Fotolog (2007)

Fotolog was losing ground against other Web 2.0 services and we at Telefónica I+D created a proposal, based on competitive research, polls, interviews and co-creation, to update it to current standards.

What

Terra LATAM (Latin-America) Fotolog was Telefónica’s photoblogging platform for South America. The platform was outdated and outperformed by the new wave of web 2.0 services, so Telefónica I+D was asked to present a redesign proposal.

home screen for the new proposal of Terra LATAM Fotolog, including customizable panels and lots of images
HTML prototype showing proposal for home screen (implemented by Telefónica I+D development team)

User Experience was considered one of the main points of the new redesign, therefore a specialized outside contractor (Óscar Tomico, expert in Innovation Processes in Product Design) was hired to perform user research.

The first step was an exploration phase, with research (including site research, competitive research and quantitative polls) that concluded in the creation of user profiles or personas (which were used to review the current version of the service), and a HTML prototype.

Then a validation phase started, where users where confronted with the prototype in co-creation qualitative interviews: they were encouraged into rating several aspects of the prototype, told to justify their ratings, and then asked for an ideal solution for the causes of low ratings. This input helped identify problems and offered some starting solutions that ignited brainstorming.

Once analysed, the result was a final iteration of the HTML prototype and a document with future proposals and guidelines.

proposal of user profile screen, showing a mosaic of last photographs and posters of user's favourite movies and books
HTML prototype for user profile proposal, making heavy use of images and offering customization by showing posters of favourite books and movies (implemented by Telefónica I+D development team)

My work

Carried out research, using the site and analysing the way users interacted with it, both on-site and off-site (through forums and other social networks), and performed competitive research on similar sites.

Met with Telefónica I+D’s online business experts for insights on future trends in social services.

Analysed results from research and user polls and turned them into personas, using them to rate the service afterwards.

Document showing the first paragraphs and photograph of a persona definition
First paragraphs of persona definition document for Fotolog

Created wireframes (together with Diana Lama) for the HTML prototype.

Hand-drawn wireframe for Fotolog main view
Wireframe for Fotolog main view (hand-drawn by Diana Lama)
HTML prototype of Fotolog view, clearly based on the previous wireframe
HTML prototype for Fotolog main view (implemented by Telefónica I+D development team)

Assisted user interviews (led by Óscar Tomico).

Analysed research, and then created designs for the final iteration (which originated a new HTML prototype) along with several proposals for future versions.

What I got

  • Understood what User Experience is, and why “User” is so important.
  • First-hand experience with user research, both quantitative and qualitative.
  • Practiced some common UX techniques like personas and brainstorming.