DUNBAR It took you a lot of effort to make your friends, so don’t go losing them now. Len Yeh, UXD December 18, 2013

Dunbar is an app that helps people juggle their friends while dropping the “friends” who don’t matter as much. It maintains a user’s network by tracking each relationship with health bars. Strong links slowly lose “life” over time if they aren’t contacted, becoming red. Need to keep in touch with your old boss? His name will turn red in about a month. Friend just had a baby? No more late night drinks, but Dunbar will

suggest brunch for you to meet the new little fella. Your time is precious. Learn to better invest your time in good friends, while dropping the “friends” who you really don’t need to spend time with. The two main features are an activity invite, and a swipe-to-contact action designed into the health bar.

RESEARCH

To identify existing behaviors and problems with the task of keeping in touch of networks, I started with interviews and observations. I wanted to know people’s habits when it came to finding something to do with friends, and keeping in touch with people they don’t see everyday (e.g. work colleagues). From this, I found that many people make plans with friends based on an existing idea for an activity, as opposed to finding a friend and then deciding on an activity after.

I also did a bit of competitive analysis to converge on some problem areas of social platforms that try to address similar issues of getting people together. One particular issue with existing apps is that they often like to prioritize by location (e.g. Foursquare), which isn’t as high of a consideration for people to determine who to hang out with.

Persona 1: Michael

STATISTICS Name: Michael Age: 23 Gender: Male Location: New York City Profession: Designer Income: $45K - $65K

“Holy crap, I haven’t talked to this person in a long time.”

SCENARIO Michael is a relatively recent college grad, having been in the workforce for only about a year. In the city, where everyone is now on different schedules, and meeting up with friends isn’t as simple as just dropping by dorms, Michael is realizing there are friends that are just dropping off the radar. Upon leaving work one Friday, Michael realized there was a concert he wanted to check out, but wasn’t sure who was available. He pulls out his phone and starts looking at his texts for the friends he keeps in touch with the most. There was the girl he kept texting back and forth with, but never actually made solid plans with. There was his best friend who he saw almost every week, and Michael wanted to hang out with someone different. Michael decides to open up his phonebook and just scroll through to see if there are any names he is forgetting. There was that old friend – was she even still in the city? Or did she go on vacation? Between juggling his new career, work contacts, family, and friends, Michael had realized he was having trouble keeping up with everyone.

NEEDS •  Keep in touch with friends weekly •  Hanging out to feel totally natural – no planning •  Low effort •  Know who is available PERSONAL •  Favorite extracurricular activity: drinking with friends •  Likes movies, music shows, house parties, and brunch •  Enjoys late nights with friends and partying through night •  Low level of responsibility, as no family is dependent on him

Persona 2: Lauren

STATISTICS Name: Lauren Age: 29 Gender: Female Location: Los Angeles Profession: Public Relations Income: $90K - $110K

“I can’t forget to keep in touch with my old bosses.”

SCENARIO Lauren is in her late twenties and successful at her job, holding a senior level position at a PR firm. Her job requires her to travel often, usually around 2-4 times a month, and keep track of clients, colleagues, and other “loose” connections. Oftentimes, Lauren writes checklists of people she needs to meet up with. Has it really been 5 months since seeing her friend Jennifer? Her old colleague has also been emailing her to catch up, but they haven’t been able to match schedules for weeks. When she’s traveling, Lauren has a pretty easy time meeting up with close connections, as the reason to meet up is the simple fact that she is visiting. The difficulty of meeting up with people who live in Los Angeles, however, is that sometimes it feels awkward or transparent to try to meet up without a “reason.” For connections who aren’t her closest friends, Lauren likes to invite them out in group dinners or open bars, as opposed to more intimate hangouts. This not only makes it easier for Lauren to see multiple people at one time, but also meet new people. Unfortunately, with her network, sometimes its hard for Lauren keep track of which of her connections know each other, and which groups could mix well. NEEDS •  Keep in touch with friends and professional network •  Plans made 1-2 weeks in advance •  Recommendations for things to do and places to meet •  Reminders on how long it has been since the last time she saw someone PERSONAL •  Can no longer rage at parties like her early 20s, but enjoys dinner with friends •  She is single and looking for a relationship, but dating takes a lot of time

Relate.ly is a website that keeps track of your network contacts and gives you a “score” for how well you are managing to keep in touch. •  Tailored to professionals and their networks, and less

about keeping in touch with friends •  No mobile view •  Uses the time it takes to import a user’s friends to

teach how Relate.ly works (very smart) •  Gives recommendations on why or how you can

reach out to a certain contact •  You can set how often you’d like to keep in touch

with someone: occasionally, quarterly, frequently, or very frequently

Competitive Analysis: Relate.ly

Super Friend is a mobile application that sends you push notifications to remind you to keep in touch with a shortlist of friends you choose

•  Targeted at the casual, social person who wants reminders to contact a friend

•  No web view •  No mass imports of contacts or friends •  Can trigger contact actions within the app

Competitive Analysis: Super Friend

APPLICATION MAP AND USERFLOWS

To design the experience, I first had to map out the steps to some key features, such as inviting a group of friends to an activity.

