What if the internet is an expansive universe you could hitchhike through?

About
My Role: Product Designer / Project Manager
Team: 1 Designer, 2 Engineers
Duration: 4 Months (Proiect start to Dev start)
Outcome: Beta Testing
Softwares: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe XD,
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Figma
Role
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Defined product and business strategy
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Lead the UX/UI design
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Lead visual design and design system
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Facilitation with experts
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Eexcutive presentations
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Interdisciplinary collaboration
User Problem
Why are bowsers still using concepts based on the filing cabinet (tabs, folders, files)?
Heavy internet users like researchers, engineers or scientists have very complicated browsing patterns. They need to organise their thoughts while browsing to increase efficiency and creativity. Filing cabinet browsers are no longer suited for their needs.
“Sometimes I accidentally close a website or paper during research, and later I spend half an hour trying to find that same paper because of something useful there.”
"There are five or four different extensions and apps I used to organise my tabs, bookmarks, and notes when I browse the internet. But they got too annoying to manage — everything was spread out.”
“I never close the tabs because I think it might be useful. I get something like 50 tabs open, and then chrome crashes, so I lose everything anyways.”
Kick Off

Source:Max Mersch/Richard Muirhead referencing Fabric Ventures
The Evolution of Web
Web 3.0 is the next generation of web, also termed as the executable web or read- write-execute web. It is used to describe many evolutions of web usage and interaction between various paths.
Data is not owned in this case, but rather shared, with services displaying different views for the same web/data.
Design Direction
How might we make users'
knowledge searching experience
more inspiring and organising?
”I have legit spent 20 minutes after losing a browser tab searching for the exact article from before... so I hoard tabs.”
“Today, innovation in my consultancy still relies on a few people who can make those connections with studies or people.”
“A big problem is lack of announcement of opportunities; at the beginning thinking that it's too complicated and you're not capable of conducting research.”
“Researching itself is fun, it's just streamlining down that's hard. Am I choosing the right direction? Am I making progress in the right way?”
“I try to do everything on paper first to avoid formatting. I don't want to have to organize things while I'm researching.”
“First I find the broadest review paper, then look for details through individual tables. I find myself skipping back and forth to understand everything.”
“Only a few people who have connections or experience across disciplines usually find new development opportunities.”
“There are so many research papers open, and I have to go back and look at everything to decide which one I actually read. It’s such a waste of time.”
Problem Research
Workshop
Method: 3 co-design workshops (12 people aged 19-44)
Purpose: To understand and gather users' current journey of browsing

User Interview
Method: Over 70 conversations and interviews
Purpose: To understand and gather users' pain points of browsing
Insights Finding
Over 83% of users have trouble
organising their documentation while researching,
and 67% of users find it hard to
keep updated with industry experts and news.









Socialiser
Software Engineer
The Fan
Niche Hobbyist
Impact Analysis & Journey Map
By mapping out the user journey I led the team to discover the key pain points and make adjustments to our design direction. While understanding the potential impacts of different design solutions and how users interact with the product, we narrowed it down into main features that prioritise users' needs.

4 User Personas

Problem Reframe

Needs:
Efficiency
Social Connection
Needs:
Thoroughness
Solo Analysis
Divergents
Covergent
Doubt / Confusion
Information-FOMO
Self Limitation
of Documentation
Mental Distraction
of Documenting
Design Inspirations



The information and knowledge in our head are like a giant expansive universe, the design of a solar system liked system with helps users explore content, find identities, and organise thoughts better.


The internet, akin to a vast cosmos, currently relies on an archaic organizational method reminiscent of yesteryears' filing systems.
Even now, we are clinging to the notions of tabs, files, and folders, concepts borrowed from the 1960s office environment.
With over 3 billion individuals across the globe now spending approximately 80% of their conscious hours online, the need to revolutionize our interaction and engagement with the internet is more pressing than ever.
Bloop, unlike other browsers, transcends traditional file-cabinet metaphors. It's a vehicle, not a viewer, engineered with modern browsing habits, collaborative needs, and the technology of Web 3.0 in mind.
It reframes internet navigation, leveraging advanced AI and data infrastructure. Instead of relying on algorithms and cookies, it gives YOU control of your online experience based on recommendations from like-minded people.
It lets you keep, share, or monetize your personal internet map, presenting it all through a simplified interface for an inspiring online experience.
Bloop combines internet browsing with content creation.
Solution Overview
Value Proposition
Bloop uses an AI-powered algorithm to automatically assist users organise their browsing history into a knowledge map.
Users can choose to share a part or all of it with a related community and discover new content based on community-curated searching by "hitchhiking" others' shared browsing patterns.
User Flow & First Prototype Display
The determination of the MVP user journey was guided by the Impact Analysis Matrix, after brainstorming along-side careful consideration of users' needs. I led the team to create a storyboard to display our first prototype.

Turn on the sound to listen
Validation & User Feedback

After 2 rounds of usability testing with over 10+ participants, we drew a map of users' feedback, which verified the product's assumption and confirmed its functionality, also gathered insights for the next round of iteration.
Prototype Iterations




With feedback from users and observing their reflections and opinions, I led the redesign of the interface prototype interaction and got the product ready for Beta testing in order to speed up moving forward.
Automatically assisting users organise their browsing history into a knowledge map is very critical.
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Keep the spit-screen feature to let users manage their map while browsing content.
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But allow the user to easily go to the overview map for a more thorough solo analysis.
Split-Screen & Overview Map
Shared Map & Community-Curated Search
Choosing to share a part or all of the knowledge map with a related community is essential.
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Keep the overview map feature to help users organise their project-based searching history.
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Add map switching feature to easily access followed shared knowledge map to increase efficiency through social connection.
Final Polish
Key Feature 1 - Add a New Project & Build your Knowledge Map
Users can start a research project and build a knowledge map before browsing for a specific topic.
Key Feature 2 - Adjustable Split-Screen & Knowledge Map Livestreaming
Users can adjust the split-screen while browsing and choose to share their knowledge map with
live streaming feature.
Key Feature 3 - Knowledge Map Cross Sharing & Overview Map Switching
Users can see the automatically organised knowledge map based on different projects they build and switch between their and following's overview maps.
Swipe to see the video
Swipe to see the video
Swipe to see the video
Market Analysis & Competitors


Next Generation Browsers >$32M
Innovation in Data Infrastructure >$20M est
The social/collaboration software market will be worth $5.1B in 2023.
Experts predict the live streaming market will be worth almost $250B by 2027 at a CAGR of 28.1% .
Live Experience
Curated Experience
Information-Driven
Experience-Driven
Full stack of
content creation
that accelerates
problem-solving
Benchmarking shows that Bloop extends into all types of content creation, ranging from live to curated, information to experience driven out of all browsers. It is a full-stack of content creation, unlike anything that exists.
Source:Statista and Global News Wire.
Design Systems

Redefine browser experiences to empower knowledge sharing
Bloop
What if the internet was an expansive universe you could hitchhike through?