About this project
One of my dearest friends, who I had met while working at Tiny Prints, reached out to see if I would be interested in providing UX guidance on her newest project - an online database allowing dancers and teachers to discover and connect more easily.
My role in this project was to provide a discovery-focused user experience for both teachers and dancers visiting the website.
The problem
The initial build consisted of a searchable web-based database. With the knowledge that 60% of users browse via their mobile phones, it was imperative that we design a scalable mobile web solution which would provide a seamless search experience.
Research & Sketching
We began with researching search solutions that we could leverage from. Databases such as LinkedIn, Yelp, and Airbnb provided insight on how to design for complex search requirements.
Wireframes of the user flow were created in Sketch and reviewed with the co-founders and engineers. Ideas were bounced around and we decided on a solution with expandable menus and tags - UI components we knew that could be utilized in other areas of the website.
Prototyping & Testing
The mocks were cleaned up and further built out before importing into Figma. A clickable prototype was then shared with the team and friends who have yet to see the product.
The goal was to determine if the flow was intuitive and to discover edge cases. We were lucky to check off both boxes without a hitch.
The final design
The solution we moved forward with utilizes the full screen with filter options that would automatically expand and intuitively collapse. Tags would automatically populate as they were being selected.
Main takeaways
I gained a lot of insight on how users search on their mobile devices. Search is an essential and complex tool that should be easy to navigate without distractions - this meant using a full screen. Users also need flexibility to edit their filters which was achieved by incorporating side scrolling tags which would also save on precious screen space.