— PROJECT NAME
Finding the Bargain
— ROLE
Problem Definition
User Research
User Testing
Graphic Design
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. As a person searching for the good deals while being money and time efficient, I find it rather inconvenient to stray in every store before deciding on the best deal. This project aimed to solve the time-consuming, cumbersome experience by giving physical shoppers access to an exhaustive overview of discount in their favorite physical stores.
Initial research
User empathy
Through both online questionnaires and face-to-face interviewing, 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
Analysis was conducted by checking 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 main aspects.
Persona building
Three different persona’s were created. Persona one represented a woman just out of university with a routine of searching for bargains. She is low on cash but fashionable nonetheless and hates complicated inefficient systems. The other two personas focused on smaller parts of the target users such as the student and single parent with little time.
Ideation
Wireframe
A sketching session using the 6-8-5 method was translated in a wireframe where each screen represented a separate step in the user flow.
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 that clothing type had preference over this.
Iteration 2
As overcomplication was one of the major frustrations by the persona's, iteration two focused on finding out the minimal amount of necessary screens. Changes in the flow were made and it included the ability to save items for another moment.
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 and got 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.
