Transforming Frustration to Delight: Improving Big Basket’s Gift Card Process

In this case study, I’ll share my experience completing this project during a 16-day design sprint, illustrating the real-world impact of UX and product designers. By focusing on a single app flow, I was able to positively influence the business and simplify the user experience.

👉🏻Index

1. Introduction
2. Final Solution
3. Why choose the gift card flow?
4. Problem Statment
5. Impact on business & Targeted users
6. Secondary Research
7. Primary Research
8. Validation
9. Usability Testing
10. Future Possibilities & Takeaway

👉🏻Introduction

Imagine planning a surprise birthday party for your best friend, and you want to give them the perfect gift

A gift card that lets them choose from a vast array of groceries, fresh produce, and household items at their convenience. The BigBasket app offers just that, with the promise of an easy and enjoyable experience for both the giver and the receiver.

However, as you navigate through the app’s gift card flow, you encounter several restrictions, unattractive cards, and limited personalization options. Your excitement turns to disappointment, and you can’t help but think twice about using this feature. The once-promising gift card now seems more like a burden than a blessing.

In this case study as a Product Designer, I’ll share how I identified and tackled these challenges to transform BigBasket’s gift card flow into a delightful and seamless experience that users would be excited to use and share with their loved ones.

What is Big Basket?

BigBasket is an easy-to-use online shopping platform in India where people can buy groceries, fruits, vegetables, and household items from the comfort of their homes, and have them delivered right to their doorstep.

👉🏻Existing Flow

Existing flow

👉🏻Final solution

Let’s explore the solution I developed to address the existing design challenges.

1. Gift Card Awareness: Added a gift card icon button on the home page to improve user awareness and enable direct access to the gift card page.

2. Purchase History: Users can now easily access their history directly on the gift card page. Previously, the flow required navigating through My Account > My Gift Card > Purchase History.

3. Flexible Amount Input: Users can now enter any desired amount they want to send to the recipient.

4. Card Aesthetics: Updated the card design for enhanced visual appeal.

5. Customization: Users now have the option to upload a desired image for their gift card.

6. Flexible Delivery: Users can now select their preferred method for sending the gift card to the recipient.

7. Smart Suggestions: The system stores recipient data and automatically suggests previous recipients when users send a new gift card.

8. Updated CTA Button: Changed the ‘Preview & Pay’ button from black to the brand’s red color, as the black color was confusing and made it appear disabled.

9. Enhanced Details: Included additional information about gift card redemption, as well as terms and conditions, for user clarity

10. Improved Informational Support: Added an information chip below the ‘share as a link’ option and in the preview page to provide users with clarity on how the system works before making a payment.

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👉🏻Why did I choose to work on gift card flow?

As a product designer, I decided to focus on the gift card flow of Big Basket for several reasons. Gift cards have become an increasingly popular choice for consumers seeking a convenient and flexible gifting option. By offering an exceptional gift card experience, Big Basket can tap into this market, leading to increased revenue and a more diverse customer base.

And personally, as I was curious to understand the experiences and challenges faced by users. I wanted to explore the aspects of the gift card process that could be improved, in order to make it more enjoyable and convenient for customers.

💥Problem Statement

Assess and Redesign BigBasket’s Gift Card Flow: Enhance the user experience to boost engagement and retention rates through improved product design

👉🏻How Does the Enhancement Influence the Business?

Increased user engagement and retention will positively impact BigBasket with:

1. Revenue Growth: Engaged and loyal users are more likely to make repeat purchases and use additional features, such as gift cards, leading to increased revenue for the company.
2. Lower Acquisition Costs: Retaining existing customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. As user retention improves, BigBasket can allocate resources more efficiently and reduce customer acquisition costs.
3. Enhanced Reputation: Satisfied users who have positive experiences with the app are more likely to recommend BigBasket to their friends and family, driving organic growth through word-of-mouth marketing.
4. Valuable Feedback: Engaged users are more likely to provide feedback and report issues, helping BigBasket continually improve its platform and offerings based on real user needs and expectations.
5. Greater Lifetime Value: Retained customers tend to have a higher lifetime value, which means they will generate more revenue for BigBasket over time.

👥Who are the target users, and how can gift cards provide value to them?

