SECRET SANTA: LET THE GIFTING BEGIN🎅🏼

Team

Solo

Role

UX Researcher, Product Designer

Timeline

December 2024 - December 2024

PROJECT OVERVIEW

About: SecretSanta is an app that simplifies anonymous gift exchanges among friends. It handles everything from drawing names to managing wish lists, with features like random matching, private wish list sharing, and deadline reminders, making the process easy and fun.

Problem: Organizing Secret Santa can be tricky with issues like name drawing, anonymity, wish lists, and deadlines. Email threads and group chats often cause confusion. A simple, centralized platform is needed to manage everything while keeping the fun intact.

Project Goal: To create SecretSanta, an intuitive app that simplifies the entire Secret Santa process by automating name drawing, sharing wish lists privately, and setting deadline allowing friends to focus on the joy of giving and receiving gifts.

EMPATHIZE🫂

Who is the user? What do they need? What do they want?

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

After conducting a competitive analysis of Secret Santa apps, I identified that they prioritize simplicity. While most apps offer core functionalities like name drawing and wishlists, there’s a clear opportunity to enhance the user experience by integrating social features for a more engaging experience.

USER RESEARCH PLANS + INTERVIEWS

In my research plan, my main research questions are:

How do you usually organize a Secret Santa exchange with friends or colleagues? What challenges do you encounter in keeping everything coordinated?
What features do you think are essential for an easy-to-use Secret Santa app? (e.g., automatic name drawing, anonymous gift suggestions, wishlist creation)
What would make the Secret Santa experience more enjoyable for you in an app? (e.g., festive design, integrated messaging, notifications)

Key Insights

Participants value simplicity and ease of use: Users prefer apps with straightforward setups and minimal complexity. They expressed frustration with apps that were difficult to navigate or required too many steps to organize their gift exchange. The most appreciated apps are those that provide quick, intuitive experiences with minimal friction.
Anonymity and privacy are crucial: Many participants highlighted the importance of keeping the identity of the Secret Santa exchange participants anonymous. They wanted a system where they could confidently trust that their matches would remain private and secure throughout the event.
Wishlists and gift suggestions enhance the experience: Users indicated that having a way to easily share gift preferences or ideas with their Secret Santa partner was a major benefit. This feature helped alleviate the stress of guessing gift preferences and increased satisfaction with the overall gift-giving experience.
Customizability improves the experience: Participants expressed a desire for features that allowed them to customize the app to suit their specific needs. Whether it was setting a budget limit, excluding certain people from receiving gifts, or changing the event details, users felt that more control over the process made the exchange more enjoyable.

USER PERSONA

After creating two user personas, one for the host and one for the participant, I identified key pain points such as difficulty getting commitments and communicating effectively. These insights shaped features to meet the needs of both user types.

DEFINE🏗️

How can we prioritize user needs?

PROJECT GOALS

I outlined solutions to improve coordination and clarity, such as a centralized dashboard, automatic name drawing, and customizable gift preferences, focusing on event participation management, dashboard, notifications, and name drawing, to guide the design of a smooth, user-friendly experience.

FEATURE ROADMAP

I prioritized key features by categorizing them into "must have," "should have," and "could have" based on importance and user impact. Some of the most important features include an event dashboard, event drawing, and wishlist sharing.

IDEATE🤔

What tasks do users need? What features improve flow? What is the best layout?

TASK FLOW

My task flow outlines the steps a student would take as they navigate my app. Their journey begins with viewing the homepage and each icon of the navigation bar. Then, they can either create a groups, add to their wishlist, or join a group. Each step highlights their interactions with the app, focusing on key actions needed to accomplish their goal of storing their notes efficiently.

USER FLOW

My user flow highlights the decisions and choices users make at each step, considering their motivations and paths. From the homepage, users navigate through folders and actions they can take. Each decision, like creating a group or viewing their friend's wishlist, reflects their engagement and intent, mapping their potential pathways.

LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

For this low-fidelity prototype, I aimed to design a simple, effective interface that guides users through key features like adding items, browsing products, and managing groups, while avoiding the clutter often seen in similar apps.

