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Awarded Best Prototype
6 Week Design Sprint
UI/UX Designer, Mid-Fi Lead
Reece Kuramoto
Project Background: This project was a 6-week design sprint for Design Interactive, a design agency at the University of California, Davis, where my team had the opportunity to redesign BeReal- a social media app that asks users to post an unfiltered photo of themselves once a day at a random time.
The Problem: BeReal is a social media app that asks users to post unfiltered photos of themselves once a day at a random time by activating the front and back phone cameras- capturing the user and their surroundings. Being relatively fresh, BeReal has captured many users with its push for genuine posts as well as its simplicity and ease of use. However, there exist concerns of long-term interest among users and relevance within the competitive social app market.
The Solution: This redesigned version of BeReal introduces features such as BeReal Prompts, BeCloser, and Memory Highlights. These additions align with the app's foundational principles of authenticity and transparency as well as ensure a well-rounded and enduring user experience without sacrificing fun!
Literature Review: We turned to journal articles, blogs, data metrics, and user reviews for initial insight on the apps current state and users. Based on metrics alone, we learned that although BeReal faced an increase in downloads in 2022, their monthly and daily average users decreased drastically. Our most important finding was that, as a company, BeReal greatly values authenticity and rejects ads and addictive social media practices.
User Survey (35 Participants): Using the insights from our lit review, we crafted open and close-ended questions to measure current user practices such as how frequently certain features were used and how users navigate the overall app flow.
User Interview (9 Participants): We interviewed BeReal users, ages 17-24, and when asked about their thoughts on BeReal, users appreciated the product's intention of authenticity and anti-addictive social media practices. But in practice, they still felt uneasy about being completely transparent with their posts, and the quick “post and go” user flow.
Affinity Mapping Analysis: After gathering our findings and insights, we applied affinity mapping to find common themes amongst our users. Some of these common themes included: keeping users interested in using the app, maintaining/furthering the sense of authenticity within features, and increasing interaction with underused features like the Discovery page. We used these insights to scope down our thinking and generate specific solutions!
How Might We Statements: We narrowed our research down to three key hmw statements that we used to guide our design decisions and create key solutions:
How might we...
1. Increase user engagement without resorting to addictive media practices?
2. Create a more secure space for users to interact authentically?
3. Encourage users to explore the underused Discovery Page?
Low-Fidelity Sketches: Through various iterations of sketching, we finalized four main flows: introducing BeReal Prompts, providing an option for close friend communities, highlighting favorite memories, and redesigning the discovery page to become more engaging.
BeReal Prompts: Users can engage in fun prompts such as "Make a silly face!" when taking a picture or video for their BeReal post!
💜 Users Loved: The concept of making BeReal content more exciting
⚠️ Users Disliked: The prompt accept/reject button and visual clutter
BeCloser: BeCloser allows the user to curate a list of Close Friends that can access exclusive, private posts- creating a space for users to be unabashedly and unashamedly authentic with the people they feel the most comfortable.
💜 Users Loved: None of the redesign :(
⚠️ Users Disliked: The layout, navigation, and lighting bolt icon used to distinguish close friends from the rest.
Memory Highlights: We revamped the calendar system of the memories display to be sorted by Week, Month, and Year and introduced a new feature called Memory Highlights within the user profile, where users can chose to display up to 7 past BeReals on their profile for their friends to revisit.
💜 Users Loved: The intuitive layout of the new memories calendar and enjoyed the idea of sharing their favorite memories for all their friends to see.
⚠️ Users Disliked: The process of uploading memory highlights.
Discovery Redesign: The current Discovery page offers users the opportunity to view posts from users around the world at random and share their own posts with the global community. This redesign allows users to customize their experience by choosing up to three different locations to explore! Users can spin the globe or be surprised by the app and view a limited number of posts from those locations.
💜 Users Loved: None of the redesign :(
⚠️ Users Disliked: The completely new interface, too many location search options, and users were uncertain if they would use Discovery even after a redesign.
(Left) Cue app makeover montage! Welcomes current users back with an onboarding tour of the apps 5 new features
(Center) Are you up for the challenge? Participate in simple challenges to add flavor to your BeReals. BeReal or BeFun? Why not BeBoth!
(Right) I challenge thee to a duel! En guarde! Submit a short challenge to a friend and view their response the following day
(Left) When the notification goes off mid-sob. Some moments aren’t meant for everyone. Share your most authentic self with your closest friends.
(Center) Remember that one night in Bali? Save time digging through all of your BeReals by storing your fondest memories within your Profile
(Right) I can show you the world! Curate your daily expeditions around the world. Limited to 3 countries a day, users can now view global moments of their choosing
Some roadblocks we ran into were maintaining Bereals ethos of authenticity w/o comprising user engagement, keeping up with BeReals updates because they came out with several new features during our design process, and creating designs that would satisfy users with polarizing expectations of BeReal. But challenges aside, one of the things we really enjoyed about working with each other on this project was that we all brought different skill sets to the table which made our design process seamless! Moving forward or if we had more time , we would have loved to conduct more user testing to further iterate our key features and come up with alternate solutions to the current Discovery page because we feel like there is still room for exploration and experimentation.
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