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Project
Man Cave
Project Type:
Date:
Project Duration:
Status:
Summary:
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2023
2 Months (Released in January 2024)
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Social media app aimed to foster meaningful connections and male friendships.
Mobile
B2C
Done
Social Media
Project Background
Problem
In the contemporary landscape, a significant challenge has surfaced concerning the state of male friendships, with studies indicating a rising trend of men struggling to cultivate meaningful connections and friendships. This societal shift is attributed to various factors, including digital isolation and changing social dynamics.
Solution
To address this challenge, the "Man Cave" app emerges as a unique solution, focusing on creating an organic and thrown-back platform for men to connect, share interests, and build authentic friendships.
Key features
Man Cave (Profile): The heart of the app lies in the "Man Cave" profiles, where users craft their digital sanctuaries with a retro videogame aesthetic. This feature allows users to express their personality and interests through playful elements like memes and a personalized touch.
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Adventures (Events): To encourage real-life connections, the "Adventures" feature enables users to create and register for events tailored to their specific interests. Whether it's a gaming night, a sports activity, or a book club, users can organically connect in person, fostering genuine friendships.
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Bonfires (Chats): Facilitating communication, the "Bonfires" feature provides a space for users to engage in conversations. This chat functionality encourages spontaneous interactions, ensuring that conversations evolve naturally.
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Public Bonfires (Forums): The inclusion of public forums within the app allows users to engage in broader discussions about their shared interests. This feature promotes community-building and creates a space for users to exchange ideas, recommendations, and experiences.
My Role
The Man Cave team includes, the founder, 2 full-stack engineers, 1 front-end engineer, and outsourced 2 designers. All the team currently based on several locations across the globe (North America, Europe, and Asia).
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As part of the design team for Man Cave App, we were tasked with the creation of cenceptualizing the vision of the app, refining the initial designs, establishing the core functionalities, developing the user journey, and building the UI screens. All of this based on previous research from the founder, and industry standards.
What I Did
Vision crafting
Worked closely with the founder and the engineering team to craft a compelling vision for the Man Cave app. Collaborative sessions focused on aligning design concepts with the overarching goals and mission of the project.
Validation discussions
Held comprehensive discussions with the tech team to validate design concepts and ensure technical feasibility. These sessions were crucial in refining ideas and establishing a cohesive understanding of the project's scope.
Design
Based on all the findings from previous discussions, we designed the user flows, wireframes, and high fidelity mock ups and prototypes.
Handoff
Delivered our designs to the development team. This included user interfaces, design assets, and all necessary documentation, ensuring a seamless integration of design elements into the front-end implementation.
Design Consulting
Engaged in post-handoff design consulting, leading revision discussions and consultation meetings. These sessions were dedicated to refining design elements, optimizing user flows, and addressing any overlooked aspects.
Design Outcome
App Conceptualization
In the initial discussions, we explored the founder’s original vision and began shaping the foundation of the app. This phase focused on high-level conceptualization, mapping out rough ideas of the user flow, identifying key features, outlining the core actions users would take, and defining the outcomes each interaction should lead to. These early conversations were essential in aligning the product goals with a realistic and user-centered design direction.
Onboarding
The UI screens for the onboarding process in the Man Cave mobile app adhere to a gamer and retro '90s aesthetic, featuring a central theme with a cave man.
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The onboarding sequence begins with users selecting an avatar and background image to personalize their profiles, including the possibility of a “bronoun” to be addressed or address other users.​​​​​​​
Subsequently, users complete a questionnaire designed to inform the app's matching algorithm, enhancing the accuracy of event recommendations and user interactions.​​​​​​​
Following the questionnaire, users specify their interests to complete their profiles. The onboarding process is structured to efficiently gather user information while maintaining a cohesive and engaging design, aligning with the app's theme and ensuring a smooth transition into the main functionalities of the platform.
