OVERVIEW
Lumentus Social provides an integrated social media managing platform for franchises and large businesses. Lumentus Social contracts with clients to offer the platform to their users, empowering them to market locally under a controlled global brand.
THE CHALLENGE Create a mobile app for Lumentus Social so users can easily and quickly engage in social media marketing from their phones or tablets.
THE SOLUTION Integrate key features of the online application with mobile productivity tools and highlight social media best practices.
MY ROLE Research and Synthesis, Personas, Ideation, Prototyping, User Testing
DURATION 2 weeks
RESEARCH
USER INTERVIEWS I conducted detailed interviews with 7 people including the business, franchise owners, and people who use social media to market their business.
The goal: to discover the features users find most helpful and why, and understand what the business needs and pain points are.
KEY TAKEAWAYS: BUSINESS
“Our typical user doesn’t have time to post content to social media. He knows he needs to do it, to check that box, but doesn’t have time to put into it.
“A lot of people let the client administrator publish for them, but everyone has the option to post themselves. Some people are extremely motivated and since the articles are there, they can go ahead and schedule them.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS: USERS
“Sharing photos is a great way to expose people to our community. It gives a behind the scenes look at everything we do.”
“Through social media, we stay top of mind so when people want to buy/sell they think of us.”
“As a company, you want a clear message, clear communication, what you say to people is very restricted to their interests.”
“It’s important to see quality of our work. More people would be comfortable coming in and it would raise brand awareness.”
SURVEY The business also agreed to send out surveys to a segment of 85 users in real estate. The goal was to get a sense of what features users found most helpful. Questions included:
What do you like most about Lumentus Social?; How often do you use Lumentus Social?; and What would you like to see improved?
KEY TAKEAWAYS All ten respondents praised the curated content feature and wanted to see it improved by making it more robust. They used Lumentus Social several times a week.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS I looked at both the web and mobile apps for Hootsuite, Hearsay Social, Sprout Social, Social Media Made Simple and Everypost to compare features. The variety of features seemed overwhelming and daunting for social media novices. All did allow for posting to multiple accounts and scheduling. Some had curated content, but not directly in the app (they were linked to other apps). Lumentus Social is the only one that offers a post preview feature.
SYNTHESIS
AFFINITY DIAGRAM
KEY TAKEAWAYS It became clear users would need the curated content, the ability to take and share photos, and the ability to preview posts.
From interviews, it was also clear that users would benefit from an education component that highlighted social media marketing best practice and integrated features that supported those best practices.
PROBLEM STATEMENTS
As a franchisee, I want to be able to quickly post relevant content to my social media channels from wherever I am, so that I can attract new business
As a franchiser, I want to give my franchisees the tools and content they need to attract new, local business
PERSONAS
IDEATION AND PROTOTYPING
As this was a 2-week project, I focussed on developing the curated content, photo sharing, and post previews features first.
I began by sketching out the existing user flow, and creating one for mobile focusing on content sharing and ease of use.
I then created a paper prototype and began testing.
Users preferred to enter information for a new post in a certain order, also they wanted to be able to see posts on a calendar in addition to a list, and wanted to be able to start a post directly from the calendar
I took the feedback and created wireframes, which I then tested on users. Usability issues included:
I took the feedback and incorporated it into the prototype, which can ben found below. Next steps include researching the types of best practice advice for users and integrating them into the app.
