Gaveler

Summer 2019

Team

Solo Redesign

Role

UI/UX Designer

Methods

Competitive analysis, user research, user testing, wireframing, prototyping

Skills

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe XD

Gaveler Mockup

Many people know about the Brock Turner case, but how many people know who the acting judge was? Who was the person responsible for the ruling? Let's say you have a hearing with a judge at your local county court for a traffic violation. Would you want to see other people's experiences with this judge? Whether or not they were fair and respectful?

At Dog and Rooster, I worked on redesigning a current in-house app called Gaveler. The idea behind the app was to help users share their experiences about judges and cases. Currently, there isn’t a way for people to effectively express their opinions. Sure, there are applications like Yelp, that allow users to rate restaurants and establishments, but judges are rarely under scrutiny and critique by the general public.

Final Redesign

Redesign was focused on streamlining the user experience and usability of the application.
Major Changes
  • Bottom banner, added Q&A
  • Collections to increase interaction between users to retain interest
  • Added onboarding process
  • Photo, preferences, Privacy settings
  • Removed nuanced language in posting process
  • Case posting process and menu bar

    • Research - Big Questions

    Why would a user care about judges?
    What type of information would users be looking for?
    Stakeholders? Opiniated? Educated?
    How do we maintain a user base?
    What experience are they looking for? Exploration? Community?

    Research - Journey Map

    To understand how people currently intake political news.

    Graphic of journey map

    The Users

    People who want to read and educate themselves about judges and cases.

    People who want to express excitement/unhappiness after a court hearing

    People who are politically charged and want to discuss judges/cases

    Competitive Analysis

    What's currently out there? What are some exemplars of applications that have rating features?
    Experiences Stakeholders? Why Return? Features that support experience
    Yelp
    • Search (browse and read)
    • Exploration (Top 10 trails in San Diego)
    • Movement (users browse restaurants and ultimately decide which one to go to)
    • Business owners
    • Hungry people
    • People who are looking for a well rated place
    • People rating
    • Convenient
    • Useful
    • Can be heard/express approval/disapproval
      Yelp My Impact Section
    • My Impact section provides stats/metrics for the user so they can see how they expressed their approval/disapproval for different businesses
    Reddit
    • View/react (upvote, down vote, comment, share)
    • Interaction within communities (join communities, categorized by interests)
    • Browse (read/learn)
    • People looking for groups based off similar interests
    • People who want a good laugh
    • People who are bored, using for filler time
    • Fun
    • Content is engaging, diverse, nuanced
    • A place for everyone
      Reddit Comment Section
    • Post
    • Browse
    • Bookmark

    1 on 1 Interviews

    I interviewed people who ranged from politically inactive to politically active. The term “politics” is referring to current events related to the judicial system. I defined each category by these metrics:

    Metrics to measure policial activity

    Key Insights

  • All participants knew about the Brock Turner case despite their varying levels of political activity, but no one knew the name of the judge who made the decision

  • When asked if they would like to know the name of the judge who made the Brock Turner decision, all participants said yes

  • Participants are more likely to talk about cases and judges if they’re a big national event/socially relevant

  • Participants only knew judges who were socially relevant (Supreme Court Justices, Judge Judy)

    • Resdesign Goals

    I focused on three main goals/actions I wanted the users to do:

    01 View

    02 React

    03 Post

    From the competitive analysis and interviews, I created a list of improvements I wanted to make and categorized them based on which action/goal it would help achieve.

    01 View

    More categorization by hottest, trending, controversial, in the news, etc. to engage interest and help retain user base
    Entirely new section for shared experiences (more like a feed)
    Onboarding - Username, photo, add to collection, political affiliation, age

    02 React

    Entirely new section for shared experiences (more like a feed)
    Q&A section where users can ask other users questions about specific judges/cases - A way to give advice, elaborate on a shared experience, develop repertoire between users, just chat

    03 Post

    Create a more pleasurable posting experience - Currently a lot of steps users must take
    Create and post Shareable collections (rather than a private watchlist)

    Lo-Fi Prototype

    Lofi Wireframes Part 1 Lofi Wireframes Part 2

    Iteration 1

    Home Page
    Updated menu bar with posting "+" button emphasized
    Trending judges/cases displayed on top to engage user interest
    Home Page Before and After
    Posting Process
    Three step, open text, streamlined process that allows users to skip unknown inputs
    Seven step process that forces users to indicate case type, many of which are highly specific and use nuanced language that not all people would easily understand
    Posting Process After Redesign
    Posting Process Before Redesign



    Major Changes
  • Bottom banner, added Q&A
  • Collections to increase interaction between users to retain interest
  • Removed unnecessary functions (watchlist, petitions, claiming function)
  • Added onboarding process
  • Photo, preferences, Privacy settings
  • Removed nuanced language/posting process to include more users
  • Case posting process and menu bar

    • User Testing

    In order to make sure that the prototype fit the needs of the users, I created a list of tasks I wanted the users to focus on and led think-aloud protocols for each of the user testers to see where they struggled/found success. Mapping out user flows helped me understand which interactions needed to be fixed.

    Key Insights

    01

    Posting process is inconsistent. When tasked with posting an experience/Q&A, they were confused about where to go.

    02

    What exactly is a shared experience? Can anyone post a shared experience? Users didn’t understand who could post a shared experience/if there was a strict process to verify that the user actually interacted with the judge.

    03

    Users were confused about the judge/case icon on the bottom banner but were able to discern all other icons.

    Final Product

    Using the feedback I got from user testing, I fixed three main things:

  • All posting is done using “+” button on the bottom banner.
  • Limiting who can post a shared experience by adding a verification process and an information link.
  • Creating a tutorial during onboarding to introduce features of the app, including the icons on the bottom banner.

    • All other features and pages remain the same.