Problem
Businesses need to attract customers. That’s never changed. Over half of U.S. workers have a side hustle, and according to Bankrate, more than three-quarters (78%) of them say technology plays a role in their ability to earn extra money.
Businesses connect to customers through a network of freelance salespeople called “Drummers” who earn commission with each sale.
Businesses need to attract customers. That’s never changed. Over half of U.S. workers have a side hustle, and according to Bankrate, more than three-quarters (78%) of them say technology plays a role in their ability to earn extra money.
Drive businesses’ sales through the power of the gig economy. Drum is an on-demand sales force mobile platform.
It is a three-sided marketplace: Drum connects online brands offering products and services to the customers they want through an on-demand network of freelance salespeople, called Drummers.
UX/UI Design, Motion Design
1 Mobile responsive web app
2 iOS & Android apps
1 Web admin tool
Michael Cho (UX/UI Designer)
Luis Menacho (UX Director)
Sketch, InVision, Zeplin, Principle for Mac
I created the sitemaps, wireframes, visual designs, and interactive prototypes for user feedback and testing. Collaborating closely with engineers and product managers, I helped generate new ideas and turn them into a seamless product experience. I also self-taught how to use Principal for Mac and created animations to be used across the mobile apps.
Create a profile, publish an offer, and hire Drummers to promote your business.
You can promote the brands you believe in, track performance, and earn a commission with each sale.
Shoppers can follow Drummers, their personal concierge to great offers and curated experiences.
Drum provided us high-level specs, sketches, and basic wireframes. We interviewed the Drum team, consisting of executives and product managers, with more detailed questions to map out the project scope.
Based on the gathered requirements and user journeys from the workshop, we came up with a sitemap for each portal. We then received feedback from the client and reiterated it as necessary for MVP.
Once the sitemap was finalized, we began creating low-fidelity wireframes. By starting on these black and white interfaces, we focused on content, functionalities available, and intended behaviors.
We uploaded the wireframes to InVision, linked the screens, and added in hotspots. These prototypes served as a helpful means to explore and convey design solutions by seeing the interactive user flow from one screen to another.
Based on some examples of preferred visual styles from Drum, we created some high-fidelity visual concepts. After finalizing our visual style, we applied it to the wireframes.
Within our rapid-growth environment, we aimed to launch the MVP as soon as possible. In order to do so, we had to take some shortcuts. We were not able to perform additional research by conducting user interviews before offering solutions, so assumptions were made while making design decisions.
We also came up with a timeline to maximize the efficiency of working on all 4 portals at the same time, though ideally we would have the time to focus on each portal one at a time.
Once we finished the sitemap of the drummer app, we needed approval from the client. As we waited for approval, we would also begin working on the buyer app and so on.
Our 5-day workshop enabled us to get a better understanding of Drum’s goals and brainstorm solutions. We went over Drum’s existing personas, created user journeys to help define MVP, provided insights on best practices to help answer Drum’s questions, and gathered requirements for a feature list.
With 4 in total, each user type required their own portal, including the admin. Using our findings from the ideation phase and discussions with our own development team, we mapped out a feature list as a high level scope for MVP.
We created the wireframes for both the Drummer and Buyer apps and presented them to receive feedback from both Drum's team and our engineers. Upon receiving feedback, we reiterated to improve our team's work.
Having uploaded the screens to InVision, we encouraged the Drum team to provide feedback. We implemented the changes while applying the visual design to minimize time spent on wireframes. An example below shows how feedback led us to use more compact forms of cards in the map view.
By the time we started on the Business app wireframes, the mobile app’s visual design concepts were approved by the Drum team. We reused some visual elements for the business app and admin tool to speed up design work within our tight timeline.
Upon finishing up adding visual designs to the mobile apps, we discussed with the Drum team about bringing more life to the visuals by adding animations. Given that this was not part of the roadmap for MVP, we opened talks about extending the timeline for the platform’s launch, which was approved by the client.
To create these animations, I taught myself how to use Principal for Mac. It was also a great learning experience for understanding the development team’s needs for handoff in order for them to create such animations.
Drum decided to start with the Business and Drummer apps by launching its platform in Atlanta and New York in October 2019. After acquiring more Businesses and Drummers onto the platform, the Buyer app launched 1 month later.
We saw that Buyer activity was not matching that of Businesses and Drummers. We also saw that Drummers were behaving differently than anticipated.
We assumed Drummers would only promote the brands they truly supported. However, they were promoting every offer they could find in attempts to maximize their chances of a Buyer using their referrals. This was also partly due to a lack of offers being published by Businesses.
Starting from a smaller sample size would have enabled us to test the market for our product with more focused effort. This way, it would be easier to acquire users for Businesses, Drummers, and Buyers.
Instead of having two separate apps for different users to download, we could just have one for all. This would reduce user acquisition efforts by downloading just one app, which would also remove confusion about which apps to download. The choice to promote and/or discover would also be in users’ control.
Some features were added on during our process while consequently adding to our timeline. If we kept the product to just MVP, then we could have launched earlier, used less resources, and made changes to the product more easily based on user feedback.
Drum is the largest project I have ever worked on. After working on the four different portals of this project for some of 2020 and all of 2019, I learned a lot about ensuring high-quality implementation and user experience. Although the process was not ideal with taking necessary shortcuts, I felt proud that we were able to successfully launch the platform on both app stores for the public to use.
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We reduced user acquisition cost and came closer to profitability! Also, our beta test hit our N-day user retention goal with 38.6% for Day 10 and 20.5% for Day 30, which helped increase Customer Lifetime Value.
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Among DAU and MAU increases, our N-day user retention improved by 95% for Day 7 and 160% for Day 30. Users coming back each day and paying entry fees more often meant increased revenue!
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Its launch made Yext more compelling for securing new deals and renewing current ones, such as with Samsung. It also significantly improved efficiency and satisfaction by saving valuable time completing tasks.
Businesses connect to customers via a network of freelance salespeople called “Drummers” who earn commission with each sale.
We launched in New York and Atlanta and earned a 4.5-star rating on the App Store!