Gatherly Case Study
Problem
Young adults struggle to build meaningful connections, leading to social isolation and deteriorating mental health.
Post-COVID-19, social isolation has intensified feelings of loneliness and anxiety among young adults. This isolation significantly impacts mental health and communication abilities, creating barriers to forming meaningful connections during this pivotal life stage when social networks are especially important for personal and professional development.
Solution
A community app that facilitates meaningful connections through shared interests and activities.
Gatherly is a platform where young adults can create and join groups based on shared interests, organize events, and build new relationships in a supportive environment. The app helps users overcome social barriers by connecting them with like-minded individuals for networking, friendship, and community building, ultimately reducing isolation and improving mental well-being.
My Role
I served as the sole UI/UX designer for this project; therefore, I handled the research, design, and testing phases
Solution in Action
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Discovery Page with Interest Filters
Combats isolation by helping users find communities that align with their personal interests, making the initial connection process less intimidating
Group Home Page
Fosters belonging through shared spaces where members can interact, share experiences, and develop relationships within a structured community
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Events Page
Facilitates meaningful connections by offering various events, allowing users to strengthen bonds with group members and transform digital relationships into deeper social connections
Research
To explore the heightened stress and loneliness young adults face, I conducted both primary and secondary research, setting aside assumptions to ensure an unbiased approach. This methodical exploration was essential to deeply understand the problem before moving to solution ideation.
Secondary Research Findings:
- My analysis of Pew Research studies revealed concerning trends about young adults' social wellbeing.
- Psychological stress among young adults has risen significantly, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Beyond the pandemic, young adults consistently struggle with forming relationships and managing elevated stress levels.
Why Both Research Types Matter:
- Secondary research validated the problem's scope and confirmed stressors extend beyond the pandemic.
- Primary research through surveys and interviews uncovered personal stories and pain points, driving user-focused design decisions.
This combined approach ensured the solution would address both widespread trends and individual experiences. Below are key statistical insights from my secondary research based on a Pew Research study.
46%
U.S Young Adults have difficulty in initiating relationships
58%
U.S Adults between the ages of 18-29 are likely to face high psychological stress since Covid-19
41%
4 in 10 U.S Adults have experienced high levels of psychological stress during the pandemic
Survey
To gain firsthand insights and validate my secondary research, I conducted a user survey to understand real-life experiences of social disconnection and stress. This approach helped me:
- Confirm key findings from secondary research with direct user feedback.
- Identify specific pain points, motivations, and behavior patterns in social connection.
- Align design decisions with real user experiences.
The survey gathered 16 responses , revealing critical insights about young adults' post-college experiences:
Key Findings:
- 56% of participants reported their routines changed drastically after college.
- All respondents experienced anxiety after leaving college, distributed evenly (31% each) across very anxious, mildly anxious, and a little bit anxious.
- 56% of participants engaged in social activities only 1-3 times per week.
These findings confirmed that post-college transition represents a crucial intervention point where young adults need support establishing new social connections while addressing their anxiety around relationship formation.
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User Interview
To better understand the challenges of loneliness and stress among young adults, I conducted user interviews with three participants aged 18-29 who were recent graduates or had recently left college. The goal was to gain direct insights into their emotions and daily challenges to inform meaningful solutions.
Key questions included:
- Post-graduation anxiety: Do you feel better or more anxious now that you've left college?
- Student loan impact: Do you have student loan debt, and does it feel overwhelming?
- Social life changes: Has your energy for socializing changed?
- Expanding friendships: Do you find it hard to make new friends?
- Life changes: What personal or physical changes have occurred since graduating?
- Support groups: Are online communities helpful? Why or why not?
These interviews provided invaluable insights, ensuring that solutions resonate with real user needs.
