Work: Currently a Design Manager at Meta.

Education: Currently a Ph.D. student in Design at Carnegie Mellon University. I earned a Master's in Strategic Design & Management from Parsons School of Design. I also earned a BS in Entrepreneurship and a BA in International Studies from the University of Utah.

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Cast Cab

The Challenge

How might we offer companies a way to quickly cast available talents for their creative projects leveraging the rise of social media?

The Insight

Met and exceeded investors expectation by delivering user-friendly app designs (iOS and android) that set the company apart and increased operational funding for 2 years

The Solution

Designed and developed the web presence, including brand story, branding, and the UX/UI design of a native app that facilitates collaboration between start-up businesses, artists, and models both quickly and conveniently.

Date

June - November 2017

Role : Design Lead

  • Design Concept
  • Branding
  • UX/UI Design
  • Experience Design
  • Prototyping
  • User Testing
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Project Summary

Cast Cab is a streamlined app with a real-time booking service exclusive to Models and Photographers where clients swipe their way left and right to book jobs. The app facilitates collaboration between artists and models quickly and conveniently.

Artists need a place to quickly book available modeling talent. Likewise, models need a convenient way to find verified clients. The industry currently relies on booking agencies, which can be clunky and take outsized portions of profit, and adds time as negotiations move through a middleman. Direct communication, which creates personal and professional risks, is an unreliable alternative.

Project Objective

Our objective was to create an app with a real-time booking service exclusive to Models and Photographers where clients swipe their way left and right to book jobs.

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How It Works

Companies view photos and profiles of models and photographers selecting by availability, specialty, and region. Models and photographers view jobs by description, terms, and region. Whereas in the past, artists needed agents for guidance and booking, now they can receive tips and tutorials through the app itself -- increasing their autonomy and personal power.

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The Cast Cab app offers models a place where they can be booked safely and offers artists a streamlined way to quickly cast available talent.
The Cast Cab app offers models a place where they can be booked safely and offers artists a streamlined way to quickly cast available talent.
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How It Works

Companies view photos and profiles of models and photographers selecting by availability, specialty, and region. Models and photographers view jobs by description, terms, and region. Whereas in the past, artists needed agents for guidance and booking, now they can receive tips and tutorials through the app itself -- increasing their autonomy and personal power.

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The Process

I began this project with heavy research. I used Quora and Google to find any existing products close to the niches of the app. This led me to a week of studying reviews of similar competing apps. I factored in concerns and struggles raised by consumers in these reviews, points at which we would benefit from building and improving upon the concept ideation. After 2 weeks of research, I made low-fidelity wireframes and iterated design options. This solution kept the process moving quickly. Through collaboration with David Ross (back-end developer), I used the wireframes as a basis to discuss product strategy.

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Problem Space

In-person user research was key in determining the problem space as I traveled to photoshoots and events for creatives. Additionally, understanding competitors’ products and spending time on review sites played a key role in identifying leverage points. Responses like “I would have given it a 5 star if it did...” helped highlight deficiencies among competitors’ products in the industry.

We grouped all the key indicators for interventions and used affinity mapping to generate product features for Cast Cab app. Though there are gaps in the industry, apps like Model Mayhem are still the go-to service in this market. Many apps have been designed; however, many have struggled to create something that satisfies the needs and demands that freelance artists want.

The Market Research
How might we improve the way models and photographers are booked in real-time to increase supply to startups who need marketing content?
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MARKET RESEARCH

Competitive Analysis

We compared our app to our competitors, noting their weaknesses and shortcomings, which we hoped to avoid. Then, we attempted to solve the problems. Our competitors are struggling to make their own mark on the industry.

Competitive Name Their approach Our response
Ubooker Ubooker vets every user for security reasons. Ubooker’s approach makes it hard to scale. A streamlined vetting process allows CastCab to reach more people
Swipecast Swipecast targests high-end models. The waitlist is 6 months to one year CastCab allows for instant booking and targets a different share of the market than Swipecast
Modl App and Colab App Model and Colab have both taken a please-all approach Unlike Modl and Colab, which use few distinguishing features, CastCab targets a specific market and emphasizes instant booking -- making it an excellent choice for clients who need quick turnarounds because of travel, failed bookings, or other reasons
Competitive Analysis

We compared our app to our competitors, noting their weaknesses and shortcomings, which we hoped to avoid. Then, we attempted to solve the problems. Our competitors are struggling to make their own mark on the industry.

Competitive Name
Ubooker
Ubooker vets every user for security reasons.
Ubooker’s approach makes it hard to scale. A streamlined vetting process allows CastCab to reach more people
Their approach
Swipecast
Swipecast targests high-end models. The waitlist is 6 months to one year
CastCab allows for instant booking and targets a different share of the market than Swipecast
Our response
Modl App and Colab App
Model and Colab have both taken a please-all approach
Unlike Modl and Colab, which use few distinguishing features, CastCab targets a specific market and emphasizes instant booking -- making it an excellent choice for clients who need quick turnarounds because of travel, failed bookings, or other reasons
User Persona

The Cast Cab team profiled several target users of the app and identified their needs and concerns. Their feedback informed the design process.

image Danny Hollis Model Age: 28 Gender: Female
Personal Bio

Danny Hollis specializes as a hand model, though she also enjoys collaborating with photographers, especially on conceptual photoshoots. She works part-time.