Users of BigBasket gift cards can be a diverse group, including but not limited to:

1. Regular BigBasket consumers who appreciate the convenience and variety of products available want to share this experience with their friends, family, or colleagues as a thoughtful gift.
2. Individuals celebrating special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, or festivals, who wish to give the gift of choice.
3. Corporate clients looking for employee rewards, incentives, or bonuses that offer practical value.
4. People who want to provide support to someone in need, such as friends or relatives going through a difficult time or facing financial challenges.
5. Time-conscious customers in search of a quick, convenient, and meaningful gift option.

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👉🏻Research Time

I began with secondary research, starting with a Heuristic Evaluation of the existing design.

Heuristic evaluation is a UX design method where designers review a user interface against established usability principles (heuristics) to identify potential usability issues and areas for improvement. It helps uncover problems early in the design process and prioritize areas for further user testing and iteration.

A severity score of up to 3 is assigned to each issue, indicating its importance and helping prioritize which areas to address first.

Interaction Issue: I observed an issue with the keyboard interaction, where dragging to close the keyboard resulted in returning to the previous page instead of closing the keyboard. Please refer to the video for reference.

Original app issue

And I believe this usability issue could be related to the “User Control and Freedom” heuristic, which refers to providing users with the ability to easily navigate and exit a system or page without unintended consequences.

Hence I fixed it.

Prototype

👉🏻Secondary research: Competitor analysis

Following the heuristic evaluation and identification of usability issues, I proceeded to conduct competitor research to examine and analyze their approaches.

Amazon

• Users can easily search for gift cards directly from the home page.
• After payment, users can easily send gift cards by sharing the link.
• Users can fill in the desired amount but only an Amazon card.

Flipkart

• Attractive card images & variety of cards to choose from.
• Users can fill in the desired amount but it is limited to Flipkart gift cards only.
• Users can read reviews before purchasing the gift card.

Paytm Mall

• Users get the option to choose whether to buy it for themselves or send it as a gift.
• So many cards and offers to choose from.

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👉🏻Primary research: User interview

After analyzing competitor apps, I gained insight into their gift card flow and the features they offer.

To validate my assumptions, I conducted user interviews to understand users’ experiences when exploring the gift card flow, as well as their pain points and needs. I created tasks for users to complete, observed their behavior during the task, and asked probing questions to gain insights.

Tasks for users

• Purchase a gift card: Ask users to go through the process of purchasing a gift card. Take note of any difficulties they encounter, such as finding the gift card option, selecting the amount, and entering recipient information.
• Customize the gift card: Ask users to personalize the gift card by adding a message, selecting a design, or choosing a delivery method (email or physical card). Observe whether they can easily understand the customization options.

What to Observe during tasks

• Purchase a gift card:
  - Time is taken to find the gift card option
  - Clarity of instructions and options (gift card amount, recipient info, etc.)
  -User’s understanding of the process
• Customize the gift card:
  - Time taken to personalize the card
  - Users’ ability to find and understand customization options
  - Satisfaction with the level of personalization offered
• While observing these tasks, pay attention to:
  - Users’ overall satisfaction and frustration levels
  - Any points of confusion, hesitation, or misunderstanding
  - Errors made and users’ ability to recover from them
  - Users’ ability to complete tasks without assistance
  - Feedback and suggestions for improvement

Probing Questions

• Purchase a gift card:
  - How often do you purchase a gift card?
  - Have you used/purchased a gift card from any other app?
  - How easy or difficult was it to find the gift card option?
  - Did you find the process of purchasing a gift card straightforward?

- Was the overall gifting experience satisfactory?

• Customize the gift card:
  - How did you feel about the customization options available?
  - Was there anything you found confusing or unclear when personalizing the gift card?
  - Was the overall gifting experience satisfactory?

