DUABUM's mobile app platform allows you to receive personalized video messages from your idol.
OVERVIEW
DUABUM was a mobile platform built to infiltrate a growing social media audience in Latin America.
More specifically we would begin by targeting Mexico, the fastest growing economy. To ensure we had the best rate of success it was essential to fully develop the core idea of the project before we began development.
With our initial market research it became apparent, very quickly, that this product was in no doubt a perfect fit for the Mexican citizens.
Role_Product Designer Manager
Product Design, Mobile Design, Web Design, Design Systems
Team
Antonio Cienfuegos, Cesar Diaz, Ricardo Lopez
INITIAL RESEARCH
Celebrities
The amount of celebrities and influencers (now considered celebrities) has grown exponentially with the advance of social media.
These personalities are looking for the next big step.
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new ways to develop their brand
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new ways to earn income
Surprisingly Mexico is the country with the most "viral" sensations, creating a vast number of these influencers everyday.
Users_Followers
It has become more common these days to gift a e-gift over a tangible object.
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the "experience" economy is more readily available in the market
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personalized or "unique" objects are more sought after now than ever, especially if they are gifted
USER JOURNEY MAP
Being that this would be our first venture in the development of an audience/social based app, I began by mapping the full customer experience to see if any areas could be streamlined. Ultimately we arrived at three major flows: sign-up/sign-in, trending, and profile.
Sign-up/Sign-in
Trending
Profile
MOBILE DESIGN SYSTEM
Because of the overwhelming young aged audience, I decided to create a design system that was vibrant in color and refreshing in aesthetic. This would eliminate any repetitive design efforts and unify the experiences of any future products.
Following atomic design principles I separated the system into: Foundations & Components.
Foundations featured brand and UI: Colors, Iconography, Shadows, Spacing, and Typography.
Components featured: Buttons, Form Inputs, and any UI elements that were necessary for the overall design congruency of the mobile app.
PROTOTYPE USER/CELEB FLOW
Once the design passed our team review, I created a clickable prototype on FIGMA. In order to ensure that we could build a reliable platform for the public we had to focus our testing on both the user and celebritie's flow. Although at first glance it may seem very similar, through our testing we had figured out a key difference in the functionality of the profile.
User_Flow
Celeb_Flow
PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL
For the official launch of the mobile app I led the development and art direction of the promotional material that would be needed in order to have users and celebrities on board.This further unified our brand and maintained the lively appearance we sought after for the younger audience.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was my first mobile product, having primarily worked on architectural design before. I learned that mobile app design shares many schematic design processes yet differs greatly in terms of the development phases. The developers and product teams set timelines and work together for the final product, not management. As product designer I had to compromise my solutions in a meaningful way to fit these timelines and ultimately achieve the broader milestones set by everyone.
Originally we had set the launch date to be set in late 2020. We would do a soft release with a small group of users and celebrities focused in Mexico City, then release the full version to all members. This allowed us to release the app on time and with no serious bugs, ensuring that we had the highest quality user experience for both parties involved. I learned that you can always iterate to simplify a product to its core features and still have an impactful experience.
In the end we had the misfortune to be beaten to the market with a very similar product that saturated the users with an unpleasant experience. Hence making the idea forgettable in the country.
