Skolay is a mobile platform for 1:1 conversations between writers & readers.
Readers want to interact with their favorite authors to have an impactful and meaningful conversation, yet they lack such remote resources in the literary world.
An app to create a correspondence platform for the literary world where writers (fellows) and readers can have more in-depth, meaningful conversations. Skolay aims to create an empathetic, dynamic and engaging community.
6 weeks
Daania: UX Design
Thomas: UX Research
Kiki: UX Research
Beta-iOS
Figma
Maze
To start our journey with Skolay, we began by researching Skolay, their needs, pain points, and goals to understand how we could benefit them.
After conducting the initial interview with Skolay stakeholders, we sought to gain insight into the competitor space that Skolay is also deep diving into in need of the reader and writer interaction.
Comprehensive data collection and analysis approaches
28 responses
10 interviews
10 responses
7 companies
We began user research by utilizing a questionnaire and a series of one-on-one interviews to gain a deeper understanding of trends within the questionnaire.
We designed our questions to learn more about:
Social Media plays a vital role in reader/ writer interaction in today's digital world
"Social media makes it easier for me to interact with and see content from writers I like."
Users would like an in-depth Fellow bio before they schedule a 1:1
"I like to see the bio of an author, his recent books, past books, or any potential future books in work."
50% of users would have hesitations having a 1:1 with a fellow stemming from anxiety.
"Anxiety-provoking to be honest. I think the fear of not being able to verbalize effectively in situations with"
Users build trust in newer apps through data privacy, and testimonies.
"Easy of use and privacy and also if my friends recommend it will help me in deciding to use app"
We tested beta Skolay with 14 participants using Maze. This test aimed to identify users' pain points while completing the scheduling, preparation, and participation in the 1:1.
Now that we understand user, we refined our problem for our primary user and Skolay to guide our next steps.
Users need an accessible, intuitive, and trustworthy way to connect with their favorite fellows in order to have engaging and meaningful 1:1 conversations about their inspirations & creative process.
Skolay provides a platform that offers 1 on 1 conversations between fellows and readers. However, there is an opportunity to improve the scheduling, preparing, and conducting 1:1s that feels natural and anxiety free for users.
We started the design phase by sketching wireframe solutions based on the synthesis of our persona of Sam, our problem statement, our beta app testing, and the features Skolay required.
We redesigned the home screen to present information more streamlined and personalized way. Furthermore, as we planned to introduce onboarding to retain more users, we thought it would be a great way to ask users about their interests during the onboarding process and recommend fellows based on users' interests. This would help to create a more engaging experience for first-time users.
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We also revised the fellow profile page to include a list of their works, reviews left by users who attended 1:1s with them, and social media functionality so fellows can communicate with their readers within the app. Our goal was to allow users to make more informed decisions about which fellows they schedule 1:1s by utilizing these features.
To alleviate the anxiety and confusion users felt while waiting for the 1:1 to start, we added a waiting room. This serves as an area for the user and fellow to meet before the 1:1 starts. This allows both parties to collect their thoughts and receive visual feedback before the 1:1 starts.
"Onboarding experience is intriguing and captivating. I also do appreciate the 'skip' option"
"Thinking ahead of time in a meaningful way was very important"
"I appreciate the category icons and exploration of fellows through subjects"
Users were surprised by payment requests after scheduling 1:1 sessions. We redesigned UI elements to clearly display pricing and payment options, increasing font weight, and adding session length information.
Users were curious about how they received recommendations on their home screen and what each section on the home screen meant.
All of our testers were confused about the value proposition 'following a fellow' offered them.
We built a style guide for future development of the Skolay platform after we worked on the screens. To increase brand visibility and retention, we wanted to develop a concise and distinctive visual motif that can be used across our app, social media, and marketing materials.
With all the updates we proceeded to a high-fidelity solution and finished up our MVP product for the Skolay team. We compiled all our files in one Figma file and handed it off to the Skolay team for future use.
We built flows that showed our fellows' profiles in detail. Our prospective users can see profiles, work, reviews, and availability before making an account.
Creating user profiles later in the flow helped acquire valuable users while avoiding overflowing ghost accounts.
Given how we had technical limitations of Skolay being Audio only platform, we built a concise interactive experience.
To alleviate users' anxiety and confusion while waiting for the 1:1 with a recognized fellow, we ensured all interactions kept our users engaged on the platform.
To reduce the barriers to recruiting older users (a primary demographic), we designed and tested a new onboarding flow for our app.
Validate the high-fidelity prototype with users.
Add scheduling, joining, calling, and personalization.
Reduce home screen clutter and refine layout consistency.
Turned ambiguous, strategic problems into clear, audience-friendly stories.
Learned to set scope early through open, frequent communication.
Embraced multiple rounds of testing to build user + client trust.
I'm always interested in new opportunities and collaborations.
