Thrifter

• How to manage the client's expectation during the process, since this is a long term project?
• How can a second-hand e-commerce product satisfy users who are accustomed to both ends of the transaction?
• The pain points of existing products are various and fragmented. How to clearly define and summarize the problem statement from fragment points?
• Small projects often face constraints. What steps can be taken to obtain the necessary resources?

After solving all above challenge, I delivered an App platform that offers C-to-C second-hand dealing services and optimize user experience during the dealing, which focus on 4 main function. I'm flattered by the final test results.

In order to make design decisions as objectively as possible, I chose three research methods: secondary research based on big data, competitor research, and quality 1-on-1 interview.

In a small project that lacks big data, I investigated the data of several large companies in previous years. To ensure the reliability of the data, I finally determined to use the data of Morning Consultant and GlobalData instead of directly using their reports. They all have at least 1,000 user feedbacks as data sources and the data were collected recently.

Other Key Insights:

• Generation-Z and Millennials are the largest user groups.
• C2C sale model is the most popular.
• App on phone is a popular way
• People get used to order and online pick-up
• ...

Keeping the above statistics in mind, I analyzed the 3 most popular second-hand market applications around peer-to-peer transactions.

While their functions and interface vary, I've still found that they're all missing some parts during the transaction experience. That would fully improve the efficiency of information exchange. This became my chance to solve the problem.

Our users are ashamed to say they have bought used items in normal social situations. How should I find real users for randomness?

I use different app to contact people who already have a lot of experience on their profiles, and in this scenario, participants are more willing to share. I also searched for friends with moving experience, because they must have had a lot of needs to change things. Finally, 10 experienced users on second-hand trading sites were found.

I completed a usability study with 10 participants to understand their transaction experience. I identified several pain points and their location in the overall transaction.

Key Insights:

• Buyer hope more details, and hope to have consultation
• Buyer hope to know the seller's credit in case the scam and dealer
• Seller hope their product can be exposed to more people
• Seller hope increase the effectiveness of the communication
• ...

Method : 1-to-1 interview, Persona
Tool: Miro, Flowmap
Cluster all answer as group，summarize and classify user responses

After a series of research, we clarified many questions, such as "Who are we designing for?", "What should we design?", "Where is the problem space?", etc. Finally, we got our problem statemtent:

Since the problem statement, I summarized the second-hand transaction process both from the buyer's perspective and the seller's perspective.

I also made statistics based on the questions collected at each stage of the research, and got a lot of pain points which located in several stage during the transaction. Next, I used "How might we" to find the corresponding solutions, and used "Complexity & Value Quandrant" to determine the final MVP.

Final MVP's Feature:

Having the persona & MVP in mind, I simulate what context when Natalie encountered, combing with the transaction process, then I got the list of the pages and the order of them, I drew this down.

Method: Usability test

Changes:

• Redesign the Item details pages, add more card groups, simplize the nav bar
• Add success button on the successfull pages

When I started figuring out "what would a THRIFTER look like?" I found its target user_the role of "Natalie" in previous stage. Having that in mind, I'm also thinking about what qualities and thought this brand trying to convey.

After the careful and validated low-fidelity iteration and branding, the first high-fidelity prototype was completed very quickly. But we still invites 3 users to use it, for finding new improvments.

Method: 1-to-1 recruiting
Tools: Lookback
Participant: 5

Home page Iterations:

• Move the Brand Logo away from Title Bar, add the search bar input box.
• Change the color of the inactive Navbar icon to white. Leave the Active icon blue.

Search Page Iteration:

• Add some hot keywords/hot search trends under the “Search bar”.

Item Page Iterations:

• Put the Item Name at the Top. It will remain at the top title.
• Add the share button at the top. Share button will keep floated at the top when user browsing.
• Move the Seller name from title to the item bio part. Add the seller credit at this part.
• Archive the “like button” to the bottom
• Add a send icon on the Chat with Seller.

After finished whole design ,we did get some excited result from users:

This is the first time I involve an App project from very beginning. It's an exciting experience that developing product from a simple idea.

1. Do adequate research :I got a lot of opinions that I didn‘t expect, which allowed me to meet the real needs and pain points of users better.

2. Validate the Idea in a sprint
After researching, I got tons of clues that seemed huge and disorganized. But we alwasy can find out the direction through step-by-step induction and analysis.