Retoys
Second Hand Toys E-Commerce
Project Overview
Consuming is inevitable when it comes to kids. Especially when they are young, they need toys for their body and brain development.
However, sometimes it could be expensive and stressful in this process. Parents mostly focus on the material’s positive impact on their kids. These materials change periodically and at the end, they have to spend lots of money on these items without any doubt.
My Role
UI/UX Designer
UX Researcher
The Team
Solo UI/UX Designer
My Additions
Competitive Analysis
Heuristic Analysis
User Research
User Interviews
Online Survey
Concept Ideation
User Interface Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Tools Used
Miro
Adobe XD
The biggest problem for parents looking to find a quick solution to no longer used toys is the fact that it isn't easy and quick. They find themselves spending large amounts of time finding enough space at their home or reaching out to people who really need them, researching information, and coming up with pricing and descriptions.
The Challenge
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The Solution
A resale market app that combines location-based image search feature and parenthood education to help sellers and buyers quickly find information and create listings
My Process
Research
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed two different industry leaders that had a second hand shopping service system such as Ebay, Etsy. After analyzing the leaders, I wanted to dive in more to get more insights about the industry by creating heuristic analysis of eBay.
Online Survey
After some research about the topic, I wanted to collect some data from the existing users. I set up an online survey and asked them to fill it out.
I used Google Survey Form to conduct my research. In total, 68 parents have attended the survey. I shared my survey in a mom’s group on Facebook. After the survey, I collected data about the user’s real experiences with second-hand shopping. Based on the results, I designed the home screen details and some additional features according to their expectations and current shopping preferences. ​​​​​​​
User Interviews
At the discovery phase of my project, I conducted user interviews with 5 potential users in order to get a better understanding of the problem.
User interviews were such a great way to gain knowledge about the problems and needs what users are facing.
After these insights, I decided on my design concept as a local based mobile application where users can find toys around their neighborhood.
Ideation
Personas
The final step of my user research part was to analyze all the data that I collected to create user personas.
User Flows
Affinity Mapping
This method allowed me to see a good form of synthesis that I used after the interviews. I added new ideas and removed some of the unnecessary ideas without fear. I didn’t try to add hierarchy, process, and connections between groups too soon. I gave myself some time to think and organize. Giving colors and orientation of sticky notes let the categories figure themselves out organically.
Empathy Mapping
This empathy map helped me about organizing my users’ insights, observations in a visual way. Also, there are the quotes I’ve collected from users' interviews to better understand my user’s pain points, goals, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
Initial Sketches
I usually start the design process with low-fidelity sketches. This is the way I iterate through many design options quickly. My main purpose of the sketching process was brainstorming and testing the design.
Wireframing
At the beginning of my design process, I created low-fidelity wireframes for testing purposes. I used Adobe XD as a tool. The wire-framing process was so useful to help the design becoming more solid. I made login/signup and buyer flows as the beginning. I used Overflow tool for creating wire flows which allowed me to see how to interact between pages. I learned the points that I need to improve at the next stage such as purchasing flows and home page details.
Usability Testing
Before moving to the high-fidelity designs, I did two rounds of testing in order to reveal possible usability problems. My aim from the user testing, I was aiming to find out the problems about the buyer and seller flow at the final phase of high fidelity screens. The participants who were given the tasks to complete were the target group such as moms and dads. I used remote and moderated methods for testing. I had a chance to get valuable insights from the tests such as some icons were found confusing, there was no returning options on some of the pages.
Thanks to these findings and feedbacks, I improved my high fidelity screens and went to next version of my design
Style Guide
Prototyping
High Fidelities
Final Prototype
Reflections & Takeaways
UX process sometimes is not linear. Going back and forth during the project makes design decisions more effective and usable for users. When you understand your user's real needs and problems about the product, it leads you to create a better user flows that means you definitely design a better product at the end of the project.
I had a chance to experience how to conduct research and do interviews with users, most importantly based on those results how you implement the results on your design. I think the whole process becomes more solid when you apply the data that you collect from the users during the project on your design.