User profile design for mobile appliation

Question

Above is a sample user profile summary section for a taxi booking app that I've been working on. It seemed flawed conceptually for several reasons. The icon on the left is meant to represent the number of users who currently follow you and the icon on the right is meant to represent the number of users that you follow. Underneath the user profile image, there is a the users reputation score, and swiping the profile across should reveal additional details about the user.

After showing it to some users, I've received the following feedback:

The followers and following icons are very confusing. Text preferred... Taxi trip count should be incorporated into the design somehow... Other important factors to consider (due to the nature of the application) is reputation, taxi trip count, follower count and following count... Not clear enough, no clue what is going on

This has made me rather uneasy and hence I have two questions to ask:

1. What design changes would you suggest to improve the clarity of the profile summary page below (note that there is an activity feed below all of this, this is merely the top half), so at first glance it makes sense to the user. I'm open to anything...

2. On right swipe, what information could appear?

Answer 1

Seems like the user has spoken. If it's just a matter of improving clarity, simply use text labeling as opposed to iconography for "Followers", "Following" and "Rep Score". Most of the popular sites that involve user profiles, social interaction, etc., take this approach (i.e. instagram, Twitter, etc.)

I assume the swipe left for more detail will display about me information. I don't really see any benefit of having this feature early on. I do however see a benefit of providing a date when signed up or how long they've been a user. That, along with a rep score should correlate and automagically let the other party know how trustworthy they are (if that's the case from the other party). This information can easily be implemented onto this screen (under avatar) which would allow you to remove a what seems to be an unnecessary screen.

Answer 2

Write Followers and Following in smaller font size below the numbers that are displaying them. You also can place the Trip counter at the space between settings and message counter.

Answer 3

Perhaps if you re-think the features critically even the design will be simpler.

Why should I follow 5000 people? I know this is just a screenshot but try to use more realistic numbers like 42.

Why 5000 people are following me? Am I a taxi evangelist that writes a lot of reviews?

How is the reputation earned? Also, the star next to it is very very similar to the Firefox bookmark's one and I associate it to the words "Favorite" or "Bookmark" and not "Reputation".

Answer 4

1. For clarity- I believe it would be more clear for the user to understand the follower/following information if the the information was right next to eachother - with one icon(if any), along with the following & followers label after the amount. (i.e. 29 followers 41 following) - alignment wise it makes a lot more sense to balance the page by keeping this label(s) centered, under the Taxi trip count.

   However, If the main goal of this application is to book taxis, I really think you should drop the follower/following and if anything switch over to friending. One advantage would be putting more focus on your product and less focus on it's social aspect, but still opening up the opportunities like split taxi fare with friends.

2. In my opinion, i think you should refrain from having a right swipe, as keeping simplicity in design of any product is key to keeping the user focused on the utility of the app's goal. A right swipe is definitely something you can use in the future, though.

Answer 5

1. I think text, just like you're test subjects said, will make things more clear. I am however doubting the importance of the follow count. In Twitter it is to indicate the popularity and therefor quality of the persons tweets. In your app, if I understand the concept correctly, it can be used to indicate the quality and trustfulness of the persons ratings. But you already do that by adding reputation to the profile. Personally, if I would use the app, I would be more interested where the person lives and works and the frequency in which the person takes cabs.

2. As I said at #1 I as a potential user I would like to see where the person lives and works, because I think it would not be of use for me to follow a person I don't know if they live and work in a complete different city than I do. A short bio like those in Twitter can personalise the accounts.