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Redesign #1: Guesthouse Momonga Village


Background: After quitting my first job, I found myself doing a "work holiday" at Guesthouse Momonga Village situated in Miyoshi-shi, a serene and quaint city in the countryside of Tokushima, Japan. Most guests choose to stay here for 1-2 nights for a pit stop among Miyoshi-shi's beautifully untouched valleys and vine bridges when travelling in the Shikoku region. 

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The Challenge: Redesigning guesthouse experience with MINIMAL TECH since ZERO BUDGET and because redesigning doesn't always equate to bringing more tech to the table. And especially when the theme here is "countryside getaway". 

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Pain Points

  1. Guests almost always have trouble planning the itinerary; transport system is complicated and info not available on Google maps/ anywhere online.

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   2. Lack of English info at various

       attractions.

Voted Solutions

  • Visual Maps​​

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  • e-Travel Guides 

Notable Feedback (from initial prototypes)

  • Mainly positive but most still required explanation by guesthouse staff... simplify further?

  • Unsolved gap: rerouting measures; bus and local trains are so infrequent (most operate only 2-3x a day) that there is almost no room for mistakes. Could only recommend hitchhiking for rerouting cases :/​

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  • Main problem: e-guides only had info in English, so guests has trouble:

  1. Making sense of Japanese signs at actual locations and,

  2. Asking locals for help in e.g. directions or advice 

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  • Positive; children's artworks amplified guesthouse’s cozy, homely vibes

IMG_0597.JPG

VISUAL MAPS drawn by the amazing Haru-chan! using colours for different bus routes.

COLOURING PAGES samples by me. Wanted to showcase the famous Iya Valley of Miyoshi. Wish it was a longer stay!

some unsolicited redesigns from the frustrated user 

Redesign #2: PetsTracker app

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After running multiple Lean Startup challenges at work, I wanted to get started on my own experiments and have a taste of UX so I decided to pick an existing app "PetsTracker" (which probably did ZERO user research or testing 'cause the app is a mess) and redesign it;  supplemented by a bit of user research (with a pool of 10 dog-owners which seems little but data has shown that trends don't change much after the 15th subject anyway).  

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Pain Points

  • Low user engagement 

  • Too many functions; not all are relevant 

  • Limited monetisation — only via ads or maybe user data (unlikely given user info collected)

User Research 

​Customer Persona

  • Millennial; female 

  • Has 1-2 dogs, aged 1-10 years 

  • Pet is co-owned (i.e. couples, families)

  • Takes dog(s) out daily >>> needs to check weather daily

  • Brings dogs out for social activities but hard to find pet-friendly places

  • Uses tech to track dog's appointments

  • Visits the vet once a year or less

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Top User Feedback (on original app)

  • Disliked having to move back-and-forth between menu and pages

  • Most didn't use all pages and features (e.g.,"milestones", "diaries", "growth", "medications", "others")

  • Most already using in-phone calendar and photo album 

How Might We/ Goals

  • Engage users to lift retention rates while collecting useful data

  • Introduce relevant functions that can be monetised

  • Simplify the app

Proposed Improvements

  •  Functions

​+ Sync tool for multiple users 

+ Weather forecast function 

+ Distance tracker for dog-walking

+ Recommendations for pet-friendly spots

- Unnecessary/ Overlapping functions

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  • Design 

- Minimise steps; functions visible and
  accessible all in one page

- Regroup pages, e.g."vet", "appts", "meds",
  "allergies" and "vaccinations" in one page

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  • Business

+ Affiliated marketing stream from pet-friendly
   recommendations 

+ Data from distance tracker could be useful

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screenshot of PetsTracker app

Redesign Prototype!

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I'm more of a CX research than UX design person but here's my humble attempt after 1 hour of intense concentration...

app1.png
app2.png

Home:

- Shows pet's daily stats; those with more pets can slide to switch between pets (original app only supports 1 pet profile)

- Click on panel with relevant data to view history/ relevant information; all pages accessible without a pop-out menu

Profile:

- Medical records consolidated into one page

- Additional features to consider: "report lost", "share profile" for easy sharing with pet-sitters or vets

Upcoming (in hindsight, maybe "Calendar" is better): 

- Calendar for appointments or outings with dog-friends 

Hangouts:

- Recommendations for pet-friendly spots. Not sure if "hangouts" is the best word choice though

Friends:

- I personally see a potential for this to become a social/community app for pet owners; would pivot in this direction if I were the CEO. 

Final words

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An interesting activity to keep me productive while job hunting... What I did was just the tip of the iceberg. If this was a real project, would definitely need more rounds of in-depth user testing-feedback experiments. As always, the business side of me always gets ahead --- was super bugged by the fact that ad revenue was their main income stream. #1 lesson for new app startups... ADS ARE NEVER A GOOD STARTER REVENUE MODEL!!!! It only works when you have a large enough user base and have strategies to direct clicks (like how Youtube algorithmizes ads to specific groups of audience).

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Redesign #3: HelpX

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I've been a fan of HelpX since I started using during universities; had so much fun, cultural experiences on work holidays with amazing hosts thanks to this portal! But I am NOT a fan of its website architecture and crowded content! For example, I only discovered on my recent visit that there's a "Companions" page, like a notice board to find travel buddies... only after using the site for 4 years! There's a lot I would change, so much that I'm not sure if I wanna make this one a full blown redesign but using my standard framework, here's a summary:

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User Feedback (based on my own experience)

  • FAQs too lengthy!

  • Searching for hosts is difficult, e.g. category search and map view is separate

  • Too many steps to save and access favourites

Proposed Improvements

  • Revamping site architecture to make sure that pages are accessible without too many steps

  • Visual diagrams > wordy explanations --- esp. because most of its users are 18-30! millennials have an attention span of a goldfish!

  • Removing overlaps and integrating certain features with the same function, e.g. map view and search bar 

Slideshow of screenshots + my notes (click for a larger view)

Final words

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Would love to help revamp the site for one of my favourite web portals someday... its competitors like Workaway actually have way better UI and a greater range of hosts but there's something about the site's early 2000s setup that makes it wholesome and well-matched to the idea of a work holiday experience. If given the chance, I wouldn't change the overall "feel" (because good design doesn't mean changing it to become more aesthetically pleasing in modern standards!) and would just focus on improving site navigation and synthesizing content.  

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