HouseHolds Mobile
App Case Study
My Role
UX/UI Designer
User Researcher
Product Designer
Tools Used
Figma
Miro
Google Suite
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Otter.ai
Team Members
Bentanya
Sarah
Haley
Tanvir
The Problem
Finding garage sales are outdated, making it hard for local people to use various types of apps to find items of better quality for a better price. Thrifters need a convenient and accessible way to find local garage and estate sales that ease travel and financial hurdles through maximum use of the local community.
The Solution
A new mobile application that allows users to find a more accessible way to find vintage and second-hand items in their community.
The User
Frugal and money savvy individuals who like secondhand shopping and items.
The Goal
To create a tool that allows the user to find local garage and estate sales as well as create and manage their own posting of sales.
RESEARCH
With our group, we created a proto persona based on assumptions to determine the age of people we are aiming towards. We were interested in individuals who tend to be more interested in second-hand shopping.
Then, we recorded 5 research interviews. With these interviews, we sought out individuals who were common secondhand shoppers, getting to know their habits and patterns around it. Our team used the information gained from the interview to determine what the user needed with the creating of an empathy map and affinity diagram.
DEFINITION
Through our research, we learned that our primary demographic for secondhand shopping found themselves looking for good quality and refurbished items at low prices. They also weren’t afraid to go looking for long periods of time if they thought they would find something of value. They also tended to be in their 20s and 30s, especially when it came to taking advantage of technology to find such good sales, like social media. From there, created a scenario via storyboarding, which helped determine which features would be most effective prior to prototyping the app as well as a User Journey.
IDEATION
After learning about the potential user needs, we assembled the "I like, I wish, what if" method to brainstorm features using the information gained from our research. Then, as our brainstorming method for features, we completed a feature prioritization matrix to help organize our features and determine which features would be the most feasible and attractive to our users.
PROTOTYPING
Each member sketched out wireframes for potential looks for our wireframe. Together, we created a user flow and placed our images at different steps of the user flow that matched our wireframes. We discussed and analyzed each wireframe to see the pros and cons of each element we drew.
With our inputs, we were able to rearrange our user flow into a more cohesive form as well as create our lo-fi prototype.
USABILITY TESTING
Our team conducted 5 Usability Tests, receiving feedback on our prototype. We instructed the user through different functions that our app intended to feature. We reviewed our tests and put together the recommendations the users suggested through their prototype testing.
The users were experiencing a lack of clarity, bringing some confusion to them as they navigated their app. They also wanted some additional placements and filters to further ease the use of the app. We simplified our user flow to allow us as designers with more clarity in the final execution of our app. Finally, we applied our colors and styles to the app to create a final Hi-Fi Mockup.
CONCLUSION
HouseHolds app is an app that has the capabilities to consistently evolve and be more useful and dependable for our users. Our next steps in continuing to develop this app to its fullest potential would be to add filtering capabilities as well as put forth an advertising budget that would allow us an increase in revenue and visibility. There are also some current features that need more attention and could be further improved. Smoothing out the users’ experience looking and listing sales would increase the returnability of the users to our app. Keeping the ability to refresh for new sales and being able for us to branch out in the locations that we host would further improve the app. Because this app has the possibility for so many functionalities, that would also allow us as app developers to further increase our revenue whether it be through premium feature roll outs or advertisement.