SPEAKERPIPE
SUMMARY
SpeakerPipe is a web platform and multi-sided marketplace created using Lean UX. The purpose of the site is a one-stop destination for speakers, associations, and sponsors to communicate, book talent, and create events.
The timeline for this project was three weeks, and was completed by myself and five colleagues: Phuc Phan, Chris Hart, Elizabeth Baldwin, Jon Mallory, and Jordan Carroll.
In my role on the design team, I was responsible for synthesis, ideation, sketching, wireframing and prototyping, as well as creating a style guide and mockups.
DESIGN PROCESS
RESEARCH
Taz Lake, owner of Brightmill Labs, approached us to work on an idea for a product that they had on deck in their incubator.
Our research undertaking was a little unconventional, as no product currently exists that does what the platform proposes to do.
In order to get started, we created a rough list of criteria for our independent research; things that we think the platform should be able to do.
After we established our needs, we set out to discover our personas. At this phase in the process we toggled between Research and Synthesis frequently.
Taz Lake, Owner
FIRST BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS
Based on our findings and the needs of our client, we discovered that we didn't have just one persona: we had three.
We moved forward to develop our proto-personas: The Speaker, The Association, and The Sponsor.
SYNTHESIS
PERSONAS
THE SPEAKER
Name: Camila
Age: 35 yrs old
Profession: Software Developer
Years of experience: 10 years
Speaking experience: 2 years
Goal/motivation: Increase her brand and build her speaking credentials
THE SPONSOR
Name: XYZ Company
Profession: Medical Technology
Founded: 1985
Event topics: Centered around technology
Looking for: Events to sponsor that are relevant to their brand & will build product recognition
THE ASSOCIATION
Name: Cloud Security
Profession: Data Security
Founded: 2008
Activity: Holds networking conferences and events once a month
Event topics: Centered around technology
Looking for: Qualified speakers & sponsors
DESIGN REQUIREMENTS
From what we discerned after creating our proto-personas, we laid out our design requirements, including wants, needs, and pain points.
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Detailed profile pages containing credentials, availability & compensation/benefits, etc.
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Simple communication and booking process completed within our platform
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Marketplace type platform with recommended and/or searchable profiles
DESIGN
We conducted a design studio to determine the main features that each user would need for our layout. The design team took these and launched into wireframing.
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Booking/communication
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Availability and calendar
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Reviews, ratings, and testimonials
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Sample videos and photos
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Background and education
HOME PAGE
EVENT PAGE
SPEAKER DASHBOARD
PROFILE PAGE
USABILITY TESTING
After creating the Wireframes we wanted to be able to understand how the user would click through the website. Here we have the Happy path of the User Flow represented lowest CTR from Home screen to the final Book event.
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User is either:
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A speaker looking for an event to speak at
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An association looking for speakers for one of their events
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User has an account on SpeakerPipe
In either scenario, we asked our user to log in, explore their dashboard, and discover and book one of the other services.
TASK
DISCOVERIES
While most of the feedback we received was positive, there was some confusing as to which buttons performed which functions. For our subsequent rounds of testing, we raised the fidelity of the product and results improved.
HIGHER FIDELITY
HOME PAGE
EVENT PAGE
BOOKING PAGE
NEXT STEPS
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Design the onboarding process
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Design interactions for Sponsors
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More testing and iterations on current design
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BrightMill → Market Test & Implementation