Mire.
Connect with your favorites
Connecting fans with their favorite online personalities through premium subscriptions, exclusive content, and 1-on-1 conversation opportunities.
Ever wanted to connect with your favorite celebrities and be able to connect with them directly? Mire helps smaller content creators earn some extra income by providing a platform for transaction between dedicated fans and these smaller but upcoming celebrities. Users will have the opportunity to pay a subscription amount or purchase individual bundles that include extra video content, the ability to participate in streams, and even direct 1-on-1 calls. Mire's functionalities will benefit both fans and their favorites through a transaction platform, allowing more direct digital interactions.
Mire.
UX DESIGN FOR START-UP
TEAM AND TIMELINE
PROCESS SUMMARY
Lead UI Designer, Site Developer — Amy Zhang
Project Manager, CEO — Devon Merz
This project is currently in progress.
This is a project for start-up Mire created by Devon Merz, another graduate of Rice University. Devon is the project manager and CEO of the company, and plans to hire a team of software developers after the initial prototypes are complete and tested by potential clients. My role is to help coordinate project design goals on a high level, coneptualize and create initial user interface options, conduct user experience research for the service, and develop the website.
Initial splash page prototype designed by Amy Zhang.
SCOPING THE PROJECT
What's the Problem?
For the Audience: Discovering new entertainers online is a joy for the modern day audience. The only issue is, these online personalities seem so far out of reach — dedicated fans want more opportunities to connect with their favorite celebrities through different more direct means.
For the Content Creator: Smaller video-based content creators have a difficult time getting started in the world of consumable media. They typically depend on views on YouTube, TikTok, Twitch and other streaming sites to gain sponsorships, brand deals, and advertisements. However, just gaining views or likes without these other sources of income means that making a living off of a full-time content creation gig is not going to pay the bills.
Both the audience and the content creator would benefit from a service that facilitates more interaction between them.
Who's the Competition?
For my competitive analysis, I looked at a variety of products that fans typically use to either make connections with content creators and also different types of service transaction sites and their interfaces.
In terms of sites that monetize their audience, the main competition for Mire is Patreon, which lets fans become active participants in the work that they love by offering a monthly membership in exchange for exclusive content. This exclusive content manifests in the form of viewable content, a community channel to interact with the creator, and insight into their creative process. The content creator gets the financial freedom to do their best work with the stability of a constant monthly income from the support of their dedicated fans. My personal critique of the Patreon site is that there is no clear division between the content creator interface and the fanbase interface. Also, after the user purchases a subscription, the site makes it difficult to search for specific videos and posts, especially ones that were created a long time ago.
To study the transaction interface, I looked at Upwork, Fiverr, and PayPal's transaction platforms. Upwork and Fiverr are both freelance services marketplaces for businesses online, and PayPal is an online payment system for money transfers. Both Upwork and Fiverr have a variety of services provided, from IT, creative design, writing and translation, to finance & accounting. Mire's goals are different from these sites because it is targeted toward video-based content creators, and allows for more direct communication between creators and fans.
After this competitive analysis, I decided that the concept of our ideal product lies somewhere at the intersection of Patreon and Fiverr, with Patreon's goals to connect content creators with fans, and Fiverr's ease of building an online platform of services and facilitating transactions.
MAPPING & IDEATION
Prioritizing Per User
Because Mire has two main user groups, the fan and the creator, there are very different priorities when it comes to the initial user interface that someone is approached with when first accessing the site.
THE FAN
The fan's top priority is to easily be able to search for the creators they want to connect with in different methods, by seeing recommended top creators, browsing by media category, and direct search for a specific key word or creator name. Creating an account to make a purchase is a secondary priority for the fan.
THE CREATOR
The content creator's top priority is to create and curate a perfectly-marketed account that appeals to their current fanbase and attracts new fans. They want to be able to reach the highest number of people with their Mire account.
Empathy Mapping
To determine the priorities and feelings of the fan and the creator, I developed two separate empathy maps to consider how they think and feel, and what they say and do in relation to Mire's potential functionalities.
Creator
Say
Think
Do
Feel
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"I want to connect with my fans in a more direct way."
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"Join me on my stream next week."
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"Support me by following my social media."
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"Come interact with me at my show in person!"
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"I can't seem to make a career out of content creation.
