To conceptualize the storytelling component of a fictional app, producers collaborate with UX designers to develop a new app concept or user story. In this case study, producer Megan Martin tasked our team to design the fictional app for an upcoming TV series called ‘Lendlife’.
Lendlife allows users to experience the life of a host for a 1-week period. Much like Airbnb and Uber, the app follows a sharing economy business model wherein users can book lived experiences that hosts are willing to share. The final product must enable users to select their Lendlife experience from the mobile app. Meanwhile, hosts can vet interested users and pick out an individual who will live their life for a specific time period.
Our team’s role was to craft the narrative for the fictional universe, develop user personas, and present the final draft to the client. The goal was to develop the overall brand identity for Lendlife and ensure that it matched with the app’s UX/UI.
Based on the context of the fictional universe, we used this opportunity to shape the narrative of the Lendlife app. We conducted user and market research, brand development and content marketing. Our common goal was to understand potential hosts and users, including their needs, behaviours and factors that would compel them to use the app.
With the UX of Lendlife, we aimed to create “digital trust” by creating an app that uses visual communication through AI avatars and identifiers that allow for a level of anonymity — as the first point of communication.
In terms of visuals, we imagined the Lendlife app would have a futuristic and sci-fi-themed aesthetic. Meanwhile, the Lendlife logo is inspired by windows which represent the user’s ability to get a glimpse of another person’s life.
At this stage, we had information about the ideal Lendlife experience from the client, as well as features from popular booking apps. To identity the most prominent features and user flow of our app, we conducted a competitor analysis involving other booking apps like Airbnb and Booking.com. We classified our proposed features into two categories: least important and most important. Our primary focus was the features on the upper right quadrant - deemed high priority and most important - for our prototype.
Our user flow is designed around our primary persona, the young adult seeking an opportunity to live another person’s life. Users must log in to the mobile app and provide a government ID to verify their identity. From there, they can answer a personality quiz to determine their Unique Compatibility Score (UCI). Next, users can browse the profile of hosts with a high UCI, browse their preferred experiences, and make a booking.
We conducted user tests for our low fidelity prototype. We interviewed people from three age groups: youth, middle-aged, and adults, to determine their perception of our prototype. We put a mobile phone loaded with the prototype in Figma and assessed their initial impressions.
Here's what we learned:
1. Users want an option to contact Lendlife customer support team for help
2. They want to learn more about the Lendlife experience during the onboarding process
3. They want to give users and hosts an option to close the chat even before the one-week time limit is up
Given that living another person’s life is an intimate and personal experience, could we make the booking process safe, fast and easy for hosts and users?
Based on this problem, we focused on three main features:
The personality quiz would enable the Lendlife team to understand the interests and preferences of the user. The answers will determine a user’s Unique Compatibility Score (UCI) with a host.
The UCI rating is based on the passion points, interests and lifestyle of both hosts and users. It also considers the credibility rating or reviews of each host and the user after booking a Lendlife experience.
From the user’s standpoint, the booking process allows them to browse from a selection of hosts. They are able to view the host's UCI, profile, experience itinerary and gallery. Once a booking is made, they can chat with the host to learn more about their Lendlife experience.
We built a high-fidelity prototype focused on two main features—onboarding and booking. We refined our user flows, prototypes and UI based on user testing. To introduce users to the Lendlife experience, we also created onboarding videos.
Our final prototype had the following core features:
1. Personalized homepage with recommended hosts based on a user’s Unique Compatibility Score
2. Seamless booking experience featuring the host's profile, experience and gallery photos.
3. A clear and straightforward onboarding experience and personality quiz
The design of the branding and final prototype is aligned with the world-building and narrative of producer Megan Martin’s Lendlife.
