Aurora: Empowering Users to Curate Their Social Media Experience
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PROJECT OVERVIEW
DURATION
3 Weeks, April 2020
ROLE
Product Designer, User Researcher, Data Analyst
TEAM
Kayla Hendrickson (Product Designer, User Researcher, Data Analyst)
TOOLS
Figma, Miro, Google Forms, InVision, Trello, Flowmapp, Zoom
SUMMARY
Aurora is not just another social media app—it’s a bold reimagining of how users interact with their feeds. Designed during Georgia Tech's UX/UI Bootcamp, Aurora emerged from a desire to address the pressing ethical challenges in social media design. It provides user-curated feeds and enhanced control features, empowering users to tailor their online experience to their preferences and mental well-being.
THE MOTIVATION
The world of social media is a double-edged sword. While it connects us to loved ones and serves as an entertainment hub, it also exposes us to overwhelming content and addictive algorithms. Inspired by research on ethical tech design, we set out to answer a critical question:
How can we design a social platform that respects users’ boundaries without compromising its viability as a business?
THE CHALLENGE
Build a platform that lets users take the reins, offering tools to navigate and filter content while maintaining the essential social connectivity that drives engagement.
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EMPATHIZE
OUR GOALS
User-Centered Design Goals
Enable meaningful connections: Help users stay inspired and engaged without fatigue.
Empathetic design: Create features that reduce overstimulation.
Personal Development Goals
Collaborate effectively in Figma.
Create a dark mode interface.
Deepen understanding of social media’s psychological impacts.
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
We conducted a survey of 85 participants and 7 in-depth user interviews to understand how people use social media and the challenges they face.
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Staying connected and entertained are the top reasons people use social media.
Key Findings:
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Users self-create boundaries to avoid negative content but feel constrained by the lack of control in their feeds.
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Overexposure to unwanted content impacts users’ mental health, often leading to disengagement.
These insights led us to focus on content customization and feed separation as Aurora’s core features.
AURORA’S UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION
💡 Put users in charge of their feeds, ensuring they see what they want, when they want it.
Key Features:
Topical Feeds: Users can create multiple feeds tailored to their interests, e.g., "News" and "Humor."
Dislike Button: A private tool to filter out unwanted posts and ads.
Interest Toggles: Simplified discovery with personalized topic filters.
Smart Suggestions: AI-powered recommendations tailored to user-created feeds.
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DEFINING
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
For brevity, our feature ideation, prioritization, user map, and journey map are available upon request.
Competitor Analysis:
We analyzed popular platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Reddit to identify gaps Aurora could fill. The focus on personalized feed control became our key differentiator.
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DESIGN
Sketching and Ideation:
We began with rapid sketches to visualize core features like feed toggling and smart suggestions.
Low-Fidelity Prototyping
Using Figma, we crafted a low-fidelity prototype and tested it with users.
Tasks tested: Account creation, feed switching, creating a feed, and more.
Outcome: Clear navigation and strong user support for the concept of topical feeds.
Branding and UI Design
We designed Aurora with a serene aesthetic to counterbalance the mental exhaustion associated with typical social media.
Color Palette: Calming tones to evoke nature and tranquility.
Typography: Clean and simple for ease of reading.
High-Fidelity Prototype
Our final design brought Aurora to life, showcasing features like:
Onboarding process: Transparent about ads and control options.
Multi-feed navigation: Simplifying content curation.
Dislike button
Turn on/off specific interests while searching
Populate related suggestions
REFELECTIONS
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FUTURE ROADMAP
LESSONS LEARNED
Expand Accessibility: Add zoom options and text scaling.
Explore Secondary Users: Engage non-social media users with control-first features.
Group Feeds for Friends: Reflect real-life relationships in feed customization.
Verify Information: Research tools to help users assess content reliability.
Boundary-Setting Features: Help users define and maintain healthy usage patterns.
Testing sequence matters: Context can significantly influence usability test outcomes.
Data synthesis is crucial: Tools like affinity diagrams helped distill large datasets into actionable insights.
Balance is possible: Designing for both user needs and business viability can lead to creative solutions.