Project 3: Adding a Feature to an Existing Product
PROJECT BRIEF
Etsy is an online global marketplace that specializes in handmade items. Etsy would like to create a feature that allows sellers to take requests for customizable items.
Target Device: Responsive website that works well with iPhone and/or iPad.
Time to complete: 2 weeks.
TEAM
This was our first group project and I was super excited! I‘ve always enjoyed working in teams because three heads are better than one.
ROLES
- Me: Project Manager
- Ro: UX Designer
- Mitch: UX Designer
DISCOVERY & RESEARCH
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Our first step as a team was to get familiar with the Etsy brand and define who our top competitors were. Through silent generation and a collaborative effort, we’ve narrowed it down to:
- Amazon Handmade (a direct competitor)
- Ebay
- Custom Made
We’ve decided to split the research portion into 3 separate parts:
- Features comparison (Me)
- Heuristics evaluation (Mitch)
- Competitive user flows (Ro)
These were the results:
RECRUITING USERS
To recruit users who were relevant to our product, we sent out screener surveys. The purpose of the screener was to identify whether or not participants were the right fit. Through the screener, we’ve discovered eligible candidates to interview as well as user test for future steps.
In addition to the screener, we’ve also leveraged our personal networks and reached out directly to people who we knew identified as Etsy users.
USER INTERVIEWS
We’ve interviewed users individually as well as in groups. We found it beneficial to do both. For individual interviews, we were able to cover more ground and save time. For group interviews, we were able to split our roles into:
- Interviewer
- Note Taker
- Recorder/Documenter
This way, each team member didn’t have to multi-task and was able to focus at the task at hand, making it a better experience for the interviewee.
ETSY ONLINE SELLER COMMUNITY
In addition to user interviews, we’ve discovered an online community where Etsy sellers came together to ask questions and share experiences. We found a few postings on specific seller problems, which helped us to gain even more insight on Etsy sellers outside of our interview scope.
PERSONAS
To make our user findings easier to understand and more digestible, we created personas.
Based on our user interviews, we’ve decided to create 3 personas — 2 buyers and 1 seller. User quotes that really brought our personas to life were:
- Jen: “I want to describe exactly what I want so that you can make it for me.”
- John: “I completely skipped over the customize directions in the description.”
- Erin: “There’s only a public posting option, so it’s difficult for buyers to differentiate between a public and a private offer.”
We chose Jen as our primary buyer and Erin as our primary seller. We have two primaries because Etsy had a marketplace business model, without one or the other, a marketplace would not be possible. John was there to remind us that we also needed to design for the “casual visitor” user as well.
DESIGN PROCESS
To really help us focus on our design, we redefined the problem statement for each of our primary users:
- Etsy buyers needed a way to find, request, and purchase custom goods.
- Etsy sellers needed a way to privately sell to buyers who make custom requests.
The solution: Create features that allowed buyers and sellers to purchase and sell customized goods.
FEATURE PRIORITIZATION
We’ve silently generated ideas of what we believed could solve the problem. In a collaborative manner, we’ve analyzed each idea and placed them into a feature prioritization chart. We knew it was important to focus on what was essential to have, but also used the least amount of effort and expenses. We wanted to find the simplest way to match the business’ goals to the user’s goals.
We found that our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) was the ability to list a private sale through Etsy’s already existing chat feature.
DESIGN STUDIO
Keeping our feature priorities and problem statements in mind, we’ve held a design studio session to rapidly generate design solutions. We’ve diverged and sketched out what we believed the features would look like. Each one of us then pitched and critiqued each other’s sketches. With the feedback we’ve received, we went back to iterate/refine our designs , and finally converged again to choose the ones we all agreed was the best fit.
We realized to really showcase how important these customizable features were, we needed to show it in 3 different flows. So we started by sketching out the wireflows:
We then digitized these into low fidelity wireframes.
Annotated wireframes:
USER TESTING
With our wireframes, we were able to user test. In total, we’ve conducted 3 user tests (in all different stages of our design phase).
Iterations:
- For our first sketch, we used a “star” icon to represent customizable items. However, one user didn’t know where to find the customizable item. So, we iterated and made it more literal and wrote out the word “customizable” with a bright orange banner.
“Stars remind me of notifications, not customization…”
- Different items can be customized in different ways, so we thought it would be easier for the buyer if we had one solid blank text box for them to fill in all of their customization requirements. However, one user pointed out, it was confusing to know what to write to the seller without any prompts letting users know what they can request for. So, we changed the request option from a text box to a form.
“I want the form to tell me what to write, I don’t want to have to think about it!”
- One user was confused as to why there were still so many steps to take after she had already chosen the “Buy It Now” option. She was also confused as to why there were so many “Customize” buttons. With this feedback, we condensed the options on the first screen and reworded the buttons to make it more clear.
“If I clicked on ‘Buy It Now’, why am I being prompted with more steps?”
FINAL PROTOTYPE
With all iterations implemented, we finally got to our prototype, which can be found here:
NEXT STEPS
- Consolidated feedback from all Etsy stakeholders
Our stakeholders include the marketing team, executive team, as well as the engineering team. It would be great to receive feedback from everyone to find out how they feel about the design solution.
- More user testing
Due to time constraints, we didn’t have enough time to test our final prototype. It would be great if we could do another round of user testing.
- Keep project on track for target launch date
We think this design solution solves the problem for both our users (buyers/sellers), and want to help keep this project on track for it’s target launch date.
