SWOOOP

A mobile application that provides a seamless shopping experience to support small local businesses.

Role

UX/UI Designer

Length

10 months (ongoing)

Skills & Tools

Competitive Analysis, Interviewing, Storyboarding, Experience Prototyping, Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate

Description

There is an opportunity for local retail stores to be able to compete with larger chains by offering curbside and in-store pick-up options.

By providing a central platform for local businesses to showcase their products, users can easily shop, purchase, and track their orders in one place while being able to support small businesses in their communities. SWOOOP is our design solution to help empower local retail stores and provide a seamless shopping experience for their customers.

How can we help empower small local retail stores that are struggling to compete with larger chains? These small stores can't afford to offer online delivery as well as curbside and in-store pick-up options.

The Problem

Our Solution

We created a central platform for local businesses to showcase their products. Users can easily shop, purchase, and track their orders in one place while being able to support small local businesses in their communities.

Process

Shop by store or by item.

Purchase multiple items from different stores.

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Track the status of all of their orders in one place.

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Scroll below to learn more about our process.

Our Process

01 Understand the Problem

Why is this a problem worth solving? What are the opportunities?

We want to find a way to empower small local retail stores to be able to compete with larger chains- like Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart. These larger stores have successfully utilized curbside pickup options as a response to the pandemic.

We see an opportunity that might help small local retail stores stay in business. By providing a platform to showcase goods that are available for curbside and in-store pickup, smaller stores could save on delivery/shipping costs and potentially increase in-store purchases.

Young professionals are also becoming more aware of the importance of shopping locally; however, there isn’t an existing and convenient way to do so.

Background Research

We researched the problem and found some interesting retail statistics below. The goal of this background research was to learn more about small local businesses and how shoppers currently prefer to shop. This process helped identify what areas of the shopping experience could be improved to encourage shoppers to support their small local businesses.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

There are several small businesses that need support, especially during this pandemic.

Buying online and picking up in-store is preferred by many shoppers as well as business owners.

SWOOOP aims to help cut costs by focusing on curbside and in-store pickup which would help keep more money in the pockets of the shoppers and the business owners.

Competitive Analysis

Our background research helped us identify companies that are tackling similar problems. Instacart, Shipt, Doordash, and Postmates are applications that provide similar features to our idea. They focus mainly on major retailers and mostly for grocery and food pickup and delivery. Below is our analysis of these different applications, what products they offer, and whether they partner with large and/or small businesses.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Postmates is our closest competitor. They cater to both large and small businesses and recently begun expanding their retail delivery options to cater to more than just restaurants.

SWOOOP will set itself apart from Postmates by solely focusing on small local retailers that offer a range of products. This application will also aim to cut costs of delivery and service fees by only keeping the curbside and in-store pickup options.

SWOOOP will make it easier for consumers who are looking to shop and support their local mom and pop retailers.

02 Identifying the Opportunities

User Personas

After our competitive analysis research on Postmates, we analyzed who their key demographics are. We found that their typical users are millennials, ages 18 to 38, with a median income of $67,331.22 (from askwonder.com).

We used this information to create a shopper persona to identify the types of consumers we will interview in the next process of our design thinking.

We also created a persona to represent small local retailers to understand their goals and motivations.

Interviews

We decided to interview people based on the personas we created. We interviewed a variety of shoppers in their early 20s to late ’30s who work in different industries.

We also interviewed small local business owners in Los Angeles. These businesses ranged from small corner stores to apparel, coffee shops, and plant nurseries. We highlighted the most common and valuable feedback from the interviews in the image below.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Shoppers want a seamless shopping experience as much as possible, to save on shipping or delivery fees, and have comfort in knowing they will receive the exact products they ordered. A good number of them also preferred to shop locally when possible.

We learned that a lot of local shop owners want to adapt and offer options such as curbside and in-store pickup. It would encourage shoppers to come by the store and would reduce the need for delivery costs. They also wanted to find a way to engage more customers digitally while maintaining their brand identity.

