Hi Hmong

An App Evaluation… Well, Single Screen

I am a second generation Hmong-American. My grandparents and parents tread across a warzone, hiding from bad guys while being bitten by ants. They survived life in refugee camps and with nothing but the clothes on their backs were transported to cold a** Minnesota. Hmong-America has come a long ways since then. Real estate moguls, doctors and lawyers; we have them all. Small Hmong businesses have also come a long way, in the pursuit of the American dream. From my view, there are opportunities for a handful of Hmong businesses that involve branding and UX. Don’t get me wrong, some upstart Hmong businesses do a wonderful job of branding. I love seeing Hmong businesses succeed, especially knowing that all of our roots derived from such a traumatic experience.

There’s this Hmong app out there, Hi Hmong. It is the first of its kind that I know of, a Hmong dating app with accessibility in five different languages. Pretty cool concept, but flawed and pretty bare bones at the moment. As one of the few Hmong dedicated apps out there, Hi Hmong has an opportunity to be an amazing experience and honestly, I root for it to be successful. This is my evaluation of how I would make the brand and experience of Hi Hmong more enjoyable!

Current Log In Screen

There are a host of UI issues, probably due to a lack of a design system… or a poorly defined one.

Cosmetic issues that deter a user’s experience were as follows:

  • Logo pixilation / low word art resolution

  • Inconsistent use of font type/weight/size – Apple text, Facebook text and Button text all appear different

  • Multiple colored buttons causing unclear CTA and poor hierarchy

  • Distracting background image, poor image choice with contrast, pose, lighting

  • Inconsistent spacing between elements and within card

Moderate issues that affect usability were as follows:

  • No status indicator for email/password entry

  • No input examples for input fields

  • No visual or feedback indicators for input fields

  • Poor error recovery, incorrect entries cause fields to blank with no indicator telling user what was wrong

Revised Log In Screen

After a quick assessment (less than an hour) of the log in screen I was able to pinpoint a few actionable items to clean up the experience without having to create a full blown design system.

Cosmetic issues that were fixed are as follows:

  • Logo / word art redesigned for a friendly tone with far better resolution

  • Font type / weight / size were all standardized for a more cohesive appearance

  • Primary CTA button was left in full color / secondary buttons were changed to stroked

  • Background image was removed

  • Spacing between elements were standardized throughout screen

Moderate issues that were fixed are as follows:

  • Email input fields includes formatting example

  • Input fields are bordered for clarity

  • Input fields include icons as visual indicators

Other issues to address outside of a single screen revision:

  • Icons and colored bordered needed for input fields to help diagnose input errors and allow for easy recovery

  • Complete deletion of incorrect input fields will need to be replaced with error messaging for quicker recovery for user