Nectar

Nectar is an idea for a networking app meant to help professionals network better. Users can gain insights into how extensive and robust their network is. With the help of Nectar, users can identify underutilized/neglected connections and make new ones.

LinkedIn seems to be more of a social media platform that a networking tool nowadays. When it comes to strengthening existing relationships, I saw several unmet needs. Those pain points are what inspired me to think of Nectar.

I settled with Microsoft Word to help me stalk my peers. A table containing a picture, name, and major did the trick.

Inception

Late into the Fall 2022 semester, I found out that I would be taking 15 hours of coursework in the upcoming semester with 17 strangers for the Aggies in Tech program. An email was sent to me and those 17 other students which I used to connect with them on LinkedIn, a platform that I was not super comfortable with.

I wanted to learn their names and faces before the start of the next semester so I could walk into class confidently knowing who was who. While I was at it, I thought it could be helpful to learn other small details like their major, job experience, etc. that were available on LinkedIn.

I opened up Microsoft Access to create a database and as soon as the application launched I realized that I had forgotten almost everything I thought I knew about the tool. I unsuccessfully tried to create keys and add relationships to no avail. I tried to image an app that could sort my network for me. Unfamiliar with Figma, I opened up Photoshop to design my idea.

The TAMU Network was a very quick model to help visualize my idea. I know the colors and shapes are vomit-inducing.

I put personality type on user's profiles but I took this field out in all other versions because I hate personality types and I don't think they'd be the first thing somebody wants to see when looking at a connection.

At this stage, I was thinking of a platform that could replace LinkedIn. I've since adapted it to be something to work with LinkedIn.

I used real contact information in my designs to help me imagine how someone would use the app.

I made a eight minute video demoing how someone would use the app. I would explain the idea to people in person while the video was playing.

First Understandable Design

The TAMU Network

I wasn't sure what it would be used for yet but I had a picture of how it should look. Instead of a headache of a list, it should be something a user can look at and understand. I imagined, inside A&M, each college as a group, with each department at that college as a subset. I dumbed the eyesore "TAMU Network." From the very beginning, I emphasized filtering functionality. I wanted to intuitively be able to find who met certain criteria like belonging to a company or possessing a needed skill.

The TAMU network is the ugliest thing I have ever made. The flaws were glaringly obvious. People don't fit into circles. They're all over the place and if you were to implement this design to the entire campus all you would see is a big horrible mess.

There was still an appeal to it's functionality. I wanted something that would let me filter through my network. LinkedIn does let you filter connections but LinkedIn doesn't know what the AIT program is and it doesn't let me tell it what the program is either. My ugly networking app did and could show me what I wanted in a visual format.

Nectar

Building off the TAMU network, I fleshed out Nectar. An app where users could see how tightly knit their network is. Users can add details to those in their connection, share information with specific people, filter through their network, and schedule meetings.

I used this design as a conversation starter when networking. It was something I wasn't embarrassed to show others. Most people who saw it wanted to use the platform, but didn't want to help build it. Some parts, like the web connecting all connections, looked messy. When I found the time, I took another crack at the design.

I have the free version of Figma so I have to get creative prototyping some functionality like how when a users' mutual connections get highlighted when you view their page.

Finding a MVP

Finally moving to Figma, I redesigned the majority of features that needed to be seen by people to understand the design. For the Photoshop design, I made a ridiculous amount of screens. I think the main selling point of this software is the ability to manage your network so that's what I left. The people I showed the app to didn't care about what the settings and radar pages looked like.

The cluttered web is gone and now a user's network is laid out by the strength of each connection. Connections are scored based on how much information a user has on them, how often they interact with them on LinkedIn, and how connected they are with others in their network. The higher the score, the larger their profile icon will appear and the closer they will be to the center of a user's network.

I prototyped the design so that not only could I demo it but others could too. I can see pain points in the UI/UX when someone uses it. Most that I've seen so far come from people clicking things that haven't been prototyped. They want to filter through people, they want to click on the connections in their hypothetical network. They seem eager to explore the app. I find this very motivating.

Prototype can be played with here.

Next Steps

For now, Nectar is whatever I can build it up to be. Unfortunately, I do not have the bandwidth to teach myself how to build this app. I also don't have the capital to outsource it. Even if a stable build appeared on my hard drive tomorrow, I couldn't afford to host it!

I still think this is a great concept and my execution is on the right track. The biggest problem I see on the user end is getting people to return to the app regularly. I could see user retention being a problem as great deal of people in the workforce take focus away from networking once they are employed. Having designed this as someone looking for a career, the value is clear for those actively looking for a job.