Designing for Connection: Creating a Collaborative Social App
Pool
Pool is a social planning app that bridges the gap between busy schedules and meaningful connections. It empowers friends to collaboratively create and manage plans, addressing the challenges of adult friendships in a fast-paced world.
This group project was part of a larger initiative to tackle the difficulty of maintaining relationships as adults. As the Chief Design Officer, I played a pivotal role in defining the problem space, aligning the team, and delivering a fully designed solution.
Problem Definition: Identified the challenge of maintaining adult friendships and aligned the team on the core problem through research.
Research: Conducted surveys and interviews to uncover user pain points and validate solutions.
Branding: Designed Pool’s visual identity, including logo, color palette, and typography, to reflect its mission.
Prototyping: Created all low- and high-fidelity prototypes to test and refine the user experience.
Product Design: Designed a user-friendly interface with collaborative planning features like activity suggestions, calendar syncing, and reminders.
My Role
The Solution
Pool reimagines how friends make plans. Unlike tools designed for business, Pool embraces the dynamic nature of friendship by allowing shared ownership of plans and seamless integration with existing communication platforms.
Key features include:
Collaborative Planning: Friends craft plans together, choosing from suggested activities or inputting custom ideas.
Calendar Sync: Users sync their schedules, making it easy to find mutual availability.
Reminders: Automated notifications encourage users to maintain connections and plan future meet-ups.
Impact
Research Outcomes:
80% of survey respondents felt Pool would make planning with friends more enjoyable.
95% predicted the app would encourage more reaching out, overcoming the "awkwardness" of initiating plans.
Market Potential:
Positioned Pool as the first app designed specifically for managing adult friendships, addressing an untapped market: millennials, a demographic balancing careers, families, and friendships.