CO Everywhere is a free app that lets you follow the social activity in a location, anywhere in the world. When I joined the company they had just released the first version of their native iPhone app. They were collecting feedback from family and friends, and had a large roadmap of modifications and features they wanted to build into the product.
One challenge that presented itself early on was with the draw flow. A key interaction of the app is the ability to draw an area. When all goes well, the user draws a circle with their finger on a map, and then sees a whole bunch of relevant, interesting, recently posted content from that area. But too often that first interaction didn't go well, and it was hard for the user to recover. It was a pattern we saw over and over again in user tests, and heard anecdotally from friends.
Screens from the draw flow before (left) and after redesign (right). An important part of my redesign strategy was to simplify screens in order to clarify next steps.
After doing some initial sketching, I would iterate on the draw flow using high-fidelity designs and prototypes. I mocked up various screens in the flow and linked them together using tools like InVision. This allowed us to iterate quickly, test drive the interaction on an iPhone, and see what flow felt best before investing in development time.
Pieces of the puzzle would make it into subsequent releases along with other features that were scheduled to release. After each app update, I would run another 3-4 usability tests via usertesting.com to gauge what was working and where we needed to refine further.
Screens from the revised on-boarding and the draw flow.
Within months, we released a companion responsive website, and not long after that a native android app. Expanding to each of these platforms presented their own unique challenges and provided new opportunities to further refine the draw flow as well as other parts of the product.
