groops directly connects content creators with their fans across Youtube, Tiktok, and Instagram.
📱 Mobile design. 🖥 Web Interfaces. 🖱 UX Design.
It's hard for content creators to keep track of comments across all of their platforms. Which suggestions are legitimate, and how badly do their fans want certain content? groops makes this interaction simpler and strengthens communities that smaller content creators foster.
Introduction
My friend Dohyun Kim (@youraveragetechbro) reached out to me about a marvelously budding brain child. As a content creator who regularly has videos blowing up in the millions in Tiktok & popular videos on Youtube, Dohyun found it difficult to keep track of his thousands of fans across both platforms. He was flooded with suggestions and questions in his comments & livestreams, had trouble picking out popular questions, and constantly had to point his followers to videos he had already made that addressed their requests.
groops launched in 2022
Thomas and I gained some valuable insight into launching a product from scratch, and groops was retired in 2023.
We started by doing some user research and exploration. Thomas had originally wanted to base our application on microtransactions, but after some research, we pivoted towards a simpler model. Here are the questions I initially created for us to start to understand our users:
Once I had a good idea of the new direction we were going in, I sketched out a few flows for web and mobile interfaces. The most interesting component of our designs was the post. I played around with adding metrics, the ability to follow a post, the ability to "bump" a post or "super-like" a post, and optional microtransactions. We stuck with a simple liking system & two sections, new posts and fulfilled posts, for a creator's page.
I then transferred our best sketches into greyscales, making sure to annotate as much as I could so that Thomas and I could communicate effectively; even though we live on opposite coasts, we were able to stay on the same page through our comments and shared documentation.
The next step was to flesh out our high-fidelity mockups and branding. Thomas decided on "groops" and I launched myself into creating some logos for us. He wanted the feel of groops to be modern, but not too trendy. I went with an easily identifiable "8"/infinity figure/cell undergoing division within the groops logo to convey that creators and fans can connect organically.
As for our final high fidelity mock-ups, Thomas is currently wrapping up an impressive push to finish groops in the first few months of 2022. Please stay tuned for an update!
Connect with me!
If you're a student who wants to know more about product design, a small team looking for a freelancer, or just another poodle-owner, hit me up on Linkedin or shoot me an email at theia.y.qu@gmail.com.
