Between September 2020 and February 2021, Wouter Moraal worked with Manyverse as a UX researcher and designer, to improve the onboarding experience for new users. On this Wiki the documentation and results of the project are shared to inform for further development of Manyverse and related apps.
Screens of the resulting prototypes from design sprint 2 (left) and design sprint 3 (right). Click the links below to view and interact with the prototypes.
Summary
Welcome to the Manyverse was born out of the understanding that the onboarding experience for non-expert users on Manyverse was lonely and difficult. The onboarding experience needed be improved for the Manyverse user base to grow faster and more diverse to have a substantial positive impact on the global social media ecosystem. The project started out with research into potential next adopters for Manyverse. Young LGBTQ and/or anti-capitalist people living in countries in the Global North and South with good internet accessibility and smartphone adoption were selected and targeted as Manyverse's next adopters. These next adopters were involved in the formation of user persona's and usability testing of prototypes. Other stakeholders given an indirect 'voice' in the design process by using the Value Sensitive Design methodology. The resulting prototypes which are presented as well as the other knowledge products which were produced in the process are shared here for use in further development of Manyverse and related apps.
Preparation and project plan
Sprint 1: User research on the next adopters
Read the report below to learn about the findings of the user research.
Sprint 2: Designing how to invite a new user
Read the report below to learn about the target users in more detail, the Manyverse values and stakeholders, and an explanation of the design, among others. Check out the interactive prototype to see the resulting design enabling existing users to invite new users.
- Design Report: Inviting a new user (Moraal 2021)
- Interactive medium-fidelity prototype (D1)
- (Concept Stakeholder-Value Matrix on the first design sketches)
Sprint 3: Designing the onboarding for a next adopter
Check out the report below to learn about the design of the Manyverse onboarding for new users. See the interactive paper prototype for a taste of how it is going to work.
Literature selection
A small selection of papers or books are given here, especially when they are central to the design process and/or cannot be found online easily.
- Boyd & Marwick - Social privacy in networked publics: Teens’ attitudes, practices, and strategies
- Bevensee - The decentralised web of hate
- Fiscella - Feasibility Study for ZMESH
- Gamble, Gowlett & Dunbar - Thinking big: How the evolution of social life shaped the human mind (EPUB)
- Hoepman - Privacy Design Strategies (The Little Blue Book)
- Nissenbaum - Privacy as contextual integrity
- Van der Stappen & Van Steenbergen - The Ethical Matrix in Digital Innovation Projects in Higher Education (Value Sensitive Design)
This project was funded partly with a Pioneer grant from SIDN Fund. The information produced during this project is free to use and share if you attribute the author and link to this page. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
