Welcome to Liam’s internet, an exercise in dark patterns across UX design. This website was created for a faux client to explore the dark side of UX design and how we can best balance user and business needs.
View full case study here. Case Study
Tools: Figma
Role: 1/3 UX Designers
Client Request
Design a friendship portal for Liam’s social club, which includes a gamified friendship score where users can battle to become the Best Digital Friend. Include at least 3 of the 5 following features:
- Referring new friends to the club
- Installing friendship software
- Trust exercises
- Friendship quizzes
- Watching lectures from Liam
Project Statement
Design an intuitive and playful site to host the Happy Internet Club, a social club centered on our leader Liam. Encourage our users (aka friends) to increase their Friendship Score through features on the site.
Our Goal
To design a social media website which creates intrigue so that our users will engage with the content and truly desire to be a part of our “client” Liam’s online friendship community.
Design Process
1. Brainstorming and Research
We collectively built a vision of what we wanted this website to be through a collection of ideas and research. We created a moodboard and color palette inspired by other social media sites we though might fit the themes of our client request. This process also included creating a list of features, fleshing out the content and building user personas.
2. Initial Prototype and Client Feedback
3. Iterating on Our Design
Including adding new features...
And changing existing ones...
4. User Testing
We interviewed 9 different users within our target demographic of teenagers. We simply asked them put themselves in the mindset of someone looking for friends in an online community, and gave them the option of exploring the website from the landing page or signing up if they wish. These are the highlights from that experience.
Final Prototype
Our client approved of our design because...
1.It captured the essence of the Happy Internet Club
2.It introduced more people to the possibility of being Liam’s friend, widening his friendship circle.
3.It included multiple quizzes, lectures and referrals.