Design process

I’ve been thinking about Meeta since September 2013 when it was still named “MapNoi” (ew, I know). It was probably my first UI attempt in Photoshop and many things have changed so far. Like, I don’t use Photoshop for UI works anymore (who does?). I’ve also taken Meeta to a “Startup weekend” where I’ve received lot of positive feedback that helped me shaping my idea into something a bit more realistic. Side note: Meeta was also nominated for a 25k euros prize, unfortunately the sponsor didn’t respond to our calls after the event (Consorzio Arca, our incubator, apologised about the incident and told us they lost track as well). 

Identifying the problem

Meeta is all about meeting (too obvious?). You can think of it as a less complicated Waze or maybe like a Uber, just without Uber. The first time I had to explain Meeta to people was at the Startup Weekend where in 60 seconds (yep, “elevator pitch”) I had to tell a group of strangers why my idea was the best out of 25 others. Shivers. Picture this. Saturday night, you and your friend want to meet at PlaceC. You are at your home (PlaceA) while your friend is at his own place (PlaceB). You guys decide to meet at 7PM, but you know your friend will be late. Here is where Meeta take action. The E.T.A. (Estimated Time of Arrival) between PlaceA and PlaceC is known to you but not to your friend. You know how long it will take you to arrive, your friend doesn’t. Similarly the E.T.A. between PlaceB and PlaceC is know to your friend but not to you. Your friend knows how long it will take him to reach PlaceC, you don’t. Meeta changes exactly this bit. Sharing your E.T.A. with your friend means that he knows when you’ll reach the destination and viceversa. Why is this so important? Keep reading.

Research and data 

Smartphones are increasing car crashes by 400% 

Just by using your phone while driving you are decreasing your reflex time. If something happens you’ll be less likely to act promptly. This is why from a research in 2014 (USA Today) it shows up that 1 out of 4 accidents is caused by someone looking at his device. 

People use their phone while driving 

In 2011 NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) reported that 82% of people between 16 and 24 years admitted to have used at least once their phone while driving. 

Inattention Blindness 

When using your phone while driving you’re essentially moving your focus from the road to a small screen. In that moment you’re not aware of what is happening in front of you. It might sound like a small problem but let’s think about this: using your smartphone for 4 seconds while driving at 40mph is equal to driving with your eyes closed for 78,1 yards (or 71,4 meters). Still thinking that checking your notifications is that important? 

There is no need to say that when we wait we also get stressed. And we already have way too many sources of stress. Meeta aims to reduce the amount of stress by giving us the knowledge of how long we’re going to wait for. 

Problem solving 

The first design of Meeta focused on the last part of our problem leaving a lot to imagination. With the following iterations however the focus moved slightly to left, where the journey begins. Meeta v1 (a.k.a. MapNoi v4) deleted everything from the past in an attempt to focus more on the user. This was before any work experience with very little understanding of what a good UX can do. Now, in 2018 this redesign aim to iron out all those questions left from the previous design and hopefully get to something that could actually be shipped as a real product. Which get us straight to another topic. Meeta is not meant as a product, but as a service. I realised this after a while and it changed the way I was approaching the design. I wanted to solve one main problem: how do I know when my friend will arrive? But after a while I realised I was fixing more than just one problem. If I have an hotel and I have a service which picks up my guests at the airport, knowing how long it will take them to arrive, give me time to clean the room and make sure everything is ready. If I have a shipping company I can give my customer a premium service allowing him to know how long it will take the courier to deliver my parcel (“last mile tracking”). If I’m the organiser of a cycling group, I can set multiple invites and see how far each member is so that I can plan my time accordingly. And so on... Meeta for the user also decrease the chance of an accident, leaving the user/driver focused on the road instead of being distracted by our message “where are you? I’m here already...” Here is where I learned that being scalable is really important if you’re planning to run a business. 