A Unique Home Screen
The home screen of the Man Cave mobile app boasts a distinctive design, featuring three prominent buttons that stand out from conventional app layouts. These buttons represent the core functionalities of the app: Bonfires, Adventures, and Man Cave. This deliberate choice aims to provide users with instant access to the app's key features, creating a visually impactful and user-friendly experience.
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Additionally, the home screen serves as a hub for critical notifications that demand immediate attention.
Users can access a dedicated notifications screen by tapping the bell icon, where notifications are intelligently categorized based on the associated action or functionality. This categorization ensures that users can quickly discern the nature of each notification and understand what actions, if any, need to be taken, enhancing the overall usability and efficiency of the app.
My Man Cave
The Man Cave screen, serving as the focal point of the app, encompasses a comprehensive user profile that evolves from the onboarding process. The man cave showcases the user’s customizable avatar and backdrop, essential user information, including their name, preferred “bronoun”, specified interests, and connections categorized as "buddies" or "bros" based on chosen bronoun.
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Additionally, users can express their vibe or provide a general description, further personalizing their profile with images, memes, gifs, and more.
At the top of the screen, a tab navigates users to their recommendations. Leveraging the app's matching algorithm, this feature suggests potential friends based on shared interests, past event attendance, and other relevant criteria. The recommendations tab streamlines the process of discovering like-minded individuals, fostering genuine connections within the Man Cave community. This robust profile and recommendation system collectively create a dynamic and engaging user experience, emphasizing personalization and facilitating meaningful connections in line with the app's overarching goals.
Adventures
The Adventures screen in the Man Cave app serves as a central hub for users to explore and engage with a variety of events. Here, users can seamlessly browse through adventures created by fellow users or recommended by the app based on their interests and activities. The screen intelligently displays ongoing or upcoming adventures, as well as those the user has already registered for.
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To enhance the social aspect, the screen features adventures that friends or "bros" are attending, fostering a sense of camaraderie.
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Upon the creation of an adventure, a corresponding Bonfire is automatically generated. This Bonfire acts as a dedicated space for participants to coordinate logistics, discuss details, and ensure seamless organization. The Adventures screen, therefore, not only serves as a platform for event discovery but also as a practical tool for community building and collaborative planning within the Man Cave app.
Bonfires
The Bonfires screen within the Man Cave app stands as the communication nucleus, drawing inspiration from the concept of bonding around a bonfire—hence the image of the cavemen sharing tales of their hunting adventures.
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Users can engage in regular chats with their bros and buddies, fostering connections in a familiar and casual environment. Additionally, users can access Bonfires created from events, serving as hubs for organizational and logistical discussions related to upcoming adventures.
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To encourage more personalized interactions and discourage prolonged event-centric chats, Adventure Bonfires automatically expire 24 hours after an event concludes. This deliberate design promotes individual conversations and in-person interactions, ensuring that users connect beyond the digital realm.
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At the top of the screen, a dedicated tab facilitates exploration of public Bonfires categorized by users' interests. This serves as a communal space, akin to a public forum, where users can engage with others who share similar passions or activities.
The Results
Following the submission of the design screens, both the founder and engineering team were thrilled. The design not only materialized their initial concept but also authentically captured the Man Cave aesthetic and retro gaming vibe they envisioned.
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The app was released in 2024 for limited testing in the US market. Post-launch, the team is planning to gather user feedback comprehensively. This stage will be instrumental in refining and enhancing the design, functionalities, and other aspects of the mobile app, ensuring that it resonates effectively with users and delivers an optimal user experience.
My Reflection
Looking back at designing the Man Cave app, I'm satisfied with the screens and how everything turned out. It was a whole new challenge for me, diving into mobile app design for the first time. Moreover, the team being scattered around the globe and dealing with different time zones definitely added some extre complexity to the mix, making it a challenging yet rewarding ride.
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Now, I'm excited about the app's release and curious to see where it takes us.