Case Study: Fore! Golflinks is on the green

This case study outlines the process I went through with my team at RED Academy to build a dedicated buy and sell golf marketplace app.

Breakdown:

Research and Planning: Sucheta Mehra
Research and Design: Patrick Weberman
UI and Logo Design: Anton Itkin

The Start

Our client approached us with a concept to build an application that would help users buy and sell used golf equipment. Her husband was someone who bought lots of gear and often had a hard time trying to sell it for a fair price when it was time to upgrade which would then lead to a surplus of golf inventory in their basement. I could immediately relate to our client, my dad is an avid golfer and has a similiar problem of collecting too much gear. This project felt Taylor Made for me.

The Challenge

We needed to create a tool for users to instantly connect with others wanting to buy and sell used golf equipment. It would be a platform for multiple devices that would make creating a listing and buying an item rewarding for both parties. Because of the tall order we would rely on lean UX methodology; our small team knew that in order to build a great product we had to think smart and move fast.

We analyzed many golf sites as well as the big names like eBay and Amazon.

Research

We started our project with domain research, looking at different golf marketplaces and exploring general buy and sell sites. We were searching for a pain point during this anaylsis so we could dive deeper into what users were missing in these sites. Our client kept referring to a US-based site called Poshmark; she wanted to model Golflinks off of it. This was a buy and sell site that helped users part with designer clothing and offered a fair trade in value. The members who were a part of it appreciated the brands and weren’t there to lowball other people.

We created two surveys, one for buyers and one for sellers who trade and sell golf gear on the internet. The question we tried to address was ‘What problems do users have when buying and selling used golf equipment on existing buy and sell marketplaces?”

Our survey results showed there was an interest for a dedicated golf platform like Golflinks.

Our research found there were two important groups of people in our golf paradigm: those who had too much equipment and nowhere to sell it, and those that had no equipment; these were the individuals who were new to the sport and just beginning to invest in equipment.

Our research we also highlighted some of the pain points users had; a fading interest in the sport of golf, leading to lack of knowledge for new golfers; complicated shipping and payment gateways; tedious bidding and auction features that resulted in low trade-in values; and of course, the concerns of shady buyers and sellers.

Now that we had survey results and had reviewed many different platforms, we could do a feature prioritization to come up with the most desirable features and prove why Golflinks should exist.

A reliable and easy to use payment gateway is definitely needed. Listing brand name products, enabling easy interaction between buyers and sellers, creating a dedicated mobile app for golfers and creating a feature that would allow only genuine golfers to sign up were definitely some of the must haves.

When buying or selling used gear, users would gravitate towards 2nd Swing, 3 Balls and Golf Town. These places had tons of great deals and were generally easy to browse for items. But when it came time to sell a piece of equipment, the trade in value was so low, it was insulting. For example, the Callaway driver you bought last year for $399 will get get you a whopping trade-in value of $12. Dont forget to factor in shipping which is $8 and add taxes. In the end 2nd Swing will send you a cheque for around $2. Of course, one could argue this is nothing new when trading in items, but golf equipment should not depreciate that much, this is equipment that is masterfully built and can last a lifetime if cared for properly.

Based on our understanding from the research we decided to focus on the seller as our primary persona, since they would be using the mobile app to create listings to sell their their surplus of inventory.

What’s in our name?

Our client left the name of the product up to us; we all agreed on Golflinks. Our thinking was that we wanted to link golfers together; it also plays with the fact that golf courses are often refered to as ‘the links’, so it was the full package. The logo our UI Designer created reflects this thought process. Linking golfers together to sell equipment, it truly captured the essence of an upscale market.

The Golflinks wordmark, and the final logo.

Core Features

• Golflinks functions on a desktop and mobile app. Users are only allowed to sell items using the mobile app
• Creating an ad is a breeze, no more than 3 steps
• When users create a profile, they can also show off their existing gear for others to browse (My Golf Gear)
• Buying and selling feels safer due to verified Facebook and Google users
• Using geolocation technology, golf equipment for sale in your area is easy to find
• Built in camera widget allows you to take a picture of the item you wish to sell
• Social media feed in a user’s profile screen allows Golflinks members to post and stay connected
• Users have multiple ways to sell and promote items for sale (Through their My Golf Gear, a store, and through the buy and sell function)
• A buyer can like an item, and a seller recieves a notification, this method acts as an icebreaker helping to speed up the transaction
• Buyers make offers to sellers via a bidding calculator widget. No more deals falling flat by making deals through a chat window. Each offer is binding
• Third party shipping company sends a label and box to the seller when a deal has been finalized, alleviating shipping woes
• Payment portal finalizes transactions, no more worrying about how to pay each other

Design & Testing

We wanted Golflinks to differentiate itself from the rest of the herd; we did this by optimizing our selling and buying and we knew it could identify real opportunities and un-met needs. For instance, while other sites usually depended on a separate menu to sell an item, we put the camera and ‘Sell your Gear’ functions on the navigation bar and made it available on each screen, this would push users to sell where ever they are in the app and eliminated extra steps.

We tested our two sets of wireframes by giving users a clickable prototype. We gave two main tasks: Create a listing and buy an item. With this feedback we could start designing multiple iterations of the wireframes before handing them off to our UI. We began documenting our tester’s behaviours, where they were clicking, where they got stuck, and what wording confused them. With this feedback we began constructing a user flow of how our product could function.

Logging in and creating a listing:

User testing determined the verbage, button placement and flow of how Golflinks would function.

Buy an item and interacting with a seller:

User testing helped decide how a user could interact with a seller, and how a deal could be finalized and pushed to the checkout screen.

The Final Design:

Our mid fidelity screens turned into a wonderful elegant hi fidelity.

The clickable mid fidelity prototype can be found here:
https://projects.invisionapp.com/share/S8CE025VM#/screens

The Golflinks Roadmap

With Golflinks only being a concept at this point, providing a strategy to get this idea off the ground was crucial. We devised a four phase plan that our client could use as a stepping stone to bring this into development.

The first phase includes picking options for Shipping and Payment and choosing a ready to use e-commerce portal, or hiring a web developer to build it from scratch.

The second phase would be user acquisition, encourage friends and family to get a feel for it. Reach out to golf clubs and allow golfers to use this app. Build a level of trust at this stage. If feasible, provide them free shipping or charge a lower transaction fee and create a market exclusively for golflinks.

The third phase focuses on leveraging zero cost marketing to grow large scale. At this stage consider upgrading a CRM and e-commerce platform for a higher level of improved services.

The fourth phase calls for continued growth — it’s time to hire growth marketers not only for strategy but also for retaining existing users. Zooming into advanced user centric marketing tactics will help scale up deals and provide more analytics for further research and marketing purposes.

Conclusion

We presented our vision of Golflinks to our client and our peers, we included a short skit of how the app would actually interact between a buyer and a seller. The client was grateful and impressed and we left her smiling from ear to ear. Our vision aligned with Golflink’s goals and it felt great to be able to present this concept and receive such positive feedback. Our roadmap will be instrumental in making Golflinks a reality, I couldn’t be more proud to work with such a great group of people.

“ Once again, let me express my thanks and gratitude for the manner in which you executed this project. I think you have done a fabulous job” — Karen Wishart