GroupsApp was already live, and its feed depends on what the community posts. The first minute decided whether someone stayed, and it was losing people. A name, phone number, country, date of birth, and a verification code stood in front of the first group, and Discover showed everything at once, based on nothing a person had chosen. The brief began as a visual update. A closer look showed the real problem was the order of things. This case study explains how that order was changed.

TIMELINE: 6-Week Sprint, from audit to developer-ready design

INDUSTRY: Community & Social Networking

PLATFORM: iOS and Android

SERVICES: Product strategy, UX architecture, interaction design, and a design system that works on both platforms

The product was already there. The problem was the road to it.

SIGN-UP BEFORE VALUE Personal details were asked for before a single group was visible.

A FEED WITH NO DIRECTION Discover showed everything at once, so people did not know where to go.

A person walks up to a new community club in their town. They are curious about what is happening inside. The windows are blacked out. A board at the door asks for their personal details before they can look in. They walk away. That was GroupsApp. In a community app, trust comes from seeing the community. People do not hand over personal details to a room they cannot see into.

Let people look inside first. Ask for details later. It starts with the intro. It says what GroupsApp is for. Login and sign-up are skipped. The next screen asks what the user cares about, because without interests the feed looks messy and people do not know where to go. Then the feed opens. It is built around those interests. An account is asked for only when they join, post, or create.

One feed, three ways to read it. The Newsfeed opens on All, with For you and Events one tap away. Every post shows its group, a topic tag, a Join button, and its likes, comments, and shares.

The feed changes as the user's interests do. The + beside the tabs opens Refine Recommendation. A user manages the groups they have joined and the ones suggested to them, and edits or selects their interests.

A post opens into the whole discussion. Replies sit under each comment, and a video opens full screen.

Groups, events, and a user's own communities sit under one Discover. Discover has three views: For you, Your groups, and Events. Groups a user manages are kept apart from the ones they joined, events can be marked Interested or Attending, and the + opens one sheet to create a post, a group, or an event.

The final design was handed over with a Flow | Prototype and a design system, so developers had one set of components to build from.

Users no longer need an account to see groups. Sign-up now comes when they join, post, or create.

REGISTRATION FIRST → Community first

SETUP BEFORE VALUE → Value before commitment

EVERYTHING SHOWN TO EVERYONE → A feed built around interests

ONE-OFF LAYOUTS → Reusable design system