Divergent Design
VEIL
"Let's go gentle into that good night."
App Name: Veil
Audience: Veil is designed for introverted individuals who seek meaningful connections, prefer real-life interactions, and value privacy in their social interactions. It caters to those who may feel uncomfortable with traditional extrovert-oriented social media platforms.
Unique Value Proposition: Veil provides a platform where users can socialize comfortably, build connections with strangers in real-life scenarios, and curate content in a way that promotes authenticity and reduces judgment.
Core Design Ideas
Soft Socializing: The primary goal of Veil is to create a more introvert-friendly social experience. Unlike mainstream social media platforms, where oversharing is encouraged and exposure is implicitly centerd, Veil will focus on connecting users through shared interests, activities, and goals. Veil encourages users to interact in a way that feels comfortable to them, whether it's through group activities, common hobbies, or shared objectives.
Real-Life Connection Building: Veil will leverage users' shared interests and goals to facilitate real-life connections. Users can join local or virtual groups centered around specific interests or activities. The app will help users find like-minded individuals nearby and encourage them to meet and collaborate, fostering genuine connections in real life.
Judgment-Free Content Curation: Veil will introduce a novel content curation system that emphasizes authenticity over perfection. Users will curate their own "cabinet" of contents and have the option to veil or unveil parts of their contents to the public. Ideally, this cabinet will be like "Kunstkammer" (cabinet of curiosities) where users can store their personal items of interest, whether it's a photo of their pet, a video of their favorite song, or simply a quote from their favorite book. Veil's content feed will prioritize discussions and interactions that encourage empathy and support rather than trends and popularity.
Feature Brainstorming
Interest-Based Cabinets: Users can create personal cabinets to curate and display their favorite interests, hobbies, and possessions, allowing others to connect over shared passions.
Local Meetup Planner: A feature that suggests and helps users organize in-person meetups with member(s) who share common interests or goals.
Virtual Hangout Spaces: Private virtual rooms where users can host gatherings, iscussions, or activities based on their interests or goals.
Introvert Mode: A privacy setting that allows users to control the level of interaction they have with others, enabling "soft socialization".
Content Veiling: Users can choose to veil or unveil parts of their content, granting them control over what they share and with whom.
Content Sharing: Users can share content from their cabinets with others, allowing them to connect over shared interests.
Content Tagging: Users can tag their content with keywords or themes to make it easier for others with similar interests to discover and connect.
Connection Tracking: A tool for users to track and measure the depth and quality of their connections within the app.
Mood and Energy Level Indicator: Users can set their current mood or energy level, helping others understand their receptivity to social interaction.
Event Collaborations: A feature for users to find potential collaborators for projects, whether leisuie, creative, professional, or personal.
Connection Recommendations: Suggests potential connections based on the contents of users' cabinets and shared interests, encouraging users to expand their network.
Time-Limited Veils: The ability to schedule content to be revealed or concealed at specific time period, fostering anticipation and connection.
Personalized Content Feed: Veil's content feed algorithm prioritizes content from users' cabinets and connections, promoting meaningful engagement over popularity.
Digital Club: Users can create or join digital clubs based on their interests, hobbies, or goals, allowing them to find and connect with like-minded individuals.
Discussion Threads: Users can create and participate in discussion threads related to their interests, allowing for in-depth conversations and knowledge sharing.
Quiet Notifications: A subtle notification system that respects users' introverted preferences, ensuring they are not overwhelmed with alerts.
Introvert Spotlight: A rotating feature that highlights different users' cabinets and content to showcase the diversity of interests and personalities within the Veil community.
Hidden likes: A feature that enables hiding the number of likes on user's personal contents, reducing the pressure to conform to trends and popularity.
VSD Analysis
-Stakeholders:
Who might be directly or indirectly affected by the feature, and how might it impact their experience?
Observation: The "Hidden likes" feature could impact users who rely on likes for validation and engagement.
Design Response: Include an option to toggle this feature on or off, allowing users to choose the level of visibility that suits their preferences while not entirely removing the choice.
Observation: The "Local Meetup Planner" feature could impact users who rely on it to meet people in person, potentially exposing them to false information or catfishing.
Design Response: To mitigate this risk, implement a thorough user verification process, such as verifying phone numbers or social media profiles, before allowing users to suggest or organize meetups. Additionally, provide safety guidelines and tips for users to follow when meeting someone in person for the first time.