Goals/Needs
  • A way to clearly show artists what hours she is available and not available.
  • Ways to communicate her niche interests to prioritize work that reflects her passions.
Frustrations/Fears
  • Being interrupted at her demanding primary job.
  • Finding clients that match their niche interests.
image Bennett Decapot Product Photographer Age: 37 Gender: Male
Personal Bio

Bennett works for a fashion watch startup as a style photographer. His photography and design practices are closely integrated. He also occasionally takes jobs as a freelance fashion photographer.

Goals/Needs
  • Find wristwatch models who match his target demographic
  • Option to filter quickly by type of modeling
  • Ability to send and receive photos within the app
Frustrations/Fears
  • Dislikes agencies because of casting delays
  • Wants to avoid transaction fees when paying clients or receiving payments as a freelancer
image Karla LaForge Model/Makeup Artist Age: 23 Gender: Female
Personal Bio

Karla is a professional model and influencer and creates makeup tutorials. She collaborates with professional portrait photographers to showcase special, elaborate makeup and demonstrate her skill and talent.

Goals/Needs
  • The ability to connect with like-minded photographers
  • The option to quickly book models with specific looks for makeup tutorials
Frustrations/Fears
  • Dislikes working through middlemen and agencies
Building the Niche After Research
  • Real-time booking service
  • No Waitlist- unlike every other app that has attempted to revolutionize the industry you can use Cast cab immediately upon download.
  • However, to book someone, users have to be verified on the app.
  • Streamlined Payment: The app will charge the users or clients, so freelancers won’t need to collect any fees.

Cast Cab Survey

Instagram

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FACEBOOK

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GOOGLE

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USERNAME

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Others

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Because our users are active on other apps (95% are heavy users of Instagram and 35% of them have monetized accounts), we launched a survey test to help us understand how they envision the onboarding process. 34% wanted to log in using their Instagram accounts and 25% wanted to log in with Facebook. We decided to follow the insight and make a one-touch login process with Instagram. This will make the Cast Cab app more accessible to the majority of its users, and help some users monetize their Instagram profiles.

Design Direction with Affinity Mapping
After gaining some insightful information in the industry through user research, I used affinity mapping and a few other research tools to brainstorming the limitations of some of the apps in the image industry. This helped me organize my research process by showcasing trends, themes, and areas of opportunity for discovery in the development of the native app.
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Flow Chart
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Low Fidelity Wireframe
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Low Fidelity Wireframe
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Design Exploration
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Design Exploration
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High Fidelity Wireframe
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Final Design Mock-ups
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The Interface Design
The design goal is to help people find what they are looking for and create incentives through features and choice architecture so users can see benefits and continue using Cast Cab as their go-to app.
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Expert Testing

Our team decided to follow Neilson’s Heuristics for evaluating our product. Our experts included a film professor at the University of Utah, an active freelance model, a freelance photographer, and a local business start-up. All were our potential target users. Each of the experts was given four task-scenarios each, which required them to perform the tasks on the mobile app interface and record their thoughts through the process. Once the experts completed all the tasks, they were asked to evaluate the app interface based on Neilson’s Ten Heuristics. Their feedback resulted in new iterations that created the “Explore Pages” feature.

Expert Review
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Expert Evaluation & Feedback
3 out 4 experts didn’t believe that the sole purpose of modeling agencies is to collect their cut, as we had suggested in our introduction; they believe that agencies are an integral part of the fashion industry. Through our research, it became apparent that agents are not just money makers: they teach, mentor, and cultivate talent. They get paid a cut of every gig because they are pushing for their models to be seen by the best, to get opportunities that are unique, and to fight tooth and nail to curate career paths that best suit each model.
This feedback brought us back to the drawing board, inspiring us to acknowledge the worth of agents by providing a platform that reinforces this system on the home page for our freelance clients. There, Cast Cab provides career-building tips and lectures, thereby becoming a learning platform for our users just as quality agencies already do.
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Interactive Prototype
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Final Design After Feedback
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Conclusion
Building the app’s features to highlight product differentiation was fun and rewarding. The tight feedback loop between users and our team helped remove ambiguity from our designs and focus our attention on the most important aspects of our project. It felt good to construct designs with the confidence that users would find the product effective, efficient, and easy to use.
Challenges
A difficulty was creating an effective validation strategy of the verification process while setting up a background check API that can do the job fast without a waiting list. Thankfully, we were able to employ accurate background API software, which made the verification process efficient, expedient, and reliable.
Conclusion
Building the app’s features to highlight product differentiation was fun and rewarding. The tight feedback loop between users and our team helped remove ambiguity from our designs and focus our attention on the most important aspects of our project. It felt good to construct designs with the confidence that users would find the product effective, efficient, and easy to use.
Challenges
A difficulty was creating an effective validation strategy of the verification process while setting up a background check API that can do the job fast without a waiting list. Thankfully, we were able to employ accurate background API software, which made the verification process efficient, expedient, and reliable.
The Working Protoype
The MVP design allows users to have more confidence in who they decide to work with by connecting their Instagram accounts, which shows their mutual friends, serves as a form of verification, and increases exposure.
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