Granate
Designing Empathy In Urgency | Product Deepdive
Project Details
Overview
Impact
25 % drop in onboarding drop-off
30% lift in weekly engagement
Set up the development team for quick feature delivery
Goals
By prioritizing user needs and business objectives, we narrowed down an endless list of potential features to those that would make the most significant difference.
How might we connect users through community?
How might we simplify the user experience?
How might we deliver an intelligent, adaptive app?
How might we define a world-class brand identity?
Featured Projects
Below, you'll find an overview of key projects that helped us achieve these goals.
Shortcuts:
Design System
Overview
Navigation
User interviews consistently revealed navigation as a significant pain point. Following a thorough audit of the app's existing functionality, I redesigned the navigation by reducing variations, eliminating redundant sub-navigation, and implementing common UI patterns for a more intuitive experience.
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Users now see a focused view when reviewing specific tasks and questions.
Through this audit of the app's pages and navigation, I identified common themes to establish standardized navigation bars.
Onboarding
After implementing initial usability and brand updates, I identified a critical area for improvement: the onboarding experience. I noticed a significant drop-off rate between users opening the app and landing on the homepage, largely due to the inability to skip onboarding. As part of the new design system, I pitched and integrated a "skip onboarding" option at the end of the account creation flow.
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This change allowed new users to bypass onboarding, boosting conversion rates and ultimately growing our user base, a critical factor for investor interest.
General Usability & Building for the Future
I evaluated and rebuilt every existing component under the new brand, optimizing for usability. A core objective was to establish a design system that would seamlessly support a larger product design team. For instance, I created dedicated pages for each component type within the Figma library, ensuring easy navigation and discoverability.
For example, for the button components the page features individual frames for distinct button types.
The complete design system.
Delivery & Business Needs
Given a small development team, brand and design updates often took a backseat. When implementing a comprehensive design system, my priority was a segmental, graceful rollout to minimize user disruption. I achieved this by breaking the system into actionable chunks and mocking up key screens to illustrate the app's evolution after each phase.
In collaboration with the PM, we prioritized the "Skip Onboarding" functionality, extracting it from the larger scope to accelerate its development. This strategic decision allowed us to boost user acquisition sooner.
Community
Overview
Problem Statements
Users seek community connection to navigate loss, requiring a space for stories and engagement (sharing, liking, commenting). We also needed in-app content submission for email curation.
Goals
How might we host in-app content?
How might we make content discoverable and consumable?
How might we enable meaningful engagement?
How might we allow user story submissions?
High-level Feature List
Story Submission & Viewing
Profile & Management
Notifications
In-App Submission Flow
From the captured use cases, we prioritized features for the MVP based on user impact and the baseline functionality required for a working feature.
User Flow
I mocked up MVP user flows. Following team discussions, we finalized the direction
A key debate centered on social media sharing of community posts and the visibility to non-users. We ultimately prioritized enhanced security, opting to block that functionality entirely.
Wireframes
Early collaboration ensured a seamless transition from user flows to wireframes. This phase clarified unknowns and streamlined the UI design process.
I sketched each flow and key interaction pattern, which was crucial for aligning with the development team and preventing hidden scope creep.
UI & Prototype
Completed before the new design system, this work was constrained by the existing UI. I introduced a few new design patterns, but cautiously, to avoid deviating too far from the established interface.
Curated Tasks
Overview
Problem Statements
Users landing in Granate are overwhelmed and lack clear, actionable next steps for time-sensitive tasks, especially during a vulnerable period.
Users need assurance that Granate is surfacing the most critical questions and tasks at each stage, tailored to their responses.
We aren't fully leveraging collected user data to personalize and enhance the overall experience
Goals
How might we personalize the user journey with data, providing clear next steps and process awareness?
How might we simplify task and question completion?
How might we streamline the homepage and categories to guide users effectively?
How might we create a less overwhelming experience, focusing users on what matters?
How might we surface critical information precisely when needed?
How might we proactively engage users with important tasks and questions?
How might we provide a space for planning future critical items?
Audit of all existing questions and tasks
I began by auditing all existing tasks and questions, mapping how specific questions triggered subsequent tasks and identifying other app content that influenced them.
A comprehensive list of every possible in-app question.
Priority & Due Dates
Next, I analyzed the app's task prioritization and assigned due dates.
Categorizing by priority and timeline.
Responsibility Scale
Following these analyses, I developed several solutions, beginning with a sliding scale of responsibility. This concept recognized that users, such as those grieving a loss versus an executor managing an estate, have distinct needs. To address this, we would ask new users qualifying questions to determine their specific role.
Based on their determined role, we would recommend relevant tasks and hide unhelpful ones, tailoring the experience to their unique circumstance.
Further prioritized grouping.
