PoseyCo is an app which reveals the best poseworthy photo locations worldwide; helping users to uncover the most photogenic places to eat, play, stay – and have their photograph taken.
The idea came about when I noticed the beginnings of a travel / lifestyle trend which catered towards peoples desire to create social media imagery. People were actively seeking out photogenic restaurants, artwork, tourist attractions where they could be the centerpiece of a great photo. Businesses were starting to cater for this with elaborate fitouts and design features which they hoped would help elevate their business in social media.
I set out to validate this assumption and create a solution which would pinpoint these photo opportunities across the globe. I acted as co-founder / product lead handling UI/UX design, brand and marketing, I put together a small team of engineers and ran the project using SCRUM methodologies.
Research and planning
I conducted a number of activities to help validate the idea, define the solution and the shape brand:
- Competitor Analysis
- User Research
- Validation Exercises
- Wireframes
- Prototyping
- User Flows
Research Output
Conducting user research and creating user stories helped us to determine that for the large majority of users they were planning photo opportunities around their daily activities as opposed to taking specific outings just to take photos, this helped inform the user flows and architecture of the product.
It was also determined that users struggled to hunt down these locations on Instagram, as users were not willing to reveal the location or the location tag was often to broad.
A go ahead decision was made to create a mobile app-based community where users can search for and share prime locations for pose-worthy photo opportunities.
Goals
The app needed to connect users with spots to have their photo taken, but also work within their usual tourist activity planning. I.e PoseyCo needed to also feature suitable restaurants and tourist attractions.
The app needed to allow users to seamlessly upload and share new photo opportunities, pinpointing exact lat long coordinates of the spot. This meant for instance there may be four photo opportunities created in a single restaurant.
The branding needed to be fun, positive, and light hearted.
Validation Exercises – Surveys, Instagram Account, and Advertising Campaign.
As an important part of research and discovery we conducted a number of validation exercise to gauge opinions and uncover insights. This entailed running PPC instagram campaigns, executing surveys and running a PoseyCo instagram account.
Product Iteration and Testing
We got to work iterating on the product and executing on the UI design and user flows. We tested along the way both informal hallway tests, as well as complete interview lab testing.
Micro Interactions
Although we were working towards an MVP, we thought it important to sneak in some functional interactions this helped to guide the users actions as well as create that sense of fun around the brand.
Branding / Marketing
I shaped a brand look and feel which would appeal to our demographic, creating a landing page and marketing assets. Illustrations were provided by the talented Vic Bell.
Outcome & Notes
Ultimately to spite our efforts and validation exercises we made a decision to pause the project as it was draining too heavily on the core agency business at the time.
During the validation period we received 1633 registrations of interest, had excellent conversion rates during our PPC campaigns and the Tyepform surveys conclusively validated our assumptions.
For more details surrounding the PoseyCo start-up journey please feel free to get in touch.