Notable Quotes from the interviews
"I still feel anxious after college.. no one gives you a plan you have to build your own path which is hard"
"Its bit hard to make friends after college since a lot of the people I work with are older than me"
"Things in life have become a bit stagnant Im trying to focus on my own personal growth"
However
There was a consistent quotes about how the participants felt that the use online communities would be very helpful to them
"Would like if an online group focused on a specific activity to bring people together for in person or online events"
"Also would love to connect to people who have similar culture background in an online group"
"Would be more comfortable if the group was smaller and more familiar to me, especially having something like a small Ukrainian group"
Persona
To better understand young adults' challenges, I created a persona, Camile, based on primary research (interviews) and secondary research (Pew Research study). Camile represents a recent graduate adjusting to life outside of school, encapsulating the needs and motivations of young adults in similar situations.
The persona helps to:
- Empathize: Understand emotional struggles during life transitions.
- Inform Design: Keep user needs central to design decisions.
- Validate Solutions: Ensure solutions address real-world challenges.
This research-backed persona grounds the design process, leading to more relevant and effective solutions.
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Empathy Map
To deepen my understanding of user needs, I created an empathy map. This tool captures user attitudes and behaviors, ensuring solutions are rooted in real insights and minimizing bias.
Key benefits of the empathy map:
- User-Centric Focus: Keeps design decisions aligned with real experiences.
- Clarification: Summarizes user needs, pain points, and motivations.
- Bias Reduction: Ensures solutions are grounded in actual data.
The empathy map is a crucial tool for designing effective, user-driven solutions.
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Ideate
After conducting thorough research, I uncovered a strong desire among users to connect with people who share similar backgrounds and interests. The complexity of emotions revealed in my interviews, from post-college anxiety to the desire for culturally similar connections, suggested that surface-level design solutions wouldn't address users' deeper needs. These insights guided me into the ideation phase, focused on crafting a solution that addressed both practical and emotional aspects of connection.
Key techniques used:
- Laddering: To uncover deeper user motivations beyond initial statements.
- Preliminary Sketching: To visualize potential solutions and test different interaction models.
- User Flows: To map the user journey and structure the design process with user goals at the center.
These methods ensured the final design directly addressed not just what users said they wanted, but what they truly needed to form meaningful connections.
Laddering
To design a solution that connects young adults with similar backgrounds and interests, I focused on understanding their deeper motivations and behaviors.
Through laddering, I uncovered that users' preference for 'smaller groups' actually reflected deeper needs for recognition and validation. As the sole UI/UX designer on this project, this method revealed core values that directly shaped Gatherly's community size limits and matching features.
This approach ensured design decisions addressed users' fundamental emotional needs rather than surface-level preferences, creating a foundation for meaningful connections.
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Sketches of possible solutions
Building on insights from my research and laddering process, I explored solutions addressing young adults' need for meaningful connection. The interviews revealed not just a desire for connection, but specifically for communities where users feel recognized and validated through shared experiences.
Solution Concepts:
- Directory App: Connects users with mental health specialists, providing essential support for managing stress and anxiety that 58% of young adults reported experiencing since COVID-19.
- Cultural Community App: Enables users to join smaller, intimate groups based on cultural backgrounds and interests, directly addressing the interview insight that users would "be more comfortable in smaller, familiar groups where they can feel recognized.
Research Connections:
- These concepts directly address isolation that 56% of survey participants reported experiencing
- Both solutions focus on the deeper emotional needs uncovered during laddering
- Each concept offers different approaches to fostering meaningful relationships among young adults
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User Flows
After evaluating both concepts, the Cultural Community App emerged as the stronger solution, directly addressing user insights about finding comfort through shared cultural backgrounds during life transitions.
I visualized how my persona, Camile, would navigate the app as she adjusts to post-college life. The community app design allows users to:
- Form intimate groups based on cultural identity or interests, addressing the deeper need for recognition uncovered in laddering
- Interact within communities through discussions and support
- Organize events to transform online connections into in-person relationships
I created user flows mapping Camile's journey to discover, join, and engage with these communities. These flows ensured the design would help overcome the connection barriers that 46% of young adults struggle with, according to my research.
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Design
Translating research insights into a tangible product, I began designing an interface that would address young adults' need for meaningful connections. My process moved from wireframes establishing core functionality, through a unified style guide, to high-fidelity screens. Each step was guided by the emotional and practical needs identified in my research.
