My Role
User Experience Designer
Time
Jan 2017 - May 2017
What is Datapool?
Datapool is a hotspot sharing mobile app that helps tourists stay connected during short oversea travels. It leverages the hotspot capabilities of current smartphones to connect to a data sharing platform where people can buy and sell rollover data.
The following process summarizes the steps behind the development of a 6-month course project with a team of 5.
UX Skills
UX Design - Wireframing - Prototyping - User Research - Usability Testing - Sketch - Figma
Management Skills
Negotiation - Leadership - Market Research - Business Analysis
Overview
Imagine you are a tourist traveling to a new country. Your days are full of new experiences you want to share with your friends and family, not to mention all those awesome pictures you took in various emblematic locations. The only thing stopping you is the fact that your data plan does not work here and access to Wi-Fi is not always readily available. Additionally, you’re traveling for 1-2 weeks and can’t justify paying a fixed price for plans that will barely be used. You don’t want to deal with the hassle of looking for SIM card/pocket Wi-Fi deals and trying to predict which plans will best match your usage. Vacations should be relaxing and right now you just want to start and have fun.
As a team, we decided to tackle these 2 evident problems. Being surrounded by students and professionals from all over the world made it easy for us to get their insights and thoughts about these scenarios. Each member sat down with friends and colleagues to gain information that might help us define our core problems. We found that:​​
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People would prefer to pay only for data used
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Users who are able to afford a plan, value availability and stability a lot, maybe more than the price
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A lot of people are able to find a home and free Wi-Fi solutions, but not when traveling
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Users would like to have various plans to choose (day/day, month/month, data)
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Many users currently purchase a temporary sim card
User Research
Problem Definition
Our findings led us to redefine the core problem:
The need for continuous communication is constantly incrementing and this is especially so when traveling abroad. An easy to use and cheaper way to obtain data is clearly a current necessity in these situations.
This stage also led us to define our target users/customers.
It was here where we understood the need to define a second user/customer as well. This would be the person providing the data.
Taking this into account we defined 2 personas:
Primary Persona - Tourist Visiting the US
Sophie is a college student studying in Paris who will be visiting New York City for 1 week during spring break. She travels light and plans to live cheaply with roommates. She is technologically savvy and commonly uses data for social media, news etc. She only speaks rudimentary English and has never traveled outside of Europe.
Secondary Persona - The International Middle-Class Tourist
Jonathan is visiting Beijing with his family for 5 days. His main data needs include checking up on work through email and posting some pictures for his relatives to see. His daughter, on the other hand, is constantly on her phone on every conceivable social media account. The family goes on one-two vacations a year, often to different countries such as Paris and Bangkok. Like Sophie, Jonathan and his family are often unfamiliar with the local language.
Problem Statement
"Tourists around the world need an easy to use and cheaper way to obtain data when traveling"
At first, these problems seemed difficult to tackle. But, after several rounds of brainstorming, we decided that a mobile solution would be the best alternative. The decision seemed clear because of the nature of the problem we were tackling. We had access to the technology and hardware of a tourist's smartphone so why not use it.
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Once having decided on the modality of our solution we proceeded to brainstorm the way our idea would work and the minimum features our mobile application would need to provide a feasible solution for our user base.
We proposed making a mobile application that would serve as a matchmaking service, connecting people with excess data living in the US with visiting tourists in the area willing to pay for it. Users wishing to sell their data can connect to Datapool and specify a maximum amount to sell. Then, users wishing to purchase data will automatically be connected to ‘the pool’. Depending on the consumer’s location, Datapool will automatically switch which host a consumer is connected to, providing a seamless experience.
Our design would work using WIFI technology. The user selling the data would have to give the application permission to manage the hotspot. Then the mobile application would supply the tourist with access to the amount of data he requested and charge accordingly.
This idea made us understand we also needed to design our application for a second user, the person selling the data. We defined this person as:
Tertiary Persona - The Middle-Class Local
Jonathan is tired of paying for a data plan that he doesn't completely use but there doesn't seem to be plan closer to what he usually consumes. Apart from that, he can't always plan to spend the same amount every month as his use may change from time to time. He wants a way to monetize this data and not feel like he is wasting money.​​
The features we decided our MVP needed to possess were:
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A way for users to set limits to data sold and money spent on data
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An easy to use system for users to request and send payments
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A personal landing page for each person to manage their profile setting (data limits, spending limits)
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A simple method to initiate the connection
Brainstorming & Ideation
We created our first prototype on paper and then improved it on Figma. We kept the design simple with only 2 screens per user. Essentially a user would only need to create an account, set up their payment and spending limits and click a button to start a connection.
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It worked in a similar way for the person selling the data except they would need to introduce their hotspot information (name, password).
Typography
Colors
Logo
After this course ended I took it upon myself to improve the design and prototype. Below is the result.
Prototyping
Once our prototype was finished we were able to test it with a small group of students to see their reaction and get their feedback. Since the course was mostly focused on building a business plan the testing phase had to be cut short and future modifications were only included in paper.
The idea was pitched to a panel of 10+ investors where we were able to gain important feedback in terms of design, market and business strategy, technical implications and financial projections.