GLANCE '22
Interaction design for improved user engagement
Glance is a lockscreen app that is pre-activated in many phones, earning us millions of users by default...
CHECK IT OUT

Dynamic wallpapers on the lockscreen with a tappable tagline which launches app

ROLE & CONTEXT
Onboarding 150-Mn Users onto Glance.
Our positioning was a double-edged sword. Since our app wasn't installed by users, a natural discovery arc was missing. Company-wide experiments to stimulate user engagement seemed to backfire, as users perceived it as unprovoked & irrelevant. The user research team revealed significant findings that would segue into this onboarding project.
CONTEXT
Discovery of
a Non-App
Previously, users unfamiliar with Glance were confronted with the Glance language selection screen without sufficient context or motivation. This was derived from a traditional app format, but was ineffective because Glance was fundamentally different to a user's mental model of an app installed from the play-store..
CONTEXT
Evolving
Content Strategy
Glance was actively iterating on its content types to meet optimal Product-Market Fit (PMF). At the time, the focus was transitioning from generic content categories like travel, food, & motivational quotes -> to news, sports, & vernacular entertainment leveraging the content potential from the recently acquired Roposo platform and ramping up newsroom partnerships. Additionally, there was a shift from image cards with brief text to short audio-visual (AV) videos, reflecting the evolving direction of Glance's content strategy.

The “Glance Karo” Campaign was a marketing investment that reflected this celebrity-driven content shift

DESIGN
Setting User Expectations
Visually communicating our brand & product offerings at first contact was a crucial aspect of our onboarding strategy. Our users had to understand what to expect, so I collaborated with the branding team to create a captivating splash montage that would provide users with an arresting start into the essence of Glance.

Storyboard with decisions backing the keyframes for the above video

DESIGN
Lockscreen Guidelines
Glance happens on the lockscreen - which is a space akin to a user's personal poster wall. Company-wide experiments were made to stimulate users to "Tap" and hit engagement goals - but we had to be extra careful about the experiments we run on this space to not irk the user before they're fully onboard with the idea. It was important to define buckets for the user's stages of onboarding and set guidelines accordingly.

Pre-Onboarded User LS

Onboarded User LS

Engaging User LS

To Never allow on LS

DESIGN
The problem with language
We had acquired content in numerous languages to cater to our linguistically diverse audience. While there is a primary language of instruction based on the device setup language, we offered users the flexibility to select multiple languages for content consumption. To enhance the language selection experience, we designed it to be culturally inspired & visually engaging reflecting the vernacular content it represents.
EXPERIMENT
Experimental Deepfakes
Our data science team was creating some interesting deepfakes with celebrity content. We wanted to see if we can use the tech & take a character in popular media like an Arnold Schwarzenegger & have him speak comically in the different languages as the user selects it. This was as engaging & fun as I could imagine a language selection screen to be. Needless to say, this was both a collaboration & execution failure - albeit one I learned a lot of important lessons from.
DESIGN
Content Preferences
The current infrastructure of our personaliation warranted explicit inputs of content interest from our users. Thematically, we kept it engaging and inline with our brand & content strategy, but the challenge was working with content tagging at such a broad category level.
GROWTH
Challenges & Learnings
1 This first project helped me grasp the complexity of Glance's problems - because of it's unique positioning and engineering ecosystem, there is no routinely predictable outcome. A lot of the problems that Glance encounters falls into the complex domain of the cynefin framework, and called for experimentation & continuous learning.

2 The project also helped me learn to identify an over-constrained problem - in which there were very few variables within my control to help me solve the problem - which will help me navigate future scenarios of a similar nature.

3 It helped me realise the processes, communication style & deliverable formats that I needed to unlearn, change or adapt in order to work flexibly in this new team cadence.
BONUS
Show & Tell Thursdays
A sneak peak into a quick, fun team presentation I made to share with the larger design team and share my experience working on this project.
“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.”
DR. RALF SPETH
COLLABORATORS
Even though I was the sole product designer on this project, the best part about glance was the growth i received from surrounding myself with a huge design team to brainstorm ideas with. Gratitude to those who helped onboard me onto this project quickly and effectively. I also must especially mention the various teams whose contributions made the coming together of this a lot more exciting.