UI/UX Developer
“Hynt is all about you, the community and the world that surrounds us all. Inessence, we are a social media platform catered for travelers, that brings you and the cities youvisit just that little bit closer together. “
I have been working at Hynt as a UI/UX Developer since February 2020. My position was on the Development Team where I worked parallely with the App Development team as well.
My project helped the company establish their online presence. The website, since its launch in early July 2020 has received 5500 users in 4 months, including 25% organic growth.
My Role
- Lo-fidelity Wireframing
- Hi-Fidelity Screens
- End to end Project Ownership
- Web Development
- UX Design
- UI Design
- Prototyping
- User Testing
key takeaways
Be Passionate about Learning
From the moment I joined the company, I found countless opportunities to try something new and work on developing new skills. This allowed me to be flexible and even lean into these new-found skills including conducting research, learning and implementing SEO.
The final designs for Hynt and Don't Be A Stranger are in a Google Drive folder
objective
Users who come to the website can read all the information related to the destination.
The information is divided into 6 broad categories – Local’s Guide, Tips & Tricks, Food & Drinks, Travel Diary, Journal and Staycations.
There are 70 cities and 35 countries covered as well.
The main purpose of the website back in March 2020, was for the company to establish its online presence. During the development of the website, we were hit with a pandemic which made us want to re-evaluate our decisions.
We realised that since we have the time, we would like to develop a website that would allow the users to be able to experience the functionality of the app on the web as well.
After the launch of the website www.donotbeastranger.com (the website will be redirected to the new one) in early July 2020, we started working on the new web app version for the website.
Since then, we have launched the new website and app as well!
user goals
Keeping in mind the user goals of the website, we REDEFINED THE OBJECTIVE of the website.
The main goal of the website is to create a space for users to discover places ===> save those spots ===> download the app = Complete experience
The website would allow the user to have a wholesome experience where they would not only be able to browse through the recommended spots in each city, they would also be able to save and add it to their specific collection list.
Create a community and place for the users to share recommendations via local guide to increase engagement with the app. A user who loved spots from a local guide, will be able to keep exploring recommendations from the same user, using the app
user journey
We expected the user to land on our website through one of the four scenarios as follows:
The structure of the user journey helped me think about how the information would have to be displayed. Based on the redefined objective, this website concludes three main functions, which are“Hynt/Friend Recommendation”, “Destination Search” and “Share”, to have a wholesome experience. It’s magazine style recommendation will be the first thing displayed. The search function will appear in the header, which is universal.
color palette
Considering both the app and the web are still in the stages of development, the color palette wehave might experience changes in the coming future.
observations
We also realised the search function was experiencing more clicks and that is why we have made sure to add it on the top of the page.
We used the data collected from the current website and came up with a few changes forthe new website.
We realised that the users (after a series of user testing) mentioned that the website lookedvery feminine and they were not sure of what it was about.
Header & footer
After we went through Google Analytics and Hotjar, we realised that the search button was experiencing a big number of clicks. Along with search, our sign up option was also receiving a lot of click throughs. This made me want to make sure that the search function and the sign up are prominently visible for the user to experience and enjoy.
I came up with alternate layouts for both the header and the footer and after analysing specific parts from Hotjar and Google Analytics, we decided on a simple header with the search function on the top.
As for the footer, with my education being majorly focused on creative development, I wanted to make sure that we add small graphical real time based illustrations to give it a more edgy look.
Rebranding
During the lockdown, I was forced to work remotely. Being in a different time zone than the majority of the team, I made sure to schedule weekly calls and check ins with the team to ensure that the development of both the app and the web go smoothly.
The company also went through rebranding. This was a result of vigorous user testing where weasked the users what the name of the company meant to them. This also allowed us to hold an inhouse branding and logo workshop, where we identified the possible names for the company, came up with some logo designs, a rough color palette and a base theme of where the company is headed.
mockups
These are the initial mockups for the website.
