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Overview

Sparrows is a professional platform that showcases who you are in addition to what you've done. Make your best first impression with authentic conversations based on your interests instead of rambling through resume bullet points.

Sparrows is a Silicon Valley based startup funded byPrecursor Ventures, Barton Asset Management and other angel investors.

www.sparrows.co/

Elements of the product and the process have been omitted at the request of Sparrows.

View the additional pieces of Sparrows:

Sparrows Snapshots

My Role

(Nov 2020 - Nov 2022)

As the Lead UI/UX Designer I was responsible for gutting the existing MVP and rebuilding Sparrows. Responsibilities included:

  • All fundamental pages including Landing page, Sign in/up, Onboarding, Profile, Directory/Search, Groups, Settings, etc.

  • Styleguide and responsive design guidelines.

  • High fidelity comps ready for external development team to execute in code.

  • Being the voice of the user in all product discussions.

  • Analysis of previous MVP for what worked and what was blocking growth.

  • Competitive benchmarking and user research to identify trends and opportunities.

  • Qualitative and quantitative research and user testing.

  • Providing existing assets or completely new conceptual screens for investor meetings.

Backstory

When I joined Sparrows, there was an existing MVP that had been developed to gauge interest and raise capital. The founder was confident in the

Mission of Sparrows

and the

Components of a Profile

but identified that the form and function of the platform needed to be drastically improved.

While I was actively involved in all elements of the redesign of Sparrows (see My Role), this case study will focus on

the user profile.
Mission of Sparrows:
Our mission is to faciliate authentic,
discovery-based interactions
with professional profiles built to show who you are
in addition to what you've done.

Original MVP

Components of a Profile

The existing MVP offered a profile with 14 Sections containing 37 Categories.

Section

Text Category

Text text text text text text

Tag Category

Tag

Tag

Tag

Desktop

These components were organized into a 1:2 column format similar to Facebook.

Mobile

The 1:2 column format of desktop translates to a single column, continuous scroll on mobile.

Founder Objectives

More users with higher levels of engagement.
A flashy mobile experience.
A design that won't need to be redesigned in 6 months.

Design Objectives

A profile that is easy to create and digest.
A responsive experience that is engaging.
* Sparrows is browser based and does not have a mobile app at this time.
A framework that supports the company's evolution.

Ideation

profile content

Determining how much and what type of content belonged on the profile was crucial. Initial user feedback suggested the profile was overwhelming to create and to read.

We debated over whether the profile was visually overwhelming or had an overwhelming amount of content.

To resolve this debate, I create a new profile UI and orchestrated qualitative AB user testing between the existing MVP and my update.

EXISTING MVP:
New:
EXISTING MVP:
1:2 column format

The original design did not establish a hierarchy of information.

NEW:
1:2:1 column format

Outer columns = essential information
Center column = profile content (divided into 3 clickable tabs)

existing mvp:
Intro Section
NEW:
Cover Card

The idea for a Cover Card was driven by a need to establish visual hierarchy and flow, especially as it effected the mobile experience.

existing mvp:
Disordered Tags

Tags were originally displayed in the order the user added them to their profile.

new:
Ordered Tags

Tags in Common (solid blue) are displayed first followed by all other tags in alphabetical order.

mobile responsiveness

When considering how much content belongs on the profile, the real challenge is mobile. How we digest content on our phones (i.e. TikTok) is vastly different than what we approach our laptop screens.

What is the value of a densely packed profile if it doesn't hold the viewer's attention?

EXISTING MVP:
New:
user testing
Existing MVP vs. New Profile UI

We ran user testing with 6 participates (ages 20-48) with the following intention:

  • Initial impression of the profile content.
  • Comparison of the current MVP to the new profile UI.
  • Scenarios where they might use Sparrows in their current profession.
Participants

Natalia, 20
Engineering intern

Sarah, 26
Art Director & Co-Founder

Zack, 33
Data Analyst

Nala, 35
Director of Strategy

Steve, 37
Sales Rep

Anthony, 48
Government Contracts

Results
Establish a hierarchy.

Participants preferred the new profile UI and showed better retention of the content with features like the Cover Card and tag ordering.

