Depop Redesign
Introduction and Motivation
Depop is a peer-to-peer social e-commerce company where users can buy or resell new or secondhand items; the platform has become increasingly popular amongst the 16–24 age demographic, and has been an actionable way to encourage those to shop sustainably. Although it is recognized that most buyers are paying for the labor of resellers in discovering and modeling/posting the items, this project will be targeting the population of resellers on the platform who substantially rack up prices of clothing items they purchase from thrift stores, which can make the barrier for those who want to start shopping sustainably increasingly large; these items are usually priced unreasonably far from the original price. As an effect, it causes an increase in thrift store prices, which decreases accessibility to secondhand items for communities who need them.
The purpose of this project is to continue promoting and maintaining sustainable shopping habits while also making it easier for users to find items and clothes within their budget in order to help maintain a circular economy in sustainable fashion. The target users in this project are resale buyers who frequently shop secondhand through online platforms, as well as those who want to start shopping secondhand but have to overcome financial barriers before doing so.
Problem
How can we present pricing comparisons directly to buyers on resale platforms to lower the burden of researching and evaluating prices?
Solution
Implement a price comparison popup that allows users to quickly see item alternatives within Depop. Additionally, an integration of a price history graph where users are able to see price changes/trends from the past 30 days.
User Research
The purpose of conducting initial user research was to gain a better understanding of users’ decision-making process when purchasing from Depop and the impact of price on their decisions. Additionally, research would allow us to understand the tools and methodologies people utilize to decide on appropriate pricing for both buying and selling.
In total, there were 39 survey respondents––most of whom were within Depop’s target user base (18–24) and were either unemployed or worked part-time––and 4 interviewees. A few significant findings we observed from both surveys and interviews include:
15/39 respondents compare prices every time when online shopping
18/39 respondents believe most sellers offer fair prices and deem them as trustworthy
We believe that although most people deem the sellers trustworthy, respondents still need extra confirmation that what they are purchasing is fairly priced as most still feel the need to do research to justify the item price; performing price comparison on their own helps increase their trust in the seller. Our goal was to ease this process of research and evaluation.
11/39 respondents use Google as a price comparison tool
10/39 respondents use other price comparison tools, such as Honey, Depop, Ebay, or just through the site they are currently on.
We referred back to these alternative price comparison tools for competitive analysis and inspiration for our redesign.
Given the data we acquired, we crafted 3 user personas––2 buyer perspectives and 1 seller perspective––and 2 user flows: one buyer and seller. However, given time constraints, we decided to only focus on the buyer perspective moving forward.
Lo-Fi Prototypes + Usability Testing
Going off our UI sketches, we were able to develop two lo-fi prototypes:
After performing A/B testing on our two prototypes, a few key takeaways we got were:
3/4 users preferred Prototype B as they thought it was “more straightforward and simple”. The information they needed was “easier to access”.
Users prefer simple and convenient interfaces that allow them to access the information they need without exerting too much cognitive effort. We need to match their existing mental model of the platform so they can access price comparisons without being distracted from their usual shopping experience on Depop.
2/4 users thought Prototype A’s homepage had too much information in one place and felt overwhelming.
“The homepage is more for browsing and not for comparing prices.” — User 1
The price comparison extension was incorporated on the individual item page as opposed to a browsing page as users mentioned that they’re more likely to price check when they’re already focused on a specific item.
We based our hi-fi prototype primarily on Prototype B’s price comparison tool as it was able to provide users with a more intuitive and convenient way of accessing the information they needed. A few of Prototype A’s features were maintained as most users expressed how they like the price information graph, but we altered the implementation in order to minimize excessive information on one screen.
Hi-Fi Prototype + Alternative Price Comparison Screens
Default Price History and Price Comparison Screens
Alternative 1: Sidebar Approach (inspired by Friend’s list in Spotify)
- Introduce a non-invasive way for users to view similar products while still being able to interact with the original product screen.
- Features an infinite scrolling function and allow users the flexibility of browsing in the manner that best suits the user’s interests.
Alternative 2: Table Approach (inspired by Amazon’s price comparison table)
- Simultaneously compare prices from both Depop sellers and sellers across the web without having to toggle between the two filtering options in the original redesign.
- Provide users with extra information about each item.
- Is the additional information we are providing for users necessary, do we need to provide other types of information, is it overwhelming or hard to understand/read through?
Final Prototype
After extensive usability testing…
View our final prototype here!
Reflection
- Oftentimes, we found ourselves straying away from the original purpose and theme of our project as we would look for ways to make our design more expansive and “complex”. It was important for us to take the time to recalibrate and refocus on the main functionalities we wanted to implement that would address our main goals and target users.
- It is important to revisit the research and ideations we performed during the initial phase of the design process as it allows us to reflect on the progress we made and even improve upon our initial work.
Contributions
I am extremely grateful for my amazing team:
Jiaming (Jessy) Li, Hannah Yick, and Samuel Do
who continuously motivated and inspired me throughout the design process!
Thank you Kendall for guiding us through this 10-week project and providing us with extensive feedback that we can apply to future projects!
❤
