Product Designer
Think You
THE ROLE
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Designed end-to-end user experiences for iOS, Android, desktop, mobile web & wearables
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Managed design implementation via an international development team of up to 12
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Researched, tested and refined designs based on competitive and user data
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Created extensive design and development user flows and documentation for engineering
New York, NY
2012 - 2015
(CEO | Head of Product)
PROJECTS
“What if sharing contact information was as simple as a handshake.”
With wearable tech on the rise and more social networking platforms than we can count on our hands, this idea just made too much sense to ignore. Over the course of the next 4 years, my team and I delivered youPass for universal contact information exchange on iOS, Android and Apple Watch.
We never quite reached our goal of a fully automated wearable solution but I’d say we made a valiant effort.
Overview
My journey at Think You started like many entrepreneurial ventures as an idea in a garage. I wanted to send an article to a friend when we realized I had never saved his email address. We’ve been best friends for years but had never got around to it. We discussed how difficult it was to manage our contact lists and how crappy business cards were at cataloging.
At Think You, I was responsible for the end to end user experience design and product management. I researched the current market landscape, every competitive product (including products in other categories that served similar needs) and actual user behavior to develop a comprehensive product strategy that spanned software, wearables and the opportunity for so much more.
With software at our core, we focused on building youPass initially for iOS, then ported the experience to Apple Watch and Android. Our plan was to establish a software user base before moving into hardware with youWare, a line of wearable fashion for simple contact exchange.
Despite bringing to market multiple products with great user experiences (and some without), we were unable to gain real traction before running out of funds.
After studying our user behavior for months, the most simple idea dawned on me that ultimately led to the shutdown of the company: people don’t want to share contact information.
Let me explain… it’s not that people are resistant to sharing their information (although more prevalent today than ever). But no one wants to share contact information. It’s a task… a job… something we must do but never really care to. Even if best in class, our products would merely be utilities. Utilities cannot rely on mass adoption! And that was our fatal flaw. For our products to deliver real value, we needed a larger user base so new encounters were already on our platform. Without organic growth, the cost of user acquisition drained our resources. Think You ceased operations by late 2015.
youPass
youPass was built on fundamental ideals discovered through user research: contact information should be readily available, easily shared, always up to date and tightly controlled—because no one wants to share everything with everyone.
I divided the user experience into three major components:
Linking
Sharing
Connecting
I separated the initial link from the sharing of contact information because we wanted to drive links nearly automatically without the need to customize information up front. Otherwise, people would default to the easiest medium: a business card. With this, the initial link must be faster than any other option.
I leveraged 4 technologies to drive new links: GPS, WiFi, iBeacon/Bluetooth and the QR code.
Although most of these technologies would require invitation & acceptance, we viewed the QR code as two-way confirmation of a link’s authenticity, totally removing the need for an invitation.
In the latest versions of youPass, the QR code was accessible in every view of the app by holding your finger on the display.
I also used geolocation technology to drive engagement through a strategic integration of Apple’s Passbook.
By adding youPass to Passbook (currently ‘Wallet’), users would have a personal pass that can be easily accessed from the lock screen. With iBeacon technology, we continuously created new Beacons around the closest youPass users so as users approached one another, the pass would appear magically on their lock screen for instant access.
Sharing of contact information is where the data sets began to get a little tricky. We offered three approaches for specifying which contact information to share based on the various use cases uncovered during user research.
Share via Link
Users wanted access to quickly share contact information immediately after a link was created.
Share via Info
When adding new contact info or social platforms, users needed to share specific information across many contacts.
Auto-Share
For less sensitive information, Auto-Share conveniently shared specified information publicly with all links.
Connecting was one of the most exciting parts of our user experience because it transcended our app. With up to 12 different social integrations in the latter versions of youPass, we connected to publicly available endpoints in third party apps natively to provide the ultimate experience in connecting with people online.
That means users were able to instantly open a Facebook profile in the Facebook app, or instantly follow new people on Twitter, Instagram and more.
With the intention to drive organic viral growth and provide universal compatibility, we developed youPass Quick Share for building custom, on-the-fly vCards readable by anyone with a smartphone. Future versions of Quick Share included a web app for a more controlled user experience.
In building youPass, privacy was of utmost importance as handled contact information.
All of our communications were encrypted and users had complete control over when and how they can be discovered. An optional passcode lock with support for TouchID added an additional layer of security uncommon to most contact lists.
Reflections
youPass was built beautifully but fundamentally flawed. The user experience optimized or relieved every pain point expressed during user research. When users got their hands on youPass, they were delighted and impressed. But user acquisition proved more costly than we could afford and as a utility, viral mass adoption was impractical.
I believe youPass would have worked brilliantly if built directly into iOS or Android but I have yet to see any third competitors move mainstream.
youPass for Apple Watch
youPass for Apple Watch was my first venture into wearables. Adapting to a new platform with a radically constrained interface was quite challenging. We focused the youPass for Apple Watch experience on only two parts of the youPass experience: linking & sharing.
The most obvious and predominant use case of the app would be the ability to link with people by revealing your QR code. Another user could scan your Apple Watch to instantly connect.
Through our integration with Apple’s Passbook (currently ‘Wallet’), youPass appeared magically on your watch as you approached other users. Otherwise, launching the app would make the QR code just a tap away.
Despite the tiny real estate, I designed convenient interfaces to manage links, discover people nearby and share contact information. youPass for Apple Watch provided a great extension to our iOS app and added real value to the user experience.
We had plans for building additional apps for wearables such as the Pebble and Galaxy Gear but never brought these products to market.
Reflections
Working on youPass for Apple Watch was actually awesome. As one of the first third party developers to build for Apple Watch, it was exciting to explore design capabilities on a totally operating system/interface. Although youPass for Apple Watch had the same fate as youPass and youWare, the product was designed beautifully and pushed the limits of what was possible on Apple Watch. youPass was the first form of social networking with peer to peer interaction on Apple Watch.
youWare was my vision for the line of wearables that would one day automatically create new links with a handshake.
Unfortunately, this futuristic product was never actually engineered. Instead, we manufactured a low-tech version we referred to as ‘Generation One’ in an attempt to start earning revenue via Kickstarter with minimal costs.
youWare
The first generation of youWare integrated NFC & unique QR codes in everyday fashion accessories to make creating new links effortless.
The initial line of youWare was designed for versatility and specifically to be worn on the right wrist; the left wrist is often used for watches & smartwatches.
Future versions of youWare were to use Bluetooth and NFC to receive new links by touching, then transfer the data back to the mobile app.
Engineering the hardware to deliver this in fashion accessories we more costly than we could afford at the time.
Reflections
Although working prototypes of youWare Generation One were manufactured and integration with our mobile app was working, our crowdfunding campaign fell short of our goal and youWare never made it to market. I believe our future vision for youWare with automatic link generation would still be welcomed by the market today, but as with youPass, mass adoption would be infeasible for third party developers.
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