Interview Insights

User 1

• Observations
  - She was expecting the gift card page to be on the home page
  - Easily figured out how it will work
  - No issue in personalizing the card
  - Was not satisfied with the default images
• Insights
  - order groceries from the app once a week
  - Never used the gift card from Bigbasket
  - Once received a gift card from Amazon
  - Wish to spend the amount as per her like from the card

User 2

• Observation
  - Tried to search for gift cards from the home page search menu
  - Was easy for him to fill in the details and proceed
  - Tried to find the pay button as the actual button felt like disabled
  - Asked me where to find the purchase history page
  - Not satisfied with the CTA button color and no history feature on the gift card page
• Insights
  - Order vegetables from the app daily
  - Never used the gift card from Bigbasket
  - Easy to navigate other than the CTA button
  - Wish that system recognize if the details are being repeated

User 3

• Observation
  - Easily navigated the gift card page
  - Took no time to figure out the filling process and customization
• Insights
  - Never used Bigbasket or its card feature
  - Frequently uses and purchases Amazon gift cards
  - Wish to have multiple options for deliver
  - Prefixed amount which is not ideal

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👉🏻Validation

Based on the insights gathered from user interviews and research, I validated the issues identified during the heuristic evaluation and secondary research.

1. Users were unable to enter a desired amount when purchasing gift cards: Verified
2. The system does not recognize when users enter recipient details that have been used before: Verified
3. Users were unable to customize gift cards: Verified
4. Users were unable to view their purchase history on the gift card page: Verified
5. The gift card images lacked visual appeal: Verified
6. Keyboard interaction was not satisfying: Verified

After conducting a heuristic evaluation, analyzing competitors, and gathering user insights, I moved on to ideation to generate potential solutions for the redesign. I made some small adjustments to these solutions and began to implement them. However, the effectiveness of the proposed solutions will only be validated once usability testing is conducted.

👉🏻Usability testing

To determine the effectiveness of the proposed solutions, I conducted a usability test to gauge user satisfaction with the new designs.

The usability tests provided valuable insights and confirmed that the proposed solutions would have a positive impact on the targeted business metrics.

After adding an input field for the amount, user feedback indicated that it didn’t fit well with the structure and felt empty. To address this, I reworked the design to include a proper input placeholder and moved it above the amount chips.

• Users can now choose to either write the desired amount or select from pre-set options.

Added an ‘Add Your Own Image’ button, but user feedback suggested that it wasn’t immediately clear it was a button, as it appeared only as a heading. To address this, I updated the design to create a proper button and added a + icon to improve visibility.

• Users can now upload their own images to create a personalized gift card to send to the recipient.
• Based on usability test feedback, I made changes to the placement and design of the delivery option radio button, as users had difficulty with the small touch area and were not convinced with the original placement

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✨Future Possibilities

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To compete with giants like Amazon and Flipkart, BigBasket must prioritize the promotion of its gift card offerings.

Source Link

• According to a report by Research and Markets, India’s Gift Card Market is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.64%.
• The market is driven by the rising popularity of gift cards as a gifting option, as well as the growth of e-commerce sales.
• The most popular type of gift card is the digital gift card. Large retailers such as Amazon and Flipkart dominate the market.
• The corporate sector is expected to be a key driver of growth in the coming years.

💚To expand its gift card offerings, BigBasket should consider onboarding gift cards from other brands, not just its competitors

I created few screens simultaneously that I would like to present. However, my senior advised me that introducing new screens and modifications could affect the project timeline and the original flow.

Considering this was an evaluative project aimed at enhancing the current flow and user experience, I decided not to include the new screens and features. The focus was on improving the existing flow, rather than introducing new screens.

1. The gift card icon on the home screen will be removed, and users can now search for gift cards directly from the search bar, where relevant results will be displayed.
2. A new gift card category will be added to the list of categories, and users will be able to view subcategories within it.
3. Users will have access to a variety of gift card options, and can also take advantage of attractive discounts.

✌🏻Takeaways

Working on an existing product to improve the user experience was a valuable learning experience, allowing me to understand user problems and needs, prioritize them against business objectives, and design accordingly

My goal was to address both the business and user needs by increasing user engagement and retention rates. Based on the usability test results, I believe I have achieved this goal. The small tweaks and changes I made, such as adding a personalization feature, offering multiple delivery options, and providing clear instructions, could potentially lead to an increase in user engagement and satisfaction.

I have now completed the project and accompanying case study. Thank you for taking the time to read it. If you found it helpful, please consider leaving a clap or comment. Also I welcome any feedback you may have to offer.

🫶🏻If you would like to stay updated on my work and future projects, please feel free to follow me on LinkedIn. I share content that may be valuable to you in your journey as a designer🫶🏻

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🤝🏻Thank you once again🤝🏻