Cindy Phan
︎

Peers.org

A portal for individuals to find work in the sharing economy and the support they need

Context

As more and more people turn to the sharing economy as a means to make money, how do we support and connect them?

Peers.org is the voice for sharing economy workers (Airbnb hosts, Lyft/Uber Drivers, TaskRabbiters, etc), attracting 1 million members. After a year of operation, Peers realized there was a need to create a space for workers to find support and more work.

I led the project to translate this new focus into an updated website, branding, and messaging.

Date2015

CompanyPeers.org

My RoleUX Lead

Visual DesignerRebecca Lieberman

DevelopersJim Pugh & Justine Lam

Press

Fast Company

San Francisco Chronicle

Forbes

TechCrunch

San Francisco Chronicle #2

Entrepreneur

San Jose Mercury News

Buzzfeed

Project Overview

  1. Strategic Direction: The Peers team determined the new strategic direction we wanted to go in - building a central portal to find work, support, and a community to share information and ask questions.
  2. Wireframing & User Testing: I worked with my colleagues to determine how to best lay out the website. Once initial wireframes were completed, I conducted user testing interviews with individuals already engaged in the sharing economy and folks who’d never heard about it.
  3. Visual Design & Development: Once wireframes were updated, I handed them off to our visual designer, who made them beautiful. I then worked closely with our development team to ensure a quality product.

Peer's Strategic Direction

Since the launch of Peers, we had the pleasure of speaking to a wide range of sharing economy workers, understanding their motivations, pain points, and areas where they wanted more.

Pulling from these insights we determined there were 3 main pain points we wanted to address:

  1. Finding enough work to make a livable income (and understanding which companies offer them the best work experience)
  2. Finding the support they need in the work they do - from taxes, health insurance, how to manage having multiple sources of income, getting benefits, etc.
  3. A 'space' to gather and talk with others working in the sharing economy
Homepage Wireframe
Find Work Wireframe

Wireframing & User Testing

Working closely with the Peers team, we discussed how best to lay out these 3 offerings in a way that would draw folks in and be valuable. We decided the main entry point would be finding work and support, with the community forum being a reason for folks to come back again and again.

I created wireframes. I then conducted user testing sessions with folks from our community and people who'd never heard of the sharing economy.

Some feedback we received:

  1. For new people, many did not know what the sharing economy was. This meant we needed to do a better job explaining who we are and what we are offering.
  2. Many folks who were already a part of the sharing economy were thrilled to see that everything was aggregated and learn about new opportunities.
  3. Though they love being able to see everything, there were too many choices and hard to figure out best route to take.

Visual Design & Development

I updated the wireframes to more appropriately reflect what Peers was offering and the benefits individuals would receive. I then passed along these wireframes to our visual designer, who worked her magic to make it beautiful.

Once designs were completed, I managed our development team, working closely with them to ensure they understood what we needed, talking through how it would be built, and keeping on schedule.

Homepage Design
Find Work Design

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