Etsy Custom Creations
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I love Etsy. I have definitely spent more money than I should have buying jewelry from the site. So I was excited to be working on a case study where I could add a new feature to their website where buyers could submit a proposal and have artisans bid on it. P3 was also our first group project which I was both nervous and relieved about. It’s nice to have a team of people shouldering the work but it’s hard to know how personalities will interact. I functioned as project manager for the two week time period we took to complete our case study, luckily P3 went far more smoothly than I could have expected.
Screeners, Surveys and Interviews
For this project we were introduced to screeners and surveys. In total we had 51 respondents to our screener. One of the most surprising things we learned from our screener is that 73% of people would be willing to buy from an online store simply based on reviews. We were expecting most participants to say that a recommendation from a friend would carry more weight so we learned early on that we had to make sure our feature utilized reviews. We also learned that convenience was a huge part of what users liked about online shopping so we also had to make our feature was convenient as possible.
Interviews were even more interesting. Based off of the screener we split our interviewees into two groups, buyers and sellers. Some of our most affective questions were:
“Have you ever sold at a store like Etsy, Zazzle or SquareSpace where you can buy one of a kind items from independent sellers? If not have you bought anything?”
“What are some of the criteria you use to determine where you will sell a product?”
“What are some of the criteria you use to determine whether or not you will buy something from a site?”
“What are some problems you’ve faced when purchasing products from a website?”
Not only did they help us understand our users motivations even more but we learned some really interesting things about Etsy itself. For example all of our users that bought things off Etsy searched for products they wanted and didn’t necessarily browse for them. There was also a strong connection between users using Etsy and also using Pinterest. We also learned that convenience and good customer service were important not only to the buyer but also the seller. One user stated:
“I’m an Amazon Girl but I go to Etsy for specialized products.”
Another stated they were concerned with making sure the person they were dealing with was legitimate:
“If I were to customize something, I would have to rest assured they are professionals.”
Finally, Etsy above all else is known for having unique products:
“No one else is going to have this. It’s difficult to run around the city looking for a specific product.”
Comparative Analysis
Our team looked at a few different competitors including Zazzle, Fiverr, 99Designs and Quirky. We found that only Fiverr had a similar feature to what we wanted to design but the target audience was more graphic design or other small gigs and not jewelry, furniture or clothing like Etsy. Etsy itself did not have an effective means for requesting custom work either. You have to already be on the product page to request a custom product and when you do request something it’s more like sending an email to the seller. One of our interviewees who has an Etsy shop said that in the past she has gotten paragraphs long messages that she then has to comb through to figure out what the person actually wants. This was definitely something we felt like we could fix easily.
Personas
After affinity mapping we created three personas. A buyer, Maria the Event Planner, a buyer turned seller, Vivian the Hybrid, and a seller, Shelly the Seller. Maria is your typical buyer on Etsy who knows what she wants and is looking for something unique. Vivian is someone who originally began by buying things off of Etsy and then decided to start selling as a creative outlet. Finally there is Vivian who has her own microbusiness and supplements her income with the money she makes from her Etsy site.
We decided that choosing Maria as our primary persona would give us the most to work with. We did some feature prioritization and decided to focus on:
- Having a clear and concise proposal form.
- Personal preference toggles to aid in communicating a buyer’s taste to the artist.
- The ability to tag requests so that they go straight to multiple artists inbox at once.
- A chat function to facilitate communication between the artists and sellers.
- The ability to upload inspiration from a file, camera or social media such as pinterest.
The problem that we wanted to solve was that Maria, an interior designer needs a table made of specific materials and she can’t find anyone in her area with the correct qualifications to do this. She needs to submit a proposal on the run that artisans from anywhere can bid on. It needs to be delivered on time, within her client’s budget, and she must be able to easily communicate with the artisan.
Hand Sketching, Wireframing and Prototyping
My team started out by hand sketching and made a quick paper prototype. We tested the flow on a few users and it was a success. From there we began to create high fidelity mockups. In the next project I would like to spend more time sketching and need to read the HIG. We realized when we began writing out spec doc that we made some elements and fonts too small and I personally had to spend about two hours going back and redoing some work. My teammates and I did the majority of the wireframing together which I think was a super effective strategy. We split the different screens we needed between all three of us and would sit next to one another while we wireframed. Whenever we were unsure of something or needed feedback we were there for one another so we got past any potential issues really quickly. If I can I’d like to use this same strategy on my remaining projects as well.
Usability Testing and Iterating
Usability testing was also a relative success. Users loved the concepts but they did have some minor critiques about functionality.
Carla, who has her own Etsy store, said “This is amazing. Very clear and I love Pinterest integration.” One of her biggest complaints about Etsy was that there was no efficient way for a buyer to communicate with a seller. She did also state that she would want to view her inbox in a list view rather than in tiles so that was a feature we included.
Another user stated that she would want to be able to favorite her bid and go back to it later. That was something we hadn’t even thought of but felt like it could be executed easily enough that we should include it.
Another user mentioned that he would like to be able message the artist about the bid and possibly negotiate with them before accepting. We felt it was another thing we could add quickly and effectively enough that we should include it as well.
Next Steps
In the short term we wanted to increase the buyer functionality. Some ideas we had were to allow users to annotate the inspiration they uploaded. Over time we’d like to give the sellers a more streamlined experience as well. Finally, we’d like to create different parts of the custom creations marketplace where sellers could upload custom packages they may have like t-shirts or mugs that they customize regularly.
Final Thoughts
Overall, for me, P3 was a success. I was really nervous going into this about what my experience might be because of past work experiences. My teammates and I were always willing to communicate with one another and we have similar design styles so it made it really easy to work with one another. We all had the same amount of passion about the project and UX in general. I would gladly work with either one of them again.
Prototype
https://invis.io/798ITN5YQ#/186625337_Tablet_Home_SignedIn_Buyer
