Dabkick
Project Specs
Role: UI/UX Designer
Timeline: One year
Platform: iOS/Android Mobile
Constraints: Redesign of existing application. Seed-round funding without monetization strategy
Context
Dabkick was a startup that created a social media app with a focus on bringing people together through synchronized media content in live session chat rooms. I joined the team to assist in refreshing the UI/UX of the app for iOS and Android smart phones.
Challenge
To refresh the user experience of the app and redefine the product to appeal to a broader audience and increase retention.
Research
To begin my research I spent time using the product firsthand on both iOS and Android devices to uncover what worked well and where improvements could be made to increase the app's value proposition and user retention. I conducted a full heuristic analysis of both the iOS and Android versions of the app.
After taking extensive notes of my observations, I combed through user reviews on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store to get a sense of what user reception of the current product was and to uncover any correlations.
I also downloaded apps that offered a similar "entertainment together" product to get an idea of how the competition laid out their apps. These apps all had more downloads and positive user reviews than Dabkick so I paid close attention to uncover what it was they were doing differently to garner a more positive reception.
My findings showed that while competitors offered more mature products with more features, none of the apps capitalized on a combination of live streaming and watch together experience. One of the most requested features from users via the store reviews was that they wanted to be able to chat via voice and video and not just text. This felt like an area where Dabkick could differentiate itself from the competition and offer something more.
Following my research, I presented to stakeholders to share my findings and lead a whiteboarding session to define which feature enhancements to prioritize.
Process & Solution
Given that I was working on an existing product for a startup in seed funding, there was not a lot of time and budget for wireframing or lo-fi prototyping. The jump to high-def comps happened only a week or so into my tenure at the company at request of the CEO whom wanted to move fast and get development underway ASAP.
Some features such as the friends and messages pages only needed minor refacing. I found that the live session, home screen, and sign up/login and onboarding screens could benefit the most from a major visual and usability overhaul. It's here that the refreshed layout started to take shape for the live session, as well as a portrait video player, and refined music player controls.
Once the hi-fi comps were designed I created prototypes of both Android and iOS versions of the app to better communicate the refreshed flow to the dev. team. In addition I headed up informal user tests with several interns, observing their use of an alpha build of the app to gather qualitative feedback.
Screens from the iOS version of the app as I designed them. It was decided early on that we would go for a 'dark theme' and get away from the white and red YouTube-ish color scheme that was in use in the previous version of the app. The CEO felt this UI should emphasize a more elegant, evening time feel. I urged that we needed to be objective, and in defense of the user was able to successfully argue for a light/dark mode toggle in the app settings.
All in all there were numerous changes made to the app, but the value proposition heavily relied on the redesigned live session experience.
The live session was the meat of the app, where users who have added each other as friends could "dab" (invite) one another to interact in live rooms, where they could serve up media in real-time while text and video chatting all in the same space. it's the implementation of three media layers in one synchronized space (photo, videos, and music) that was paramount to the experience.
A user could customize their viewing space allowing for each media player to be minimized or maximized in different ways, allowing them the choice to focus in on what media type they want to. To supplement this, a queue system was introduced to allow multiple users to choose content to play 'up next' without overriding the current content playing in the video or music player. Users in a room could even vote for what they wanted to see or hear next.
Reflection
The redesign of Dabkick was met with limited success upon its relaunch. If the dozens of user reviews were anything to go off of, this new version of the app offered a more engaging and tighter overall 'media together' experience, allowing users to more quickly onboard, add a friend or two, and jump into an improved live session with enhanced controls and less friction.
Like the many other social media start ups of this era, the app relied on virality to go big and never caught fire. Without a path to monetization or any notable content partnerships to drive engagement, the app relied exclusively on content that it scraped from Youtube.
I am grateful for this being one of my earliest ventures in my UI/UX career. I learned a great deal on the job, and was able to take that experience into future roles.
