Seeot
UI/UX project to evaluate and create an e-commerce platform app that can connect verified artists with niche shoppers.
Background
- First step to put value into your creativity- As social media became more active, there have been more opportunities for small business owners to promote their products. Currently as a fashion design major senior student at an art school, I have designed many prototypes of fashion apparels and accessories that I wanted to work further to share these ideas with other people. From talking to my peers and classmates, they have experienced similar frustrations of wanting to create small business with their designed products and struggles to find a job after graduating. Art students have great ideas that they have executed through amazing products, yet they are not receiving the attention or value they deserve.
Problem
Many products on the market lose originality because most of them are factory-based by fast fashion system. Customers, especially younger generation who value exclusivity and individuality, constantly seek for items that are unique and special. After art students create their products and post on their social media, many people become interested on their originality and wishes to buy the products. However, the steps to start as a small business are complicated as the e-commerce market process requires many limitations as they focus on quantity-based factory produced products. Many customers who look for unique designed products use other e-commerce platforms, but the qualities of these objects are not always garanteed. When they actually receive the products, many are disapointed by the qualities. Delivery systems as well as communication between sellers and customers could be unsure as small business brands often lack experience in running the business.
Goals
Since this project product is an e-commerce platform, I tackled from the lens of art students as the sellers and customers based in New York City and Seoul. I focused target customers in cosmopolitan areas because young buyers who are sensitive with fashion seek for stylish products are unique. I wanted to fully understand the aspects of both seller and customer experience to make sure my concept was effective and valuable to users.
Research
Interviews
Since this product is a platform between sellers and customers, I had to have people for each subjects. I first decided to interview 5 people in my network for both. In the recruitment of sellers of artists, I tried to have people different in age and culture for better generalizability. For my general customer recruitment, I asked 5 random people different in age from a most fashion sensitive districts of New York and Seoul. I conducted 5 twenty minute interviews of my artist peers and I was able to gain insights from art students with various creative interests and goals after school. For my customer user interviews, I conducted 5 ten minute interviews where I was able to understand their interests and online buying processes. Example Questions asked to interviewees: - Have you ever used a platform to sell your products? What were the pros and cons? - What was the biggest struggle to start selling or start your own business? - Have you ever bought products that were crafted by small businesses?
Competitive Analysis
1 Etsy
2 Ebay
3 Amazon Handmade
Define
Affinity Mapping
After conducting user interviews for both ends (seller & customer) of the platform, I created affinity mappings by grouping my results into observations, actions. Then I synthesized these informations to emotions, success, and painpoints to classify negative and positive positions of the interviewees' experiences. Observations and actions were to better define user behaviors and attitudes while the positive and negatives were results that I analyzed. I was able to gain deeper insight into understanding and design opportunities.
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I coded the responses from the interviews and analysis from the affinity maps, and found customers generally seek for unique designed products with affordable prices and verification of the qualities and services, which the artists were also apprehensive about.
Most artists feel confident about the originalities and creativities of their product design, and they see potential for selling them. However, they are confused and hesitant to start a small business either because they do not have enough time or do not know how. Many customers, who use independent sellers or e-commerce platforms for small business have experienced inconvinience with qualities of products, delivery uncertainties, and communication confusions. Most customers have said that they read reviews to guarantee credibilities of the products before purchasing. There were two other frequently mentioned elements - browsing by catagories and acceptance of social media markets.
Journey Map: Artist/ Seller
Journey Map: Customer
Ideate
Storyboard
The importance of creating respective storyboards was to visually illustrate what both users of the platform would encounter throughout their experience. Below is the storyboard for the artist seller to highlight the analyzed pain points and their goals for successfully executing their products on the platform. From this storyboard, my end design solution should aim to see their journey to get on this e-commerce platform for their convinient start on their small business. The next storyboard is for the customer using this product, according to the gathered information through the customers' perspective of their experiences.
Artist/ seller
Customer
Lo-fi Design
For the next step, I started visualizing the product by sketching out two concepts as the lo-fi designs. Before technical functions are added in, this stage will allow me to focus more on designs and feature for the comfort of user usability. With the information I have collected in my research, I decided to test out two different concepts- focusing more on the market and the other with social networking between seller and the customer.
Concept 1 The first concept focuses primarily on the market and product promotions. The users can get more exposure to the products through the home page with catagory bar and product contents. Users can see the items better with curtail but necessary details on the product page.
Concept 2 For the second concept, users can get feel more comfortable and secure with their purchases by contacting the seller within the app. Messaging page allows both users to casually connect with each other about the products like on social media apps.
Wireframe
Building off of my concept ideas, I translated my concept sketches into wireframes that would later be used for usability testing. I decided on merging both of my concepts because of its potential value to users. Both product focused and social connection features are crucial to providing solutions for the users' e-commerce usability.
Merging both concepts created a whole wireframe that allow both user groups to freely shop as well as connect with each other. This creates a community of satisfied customer purchasing talented artists' products, making the solution of their struggles more visible and clearer.
Visual Board
Before working on the prototype for usability testing, I created a visual board. The designs shown are accessible, organized and easy to navigate for the users to get the information they need. Since, the app will mainly include actual photographs of the products, the designs are kept simple, and relatable. Overall, I focused on balancing an aesthetic that emits welcoming, modern and clean.
Refining
In this phase, I incorporated my visual elements into my wireframes to create defined prototype pages. I focused on the consistency of the visual aspects and interactions of the functionalities to enable the core fundamentals of user experience through designs.
High Fidelity Design
Flow 1- Shop Items (from browsing to checking out) The first flow experience I focused on my design is how the users can interact with the product through the e-commerce buying process. By enhancing the solutions I have extracted from my interviews and eliminating problems on the competitive analysis, I created a browsing homepage that features items in an organized layouts. The main event section of the home shows events and contents to promote the curated sellers' products as well as categorizing them. Also, the category menu bar extends with icons to help the users visually. The flow from each product on the home to the product page allows them to help them to understand more about the product with details and reviews. I also merged "saved" and "added to cart" pages so users can easily navigate between the two for easier checkout process.
Flow 2- connect with the seller (from viewing profile to messaging) Another key feature I wanted to focus on my product is the accessibility between the customers and sellers. Without contacting the seller of the item via email, customers can easily message them through the "message" page that is located on every seller's profile, like they are using a social media app. One of the main feature this app presents is a verification system of the seller, which can minimize the customers' doubts about the products. The verified sellers are presented on their profiles with a badge that can interactively show the five star ratings.
Evaluation
Takeaway
It was important to scope to extend my findings and create a solution that addressed the most critical user needs and business goals of an e-commerce platform. I aimed to provide a design that was accommodating to both parties of users for an accessible and satisfying user experience. Overall, I believe I have successfully executed my inital vision of e-commerce platform app design through Seeot. However, there are so many more to continue with the project to develop. To takeaway, I had to regard that this app is a platform to connect the two users and this requires much more anticipation in designs because some designs from the sellers have to be part of it, such as their own product pictures.
Next Step
The problem I have mentioned from my takeaway requires actual prototype testing with the users to get a deeper understanding of their issues more of business and fuctional aspects. So if I were to continue working on this project, I would want like to further explore the center cases that could be affected through my designs. Another development I wish to work on is inclusivity of more diverse range of users. One of the designs that I have tried to be more inclusive is through the icons of the menu bar to help users with more visual elements, but more designs for people of different ethnicities or impairments could be included to further perfect this product.These solutions could be I conducted through user testing and usability testing with my UI designs.