Praeto

Web Design
Project Overview
A case study on social connection. Praeto is an Android app designed to enhance friendships by streamlining the planning process for social events.
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Project Type: Solo Project
Timeline: 6 Months
Role: Project Lead
Tools: Figma, Invision, Adobe Suite
Friendships have been on a steady decline. According to the 1990 Gallup U.S. Poll,  3% of Americans indicated that they had no close friends. This number had since increased to 12% by 2021 (American Perspectives Survey, May 2021).

The trend has only accelerated throughout the pandemic. On average, ~50% of females and ~46% of males have indicated that they’d lost touch with some or most of their friends during the pandemic (American Perspectives Survey, May 2021).

4 Key Takeaways:
Secondary Research
  • Health Impact of Friendship Recession:
    Social relationships are found to be a key factor in well-being. A meta- analysis y Julian Holt-Lunstad reveals that lonliness is as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
  • "One home run is much better than two doubles":
    Developing healthy relationships takes work. Close friendships take around 200 hours to develop. Thus, quality and quantity are both important.
  • Online Vs. In-Person:
    Online interactions do not effectively display one's nonverbal cues, impairing the ability to effectively convey true thoughts and feelings.
  • Youth At Risk:
    Americans aged 18-29 are at the highest risk as they are the most likely to lose touch with their friends.
Overview:
Conducted user interviews to better understand users and to uncover their motivations, goals, and pain points when planning hangouts with friends.

Participant Criteria:
Looking for a diverse pool. The criteria is broad and allows for a wide range of unique perspectives.
Primary Research
  • 5 interviewees
  • Age: 18-25
  • Preferred: Recent graduates or new student at a post secondary institution.
Key Data:
  • 5/5 of the Participants prefer to have face-to-face interaction over online interaction.
  • 5/5 of the participants reported sheduling as a major pain point when planning socia levents.
  • 4/5 of the participants reported planning to be important for effective socialization
  • 4/5 of the participants reported pain points regarding communication
Building a connection as the most frequent source of motivation for why participants want to engage in face-to-face interaction.

Logistics was the most frequently cited pain point as well as the most frequent behavioral driver from the user research
Target Market:
Young adults who find it increasingly difficult to maintain healthy relationships as they get older and busier.
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Objective:
To leverage the digital space to help plan and organize in-person social events with a focus on reducing logistical issues.

How might we improve coordination between young adults in order to increase in-person social interactions?
Leveraging Research Insights
The Persona humanized the design process and helped me empathize with my target user. This will be the NorthStar acting as a reference point for future decisions in the design process.
Persona
The experience map helped me gain a holistic understanding of the user's journey, identify opportunities for intervention, and prioritize design efforts.
Experience Map
To provide the user with a strong foundation in which they can plan their social interactions. Important questions of who, what where and when must be answered and accounted for.
Opportunity for Intervention
I created a task flow of the planning and communication process that precedes meeting up with a friend.

This gave me a first look at the potential structure of my solution, an opportunity to identify and define key interactions that take place between the user and the product. By thinking about how users may navigate through the flow, I was able to optimize the user's workflow and remove unnecessary interactions.
Task Flow
An opportunity to brainstorm and explore a wide range of ideas. I rapidly explored different design possibilities without investing time into producing detailed designs.
Sketching
An opportunity to brainstorm and explore a wide range of ideas. I rapidly explored different design possibilities without investing time into producing detailed designs.
Sketching
A tangible representation of my design concept with basic functionality. The goal is to create a usable prototype that can be easily modified for refinement.
Mid-Fi Prototype
I conducted 2 rounds of usability testing with 5 different users per round. I kept a hands-off approach and allowed the users to organically experience the design concept.

Observed interactions with the prototype in real-time to identify: areas of confusion, difficulties, and frustrations that hinder UX.

Summarized the results in the Design Prioritization Matrix below and revised prototype based on the complexity and impact of the issue.
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User Testing
In a crowded marketplace, a strong brand identity helps a company or product stand out from competitors. It’s important to establish a unique and distinctive brand presence to create an emotional connection with my target audience.

Target demographic: young adults who find it increasingly difficult to maintain healthy relationships as they get busier.

Brand Adjectives: 
Brand Identity
A collection of curated photos and tones as a visual guide to the overall experience and emotional connection I want to establish with my brand. I want to evoke a sense of reassurance, connection, support, friendliness, and commitment.
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Mood Board
For effective brand recognition, I need a consistent and cohesive visual language that ensures the brand is represented uniformly across various channels (websites, advertisements, and social media).

To achieve this I developed a refined colour pallete for Praeto’s brand based on the colours extracted from my mood board  to convey reassurance, connection, support, friendliness, and commitment:
Colours
The name of my app “Praeto” is derived from the Latin word “Praesto” which means to be present.
Wordmark & App Icon



Logo: Two halves of a circle facing each other, needing to interact in order to become whole.
Application Icon: I decided to keep the application icon simple as my app’s goal is to help simplify my user’s planning process.
Wordmark: Simple, Inviting, Reliable, and Practical
I injected colours and made additional iterations on the UI/UX design based off of user feedback to create a hi-fi prototype that can simulate a realistic experience. Ready for additional testing for detailed feedback on a more accurate experience.
Hi-Fi Prototype
View Hi-Fi Prototype
A responsive product marketing website for desktop and mobile viewing to engage and educate my target market about Praeto’s value proposition
Market Ready
View Desktop Site
The Why. The significance of constantly asking why myself why at each step of the design thinking process and being intentional my actions was a key lesson learned through the development of Praeto.

I realized that asking why is essential to establish a clear understanding of the problem I was aiming to solve. Through questioning the purpose and motivations behind  Praeto, I ensured that I was addressing a genuine need for my user and that I wasn’t just designing for design's sake. By questioning the rationale behind my design choices, I was able to critically evaluate my decisions and justify them based on evidence and insights.

This approach helped me continuously learn and improve as I went along the design thinking process. Further, it prevented me from becoming complacent and pushed me to challenge my assumptions, iterate on my ideas, and ultimately deliver a refined and effective solution.

For the Future:
Although the capstone case study has wrapped up, there are still opportunities for continuous learning and improvement to enhance the user experience provided by Praeto:
Reflection
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