public speaker?
How might we keep Nifty Nancy’s clients up to date with her current work and academic improvements?
How might we expand Nifty Nancy’s network and increase bookings?
How might we help Nifty Nancy enhance her online presence?

Ideation Workshop 💡

Having the User Need Statement in mind, I decided to facilitate a branding workshop. Alongside the main stakeholder and our team, we included a communication student to leverage their expertise. Together we created a mind map with the “How Might We” questions, that I later analyzed with an affinity map.

Conclusions

Nina Hanssen is the central focus of FlowCom, so she must be the website’s main highlight;
The website needs a clean and simple image, to convey professionalism and credibility;
Promoting Nina’s books and sharing client references might also help with establishing credibility.

Wireframing 🔧

To develop FlowCom, I held frequent meetings with the front-end developer. Together, we created low and mid-fidelity sketches to brainstorm potential layouts. Defining the information architecture and user flows was an iterative process involving continuous sketching and refinement.

Homepage

For the design, I chose a simple and clean layout to avoid overwhelming users. Neutral colors and dark blues were used to convey a sense of trust and safety.

Testing the Solution 🗒️

FlowCom was implemented before the test stage to allow usability tests on a live product. I conducted four remote tests via video call, where participants were tasked with browsing the website and booking Nina Hanssen for a lecture or workshop.

Main Findings

Participants appreciated the website's simplicity, color palette, and clear organization;
Most participants did not notice the navigation bar and did not leave the homepage;
Participants were confused by the content cards due to the lack of headlines.

Project Reflection 💭

FlowCom was a unique and valuable experience for me as a UX designer. It was my first opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary team and see my design implemented. Conducting user research, facilitating workshops, designing, and performing usability tests was a significant challenge, especially within a five-week timeframe.

This project is still ongoing, and I will continue to enhance it by incorporating suggestions from the usability tests and improving the mobile version.