Research

To start, I needed to research the most comfortable way for strangers to meet each other. To do this, I read several peer reviewed psychological articles. One of these titles, "Uncertainty, Anxiety, and Avoidance in Communication with Strangers", suggested that strangers tend to avoid each other because of two factors; anxiety and uncertainty. Furthermore, the factor of uncertainty is minimized, or even eliminated, if the strangers share the same culture. Culture can be displayed through a variety of events and activities.

To tackle the anxiety issue, I did domain research. I wanted to see how other social mobile applications introduced strangers. There is a deep science as to why Tinder is successful with matching strangers. An article in The Huffington Post, "Tinder and Human Nature: How and Why Tinder Works", suggests pictures activate our brain’s neurochemical networks. These neurochemical networks reduce anxiety in a person by associating certain physical features with more well known associates, romantic or otherwise. 

One last theory (Learn more here) suggests that different channels of communication can impact the outcome of an interaction. Different communication channels determine how much of the information that is sent is actually delivered intact. Although face to face interactions hold the highest grade of communication, the next best thing is voice communication. Factors such as emotion and agreement can be captured through vocal communication in ways that a text message, or any form of written message, cannot convey. 

Through this research, I defined the main features for Branch. First, activities should be the central focus of the interactions on Branch. Next, a user should have profiles with which to gauge who they are meeting.  Last, there should be a voice feature within the group chats to optimize planning and understanding. 

user flow

Low-fidelity wire frames

I sketched out low fidelity wire-frames using a combination of pencil drawings and drawings made with a stylus. These helped visualize what the entirety of the process would be like.

High fidelity wire frames

I then constructed high fidelity wire frames for others to make into a prototype. 

Take aways

By combining psychology and communication theories with basic domain research, we were able to create a new social mobile application. Branch speaks to a completely new market. However, it still maintains intuitive features of conventional social mobile applications. 

Citations:

Duronto, P. M., Nishidab, T., & Nakayama, S. (n.d.). International Journal of Intercultural Relations (5th ed., Vol. 29). (none).