Scoby

Scoby is a time-banking application that ferments community growth by exchanging skills and services with time and kindness - the currency of human connection - rather than monetary compensation. Whether you need tutoring, dog walking, or simply a helping hand with errands, Scoby makes it easy to trade services and/or receive time credits to be redeemed another time. Scoby promotes mutual ethos - a shared set of principles centered around mutual respect, reciprocity, and cooperation - to help users culture values that make us human - empathy, collaboration, and shared purpose. This project was done in collaboration with three Purdue UX students for the Rice Design-a-thon that was hosted over the course of three days.

  • January 31, 2025 - February 2, 2025

  • UX Designer and UX Researcher

  • Chloe Choi, Alec Espinola, Jasmine Li

Hackathon Prompt

“How can people stay human in the age of AI?”

Background

A brainstorm frenzy

We kickstarted the project by coming up with a variety of ideas related to current issues with how people foster connections in an AI-driven society. Each of us shared our individual ideas and scoped down to topics that have potential for further research. After thorough discussion, we came to a unanimous decision to explore community time-banks since they haven’t been applied in the realm of mobile applications and have the potential to transform how people can “stay human” by exchanging thoughtful services with time rather than monetary compensation.

Research

Exploring time banks

We broke down our secondary research goals into areas by asking primary research questions pertaining to time-banks and what they provide for those who want to give or receive certain skills.

So, we asked ourselves…

What are the benefits of community building and how can its authenticity be promoted?

How can communities create a sense of belonging to build impactful relationships?

What is the concept of a “core economy,” and why is it important?

How does time banking provide opportunities for individuals with underutilized skills?

How can trust be fostered in online purchases and marketplaces?

How does time banking improve civic engagement and volunteerism?

Through our findings, we discovered that principles of authentic community engagement include working with communities, agreeing on processes, understanding interests, and allocating resources. Additionally, we found factors that have a significant influence on time bank participation include helping older adults, value judgement, and social support.

Surveying

To gauge how people define "community" and to understand more impressions of online marketplace, we collected 27 survey results and translated the data onto a sheet for analysis.

Takeaways

As we analyzed our survey results, we found a lot of common themes among the responses, a bulk of them pertaining to the following:

Facebook Marketplace and Mercari are the most familiar online marketplaces among participants.

Community contribution is largely equated to service and giving back to others in ways that benefit well-being.

Biggest community needs are reciprocation, interpersonal bonds with neighbors, and enthusiasm.

Goals

Let’s get down to business

After synthesizing our primary and secondary research findings, we discussed specific design factors and features to prioritize, such as:

Profile Transparency

Boosting trust among users with badges, verification, reviews, profile photos, and listing photos.

Communication Channel

Incorporating a messaging feature that enhances transparency in regards to service exchange.

High Tag Personalization

Giving users the autonomy to filter the services they want to receive and offer.

Design

A low and mid-fidelity medley

Each of us created multiple sets of low-fidelity wireframes to visualize workflows and narrow down what strongly addresses our design goals. This phase involved a lot of time dedicated to iterations and refinements before jumping into the development of our design system.

Solution

Your time. Your community. Your exchange.

With the final features solidified, we made significant contributions to setting up the app’s design system. This stage involved testing certain colors and fonts to ensure they adhered to UI guidelines, such as 8-bit spacing and WCAG compliance.

Get onboarded!

The onboarding flow introduces users to a variety of skills that they can curate to their own interests. This feature allows them to have autonomy over the services they want to explore and give.

See your services

After onboarding, users are brought to their services page where they can view recent and recommended listings. They also have the option to save listings for future reference or interest.

Manage your (time) credits

Users can monitor their time credit balance and history over weekly and monthly periods of time. They can also view the amount of listing deals they’ve made and earn in-app rewards as they meet certain Scoby Goals.

Create a listing

If users want to create a public listing, they can easily customize what they are looking for by specifying if they’re offering/seeking a service, adding specific tags, and adding descriptive photos if needed.

Send and view messages

The messaging tab allows users to maintain and streamline communication with other users they are doing services. They can also view messaging history with users they previously gave or received services from.

Customize your profile

Users can customize their profile and specify their location, as well as the services they specialize in. They can also view the rating/reviews they’ve received from other users they’ve worked with, badges they’ve earned, as well as their listing history.

Reflection

Looking back

Participating in a design-a-thon for the first time, after previously hosting one as a Design and Innovation Ambassador at Purdue, was an eye-opening experience. Shifting from an organizer’s perspective to a participant’s role allowed me to fully immerse into the agile and creative environment that defines a design-a-thon. Though I have experience navigating time constraints for semester-long academic projects, I had to learn how to quickly define project goals and effectively collaborate with my team in the span of three days. This experience gave me a newfound appreciation for the creative pressure that participants face and reinforced the importance of adaptability and clear communication.

Given a little more time to spend on this project, there are a few things I would want to expand on, such as the app’s design system and conducting user testing to flesh out the IA and content of the app. Regardless, I’m very proud of what my team and I accomplished with the tight deadlines.