Staying Anonymous
Overview
How Are You Feeling Today (HAYFT) is a mental health and wellbeing application focused on sharing your experience with people dealing with similar issues. In this study case, I will demonstrate how through problem-solving skills I was able to keep users anonymous and comfortable using the app.
My Role: Solo UX & UI Designer
The Problem
Like most apps with user profiles, there’s an option to upload your image to make your account more human. However, for HAYFT, sharing complex emotions and flaws has discouraged users from uploading their real photos and would rather keep the default profile image, which made the app look senseless as shown below:
The Solution
At first, stakeholders thought of removing the use of profile images altogether. Although this would have solved the mentioned problem, it would create a new one concerning the feel of the user interface which plays a big role in the user experience.
A Better Solution
Instead of removing profile images completely, I came up with the idea to use avatars instead of real pictures. Avatars are basically illustrations of what we look like. This way we get to keep some form of profile images, users don’t feel pressured to associate their identity with their profile, and we have control over what avatars should look like to maintain a good app aesthetic.
Hold Up
Although the stakeholders very much liked the idea, the developer team decided it would require a lot of time to integrate this solution into the app. Giving users the ability to create and design their avatars by mixing and matching different parts, like choosing a hairstyle or picking an eyebrow shape, would take a lot of time. They wanted something simple to integrate and fast to deliver.
So instead of designing an avatar from scratch, I proposed an open-source library of predesigned avatars that are easy to integrate and very visually tempting. New users would choose their matching avatar while singing up, whereas existing users get assigned one at random. This way budget is saved, time is well spent, UI looks incredible, and the privacy of our users is protected.
Since this new version is not yet released I could not post success results but should do so soon.
Thank You
I appreciate you reading my case study. If you like my work and would like to check out more you can visit my Medium page as I will post articles on UX regularly. If you’d like to work with me get in touch with me through LinkedIn