.irl.
This project was born from a longing for the way the internet used to be: slow, personal, and colorfully DIY.
Welcome to .irl., the app that puts the user back in control of their feed and time on social media.
UX Designer, User Researcher, UI copywriter, Branding.
Role
Timeline
100 hours / 5 weeks
Project background
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Project background |
Problem
Users are posting less frequently online due to changing attitudes towards social media and user desire for more close-friends sharing experiences.
Solution
.irl. is an experimental social media app that:
relies on a chronological timeline
encourages users to take breaks from the app
and allows users to put friends into “Tiers” of closeness, thus allowing the user to prioritize content from those who matter most
No one wants to post anymore
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No one wants to post anymore //
Market + user research
Younger Millennials’ and Gen Z’s posting behaviors are declining, causing business problems for social media companies like Instagram.
Users don’t feel they can control the content they see
They are now “more protective about sharing their lives online”
Social media isn’t as fun as it used to be (partly due to ads and suggested posts)
The design of .irl. aims to challenge how social media functions by offering the user more control, choice, intimacy, and privacy.
I hear an echo
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I hear an echo //
“What’s next what’s next what’s next? At some point you have to cut yourself off.”
“What is next, what is next? There’s this need to see what’s the next thing. It’s just automatic.”
“What’s the next best thing? Maybe the next one will be funny.”
“Oh what’s next? Oh what’s next? Oh what’s next?”
-Direct quotes from my interview subjects
Defining the problem
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Defining the problem |
How might we take social media from being:
transactional to engaging?
curated to spontaneous?
influential to personal?
professional to low fi?
sleek to maximalist?
stressful to fun again?
Designing a solution
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Designing a solution |
Branding
I chose the original 16-color palette that IBM used in its computers in the 1980s to draw a parallel between this app and older internet products.
Mixing IBM Plex Mono with Montserrat allowed for a modernized retro look.
The future of the internet may look a lot like the past.
.irl.’s design is reminiscent of a bygone internet.
The low-fi design for .irl. encourages users to post imperfect content and have fun with social media again.
The design aims to increase user posting and avoid a reliance on professional influencers to fill a user’s feed with content.
Tiers allow users to see content from those who matter most.
Users are asked to place someone into a Tier when they Follow them.
Tiers also allows the user to share content to their feed to select groups of friends, rather than to everyone all at once.
Clearly marked exits
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Clearly marked exits //
Users care about their mental wellbeing online more than ever.
.irl. has defined exit points that a user can take.
There’s pagination on feeds to avoid the infinite scroll and a post limit function that the user can set.
Usability testing
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Usability testing |
I conducted usability tests that asked users to complete four tasks.
While the first iteration fell short with users, both visually and functionally, their insights led to a vastly improved final product.
Conclusion
Future additions include a notification bundling feature that allows users to decide when to get notifications each day.
Ideally, I would also like to interview and observe a broader range of users (varied ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, etc) and learn how they interact with social media.
Finally, I would continue building up the pages and functions of this app and conduct a wider usability test to see how it works, well, in real life!