enjoy.com

social network

enjoy.com’s initial product design approached a complex system—a social network—from an engineering perspective. The product brief consisted primarily of technical specifications, with cursory descriptions of high-level tasks and goals.

I started driving toward clear product definition by presenting tasks and goals in plain English and diagramming their relationships. Every use case was defined by a path through the diagram: “A person in a given place that is specified automatically wants to find N by browsing X, Y, and Z, ” for example.

From there, I drilled down into specific actions and the system requirements to support those actions. I rendered this as a heavily annotated process map using a standard flowchart vocabulary. The process map clarified exceptions, potential issues, unclear concepts (“What’s actually involved in doing X?”), and opportunities to support user behavior by changing the technical approach.

Wireframes illustrating key screens referenced in the process map completed the documentation.