Wireframes
With a clear understanding of young adults' challenges in forming connections, I created low-fidelity wireframes to define Gatherly's structure. These wireframes specifically addressed key user needs by:
- Simplifying group discovery to overcome the 46% of young adults' difficulty in initiating relationships
- Creating intimate group spaces that fulfilled the desire for recognition and validation uncovered during laddering
- Designing event organization features to facilitate the transition from online to in-person connections
The wireframe structure emerged directly from my user flows, ensuring each screen supported Camile's journey from discovering relevant communities to actively participating in meaningful group interactions.
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Styleguide and UI elements
After defining the key screens for Gatherly, I developed a visual identity that would support young adults seeking connection during transitional life stages. My color and typography choices directly addressed the emotional needs revealed in my research:
- Blue was chosen as the primary color for its associations with trust and calmness, helping address the anxiety that 31% of survey respondents reported experiencing after college.
- Purple, as the secondary color, symbolizes introspection and independence, qualities that support users as they navigate new social connections while maintaining their identity.
- The color palette creates a welcoming, supportive environment that visually counteracts the isolation 56% of participants experienced.
I selected Poppins as the primary typeface, a modern, approachable sans-serif that enhances legibility across devices while conveying the friendly, supportive community spirit that interview participants expressed wanting in online groups.
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High Fidelity Screens
The final high-fidelity screens translate research insights into a cohesive user experience that directly addresses young adults' connection challenges. Key features include:
- Culturally-focused group discovery and creation, responding to interview feedback that users would love to connect to people with similar cultural backgrounds
- Intimate community spaces with limited membership, addressing the preference for smaller, familiar groups uncovered during laddering
- Streamlined event organization to help transition online relationships to in-person connections, combating the limited social engagement (1-3 times weekly) reported by 56% of survey participants
Each screen was designed to reduce barriers to meaningful connection while providing the recognition and validation users sought, creating a supportive environment where young adults can build community during post-college transitions.
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Prototype
With research insights and design decisions aligned, I created an interactive prototype that brings Gatherly's core functionality to life. The prototype demonstrates how users can:
- Discover and create cultural groups, addressing the 46% of young adults who struggle with initiating relationships and the expressed desire for culturally-similar connections
- Join intimate communities with built-in conversation features, fostering the sense of recognition and validation uncovered during laddering
- Organize and participate in events, helping transition online connections to in-person relationships, combating the limited social engagement reported by 56% of survey participants
The prototype bridges the gap between concept and implementation, allowing users to experience how Gatherly creates meaningful connections through a design that's responsive to their emotional and practical needs during post-college transitions.
Test
To validate my design decisions, I conducted usability tests with 10 diverse participants, focusing on how well the prototype addressed the connection challenges identified in my research. Participants tested key flows like creating cultural groups, organizing events, and engaging with community members.
User feedback led to several important refinements:
- Refined navigation bar to create clearer pathways to community discovery, addressing the difficulty 46% of young adults face in initiating connections
- Redesigned group pages to better highlight cultural elements and shared interests, reinforcing the sense of belonging users sought in smaller, familiar groups
- Adjusted UI elements to improve visibility of event creation features, encouraging the transition from online to in-person interactions that survey participants lacked
These refinements enhanced the user experience by directly addressing the emotional and practical barriers to connection uncovered throughout my research.
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Whats next .. ?
As my first comprehensive case study, Gatherly represents significant growth in my UX research and design capabilities. The process taught me how thorough research leads to meaningful solutions for real human challenges.
For future iterations, I'm exploring features that further address the core needs identified in my research:
- Friend connections within groups to help users build more intimate relationships within larger cultural communities
- Voice chat functionality to provide additional modes of connection for users who may feel anxiety in text-only environments
- Event ticketing options for special occasions like fundraisers, helping communities extend their impact beyond social connection
Each potential feature will be evaluated against the foundational insights about young adults' connection needs that drove this project from research through design.
This project demonstrates how I leverage technical skills, design experience, and user-centered research to create solutions that address meaningful human challenges.
