Designing a Thrifting app- A UX Case Study
UX Techniques Used: User Personas, Competitive/Comparative Analysis, User Flows, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Roles and Responsibilities:
UX/UI Designer
Creating User Personas
Doing Competitive Analysis
Creating User Flows
Prototyping
Testing usability
Project Brief
This is a self-project and for this project, I had to design a thrift mobile app where the people of Kathmandu can sell and buy second-hand items.
The primary project goals for this app included:
- Having clear ways of locating specific products
- Having a simpler and clearer way of buying and selling second-hand items online
- Making it easier for the users to buy and sell second-hand items location-wise.
Understanding the problem
- The app was meant for a specific demographic, i.e. age group 0f 18+ within Kathmandu Valley.
- An app of this kind does not exist in Nepal.
- The key idea was that this app was buying and selling thus, the work has to be done around that.
User Research
Who are the users?
Who are we really designing this website for? Basically, this app is for everyone who wants to buy or sell second-hand clothes and either make some money out of their used items or buy quality items at cheaper rates. Basically, our users are the people of the age group of 18+ within Kathmandu Valley. Right now the people of Nepal are able to sell their second-hand items using the Facebook marketplace and taking the orders manually and then pay manually, or through Instagram stories or TikTok and then take or place orders manually in the chats.
Understanding the users better
Imagine this situation:
Nandini is a newly married girl who has recently shifted to Kathmandu with her husband. There are planning to go abroad after a year or two thus, they are looking for second-hand furniture and electric appliances at cheaper rates.
Pooja is a 29 years old shopaholic and keeps buying anything and everything from furniture to electronics to clothes even when she doesn’t need them. Since she has spent her hard-earned money on these items, she doesn’t want to simply throw them away or give them to charity. So she now wants to find people who would be interested in buying these items from her.
Now, what if we provide a single platform for both buying and selling to them to sell and buy second-hand items at reasonable prices? This way both their problems can be solved. This is when the Thrift store app comes into the picture as the ultimate solution for the problems faced by both Nandini and Pooja.
User Personas
I created two different user personas of Nandini and Pooja to get more insights about their pain points and prioritize.
Based on these user personas, I identified the main user needs I wanted to address in the app while also taking into consideration the needs of the project.
The primary needs I defined were:
- Give buyers and sellers a single platform for buying and selling the second-hand items
- Clear buying and selling pages for a seamless selling and buying experience
- Product search by category to easily find furniture, electric, and clothing items
- Detailed product information to ensure proper product selection
Competitive and Comparative Analysis
Since I did not have real data to work with, I decided to check a few re-commerce apps and sites to see what they were doing with the UX and design and to sort of get a direction for this project.
I checked out a few of them such as:
- Ebay
- Patagonia Worn and wear
- Facebook Marketplace
- Etsy’s MAW Supply
It gave me an insight into what features these sites were using and what was their buying and selling process. It also gave me an insight into the payment and delivery system used by these sites.
I also found some similarities while going through these apps and sites.
The key features that were common in all these are:
- A sell button as FAB
- A location feature is enabled since a buyer or a seller won’t travel too far to buy or sell second-hand items.
- The user is both buyer and seller on the app so the layout had to be made keeping them both in mind.
Information Architecture
User flow Map
After getting the insights and enough knowledge from the user research and competitive analysis, I made a user flow map in order to get an idea of what features what needed for the app and what would be the user flow of the app.
Wireframes
After I had a clear idea of what features I wanted to have in the app with the help of the IA user flow chart, I came up with some rough wireframes for the app.
Final Design
1. ONBOARDING, SIGN-IN/UP
Since in this project, the main focus was the app and not its logo so I made a simple usable logo for the app and used the illustrations from Undraw for the onboarding pages. I made some changes to the illustrations to tailor them to my need. For the sign-in and sign-up pages, I placed them both on the same page to make it easier for the users. Sign in and sign up can also be done using Facebook or Google account.
2. HOME
For the home page, I made the page very simple and straight to the point. Users can select whether they want to explore furniture, electronics, or clothing items. After it has been selected, then they can select the sub-category that they are looking for in that specific category. This will direct them to the item list page where they can find items (eg: Bedroom Furnitures) and also can know the price, name of the furniture, and a little bit of its description without having to open the item detail page. Users can also filter out the list on the basis of price, either high to low or low to high, latest, or by location. They can also find the Sell FAB if they decide to sell something.
3. BUY
For the buy-side, the user can open the details page of any item they want and can read more about the item and get detailed insight about the condition of the item. They can either decide to make an offer to the seller for the bargaining purpose or directly chat with them through messages to discuss further the buying process. As they scroll down the detail page, they can see more of the items posted by the seller of the item if he/she has posted more than one item from their profile, and at the bottom section, the users can find the products similar to that of what they were viewing.
4. SELL
For the sell-side, the users can click the sell button and can get directed to the selling page where they can upload item image/s, write its price, title, details, and other related pieces of information. They can then post the item for sale.
5. NOTIFICATION/MESSAGE/PROFILE
I also designed pages for chats, notifications, and profiles. In the chats, users can see chats from the buyers and sellers that have transacted so far. It makes it easier to get a clear idea about who his/her seller/buyer is.
For the notification, I kept the design really simple and to the point. And for the profile section, I put the header and profile section plus name and details. The emoji at the end of the name was sort of a reward system to let other users know about the level of experience of the seller on the app,i.e., new user, occasional user, frequent user, etc. All the favorite items of the user are put below the edit button. Along with the favorite items, they can also see all the items posted by him/her for sale on the app.
Usability Testing:
To test the usability of this app, I sent the prototype to my friends and work colleagues and asked them to go through it and tell me their feedbacks.
Feedbacks
- The overall app looks good and the color theme is simple and gives a modern vibe.
- The app is easy and simple to use without any complex features.
- The delivery feature can be added since self-pickup can be tiring.
Future Goals
- Bringing the delivery feature into the picture. Features of either ‘self pick-up’ or ‘paid delivery’ can be added within the app.
- ‘Tracking the order/parcel’ feature can be added.
- An in-app purchase feature and payment method can be added.
- AD space for the app to earn revenue.
Take Away
- I did not have real data to work with so I had to follow the lead of my intuition at certain places. Thus, if I had had real data to work with then in that case, it would have had been helpful in taking better UX decisions.
- I took help from my designer as well as non-designer friends which helped me understand the general as well as the designer's point of view.
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