Existing Customer Journey Map - Postmates

After the interviews, we looked into Postmates to create a customer journey flow of their current application to understand how they deliver a successful customer experience. They have an average customer rating of 4.8 stars by about 1.3 million users.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

It is important to have a seamless process of ordering, purchasing, and tracking orders.

There are several pain points in the delivery aspects of the current application, such as high fees and instances of getting the wrong order. We will look into alleviating these in SWOOOP.

Customer Journey Map - SWOOOP

We utilized the Postmates customer journey map to create one for SWOOOP. It was a helpful step that allowed us to better empathize with our potential customers. We added features we believed could elevate the customer experience and removing elements that are pain points and not useful to our application.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

This exercise helped us understand how to create a platform solely for small local businesses to sell their products while eliminating the pain points of the ‘delivery’ option.

03 Ideate and Test

Initial User Flow

After better understanding the customer experience we wanted to create, we generated a user flow diagram to understand the flow of our application. Our customer journey map highlighted the importance of creating an easy way for customers to shop, purchase, and track their orders. We divided our app into these main categories.

Prototyping and Testing - Low Fidelity Sketches

We generated a low-fidelity wireframe so that we could quickly turn it into a digital prototype and generate useful user feedback. We focused on the three main functions: shop, purchase and track - based on our initial user flow.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

We tested our prototype with the same people we previously interviewed and received some helpful insights:

Our testers had trouble navigating the prototype smoothly.
Most of them didn’t know that they were able to shop by item since this feature was hard to find and was only available after clicking on the search bar.
They like the convenience of being able to add more items to their bag while they were still on the checkout page.
They like the ability to track when their packages are ready.

Low-Fidelity Prototype Testing

Iteration - Updated User Flow Diagram, Wireframe and Prototype

The ability to shop by store or by item was really important to the shoppers and the local small businesses that we interviewed. Store owners wanted the option for shoppers to shop by store to be able to have a way to preserve their brand identity and the shoppers wanted an ability to shop by item because they would be able to more easily compare prices on items between stores nearby. This led us to revisit our user flow to see if we could better enhance their user experiences. We also created new wireframes, tested a low-fidelity prototype, and received another set of constructive feedback.

Low-Fidelity User Flow

Low-Fidelity Wireframe

Low-Fidelity Prototype

KEY TAKEAWAYS

By making the initial landing page very obvious and allowing the customers to easily select how and where they want to shop, we were able to satisfy both the shoppers and the small business owners with this iteration.

04 Final Design

Although this design continues to be a work in progress, the concept behind the design will remain the same.

SWOOOP is a mobile application that helps users explore the small local businesses within their city and allows them to:

Shop by store or item.
Purchase multiple items from different stores.
Track the status of all of their orders in one place.

Our Solution

High-Fidelity Prototype

Demo of shopping for a white jacket.

High-Fidelity User Flow

Reflection

It is easy to assume a solution to a problem will work, but there is so much value in listening, rapid prototyping and iterating to arrive at the best solution based on the needs of the users.

We learned that the users may not always have the best solutions, but they are good at helping us better understand the root of their problems. We learned how to better observe and listen to users as they interact with our product so that we may see and feel our product through their eyes, with the hopes of making their experience better.

Thank you for reading!

Scrool

A mobile application that provides a seamless shopping experience to support small local businesses.

Role

Description

There is an opportunity for local retail stores to be able to compete with larger chains by offering curbside and in-store pick-up options.

The Problem

Our Solution

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Our Process

01 Understand the Problem

​

​

Why is this a problem worth solving? What are the opportunities?

Background Research

KEY TAKEAWAYS

​

There are several small businesses that need support, especially during this pandemic.

​

​​​​Buying online and picking up in-store is preferred by many shoppers as well as business owners.