Are there any unintended consequences that might negatively impact certain user groups?
Observation: "Connection Tracking" might inadvertently pressure users to maintain connections, even when they may want to distance themselves from certain individuals.
Design Response: Implement an option for users to hide or mute certain connections to give them control over their connections' visibility in their tracking tools.
-Time: How might the feature affect users in the short, medium, and long term?
Observation: "Time-Limited Veils" might lead to users feeling rushed to unveil content, potentially impacting the depth of engagement.
Design Response: Promote a balance between timely engagement and depth by offering a notification system that gently reminds users to interact with time-limited veils.
Observation: "Local Meetup Planner" might be a useful tool for users to meet new people in the short term, but it could fail to foster long-term connections.
Design Response: Encourage users to maintain connections by providing tools for users to reconnect with past connections, such as a "reconnect" button or a "check-in" feature.
-Pervasiveness: What could happen if this feature becomes a standard or widely adopted across all social platforms?
Observation: "Content Tagging" could enhance content discoverability but may lead to excessive filtering in a broader context.
Design Response: Encourage exploration by recommending a diverse range of content, even if users have specific interests, to foster inclusivity and serendipitous discovery.
Observation: "Introvert Mode" could influence users' expectations for personalized interactions on other social platforms, potentially fostering a more user-centric approach.
Design Response: Encourage user-centric design in other platforms by sharing best practices and lessons learned from Introvert Mode's success.
-Values: How does the feature align with common values such as autonomy, community, inclusion, and fairness?
Observation: The "Hidden Likes" feature aligns with autonomy by allowing users to choose their visibility level.
Design Response: Promote autonomy by allowing users to control their content's visibility and engagement metrics while still valuing community interactions.
Observation: The "Content Veiling" feature might conflict with the value of transparency, potentially raising concerns about authenticity. On the other hand, it could also promote inclusivity by allowing users to share content that they may not feel comfortable sharing otherwise.
Design Response: Address transparency concerns by encouraging users to share the reasons behind their veiling choices when they feel comfortable, fostering authenticity alongside privacy.
Identifying Concepts
Contents Cabinet
- Purpose: To enable users to curate and showcase their contents of interests, fostering connections based on shared passions.
- OP: Users create personalized cabinets filled with their favorite hobbies, interests, and possessions, allowing others to discover and connect over shared passions.
Veiling
- Purpose: To grant users control over their content sharing while fostering authentic connections.
- OP: Users curate content in their cabinets, choose what to veil or unveil, and share it with connections who resonate with their interests.
Connect
- Purpose: To encourage users to build meaningful connections with others.
- OP: Users could connect with other users based on shared interests, activities, or goals, fostering genuine connections.
Meetup
- Purpose: To facilitate real-world and virtual connections while prioritizing user safety.
- OP: Users suggest or organize meetups, and the app verifies attendees' identities and provides safety guidelines to ensure secure meetings(in real life/ virtual room).
Tag
- Purpose: To enhance content discoverabillity.
- OP: Users tag their content with keywords, making it easier for others with similar interests to discover and connect.
Discover
- Purpose: To promote potential connections based on shared interests.
- OP: Users tag their content with keywords, making it easier for others with similar interests to discover and connect.
Notify
- Purpose: To respect introverted users' preferences for minimal interruptions.
- OP: Users receive subtle, non-intrusive notifications, ensuring they remain aware of relevant activities without overwhelming alerts.
Time-Limited Engagement
- Purpose: To encourage timely interactions while maintaining depth.
- OP: Users engage with time-limited content, which the app gently reminds them to interact with, fostering a balance between timely engagement and depth.
Dependence Diagram
The concept of "Contents Cabinet" lies in the center of the diagram, as it is the core feature of Veil and the foundation of other features. The "Veiling", "Connect" are the two main features that are directly built upon the "Contents Cabinet". Revoling around the "Contents Cabinet" are "Meetup", "Tag", "Discover", "Notify", "Time-Limited Engagement".
UI Sketches
I picked the "Contents Cabinet" as the core feature to focus on for the UI sketches. The sketches are based on the following user flow: You find some intereting "cabinet" on the "Discover" page and want to connect with the owner. You "unveil" the "cabinet" and find some contents that you like. You "connect" with the owner and start a conversation. In the conversation, you find out a common interest and want to meet up. You can see your upcoming meetup events with individuals or groups in the "Meetup" page.
