SodaSpeak
SodaSpeak aims to be the first messaging app on kids' first phones, helping parents safely introduce technology.
Problem: Parents wanted to use SodaSpeak to improve communication with and monitor the safety of their kids. SodaSpeak wanted to increase conversions from free trial use to paid subscribers.
Outcome: I designed an app for parents that enabled them to be aware of safety concerns with their children. The design increased paid subscription conversion by 40% during testing.
My Role: UX/UI Designer & UX Researcher.
Tools Used: Figma, Pen and paper, Miro, Usability Hub.
Why are we doing this?
Data and analytics were needed to better understand the problem, so I designed and executed a research plan.
The client's main pain points were:
They wanted to learn about the usability of Sodaspeak’s onboarding experience.
They wanted to increase paid subscriptions.
I started off the project by designing and executing research to gather insights about the current onboarding flow.
Understanding the Current Experience
I used the SodaSpeak app to detect any friction points and evaluated competing messaging apps for kids.
My first step was to go through the app myself. I downloaded the app, went through onboarding, added some friends, sent some messages, and looked at any information pages that were built into the app. While going through these user flows, I used Nielsen’s 10 heuristic principles to gauge what is working well, and what is not, and identify some main points of friction.
Then, I researched similar messaging apps for kids by reading reviews on the app store of more widely used children’s messaging apps. The main competitors were JusTalk Kids and Messenger Kids. I downloaded both of these apps, went through onboarding, added friends, sent some messages, and looked at information pages. This allowed me to compare my experience with the SodaSpeak app with more widely used messaging apps. I was able to identify what users would expect from an app like this, and what some of the user’s needs and wants were.
From the heuristic and competitive analysis, I sketched some hypotheses for improvements.
I did some unmoderated tests of the current SodaSpeak app to check my hypotheses.
I took screenshots of the current SodaSpeak onboarding flow and used these in the prototype testing tool on Usability Hub. I did this because it was a way to quickly validate some of my hypotheses that came out of my previous research with competitors and the heuristics of the app. I recruited 10 participants who were parents between the ages of 25 and 44 years old with at least one or more children because they would more likely have kids within SodaSpeak’s target age of 4 to 8 years old compared to other age groups. I asked them to click through the onboarding flow and answer some questions after about their thoughts on SodaSpeak. I wanted to know… do parents understand the purpose of SodaSpeak and are they willing to buy it after going through onboarding?
Most parents didn’t know the purpose of SodaSpeak and said they wouldn’t buy it after onboarding.
I dug further with some guerilla testing to understand parents’ needs on a deeper level.
I ran into some challenges with sourcing participants for moderated zoom interviews. Originally I had set out to interview 8 parents with kids between the ages of 4 and 8 and reached out to everyone I knew in this target group. For one reason or another, they didn’t show up or were not available. I pivoted by conducting guerilla testing with 2 male participants with children outside of the target age range. I had each of them run through the onboarding process for the current SodaSpeak app and share their thoughts aloud as they went through the process. This allowed me to observe some pain points users may have in real-time and exposed some of the emotional reasons that drove parents away from SodaSpeak.
“Humans need other humans. Create better engagement or something rather than limiting texts but let me know what they are doing so I can have a conversation with them later.”
“Open lines of communication are important to me. Limited messages block communication between me and my child.”
The guerilla testing session confirmed many of the areas of improvement that came out of the heuristic analysis. This included:
An onboarding process that informs users about why they should use SodaSpeak.
Confusion about long articles during onboarding and lack of access them in the app.
A way to add members later in the app and make other changes.
Some new insights that came out of guerilla testing were:
Parents in testing showed they want an app that helps improve communication between them and their children. They don’t feel like the current app is doing that.
Participants were concerned with their child’s safety and wanted tools to feel like they were helping their kids be safe. They feel like the current app is hindering their safety.
The insights from guerilla testing led me to create a new app for parents.