A JTBD approach

When _ I'm meeting my friend, I want to _ know when he'll be there, so that I can _ plan my journey accordingly. This was the base for my design. As a UX designer my goal was to solve a problem without creating new ones. It’s easy to solve the problem of how to cut an apple giving me a knife but if the knife is too heavy or it doesn’t have a handle you’re just moving the problem somewhere else. Everything happens on one screen because there is no need for more. What you see if what you need to get your job done. 

A scalable solution

For multiple reasons the first shape that I decided to give Meeta was the shape of an app. Partially because it was my first experiment in UI/UX design but also because 2015-2016 was the year of “there is an app for everything”. Yeah, everything except knowing when you’re friend will be at the pub, right?. I didn’t want to build something platform-oriented. I always hated those “Extensive UI Kit to help you kick-start your next Android app”. If you’re designing an app just for the sake of doing it, I might understand being lazy enough to rely on those kits. If you’re designing an app as part of a new product that you’re willing to lunch than you should also care about giving life to a design language that does not depend on the platform to which you’ll ship your product to. Meeta will/could be a service used on iPhone, Android or as web-app or maybe even something else which goes beyond the traditional cavas of our devices (AR?). This applies for Meeta B2C, however Meeta B2B goes a step further and takes the shape of API. A simple dashboard connected to Meeta API would be enough to control the delivery process of a company, a public transport system and lot more. We understood that having a source of revenue was important by creating a rough Business Model Canvas (BMC) that immediately highlighted where our weak point was, the lack of an income.

Visual design

With such a defined problem, designing an interface around the solution wasn’t that hard. I kept my mind on one extremely important point: never give the user more than what he needs. And from here I started with the background, which shows you a map. Why? because Meeta is all around meeting at a place so it makes sense to either first select the person you’re going to meet or the place where you’re going to meet. Why I didn’t go for the first option then? Because you could potentially meet two or more people, however you’ll always meet at only one place. 

A guided approach

The journey is a step-by-step process that guide the user from the first screen up to destination. You choose a place, like in Maps, then you choose a friend and you add him. More friends? No problem. Once you’re happy press “Start journey” and your job is done. Now the following screen is really important. Two people are looking at this screen, there are several challenges. First of all, telling “me” how long it will take me to arrive. You also need to tell me how far my friend is. And once we’re both at destination this screen has to go back to the initial stage, ready for a new journey. I went for a flat, mostly white design with some not-too-much detailed illustrations to give an interface similar enough to Uber without looking like a copycat. I really like the concept of an “atomic” design. With each element building components and eventually the whole interface, it does reflect the way I look at a design system and it simplifies building symbols based on small interactions instead of whole pages.

Media production 

Going through the process of creating an identity for a new product, I worked on the brand design, visual design and of course, media and communication. I opted for a video for a stronger impact. The clip was shot with amateur equipment, edited on Premiere Pro and uploaded, all in about 3 weeks. It is not meant to be a promo to be sent on major channels, the only purpose of this video is to showcase where Meeta comes to help and how the user flow is displayed on both sides (person A / person B). Note: the UI in this video reflect the one used for my degree and it is different from the latest UI which is seen on the paragraph above.

Conclusions

Meeta started as a UI experiment, grown up through the startup phase and reached a stage where I can proudly say: this is my idea. Everything is the result of unanswered questions, positive and negative feedbacks, attempts to predict future trends and lot more. Of course Meeta is far from being perfect and the main reason is that I never had the chance to take it for a test run. I’ve learned a lot thanks to Meeta. For example I’ve learned that you can’t focus on the main feature because that’s not the only thing the user will use. It’s also important to keep everything as easy as possible because uninstalling an app is probably even easier than installing it. I can also say to have learnt a lot about business, about venture capitalists, SWOT analysis, business plans and so on. Which was great and helpful in my work experience to have a wider understanding of the product I’m designing for. That’s another thing that Meeta has taught me. Your idea is never just an interface. It’s more like a living creature where everything has to work together in order for the body to function normally. If one organ fails, the entire organism will suffer from that.