Balancing flexibility with feasibility that accommodating psychics and consumers
Role
Product Designer
UX Researcher
team
Product Manager
Product Designer
Back-End Engineer
Front-End Dev Team
Product
Psychic Cloud Mobile App
time
2023 Apr-Aug
Background
Psychic Cloud is a digital platform connecting users seeking spiritual guidance with professional psychic readers. The platform initially operated on an immediate-availability model, where users could only connect with currently online psychics. As the platform grew and user behaviors evolved, it became clear that the spontaneous connection model wasn't fully serving the community's needs. The company recognized this growing need and identified an opportunity to enhance user engagement and psychic earnings through a more structured booking system.
The Problem
Missed Revenue Opportunities: Users couldn't book their preferred psychics in advance, leading to lost connections and reduced platform revenue
Poor User Experience: The immediate-availability model forced users to repeatedly check for their favorite psychics' online status, causing frustration and reduced engagement
Limited Psychic Flexibility: Psychics had no way to manage their availability or build a consistent client base, impacting their earning potential and work-life balance
Stakeholder Interviews
Met with CEO to understand business vision
Interviewed product team about technical constraints
Gathered insights from customer service about common user requests
User Research
Conducted 15 user interviews (8 clients, 7 psychics)
Analyzed platform usage data
Created user journey maps to identify pain points
Key Insights
Users prioritized reader choice over immediate availability
Psychics needed predictable schedules to manage work-life balance
Technical limitations prevented real-time processing of complex recurring bookings
Users had varying duration preferences but followed common patterns
In the initial design, I applied a selection wheel for users to freely pick the Start and End Time to meet business requirements. However, this approach presented several problems:
When psychics' schedules are irregular, asking users to select any time from this irregular schedule can be overwhelming.
Allowing users to set start and end times freely can create high cognitive load due to endless options.
Development complexity increases as the system must check appointment times against psychic availability without a clear pattern.
Different user preferences for appointment times can lead to more idle time in psychics' schedules.
I proposed a new design to address the issues from iteration #1:
To balance flexibility and structure, I created fixed-duration options based on user data. The system would generate time slots based on the selected duration, easing the burden on users and developers.
Options ranged from 15 minutes to 2 hours, with intervals of 15 minutes. The team decided to deploy this approach for the MVP and refine it based on user feedback.
The final design included the addition of timezones to help users choose appointment times confidently. Payment and confirmation were linked to the original payment mechanism but were not demonstrated in the prototype.
From the Psychic tab, users browse and select psychics who they feel are the best fit, then book appointments directly from the psychic's profile.
Offering flexible duration options while maintaining control over the psychic's schedule, and easing development challenges.
Included a time zone selection at the bottom for users to consult when picking their appointment time, useful for travelers or those with specific scheduling needs.
Launch Metric
52% increase in paid reading time
89% user satisfaction with booking process
Learnings
Simple Solutions Drive Better Results
What started as a complex vision of unlimited booking options evolved into a streamlined scheduling system that better served our users' needs. By focusing on preset durations and a simple three-step booking flow, we actually increased user satisfaction and platform engagement. This reinforced that adding more features doesn't always equate to better user experience.
Early Technical Alignment is Crucial
Our initial designs for recurring bookings hit significant technical roadblocks that could have been avoided. Working closely with engineers from the early design phases helped us understand system constraints and design within them, saving considerable development time and resources.
Two-Sided Marketplace Needs Balance
The success of the scheduling feature relied heavily on finding the sweet spot between user flexibility and psychic convenience. By carefully balancing these needs, we created a system that increased both user satisfaction and psychic earnings, proving that marketplace features must serve both sides equally to succeed.
What's Next
We plan to analyze three months of booking data to understand user patterns and psychic availability trends. This information will help us optimize duration options and potentially introduce AI-powered scheduling recommendations that match users with available time slots they're most likely to book.