BeReal | Portfolio

BeReal: Upcoming social media app

This was an ethnographic field study based in San Francisco to understand the experiential needs/expectations of millennials from their social media platforms. And derive recommendations for BeReal, an upcoming social media app, so that it can cater to those needs in order to increase its market share in the United States.

01

02

Understanding the experiential needs of millennials in the United States in context to social media

03

Device a strategy plan for the BeReal company (product as well as marketing based) that it can adopt to widen its user base

Learn what type of content-sharing millennials indulge in and the new upcoming trends in the social media industry

Methodology

Details of the study

01 Usage & Value

02 Usability & Interventions

How do participants learn? To what extent does Rani contribute to their learning?

To what extent do users want to learn foundational skills in their apps and phones?

What preexisting mental models do users have in regards to trying the product?

Do users understand the premise of Rani?

How valuable do users find Rani?

Is Rani a good teacher? Does it help users get more out of their phones?

03 Content

Which content style helps users learn best? What content attributes work/don’t work and why?

How effectively can users utilize web stories (e.g. navigate, pause, unmute, etc)?

To what extent do users share learning content with friends, family and teachers?

To what extent do users prefer conversational/colloquial Hinglish in learning content vs Hindi or English only?

To what extent do practice and feedback help users better learn the content they watch?

How usable is the app and how can it be improved? Does the UI make sense?

Do users utilize categories to find content they want to learn about?

What entry points do users typically use to enter the app?

BeReal is an emerging social media app that can give tough competition to other strong apps like Instagram and Snapchat. The team identified that it has gained popularity among GenZ population of the United states. But in order to grow exponentially, BeReal would have to target the experiential needs of the millennials of the United States. Street intercept was the methodology adopted for data collection. In total, 19 interviews were conducted in San Francisco, Oakland and Portland.

The broad insights of the project showcased that:

Millennials seek four basic experiential needs from social media: Validation, Community, Entertainment and Enlightenment.
BeReal can meet millennials’ desire for community around shared interests.
Millennials will flock to BeReal if the app fosters high-quality and authentic friendships.
BeReal should not bother competing on enlightenment and entertainment aspects because millennials already have numerous options for these.

Repositioned BeReal ideology in market:

BeReal is poised to lead the social media market in cultivating true friendships and fostering community. To own the future, BeReal should do this in a way that avoids the addictive, judgmental, attention span-eroding qualities of competitors’ apps.

I was a part of a team of 5 Design Researchers. My role in the project was to conduct street intercepts and analyse the data in a form that could lead the team towards recommendations for expanding their customer base in the United States.

My takeaways from the study have been:

Street intercepts can be challenging as users might not be willing to stop to answer questions. I had to strategise with respect to location and time of the day. I would credit the genuinity of street intercepts to get first-hand perceptions and authentic data.
The underlying objective of the study was to identify experiential needs. Hence, this study helped me explore and utilise other frameworks of customer experience (CX).
One of the frameworks that I added to my own knowledge library is the Gartner Customer Experience Pyramid. I learnt to build effective experiences that lift satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy; starting to chip away at the chasm between expectation and reality.
Another important aspect of this project was when I had to lead the team towards the 'Recommendation' section. It is important to guide the team in a way that they go creative to find ways to fulfill the experiential needs but at the same time not diverge too much that the context of the project is lost.