The insights from guerilla testing helped me discover that there are two distinct users: the child and the parent. The current SodaSpeak app is not currently serving parents. To meet the needs of parents, a separate app needed to be created. Giving their child a phone for the first time is stressful and worrisome. They want to be able to communicate with their kids and protect them from the dangers technology presents. So, I created an app where parents could manage their kids’ activities and get the resources they need to make technology introduction seamless. This included moving the educational pieces that were in the onboarding flow to the home page of the app. I add a notification feature that lets parents know if there is suspicious activity (e.g. cyberbullying) and offer guidance when this activity occurs.
I ran unmoderated tests with my designs to benchmark their success with users.
I conducted unmoderated usability tests through UsabilityHub with my designs to benchmark them with the initial testing I did with SodaSpeak’s current onboarding flow.
The results showed that 7 out of 10 parents would pay for the app after going through the onboarding process with my design. This meant that 40% more parents were willing to convert to a paid subscription with my designs compared to those who went through the current application’s experience.
0% of parents knew that SodaSpeak protects their child’s data. This is SodaSpeak’s main selling point and something that is important to many parents.
30% of parents said they would pay for the app and many said it was because the free messaging apps already on their phones have the same functions.
90% of parents thought they understood the purpose of SodaSpeak but their explanations were different reasons than the story SodaSpeak was aiming to tell.
How My Designs Help Users
The onboarding process educates parents about how the app helps parents.
I designed the first screens a parent sees to have clear and straightforward language about the app’s purpose.
My design showcases the story SodaSpeak was aiming to tell and resonates with one of the main reasons parents waited to give their children phones- the app doesn’t share their child’s data.
This new onboarding experience tested well, with 40% more parents willing to convert to paid subscribers after onboarding.
They give parents tools and resources to feel more confident when giving their child a phone.
I designed alerts for parents that detect if there is cyberbullying language in their child’s messages.
In these alerts and on the main page of the app, I incorporated related educational content.
In my design, I gave parents the ability to block bullies or predators.
They give parents a way to make modifications after onboarding is complete.
I designed a dashboard on the home screen where kids are at the top of the page so parents can easily monitor their activity and make modifications to their controls.
Parents can easily add a new family member from the top navigation using the plus button. During testing, all users were able to identify this is where they would click to add a new member.
Feedback from Stakeholders
“I love the bullying flag concept. And the fact that we didn’t mention that we don’t share data is a big deal so thank you for pointing that out!”
-Mark Daley, CMO of SodaSpeak
“Thank you, your work was really great. I really liked the physical representation of the cyberbully alert.”
-Nicky Chang, Founder of SodaSpeak
What I Learned
1. Always be ready to improvise and pivot.
This project had a short timeline of 7 weeks and I was tasked with sourcing research participants through my personal network for this project. My research plan was to interview 8 parents with kids between the ages of 4 and 8. I contacted everyone I knew in this range, and for one reason or another, parents who had agreed to partake didn’t show up. I knew it was important to get some qualitative data from interviews with a parent, even if their children were no longer between the ages of 4 and 8. To address this issue, I sourced 2 parents for moderated guerilla testing. Both participants were willing to spend time going through all the user flows in detail. As a result, I gained some incredible insights that complemented the unmoderated tests I held well.
2. You won’t always have all the info you need.
Upon first use of the app, our team was unsure of how to perform some of the key functions SodaSpeak had promised. During our stakeholder interview, I asked if we could get a demo of how to use their app since there were unclear functionalities and no info was available online. Weeks passed and the deadline for my final prototype was a few weeks away with no demo available. To overcome this, I researched as much as I could find about other similar applications and created low-fidelity mockups to gain traction. While doing this, I followed up with my point of contact and discussed the issue at our team meetings. We received a demo from our client a couple of weeks before the deadline, and since I had a framework of my ideas and other secondary research complete, it saved a lot of time in the last couple weeks of the project. This taught me that you won’t always have everything you need, and it is important to work around what you do have.
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