Corona Diaries
A Story Of Unrealized Potential
How we took a dying audio project and gave it new life and new purpose.
(student concept project)
Project Overview
Corona Diaries was an audio project aimed at preserving pandemic stories. With few listeners and even fewer contributions, it was obvious that Corona Diaries was a concept that wasn’t realising its full potential. As a student team we were tasked with re-envisioning and re-designing what Corona Diaries could be in order to increase engagement and enhance the experience of sharing personal stories. Over 3 weeks, along with my team, I would completely re-concept and re-design Corona Diaries in the hopes of breathing new life and greater, wider appeal into the project.
Competitive Analysis
Compared to other sites, Corona Diaries lacked a diverse range of mediums and only accepted audio recordings.
The ability to advance search (date, time, location, subject) was present in all sites, except Corona Diaries. Corona Diaries only allowed users to drag and zoom to navigate a large map that hosted all audio recordings.
Other sites provided the option to share to social media. We imagined this ability would greatly help Corona Diaries reach broader audiences.
Getting a lay of the land.
User Interviews and Contextual Inquiry
Existing Corona Diaries Homepage
Existing Corona Diaries Map for Browsing
We asked some people about their social media habits and what they thought of the existing site. These interviews told us the following:
Users wish to remain anonymous - With such serious topics at hand, users were more comfortable sharing anonymously.
More ways to browse content - Navigating the map was useful, but having more ways to browse and filter content was a must.
The colors on the current site were dreary and unappealing - Users weren’t likely to spend time on the site because of the way the colors impacted their experience.
Users wanted recommendations from people they trusted - Getting referred through social media by friends, family or even influencers was a primary way that people discovered new content on the internet.
More types of content was better - Having multiple forms of content was more appealing and engaging than just audio recordings.
Mobile was the way to go - People spend more time browsing and sharing content from their phones which was always on their pocket, even on the go.
After our discovery phase I assisted in creating two user personas that would represent the two use cases for our new Corona Diaries concept. I constructed the following user flows in order to visualize our two main personas:
Cathy The Contributor - This person likes sharing their experiences online. They enjoy posting photos, videos and much more in order to relate to other people during the difficult times of the pandemic.
Leo The (Lurker) Browser - This person likes absorbing and taking in information online and is curious as to others’ experiences during the pandemic.
Building personas and mapping out critical tasks
Initial Solution Prototype and Testing
I lead the development of the greyscale, mid-fidelity wireframes that we would base our first prototype off of. Due to this project being a re-conceptualization of Corona Diaries, there was no existing designs to iterate off of. The designs you see below are a result of my attempts at creating a clean design that adhered to the user flows set out earlier in the project. These initial designs would then be tested in our first round of usability tests and iterated upon as we went into high-fidelity.
Participants: 3 | Mid-fidelity, mobile | 7 tasks
2.5%
Error Rate
Usability Test Results
While there was an overall positive response to the design of the prototype, there were several areas for improvement:
Contrast in the mid-fidelity prototype was an issue. A lack of contrast caused some users to be unsure of which areas of the design were clickable.
Too many scrolls. The homepage had 3 separate areas where one could scroll. This caused confusion in some tasks when users weren’t sure which scroll was appropriate for the task at hand.
Overlapping page elements caused issues with visibility and usability.
94%
Completion Rate
88.3/100
System Usability Score
Iteration: Changes based-on testing & scaling to desktop
I was tasked with the transition from mid to high fidelity and led the creation of the the prototype including UI elements and interactions. Based off feedback from usability testing, I made the following changes to the design of the app as I transitioned the designs into high-fidelity and began building the prototype.
Final Prototype
Browsing Content Through Different Categories
After I completed re-designing and building the final high-fidelity prototype, we completed an additional round of usability testing using the same methods from our previous test. The goals of this test were to evaluate the extent to which we resolved the issues found before with my new designs. Below are recordings of the tasks that users were asked to undergo as a demonstration of the final prototype:
Users: 5 | No. of Tasks: 7 | High-Fidelity, Mobile
Navigating and Exploring The Map
Recording and Uploading An Audio Recording
High Fidelity Test Results
2.1%
Error Rate
(Improvement from 2.5%)
100%
Completion Rate
(Improvement from 94%)
93.5/100
System Usability Score
(Improvement from 88.3)
In feedback, users said our design was intuitive, felt intentional, and was overall a pleasant experience. Based off this feedback, I believe we were successful at addressing user concerns in the following ways:
We gave users multiple methods of browsing and sorting content that were both quick and intuitive
We updated the color scheme to be more inviting and enjoyable, creating an overall more enjoyable experience for the user
We leveraged the advantages of mobile design to design a convenient experience that was accessible even without a computer.
Reflective Statement
This three-week design sprint was a creative challenge, to say the least. With the help of my teammates, I believe we took the concept of Corona Diaries and helped elevate it far closer to its full potential.
Moving forward our team would like to:
Add the ability to add video, or simple text to further diversify the types of content and methods of expression on the app.
Continue to build out sort functionality by being able to sort by more choices.
Add sharing ability for those browsing to share contributions that they encounter.
Build out a desktop and tablet experience that takes advantage of increased screen real-estate so users can always access Corona Diaries from any device they’re on.