Overview
Outlet is a mobile commerce app in the same space as Wish and Aliexpress selling low-cost items, primarily clothing and accessories, direct from merchants. I helped develop it's features from conception to it's first iteration.
Roles
UI/UX Design
User Research
Visual Design
Deliverables
Research
User Flows
Wireframes
High Fidelity Screens
Tools
Balsamiq
Sketch
Invision
Background
Plaza is a local classified’s app and Outlet was designed to be an e-commerce sister app. Both apps needed to be similar in design but with different functions and separate branding colors. Information is separated by page and tabbed for flexibility. For both, a bottom action bar that was stickied to the page allows a user to be able to perform the primary action at any time on the product page
User Testing
From the wireframes, I selected two versions for displaying visual and text information. I polled the users who use our tools the most: our data scientists, client services, and developers.
Test 1: MVP
Duties: Wrote questions, conducted interviews, and compiled results.
Results: Allow users to control their shopping experience by implementing search functionality and categories. Give users the ability to add bookmark or favorite items. Increase consumer trust of app by adding email login and highlighting the return policy.
Test 2: Competitor Test
Duties: Recruited, screened, and scheduled applicants, wrote test script & questions, conducted and supervised interviews, compiled answers & identified key findings.
Results: Most people were goal-oriented, even the people who browsed, had an idea in mind like “exercise equipment”. They also tended to open apps from marketing pushes. Initial impressions of the feed were not good. But once they went to search for certain items, their opinion turned around. Consumer trust is important, but can be turned around with selection
Information Architecture
Design Iterations
Visual Designs
What I Learned
User testing is necessary to understand product direction and feature development. Ecommerce is a special case, because money is being exchanged for physical goods, user trust was more important that in other types of consumer apps.
However, we kept running to the issue of drop-off in purchasing. What I would do differently is developing more features to entice first-time users to going through the check-out process. Incentives like free items or discounts.