Role
UX/UI Designer
Duration
November 2023 - August 2024
Tools & Skills
User Research
Usability Testing
Product Strategy
Prototyping
Figma
Team
4 Designers, 8 Developers
WriteGirl, based in Los Angeles, empowers underserved girls and gender-expansive youth by promoting creativity and self-expression through mentorship from a community of women writers. With over 200 volunteer women writers, WriteGirl serves more than 500 girls each year. They conduct numerous workshops, panel discussions, and special events annually, helping participants develop their creativity, succeed in high school, and prepare for college.
The transition to digital spaces has proven challenging, as writing workshops and mentoring sessions lose some of their impact and robustness online. WriteGirl engages with young people from as far away as Uganda and Tajikistan, who are unable to attend in-person events and resources, highlighting the need for a more effective digital solution.
In collaboration with our product partners at WriteGirl, we identified key pain points and potential projects, leading us to conceptualize a creative writing app. This app aims to replicate the enriching experience of WriteGirl’s in-person workshops in a digital format, making their resources more accessible worldwide.
Our vision for the app includes features designed to appeal to a wide audience, including girls, gender-expansive youth, and even adults of all genders. The distinctive features we planned are intended to serve as tools or companions for writers, much like WriteGirl’s workshops.
We conducted an audit of the strengths and weaknesses of 6 existing apps in the creative writing market. The main takeaway was that these apps often provided surface-level content. We aimed to differentiate our app not only through its immersive design but also through the depth and quality of its activities.
Post-interviews, we created an affinity map to categorize the challenges, processes, and motivations shared by users.
1
Writing consistently can be stressful and pressuring.
We want users to write freely and at their own pace. Doing streaks may put more stress on reaching for the app.
2
Basic and typical writing tips are not helpful.
We want users to reach for writing tips we provide and specifically curate them based on the user's needs.
3
Writers block often occurs from over working.
We want to make sure that users take breaks in between writing, as writing isn't a task.
4
Writing is difficult when not in a comfortable environment.
Users are most productive when in a comfortable environment.
How Might We...
We used insights from our competitive analysis, interviews, and affinity mapping to create user journeys within our app. This process helped us design intuitive and engaging user flows that addressed the identified pain points and aligned with WriteGirl's mission.
We had a lot of fun playing with the different shapes and cards, but we also faced a lot of difficulty as finding a good balance between color and elements was hard.
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After conducting usability testing with seven users, we identified opportunities to enhance the user experience and design. We focused on understanding where users struggled, why they encountered these difficulties, and how we could improve the app.
Users had difficulty discovering and consistently using the different app features, particularly the history feature.
We made the history feature more accessible on end state pages, eliminating the need for backtracking and improving discoverability.
Users suggested clearer guiding text and action phrases for a more intuitive and personable app experience.
We incorporated user-centric wording, making buttons more intuitive and the app more relatable.
For example, we changed "type of break" to "part of you," "mental" to "my mind," and "physical" to "all of me."
We decided to remove graphics and keep texts only.
This choice empowers users to imagine what the text might look like through their own creativity, as opposed being guided towards a predefined visualization
Users want the app to be welcoming and easy to reach out for.
In addition to more user-centric wording, when users scroll to the bottom of the screen, they will see friendly and encouraging messages. This humanization also brings in the in-person workshop touch.
A welcoming process that will excite users to pick up a pen and get started.
Your easily accessible toolkit to help guide users in exploring all activities and features.
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Randomized collection of objects and words to inspire a poem, story, or even a song.
Progressive writing activities that let you enter a whole new realm of unique categories.
You can use these randomizers to start a story or come back here for inspiration.
Designed to fire up your creativity. Mine your response for nuggets of words, phrases, or ideas.
Grab a pen and paper. This is your zone to let your creativity run free.
Activities to refocus attention during a long writing session or to help you shift gears between projects.
All your saved items are right here, ready for you to dive back in and let your creativity flow!
1
Playing with color
WriteGirl incorporates a lot of color and design elements, making it difficult to find a good balance between the mature yet playful nature of the app. As a designer who loves minimalism with accents, WriteGirl was truly a challenge as I had to play with shades of orange and green. It was a hard process figuring out how and where to place colors, but am so happy to see the final product successfully capturing the identity of WriteGirl.
2
Collaborating with developers
WriteGirl has a lot of creative elements which allows designs to be more creative with ideation. However, we had to consider our developers and understand the feasibility. We would check in with developers weekly to make sure both parties understand the scope of the design sprints and take the time to explain and communicate our ideas.
3
Embodying the brand
When designing, it is always important to understand the brand and what their identity is. WriteGirl prioritizes a playful environment but also an informational and mature environment for writers to grow. While playing with fun illustrations and colors, we always had to consider creating a strong foundation for solving issues behind writers' block.
4
Crazy prototypes and designs
The WriteGirl app plays with a lot of features like Triple Flips, Sticky Notes, moving graphics, etc. As much as it was a struggle to develop, it was a struggle figuring out how to prototype them. Our design team experimented with various ways to make features look as seamless as possible which came with a lot of experimentation, but also a lot of fun. I also got to create hand-drawn illustrations to embody the playful identity!
As a designer it is important to experiment with various design elements and WriteGirl truly allowed me to challenge myself. I got to experiment with fun fonts, colors, and even create my own illustrations.
I love this team so much. Not only did I learn so much but I've met lifelong friends and further discovered my love for creative design. Thank you for the best year. Shoutout to Angela Ling, Caroline DebBaruah, Eric Zhou, Mackenzie Smith, Joy Cheng, Angela Hao, Jasmine Wongphatarakul, Edward Ng, Daniel Kao, Erin Kwon, and Cheryl Wu.
* The BoldInk app will be deployed so soon.
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