hotspot
What is Hotspot?
Hotspot is a social media app built around the concept of location sharing among friends and family. Drawing inspiration from popular platforms like Find My Friends, Bereal, and Instagram, Hotspot presents a fresh approach to fostering physical activity and community engagement.
Within Hotspot, users have the freedom to select destinations they wish to walk to. They can choose from a curated list of recommended stores or explore trending hotspots on the map. Once a destination is chosen, the app generates a walking route for the user. Upon arrival, users are prompted to capture a selfie, which they can share publicly or within their circle of friends.
Each completed trip adds to a location's "hotness," making it visible to other users who can explore and view publicly shared pictures from that spot within the last 24 hours. Users earn miles for every walk, with opportunities to earn badges for reaching various milestones.
Research
Secondary Research
We focused on the impacts of social media engagement and group exercise on well-being among diverse demographics. We delved into the motivations driving social media usage, the benefits of nature exposure on mental well-being, and the stress-alleviating effects of group exercise.
Our Findings
We used these findings to be the basis for the main features of Hotspot, making sure that it includes a social media aspect, allows users to connect with nature in a group setting. To further develop these features we conducted interviews to know what the user wants.
Primary Research
Through a series of open-ended questions, we explored various aspects such as participants' exercise routines, hurdles they face in maintaining fitness habits, their attitudes towards fitness apps, and their social interactions related to physical activity.
The main aspects of becoming and remaining active for many interviewees came down to the following points:
Building off of what we knew from outside research and interviews, we had a solid idea of what features we want to have. We made affinity diagrams to organize all of the most crucial bits of information so we can easily reference the reasoning behind our design. The team then got to work on sketching and designing the app to work towards a final prototype.
Design Process
Storyboarding and Sketching
Based on what we learned so far, I made a storyboard of a possible user scenario with the Hotspot app. I also mapped out what the features could look like to support the users wants and needs.
When we began prototyping, we knew that there would be four basic tabs:
Prototype