Why are the vendors not getting the desired visibility &
shoppers not discovering the deals?
We tested the existing app with 8 participants in each category —the vendor and the shopper. Our goals were to understand the users' motivation to use the app, the challenges, and the areas for improvement.
"Due to the Covid curfew, I am giving out big discounts to attract customers. Even then I am having difficulty with the sales. I subscribed to the app thinking this would change. But I see no difference."
- Prakash (vendor), Prakash Provision
"What's the point if I don't see the deals and offers on the items I need and when I need them?"
- Shreya (shopper), Homemaker
Discovery:
A major assumption leading to change in the user flow
We assumed that because we made the explore feature super accessible on the app, the shoppers would actively use it.
Instead, the feature was not used to its best capacity due to a lack of time and motivation.
User behavior:
How we want shoppers to use this app:
Follow multiple businesses they are interested in from the explore tab ---->Go to the feed tab to look at their poss to track new products, discounts, offerings, etc offered ----> Compare the best deal in their locality ----> Make a purchase.
How shoppers were using the app:
Following only their usual go-to businesses ----> Mainly use the app when they need something ----> reach out to the vendors ----> place an order
Problem statement:
How might we help?
1. vendors get more shoppers, and
2. motivate shoppers to find the best deals?
Solution experiments:
Can notification be our solution?
To help our users, we decided to try out alternate solutions such as an in-app notification center, push notifications, flashcards, and advertisements.
These ideas solved the visibility challenge but failed to motivate shoppers to take action.
Revised problem statement:
How might we help?
1. vendors get more shoppers and
2. shoppers quickly discover services and deals catering to their interests and needs
How we got there:
Designing the solution in line with user behavior
After further user studies, we decided to change the direction of our experience from --> letting shoppers find information from the feed and the explore features to --> guiding shoppers to find rich and helpful content via search.
Vision:
After doing market research on some of the popular e-commerce apps in different categories such as fashion, grocery, movies, etc.
We created some basic guidelines for search redesign:
1. It provides a data window across multiple business verticals.
2. It provides a collection of entry points to products & businesses.
3. It intelligently understands shopper's intent to help them move faster.
Design experiments:
We tested multiple designs that aligned with our vision and goals and evaluated their trade-offs.
Images 1, 2 & 3: Search feature UI iterations;
Image 4: Search final design
Design principles:
In-app search is one of the most useful features of any app. Many users will come to the app looking for something specific and the app must get them to the right result in the minimum possible time.
I defined the following principles keeping this in mind.
1. Clear hierarchy
2. Scalability
3. Reduce cognitive load
4. Efficiency
The impact:
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