My Role
UX/UI designer responsible for:
User Interview, Affinity Mapping, Sketches, Wireframes (lo-fi & hi-fi), Prototype, Usability Test, Project Management
Deliverable
High-fidelity Interactive Prototype
Duration
2 weeks
Team
Kasey Peshek (UX/UI Designer)
Traci Fields (UX Researcher)
Tools
Figma
Miro
overview
Our team was tasked to add a feature to an existing mobile application. We decided to tackle OfferUp, an online mobile-first C2C marketplace with an emphasis on in-person transactions, where people can buy and sell new and secondhand goods. Our team was tasked to add a feature to an existing mobile application.
My team first started by exploring what OfferUp currently offers to help users feel more secure when completing a transaction in person. We found that it is recommended for the users to chat through the messaging feature within the app, and to meet at Community MeetUp Spots. However, the current app does not have any specific feature that users can utilize in order to provide them with safety assurance.
Our objective was to add a feature integration into OfferUp to help users with a sense of security whenever users meet with other users in person during the transaction of an item.
process
Empathize
User Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Define
User Persona
C & C Analysis
User Flow
Ideate
Design Studio
Sketching
Prototype
Lo-fi Wireframes
Hi-fi Prototype
Test
Usability Test
user interviews
8 interviews
Our goal from the interviews was to find out their behaviors and pain points when using a website or a mobile application to purchase items secondhand. Do they currently take any safety measures or precautions themselves, what applications do they use and what they love or don’t love about the experience?
From the interviews, we learned what users currently do when meeting up in person to complete a transaction and what their pain points were.
affinity mapping
Our team then compiled our data in an affinity map and found a few main patterns that kept coming up during the interviews.
Users currently take their own safety precautions outside of the application
Users would like to feel more reassured about their safety when meeting up with strangers
Users feel a sense of uncertainty when meeting up with a stranger because they are afraid of being harmed
After affinity mapping, a problem statement was created:
Karyn wants to feel reassured about her personal safety because she is meeting people she does not know and is concerned about being harmed.
How might we reassure users of their physical safety when meeting up with strangers?
persona
We then created a persona based on our findings from the user interviews. We referred back to this persona throughout the design process to ensure this specific user’s needs were kept at the forefront of the problem.
competitive and comparative analysis
Using a feature audit, a competitive analysis was conducted on OfferUp’s direct competitors: Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Since neither of those two platforms offers any safety features, a comparative analysis was conducted on Uber.
user flow
With the problem statement and persona to guide us, we constructed a user flow.
design studio
My team held a design studio to visually brainstorm our ideas using the user flow that was created. We came together and realized that we needed to scale back on some features we initially discussed and focus on what was best for our user.
design style guide
Since this was not a redesign, but integrating a feature into the app, I kept the design style of how the app is currently. I created a design style guide because I was unable to find OfferUp’s guide online.
sketches & hi-fi prototype
After we all agreed on a design, I iterated on the sketches and transformed them into digital low-fidelity wireframes to see the feature at a high level. After our team agreed that this was the path we wanted to take, I created the high-fidelity wireframes. While developing the design, I made sure to design with the current design style OfferUp currently has.
Adding Safety Page
Since users are able to still post an item through the selling page, we decided to take the post page out and replace it with the safety page. This way users can access the safety features easily with one click.
Trusted Contacts
Allows users to add people they trust to get notified whenever they meet up with the seller/buyer to complete the transaction of an item and activate the Safety Mode.
Meet Up Event
Users can schedule a Meet Up event through the messaging page to remind them of the event and allow them set up the Safety Mode for that transaction. Once the event is created, users can choose which Trusted Contact will be notified for that event. Users can also access creating a Meet Up Event through the main safety menu bar.
Safety Mode
Once activated, the Safety Mode tracks the user’s current location and sends the Trusted Contacts text messages with who, when, and where they are meeting.
usability test
7 participants | moderated | in-person or via Zoom
During each round of user testing, we asked the participants what their impressions of the designs were. Many of the questions after the testing revolved around asking if they thought the safety features would be helpful or not, what users like or disliked about the concepts, if there were any concerns.
We had the users go through each of the safety features: add a trusted contact, create the Meet Up event, and activate the Safety Mode. A few issues came up from the testing:
2/7 users were unsure about where to properly click to remove the initial notification popup to let people know about the new feature
4/7 struggled to recognize the calendar icon in the messaging chat in order to schedule the Meet Up event.
Overall, the consensus was that the safety feature was easy to navigate through and understand. Most participants said the features would be helpful to them and provide a sense of security when they meet up with the buyer/seller to make the exchange.
prototype
next steps
Interview more users to find out their thoughts about safety concerns
Explore making the Safety Mode turn on automatically
Conduct more usability test on the iterated prototype
Design a more thorough onboarding process
takeaway
I discovered new ways to work and learn most efficiently in a group. As we all came from different backgrounds, each member of the team brought their own unique perspectives. We were able to bounce ideas off each other and grow from each other’s strengths. There were some challenges where we had moments of miscommunication, but we were all able to come together as a team and work through the obstacles. My previous experience with organization and project management was valuable with this project. It allowed me to keep the team on track and organized.