Thrifty
Thrifty is a website where users buy and sell used items, allowing them to see the product status and communicate with sellers without fear of being scammed.
Background
There is a growing number of websites and mobile applications that allow users to sell and buy used items online, therefore earning and saving money on quality items.
However, I have not come across many that provide the feel of a thrift store. I wanted to explore the current services offered, see what challenges users have come across, and also use this opportunity to work on my visual design skills.
I gave myself a timeline of about two weeks from start to finish of the project and worked as the sole UI/UX researcher and designer.
Research
I designed a survey to understand user shopping behavior online and uncover the pain points users have come across while searching for and selling used items online. The survey participants came from Facebook Survey groups (27 final responses).
The majority of my surveyed population were women (80%) were women between ages 17-56 (Average age of 28). The most common services used were Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, and Craigslist.
Other questions I asked included
• What are your goals when using these services?
• What are your biggest challenges and pain points when using these services?
Frustrations and Pain Points
Some of the most common challenges users faced on these websites include
• Difficulty of assessing the quality of items
• Unreliable sellers/buyers (people not following through or replying)
• Unreliable delivery/pickup
• Unknown status of product being sold
Problem Statement
The difficulty in assessing the quality of the item as well as the lack of reliability of the sellers/buyers inhibits users from selling/buying a used item online. Issues in managing delivery/pickup and the unknown status of an item creates further hindrance in making a purchase or selling an item.
User Personas
Understanding User Preferences
From the empathy map, user personas, and user needs I gathered that users enjoy buying used unique items to save money and reduce waste in the environment. But I needed to focus on a specific category of items that would appear on the website so I asked users what it is they are interested in looking at in thrift stores.
Most of the people look at clothes when going to thrift stores.
Critical Features
Features found on FB marketplace, Ebay, and Cragslist would be included in Thrifty (name of website I would be designing). I also added Product Status and Quality Rating features not found on these websites that would help resolve the pain points users were experiencing. Must-have features are features the website would have if it were fully designed.
Organizing Information: Information Architecture
A/B Testing and Brainstorming Low-Fi Wireframes
Usability Testing and Iterations
The specific flow I focused on testing was viewing an item from the landing page, messaging seller about pickup/delivery, and viewing the profile of the seller. This would give an overview of how the website would function to see if users would want to use such a service.
I tested these wireframes using the platform Maze, and found navigation issues below.
Final Wireframes
