Alibaba Group: Solary
Timeline: 5 weeks
Tools: Figma, Illustrator
My Role: UX Research, Interaction Design, Design System, User Test
Deliverables: User Research, Stakeholder Interview, Design System, High-fidelity Prototype, Documentation
PREVIEW
Product value
💰
Solary is a platform combating modern life's pressures, urging users to note small pleasures, and fostering self-awareness. It promotes sharing happiness, building community, and countering isolation. Solary aims to enhance mental well-being by helping individuals find joy amid challenges through technology.
BACKGROUND
Business goal
💪
Solary is an experimental project to increase the awareness of Alibaba's brand and projects among young people, as well as to attract more young users and increase their stickiness through the project.
Problem
😫
How can we attract more young users?
Studies show that young people face emotional problems more negatively and battle with anxiety. How can we increase the visibility of the Ali brand in the younger demographic by addressing this?
Process
🚀
UX RESEARCH
Target User
The target user group for the project is young people between the ages of 15 and 29.
This age range is based on recent research that shows global consumers aged 15 to 29 are the most significant users of social media, making up nearly one-third (31%) of all social media users worldwide. As there is no universally agreed international definition of the youth age group, this specific age range has been chosen to focus on the needs of young individuals in the context of the project's objectives. With this clarification, the project can now be further developed to cater to the needs and preferences of this specific age group.
User category
High School Students
College Students
Housewives
White - Collar WorkersUser Action Survey
After identifying the main user groups as these four categories, I then conducted user action surveys for each category to understand in more detail what they choose to do when they are in different moods.
😄 Very happy: most people prioritize increasing their happiness by spending money (food, shopping), going out and having fun, and other items.
😊 Good Mood: Eating food when in a normal good mood became the most popular option to increase happiness.
😔 Bad Mood: Distraction (listening to music, watching variety shows) when in a bad mood is how most people vent and relieve their mood.
😫 Frustration: Doing nothing (letting go, sleeping, lying down, etc.) is what most people choose to do when they are in an extremely low mood.
Most people prefer to be alone when they have negative emotions, as well as refusing to communicate or engage with others.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
No existing products focused solely on exploring hobbies
At this point, I have defined my target audience and their needs. With that in mind, I wanted to see how my competitors approached a similar problem. I created a hobby hunting task to help me navigate through their product to analyze what was working and what wasn't and see what I could learn.
THE SOLUTION
Build an app that focuses both on recognizing small pleasure by providing users with a space to be alone and hobby discovering that motivates busy people through exploring fun activities and competing with like-minded friends.
PRODUCT STRATEGY
Moscow Prioritization
The core pillars of Solary are Find, Experience, Document and Share. Therefore, the product needed a series of features for these core parts to work and fulfill the user's needs. To define the MVP features and the future of the product, I used the following MoSCoW diagram:
Information Architecture
Wireframe
Wireframe Breakdown
Design
Design System
Takeaways
PROCESS
Validate as you go
Seek diverse feedback, and do it early and often
Maintaining an agile approach to iteration
DESIGN
Lays the design groundwork with patience
Create an accessibility design guideline
Balance the feature-level design and the system-level design