Artix

Our goal for Challenge 10 is to iterate on a mobile app Artix that we designed to help friends share articles between different groups in the simplest way possible. We came up with this idea a few challenges ago, after realizing that our friends kept starting conversations with "I just read this awesome article — i'll send it to you later — that raised these really interesting questions…", but that actually sending those articles to one another in a tracked and cohesive manner was easier said than done. We've begun building an MVP, which allows interviewees to provide feedback on a tangible design, so our 'fieldwork' consisted of two separate paths: (1) examining existing methods of sharing articles, as well as (2) doing hands on market research in Harvard Square.

The main strength of these existing solutions are that we've already integrated their use into our daily lives, so problems with onboarding are completely bypassed: everyone has a phone, checks their email, and uses Messenger. On the other hand, articles can often get lost in the shuffle since people use these services for so many different purposes. Thus it appears that our biggest differentiator is our ability to strip away extraneous content and provide the user with simple lists of articles, organized by group.