​

SWOOOP aims to help cut costs by focusing on curbside and in-store pickup which would help keep more money in the pockets of the shoppers and the business owners.

Competitive Analysis

KEY TAKEAWAYS

​

Postmates is our closest competitor. They cater to both large and small businesses and recently begun expanding their retail delivery options to cater to more than just restaurants.

​

SWOOOP will set itself apart from Postmates by solely focusing on small local retailers that offer a range of products. This application will also aim to cut costs of delivery and service fees by only keeping the curbside and in-store pickup options.

​

SWOOOP will make it easier for consumers who are looking to shop and support their local mom and pop retailers.

02 Identifying the Opportunities

​

​

​

User Personas

​

Interviews

We decided to interview people based on the personas we created. We interviewed a variety of shoppers in their early 20s to late ’30s who work in different industries.

We also interviewed small local business owners in Los Angeles. These businesses ranged from small corner stores to apparel, coffee shops, and plant nurseries. We highlighted the most common and valuable feedback from the interviews in the image below.

Existing Customer Journey Map - Postmates

After the interviews, we looked into Postmates to create a customer journey flow of their current application to understand how they deliver a successful customer experience. They have an average customer rating of 4.8 stars by about 1.3 million users.

KEY TAKEAWAYS It is important to have a seamless process of ordering, purchasing, and tracking orders. There are several pain points in the delivery aspects of the current application, such as high fees and instances of getting the wrong order. We will look into alleviating these in SWOOOP.

Customer Journey Map - SWOOOP

KEY TAKEAWAYS This exercise helped us understand how to create a platform solely for small local businesses to sell their products while eliminating the pain points of the ‘delivery’ option.

03 Ideate and Test

​

Initial User Flow

Prototyping and Testing - Low Fidelity Sketches

We generated a low-fidelity wireframe so that we could quickly turn it into a digital prototype and generate useful user feedback. We focused on the three main functions: shop, purchase and track - based on our initial user flow.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

We tested our prototype with the same people we previously interviewed and received some helpful insights:

Our testers had trouble navigating the prototype smoothly.

Most of them didn’t know that they were able to shop by item since this feature was hard to find and was only available after clicking on the search bar.

They like the convenience of being able to add more items to their bag while they were still on the checkout page.

They like the ability to track when their packages are ready.

Low-Fidelity Prototype Testing

Iteration - Updated User Flow Diagram, Wireframe and Prototype

Low-Fidelity User Flow

Low-Fidelity Wireframe

Low-Fidelity Prototype

KEY TAKEAWAYS By making the initial landing page very obvious and allowing the customers to easily select how and where they want to shop, we were able to satisfy both the shoppers and the small business owners with this iteration.

04 Final Design

​

​

​

Although this design continues to be a work in progress, the concept behind the design will remain the same.

​

SWOOOP is a mobile application that helps users explore the small local businesses within their city and allows them to:

Shop by store or item. Purchase multiple items from different stores. Track the status of all of their orders in one place.

Our Solution

​

High-Fidelity Prototype

Demo of shopping for a white jacket.

High-Fidelity User Flow

Reflection

It is easy to assume a solution to a problem will work, but there is so much value in listening, rapid prototyping and iterating to arrive at the best solution based on the needs of the users.

Buying online and picking up in-store is preferred by many shoppers as well as business owners.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

It is important to have a seamless process of ordering, purchasing, and tracking orders.

There are several pain points in the delivery aspects of the current application, such as high fees and instances of getting the wrong order. We will look into alleviating these in SWOOOP.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

This exercise helped us understand how to create a platform solely for small local businesses to sell their products while eliminating the pain points of the ‘delivery’ option.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

By making the initial landing page very obvious and allowing the customers to easily select how and where they want to shop, we were able to satisfy both the shoppers and the small business owners with this iteration.

Shop by store or item.
Purchase multiple items from different stores.
Track the status of all of their orders in one place.