Hearing from the Stakeholders

The Economic Empowerment Team and I had discussions with with the non-profit's board and the students creating the products. We learned that the board wants to explore additional options of income and expand the Economic Empowerment Program. We also learned about the items the students wanted to create and planned the logistics of having these products ready for the launch.

• What I would do differently: I would have wanted to also speak with potential users of the e-commerce website to hear more about their potential expectations and experiences. 

I needed to understand how other local e-commerce websites functioned, so I conducted a competitor research. I compared the home screens, the product screens, and the purchasing flow of 3 local competitors.

Competitor Research Analysis:

I noticed how some of the websites comprised of a lot of white space and gave simple, basic product descriptions. Other websites, on the other hand, provided more background and story of where and how these products were created. Since the products are student-made, I wanted to figure out how to incorporate both these ideas to create a clean layout while sharing the story of the non-profit's Makers Shop and students.

Narrowing Down the Scope

In order to better narrow down who the users are, I put together a brief user persona based on conversations with stakeholders. Fiona is a local Richmond resident who likes to support her community, especially ReEstablish Richmond. She is always excited about their latest initiatives. 

• What I would do differently: Rather than basing data only off stakeholders' comments, I would have preferred to conduct some user interviews during this stage to gain more context and better understand the users’ goals and challenges.

User Persona:

We also needed to narrow down the items we were going to sell. After discussing this with the students making the products, we concluded that creating and selling 3 products for the launch would allow us to efficiently test this prototype for future iterations and development. In order to explain this to stakeholders, I put our ideas into a product requirements document.

• What I would do differently: I now have a better understanding of what a product requirements document includes, so I would have wanted to incorporate more details on the screen itself than just paragraph text.

Product Requirements:

Stakeholders had some concerns on if our Squarespace website would be able to keep track of the purchases, so we had to explain the background work of the website. After this, we were given the green light to continue forward.

Designing on Squarespace

Using ReEstablish Richmond's branding guidelines, I began to put together the e-commerce shop. Based on my competitor research, I aimed to ensure that the process for purchasing items was a familiar experience to users. We had the 3 products visible at once and a call-to-action button immediately below for ease of purchase. Unlike some of the competitors, I ensured users could view all the items at once and that a user could view the full description and product details on an item’s page.

High-Fidelity Screens:

I also created low and high fidelity wireframes for a future idea of a phone and tablet app of the product. This wasn't part of the launch, but instead was created to explore ideas.

High-Fidelity iOS Screens:

After having these designs of the online shop, we were ready for the launch.

Assessing the Impact

The launch date of this product was, unfortunately, the day after my contract ended. That being said, I learned the following from ReEstablish Richmond:

• Nearly 60 items were sold over the course of the launch

• One of the products sold out within 2 hours

• There were no purchasing issues or customers reaching out about shipping issues

Conclusions

Although (now that I have better learned the UX process) I would have wanted to take more UX-focussed steps during this project, the website’s launch was still a success. Customers didn’t have issues when purchasing and receiving products, ReEstablish Richmond got an understanding of how the shop can run, and how it can serve as a source of income for the program in the future. Given the immediate success of the online shop, ReEstablish Richmond was able to see the clear potential and success of the online shop.