Say
less.

More information did not equate to a better profile. You're looking for a few talking points, not a biography.

Keep it novel.

Information novelty should be our guiding light. There are too many social platforms to be asking common questions.

A Note on Profile Content

There are long term and strategic goals for Sparrows that require profiles with an ebb and flow of content. Therefore the profile structure needed to present the content in a digestable way as opposed to cutting the content out.

Profile Evolution

*this process (which included numerous concepts, wireframes, prototypes and user testing) is abridged to protect the intellectual property of Sparrows.

Tabs Profile

User testing validated the use of a Cover Card, a digital footprint card (social media, email, etc), and ordered tags by commmonality.

But the mobile experience required too many different hand motions and the amount of content was overwhelming.

Snapshot Profile

The next iteration gave a snapshot or teaser of the full profile. If the snapshot intrigued you, the full profile was a click away.

The snapshot on its own proved to be a lot of information at once.

Deck of Cards Profile

Formatting the profile as a horizontal collection of cards had many advantages:

1. Cards and categories can be added or rearranged as Sparrows evolves.

2. The carousel of cards is easily made responsive from mobile to desktop. (Positive for the user and for development).

3. Profile content is broken into digestable chunks.

Testing

onboarding impact on profile

While working on the new profile, we were also developing and conducting user testing on the onboarding process.

It became immediately apparent that the onboarding process was asking too much of users who had no proof of the benefits of having a Sparrows profile.

So we cut it down.

There is a long term strategy for an expansive profile deck and the design was created to accomidate that. But growing the user base to raise capitol was a higher priority for Sparrows at this time.

Original Deck of Cards
Revised Deck of Cards
Profile edits

For this version of the profile, our goals included:

  • A cover card with basic user information and a catchy hook.
  • A profile card with quick and welcoming conversation starters.
  • A profile card with glimmers of who this unique person is.
  • A profile card with this person's digital footprint (email, website, social media, etc.)
user testing
Profile Deck Design(condensed)

We ran user testing with 6 participates (ages 23-55) with the following intention:

  • Feedback on the onboarding process
    (creating a Sparrows account and profile)
  • Intial impression of their own profile.
  • Initial impression of someone else's profile.
  • Scenarios where they might use Sparrows in their current profession.
Participants

Emelyn, 23
Videographer

Kristin, 29
Environmental Consultant

Andrew, 34
Small business owner

William, 36
Creative Director

Mike, 38
Director of Operations

Jan, 55
Healthcare Manager

Results
Quick and Easy

Participants breezed through the onboarding process without hesitation.

Seeing is Believing

Seeing someone else's profile dramatically improved the participants views on the value of a Sparrows profile.

A Social Springboard

Participants felt that the profile gave them a sense of who someone was in addition to easy conversation starters.

Solution

Cover Card

Your business card with a splash of intrigue. "A Suprising Fact..." makes you memorable and personable.

Conversation Starters

Conversations don't need to start from scratch. Jump in with easy topics you know they're interested in.

About

A snapshot into who I am, what I do, and what I care about. Because you're more than a job title.

Digital Footprint

Complete the picture of who you are by collecting all your public fragments into one card.

Real Profiles

(click to enlarge)

Future

There are a lot of moving pieces and hidden dreams for Sparrows.
Here are a couple of potential future changes to the profile:

1.
Update the desktop format to a 3 column carousel to accomidate additional profile cards.

The profile will become a customizable space with as many or as few cards are the user desires.

A card showing the Groups and Tags the viewer shares with a profile will also be added.

2.
Expand the library of profile cards.

The profile will become a customizable space with as many or as few cards are the user desires.

A card showing the Groups and Tags the viewer shares with a profile will also be added.

3.
Create a data system for identifying "Shared" vs. "Related" tags to increase profile commonalities.

In addition to showing exact tag matches, future profiles will also indicate related tags. This will facilitate more interactions based on shared interests and add a layer of depth to the Sparrow's experience.

This work was placed on hold until a dedicated data engineer and backend developer are added to the company.

Shared Tags only
Shared & Related Tags