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Wants to make money
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Frustrated about putting so much effort into their craft with no reward
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Content creation should be a valid career path
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Hard to get anywhere without an established fanbase
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Am I a bad person for asking my fans to donate so I can keep creating content?
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Gets a second job to be able to keep creating content
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Asks for donations from fans and follows on different platforms
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Tries to secure brand deals and other advertisements for income
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Engages fans in the comments of videos and on social media
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Feels unrewarded for all of their hard work that they put out there for free
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There is no personal connection with their fanbase
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The process of getting famous is unfair and biased
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Lucky to have the fanbase that they have, but no good way to expand
Fan
Say
Think
Do
Feel
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"I wish I could show [creator] that I am their biggest fan."
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"I would give anything to be able to talk to [creator] directly."
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"If I could join their stream and have my friends see that, I would die happy."
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"I love {creator} and I think they are extremely underrated. I wish they could get the attention they deserve."
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Has money to spend but don't know where to spend it
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Willing to do anything to connect with their favorite celebrities
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Intensely follows certain creators' online activities
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Loves to live vicariously through their favorite personalities
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Is a night owl
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Excited for new videos to come out each week
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Hopeful to be able to meet their favorite content creators somehow
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Entertained by the creator's craft
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Loves the content creator and would do anything to support them
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Pays for a Patreon subscription for their favorite content creators
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Binges all of their videos online
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Follows their streams on Twitch and other platforms
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Tries to do the thing that the content creator does too
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Logs on at night
INITIAL WIREFRAMING
Crafting an Experience
The goal for the initial wireframing stage was to have a series of working interfaces that are linked together and led the user in a logical step-by-step process from start to finish, whether they are the fan or the content creator. For the fan, this process would be from browsing to purchase, and for the content creator, it would be from account creation to receiving their earned income.
SPLITTING THE AUDIENCE
The first step of the user experience directs people to one of two channels, the content creator channel or the fan channel. Creating this separation at the beginning of the site structure allows for minimal confusion and a focused experience.
STEP 1
Although no established color created, the different colors indicate the different pathways the user can take. The user can associate these colors with their corresponding channels.
Mire has a simple navigation bar that involves a search feature, a home button, an about page, and a profile icon.
The background colors of Mire's splash page are faded until the user clicks on a specific pathway.
STEP 2: FANS
Mire's branding is located in the top left corner.
The splash page is divided into different rows based on content categories. Examples of content categories include comedy, music, gaming, etc.
The most popular creators are located on the top bar of the splash page to draw the user focus.
The "character cards" show a brief overview of the content creators' information.
The tags show what categories pertain to the content creator. The icons show the features that the user is currently offering.
The starting subscription pricing is located in the bottom right corner,
STEP 2: CREATORS
To contexualize the way that Mire is used, these number figures are at the top of the page for content creators to get inspired.
To further convince the user to create an account with Mire, there is a row dedicated to success stories.
The creator splash page makes it easy for creators to get started with creating a profile by clicking a central button on the top bar. This button is the focal point on the page.
Users can see an easy step-by-step process of how posting on Mire works.
CURRENT ITERATION
An Interface for Night Owls
The next step in the design process was to create a first pass at the fan-facing splash page that users would access at first glance. The target audience for our project is the young, digitally-friendly night owl, which means a dark theme, strong graphic lines, and video game references.
INFLUENCERS.
Influencers are a broad category of content creators that use social media, photography, and videos to recommend products to their viewers.
GAMING.
Gaming is the predicted most popular category of Mire, as many popular streamers on sites like Twitch have a growing audience and a large influence in the content creator community.
TOP CREATORS.
Top creators is a place to feature the hottest up and coming content creators using Mire. This can be determined by the number of subscriptions, transactions made, or amount of money earned.
MUSIC.
Musicians are starting to utilize online platforms to get popular. Mire could be a good solution for musicians that are just starting out to get some exposure and direct advertisement.
COMEDY.
Comedians are some of the most entertaining people to interact with, so fans would benefit from an opportunity to speak directly to these jokesters.
Who do YOU ad-MIRE?
This project is currently under development.
Check back later for an update! :)
Mire — Connecting fans with their favorite online personalities through premium subscriptions, exclusive content, and 1-on-1 conversation opportunities.
Congrats! You made it to the end.
Hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride, and I truly appreciate you taking the time to check out my work! You can reach me at amyzh425@gmail.com — I'd love to chat with you.