Open app Sort friends by?See friend list

# days since last seen

# days since last text

Select friends Compose message

Health of relationship

# days since last email

# days since last call

Select activity

Userflow: Invite friends to an activity

Userflow: Add contact frequency preference for friend in profile, then contact him directly from profile

Open app

Contact now?

See friend list

EmailForm of contact?

Text

Call

Tap "back" icon

N Y

Mark as "seen in person"

Select friend to open profile

Tap profile edit

Add rule: contact once every 60 days

Save edits

Swipe friend's health bar

Application Map

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Pete

Scotty

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

DUNBAR

Drinks Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Hawkeye

Captain America

Magneto

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Daphne Wilson

Penny Hartz

Brad Williams

Scotty

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Pete

Mom

Dave Rose

2d

3d

10d

23d

4w

10w

6m

8m

1y

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Pete

Scotty

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

Pete

Scotty

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Scotty

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Pete

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

Scotty

Pete

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

Jane Kerkovich-WIlliams

Jane Kerkovich-WIlliams

Dave Rose

Alex Williams

Max Blum

Hawkeye

Captain America

Magneto

Drinks Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

Captain America

Magneto

Drinks Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

2

Scotty

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Mom

Dave Rose

Scotty

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Mom

Dave Rose

Drinks Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

2

Compose

Q W E R T Y U I O P

A S D F G H J K L

Z X C V B N M

space123 return

Brosephs, beers tonight. Alex, you got first round.

Last texted

2d

DUNBAR

Max Blum

Last seen

23d

Last called

15d

Last emailed

3h

Get dinner with Max. A new restaurant just opened in Soho that you guys might like >

Location

New York City

Tags

60 days Baby Poppas

Coffee Dinner

Magneto

Activity Feed

Goals

Trends

Recommendations

Settings

Baby Poppas

Professional Network

Hometown Homies

Do You Even Care?

Drinks Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Hawkeye

Phone Call

Splash Login/Sign Up

Menu Landing

Contact Group Invite

Compose Message

Profile

Friend Sort

WIREFRAMES

Landing Page/Menu Friend Sort Contact Group Activity Invite Compose Message Friend Profile

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Pete

Scotty

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

DUNBAR

Landing Page/Menu

Drinks Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Hawkeye

Captain America

Magneto

1

2

3

4

Magneto

Activity Feed

Goals

Trends

Recommendations

Settings

Baby Poppas

Professional Network

Hometown Homies

Do You Even Care?

Drinks Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Hawkeye

1.  Hamburger icon opens menu

2.  Activity carousel can scroll left and right

3.  Smart activity recommendations

4.  Header becomes transparent when user scrolls down

5.  Friend groups are viewable in menu

5

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Daphne Wilson

Penny Hartz

Brad Williams

Scotty

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Pete

Mom

Dave Rose

2d

3d

10d

23d

4w

10w

6m

8m

1y

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Pete

Scotty

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

Friend Sort

2

1

1.  Sort by “Last Seen” 2.  Health bar notes how

long it has been since user has seen specific friends

Contact

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Pete

Scotty

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

Pete

Scotty

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

1 2

1.  Swipe slight right on friend to text

2.  Swipe medium right on friend to email

Contact

Scotty

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Pete

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

Scotty

Pete

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Brad Williams

Mom

Penny Hartz

Agent Coulson

Jane Kerkovich-WIlliams

1 2

1.  Swipe right on friend to call

2.  Swipe far right on friend to mark friend as “seen in person”

Group Activity Invite

Jane Kerkovich-WIlliams

Dave Rose

Alex Williams

Max Blum

Hawkeye

Captain America

Magneto

Drinks Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

Captain America

Magneto

Drinks Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

2

Scotty

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Mom

Dave Rose

1

2

3

1.  User can select activity desired

2.  Number of friends selected is shown directly in activity box

3.  User can select individual friends upon selecting activity

Compose Message

Scotty

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Mom

Dave Rose

Drinks Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

2

Compose

Q W E R T Y U I O P

A S D F G H J K L

Z X C V B N M

space123 return

Brosephs, beers tonight. Alex, you got first round.

2

3 4

1

1.  When done selecting friends, user can hit checkmark to compose message

2.  User can enter message in field

3.  User can hit ‘X’ to close message and go back to previous friend select screen

4.  User can hit checkmark to send message to friends

Friend Profile

Drinks

Jane Kerkovich-Williams

Dave Rose

Alex Kerkovich

Max Blum

Hawkeye

Movie Brunch

Call your mom! You haven't talked to her in 6 days! Let her know you're not dead >

DUNBAR

Last texted

2d

DUNBAR

Max Blum

Last seen

23d

Last called

15d

Last emailed

3h

Get dinner with Max. A new restaurant just opened in Soho that you guys might like >

Location

New York City

Tags

60 days Baby Poppas

Coffee Dinner

1

4

2

5

6

7

3

1.  User can tap friend to open a profile view

2.  Friend profile photo 3.  Tap to edit friend

profile 4.  Friend’s health bar is

available in profile to contact (swipe actions behave like main view)

5.  Interaction statistics between user and friend

6.  Friend’s location 7.  Tags that describe

friend and make Dunbar smarter (e.g. how frequently to contact, likes, dislikes, group name)

Thank You

Len Yeh 347-855-5572 len@fishbonedice.com fishbonedice.com