LOGO DESIGN

I aimed for a simple, modern logo that blends a notepad for organization and creativity with a camera for visual documentation. I chose "Trebuchet MS" for its clean, modern look, matching my brand's design style.

STYLE TILE

The style tile for the SecretSanta app captures the playful, colorful spirit of the holiday season with vibrant colors and festive elements. It creates a joyful, user-friendly experience that reflects the fun and surprise of Christmas while ensuring consistency throughout the app.

PROTOTYPE🛠️

HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE + REVISIONS

My high-fidelity prototype provided a seamless mobile experience, beginning with a simple homepage that displays any notifications for any of their groups. It then guided users through the basic navigation of group creation and inviting members.

To improve this prototype further, I conducted three user testing sessions, which led me to these main revisions:

Revision 1: A Splash of Modernity

Problem: Users felt the design was outdated, citing a dull color scheme that lacked vibrancy and clear visual hierarchy.

Revision: I refreshed the color palette by introducing a bright red as the primary accent color for buttons, giving the design a bold and modern touch. To complement the bright red, I incorporated lighter shades of red, pink, gray, and white for secondary elements and background sections, creating a cohesive and visually engaging interface.

Before

After

Revision 2: Embracing White Space

Problem: Users felt the interface was overly crowded, making it visually overwhelming and difficult to navigate. Although the functionality remained intact, the dense use of rectangles contributed to a cluttered appearance.

Revision: I incorporated more white space between sections, creating a more open and breathable layout. This update enhanced clarity, reduced visual clutter, and aligned the design with modern, user-friendly interface

Before

After

Revision 3: From Sharp to Soft

Problem: Users found the hard edges in the previous design uninviting and overly rigid.

Revision: I introduced softer, rounded edges to all shapes, creating a more approachable and modern aesthetic. To improve usability, I streamlined the content on each screen, ensuring that only the most essential information is displayed, resulting in a cleaner and more focused interface.

Before

After

FINAL PROTOTYPE🎉

FINAL FLOWS

Drawing Names + Viewing Member

Creating A Group + Inviting Friends

Wishlisting + Your Profile

FINAL PROTOTYPE

MAIN SCREENS

Startup

Homepage

Groups

Create Group

Join Group

Edit Group

Group Page

Edit Event

Draw Names

Wishlist

Wishlisting

Your Profile

Viewing Your Items

Member's Page

Buying Their Items

Sharing

CONCLUSION & TAKEAWAYS

Conclusion: In designing the Secret Santa app, I focused on enhancing the user experience by adding features that allow users to view important notifications, event details, and their group activities. The app now provides a space for users to manage their wishlist items and customize their profiles, offering a more personalized and organized experience. These additions aim to create an intuitive platform where users can easily navigate their holiday plans, stay updated, and enjoy a seamless Secret Santa experience.

Future Improvements: This project was completed during winter break, making it the perfect season to develop this prototype! If I had more time, I would have liked to:

Develop a gift suggestion feature powered by user preferences or interests, streamlining the gift-selection process.
Add more festive colors such as the iconic red and green for Christmas.

Reflection:

User-Centered Design: By incorporating user feedback, I focused on addressing issues such as visual clutter, outdated aesthetics, and usability concerns, resulting in a more intuitive and enjoyable experience.
Color Choice and Visual Hierarchy: The thoughtful use of bright red and complementary shades played a crucial role in creating a modern, visually engaging look while clearly defining key sections for better navigation. Additionally, the incorporation of ample white space between elements enhanced the layout’s clarity and balance. By reducing visual clutter and allowing content to breathe, the design now feels more organized and user-friendly, enabling users to focus on what truly matters.
Iterative Design: Each revision reflected an iterative approach, from refining the layout to simplifying content, ensuring the final design met user needs effectively.
Playfulness in Design: By introducing rounded edges and creating an open layout, the interface gained a playful and inviting quality, aligning with the goal of delivering a delightful user experience.

Back to Home

Thanks for reading <3

Feel free to reach out for collaborations or just a friendly hello!

✉️vmc54@cornell.edu | 👩🏻‍💼LinkedIn | 📝Resume

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