Involio App

The Problem

Investors in the influencer market have difficulty sharing their investment strategies and portfolios with followers. Current methods like using Excel sheets on social media or chat groups are ineffective and inefficient. Building a monetization platform for their content and strategies is complex, and followers struggle to keep track of past investments and shared strategies. Additionally, followers lack trustworthy mentors and access to unlimited learning opportunities. There is a need for a supportive community where investors can connect, share portfolio price targets, hold times, and discuss investing to gain insights and knowledge for informed investment decisions. The lack of transparency and trust in influencer investment claims makes it challenging for new investors to find reliable guidance, causing difficulties for content creators and followers in the influencer market.

The Solution

To address content creators' need for an efficient and transparent platform and followers' desire for trustworthy mentors and a supportive community, we developed Involio. It offers a transparent platform with verified performance data and systems to identify successful influencers. Involio also provides a community space for sharing portfolios and investment discussions. Additionally, it offers user-friendly portfolio management and soon a monetization platform for content creators. I researched extensively with my team to ensure we met user needs. I built a roadmap that includes educational resources to enhance user understanding and algorithmic learning that will seek and suggest trends, among other features. Involio's comprehensive solution fosters a culture of accountability, education, and growth for content creators and followers in the influencer market.

Process

Involio raised 1.4 million dollars to develop its social marketplace for investors, read more:Yahoo News

As the Lead UX Designer, I collaborated with stakeholders and a UX Researcher to gain insights through user research, interviews, and persona creation. Then, I created user flows and a roadmap based on these insights. Next, I created wireframes and clickable prototypes to test my ideas, which were tested on users. Finally, the resulting product was launched on the iPhone App Store, and I continued to use ongoing user feedback for further iteration and design.
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This project consists of the following phases:

Empathize

Independently and working closely with my UX researcher, we worked to ensure we deeply understood our target users. Below are just some of the steps it took to conduct extensive user research:

User Interviews: We conducted user interviews to get direct insights from potential users about their pain points, challenges, and desires related to our product. These insights helped us identify key features and functionalities our users sought.
Competitive Research: We conducted direct and indirect competitive research to understand what products and services were currently on the market. This allowed us to see what was already available and identify gaps we could fill with our product.
Surveys: Utilizing surveys, we gathered data from a larger sample of potential users. We designed our surveys to be easy to complete and asked questions that would give us the insights we needed to make informed design decisions.
User Testing: When we were further along in our process, I conducted user testing to collect feedback on our product's usability. I watched as users interacted with our product and made a note of any pain points or challenges they experienced. This helped me refine my designs and ensure that our product was easy to use and met the needs of our users.
Proto-personas: We created proto-personas to guide research and ensure that our design decisions were informed by real user needs. These proto-personas were ever-evolving and based on our research. They helped us visualize our target users and ensure our designs aligned with their needs and desires. When we were sure about the proto-persona, we solidified three user personas.

Overall, our user research was a critical part of the design process. It allowed us to make informed design decisions based on our users' real needs and desires.

Define & Ideate

As a team, the UX Researcher and I conducted user interviews and usability tests to gather data. We then created an affinity diagram to help us identify patterns and similarities between our interviewees and assessments. Here are some of our key findings:

Many Followers struggled to find credible users to trust.
Creators faced difficulties monetizing their offerings, which could detract from their primary goal of building trust and building their following.
Users desired a collaborative community where they could discuss their portfolios and grow together.

Based on these insights, we knew we needed to address these specific pain points in our design. To do so, we created comprehensive user flows and user stories that considered our target audience's unique needs and challenges.

Prototyping

I aimed to take our user flows, research, and insights and turn them into interactive prototypes. Here are some of the steps I took to do this:

Turned hand-drawn sketch wireframes into clickable prototypes: The first step was to take the wireframes created during the user flow stage and turn them into clickable prototypes. This allowed my team to understand how the app would function and identify potential issues.
Refined the prototypes through iterations: Once the clickable prototypes were created, I went through a series of iterations with my team's input to refine the design and functionality. This involved improving, enhancing our strengths, and refining our overall strategy.
Digitalized the wireframes in Figma: After the prototypes were refined, I digitalized the wireframes in Figma. This allowed me to create more polished and professional-looking designs.
Created a clickable prototype for testing and feedback: With the digitalized wireframes, I created a more polished set of clickable prototypes that we could use to gather feedback from users and team members. This allowed us to identify issues and make improvements before moving on to the development stage.
Built a Component Library, Style Guide, and Variants: To ensure an efficient workflow, I prioritized building a Component Library, Style Guide, and Variants simultaneously. This allowed me to create consistent designs and save time in the long run.
Tested with users and team members at every stage: We tested with users and team members throughout the entire prototyping process, whether we were working with low-fidelity or high-fidelity wireframes. This allowed us to make adjustments and refinements each time and ensure our design decisions were based on user feedback.

Overall, the iterative prototyping process allowed my team to create a functional and user-friendly design that met the needs of our target users.

Frontend Development

After a year-long collaboration, the design and development team successfully launched a fully-functional iOS application, which can now be downloaded from the Apple App Store. The project's success was primarily due to the seamless collaboration between the design and development teams, who worked together closely throughout the entire process. Daily standup meetings and design handoffs were crucial in maintaining a consistent flow of communication. In contrast, one-on-one sessions with the design team ensured that every aspect of the project was given the attention it deserved. Below is a closer look into the process:

The design and development teams worked together closely, with each member understanding their role in the project.
Daily standup meetings were held to ensure everyone was up-to-date on the project's progress and to discuss any issues.
Design handoffs were done regularly to ensure the development team had the necessary assets and designs to continue their work.
One-on-one sessions with the design team were available to all development team members, ensuring that any questions or concerns could be addressed promptly.
The design team also provided regular feedback to the development team, ensuring the application was constantly optimized for user experience and functionality.
The result was a fully-functional iOS application that met the client's needs and provided an excellent user experience for users.

Test & Iterate

To ensure we could gather meaningful user feedback, my team and I recruited groups of five or more test users for each of our testing sessions. Here's how we went about it:

We identified and recruited participants who fit our target user profile.
We conducted our testing sessions in a controlled environment, where we could observe and document our users' interactions with our product.
Our test groups provided us with valuable feedback on the usability and functionality of our product. They pointed out areas that needed improvement, as well as areas that were working well.
Their input helped us to identify key areas for iteration and improvement.
Ultimately, their feedback was instrumental in ensuring our product was user-friendly and intuitive.

Overall, our user testing process was crucial in helping us to fine-tune our product and ensure that it met the needs and expectations of our target users.

Involio App

Process

Empathize

Define &
Ideate

Prototype

Frontend
Development

Test &
Iterate

Empathize

Define & Ideate

Prototyping

Frontend Development

Test & Iterate

Want to work together?

Involio App

Process

Empathize

Define & Ideate

Prototype

Frontend Development

Test &Iterate

Empathize

Define & Ideate

Prototyping

Frontend Development

Test & Iterate

Want to work together?

Define &
Ideate

Frontend
Development

Test &
Iterate