PROBLEM STATEMENT
Currently, users have to actively visit multiple shops to attain a complete overview of the ongoing sale. This is time-consuming, cumbersome and detrimental to the shopping experience when money and time is limited.
— PROJECT NAME
Finding the Bargain
— ROLE
Problem Definition
User Research
User Testing
Graphic Design
— DATE
08/02/2022
Still massively preferring my physical shopping sprees over the ever more popular online shopping, I realized the major disadvantage to it: no exhaustive overview of current sale of my favorite shops while in the city center. As a person searching for the good deals while being efficient, I find it rather inconvenient to stray in every store before deciding on my purchase. This project aims to solve the inconvenience by giving physical shoppers access to an exhaustive overview of discount in their favorite physical stores.
USER
EMPATHY
Initial research was set up to explore the problem outside my own bubble. Through UsabilityHub, multiple small test were conducted to figure out how people currently did their shopping, whether physical shopping was preferred and if my concept held ground in other contexts. Further understanding the user was done through face-to-face interviewing people in my network.
Potential users indicated their preference for physical shopping over online shopping and displayed their dissatisfaction with the sales period of shops. Remarks about disorder, chaos and inefficiency were made in the same sentence as treasure hunt and taking a full day.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
As no application was found combining all the intended features. The competitor analysis explored the features deemed necessary for the project in different applications. Inspiration came from a RSS feed on news items, a location finder, a display of weekly supermarket folders, Instagram shopping and shop information for a specific store. Each application was checked on usability flow, intuitive design and screenshots were made for creating a vision.
PERSONA
BUILDING
From the initial research and competitor analysis, three different persona’s were created. The main persona, persona one, represented a woman just out of university who has build a routine of searching for bargains between classes. She is low on cash but fashionable nonetheless. Overcomplication and inefficiency are her main frustrations. For persona 2 and 3, focused on smaller parts of the target users: the student and single parent with little time and little cashflow.
IDEATION
WIREFRAME
APPROACH
As time was limited, a sketching session was done using the 6-8-5 method. These ideas were translated into a first wireframe using Figma. Each screen presented above was linked to one of the steps as previously designed in the user flow. From this stage, it was further translated into iteration one. Iteration one consisted of eight screens displaying the different steps to be taken within the app. This concept was tested through UsabilityHub and alternations were made for iteration two. Iteration two made some changes in the flow and created the ability to save items for another moment. From new testing, the flow was further optimized and a minimal amount of steps was found. Due to time management, iteration three was final and no further optimized.
ITERATION 1
The major objective in user testing was finding out the right flow. Initially, it was assumed that users would first decide on their favorite brands but research showed it was the clothing type that had preference over this.
ITERATION 2
As overcomplication was one of the major frustrations by the persona's, iteration two was focused on finding out the minimal amount of necessary screens.
FINAL
DESIGN
In the final design, the amount of screens necessary to find all the information was downsized to seven while including a new screen asking about gender. Additionally, lay-out was optimized by minimizing clutter and unnecessary information. Through five second visual tests and prototype tasks, this final iteration was tested, yielding positive reactions to the flow and general experience. Out of 20 participants, 16 reached the goal screen and indicated the application was easy to navigate.
TOP
LEARNINGS
Design Tools – Never having worked with Figma before, this course taught me how to build prototypes and clickable demo's with the program. It also showed me how to further explore ideation through Figma and quick usability testing.
Interaction Design - I now better understand how design can emphasize the interaction between users and products. I realized the importance of elements like motion, aesthetics and especially white space.
Design Systems & Style Guides - Before starting this project, I had no idea how important the use of standards was for design. I imagined the super creative coming up with new things all the time. However, producing something that is familiar to the eye has great advantages.