Our Project Goals
Somewhere Good is a social platform to find community and connection. This audio-centric app encourages inclusion and intention by allowing users to respond in real-time to audio conversations on daily prompts housed within themed worlds.
Prior to working with Studio, the Somewhere Good team launched an invite-only MVP to gather user feedback, iterate, and iron out critical bugs. After kickoff, our development team lead rapid feature iteration to keep up with their post-MVP product growth phase. We worked as an extension of the Somewhere Good team and integrated directly alongside their design and backend lead.
The Product
Our mission was to push their existing product strategy and design, move as fast as possible in developing core new features for a more robust second release, and to prep a backend that would scale better than their initial infrastructure allowed.
We rewrote the iOS codebase and opted to change platforms for the backend to ensure all creative animation and design requests that made the UI so special were achievable, and that large user growth with daily time-boxed notifications and activity would scale.
Dropping In
Each world is a thematic space for discourse.
Users are notified when the daily prompt for each world is posted, starting the clock on 24 hours to drop into a conversation, listen, and respond.
The Shape of Conversation
The UI/UX of each prompt path was critical to engagement.
The updated design needed to allow users joining dialogue to have total clarity on where the current path of audio responses were, how to listen to the entire conversation, and where threads of in-depth replies lived.
Getting Set Up
Adding user profiles encouraged a safer and more personal experience for folks listening and contributing.
Pronouns, name pronunciation, and avatars were part of developing identities for the community.
