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Uni-Swap: Mobile Shopping App
Duration
6 weeks
Tools
Figma, Wire-framing, Hand Sketching
Key Skills
Mobile App Prototyping, User Research
Team
Individual
Uni-Swap is used retail app designed for university students. Uni-Swap gives college students the opportunity to purchase used items at the most affordable prices. It also allows students to make money by selling items they no longer need. Uni-swap differs from other used retail applications in that it is more secure, as students are required to provide their university to create an account. The app is also unique in that it meets the need of many students and local college residents who are looking to purchase used items from sellers who are within close proximity.
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View this page to learn more about Uni-Swap and how it was created.
Audience and Personas
To better understand the problem, I began by closely examining the demographics of individuals who struggle to find affordable used household items. From this analysis, I developed two personas that represent the key users of this application.
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Audience
We are targeting males and females around the age of 18-23.
Since our product offers users an easy and secure way to buy used items at a reduced cost as well as to sell used items for profit, the main audience of UNI - Swap consists of college students. College students are typically in need of school or household supplies, such as textbooks, furniture, or clothing. At the same time, these students, in general, have less money to spend on such items, and therefore they would benefit from our service. As a plus, we recognize that students who are moving out, graduating, or simply finished with their term may be looking to get rid of items they no longer need. CP SWAP also aims to target local residents. Local residents can contribute to the Uni - Swap Market by offering students or other local residents valuable items at a low cost.
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Persona 1
Kate Johnson, 19 years old
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Kate Johnson is a second year Cal Poly Student who has just moved into her new apartment in Mustang Village. She is excited to have returned back to campus and to be living with some of her good friends who she met last year. Kelly is serious about school and spends a large amount of her time studying. When she isn't studying, she loves to cook and meet new people, and is hopeful she will be able to invite new friends into her apartment. She is worried, however, about paying for new furniture and school supplies, which are items she has never had to look for herself, as she lived in the dorms last year and her parents had helped her purchaser school supplies as needed.
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Goals
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Maintain her high GPA
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Live comfortably in her apartment
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Save money
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Reserve time for hobbies: cooking, spending time with friends
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Persona 2
Jack Byrns, 24 years old
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Jack Byrns is a recent Cal Poly Graduate who is preparing to move out of his McCollum St. House in San Luis Obispo. He is relocating to New York City to start his new job. He is excited to take the leap and move across the country but is anxious about leaving his friends and family in California to live alone in a big city. He enjoys reading, running, and photography and is looking to continue exploring these activities while living in New York. Right now, his main priority is to move all of his belongings out of his house, which he has found to be a difficult task. He recognizes that he will need to get rid of many large furniture pieces. If possible, he'd like to sell these for a discounted price, rather than simply giving them away.
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Goals
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Enjoy his last few weeks in San Luis Obispo
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Experience a smooth transition to his new life in New York City
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Save money
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Reserve time for hobbies: reading, running, photography
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Competitive Landscape
In this section, I focused on understanding the current solutions on the used retail market. I found three platforms that are widely used among my target demographic. Discussing the pros and cons of each of these services helped me to develop my own ideas surrounding Uni-SWAP.
Facebook Marketplace
Provides users with ability to sell and purchase items locally or through shipping. Allows users to look for items by category or through search. In the selling section of the app, users can view an overview of their app usage, their performance level as a seller, and a complete list of their listings. The order in which these sections are organized feels odd, as it would make more sense for a seller to view their listings before looking at their performance level or app usage. In general, Facebook Marketplace makes it pretty difficult to find and manage your own listings.
The overall interface of this app feels a bit unreliable, as there are many advertisement postings, and not all listings are monitored for safety and background purposes.
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Mercari: Your Marketplace
Provides users with a simple and convenient way to shop for items in the area. On the Home Tab, users can search for specific items, shop local or browse through a Recommended section, which is tailored towards the users pervious buying habits. Another interesting feature of the app is the favorite tab, which allows users to browse items that they have favorited. On the selling side, users can easily begin the process of listing items. On this screen, users can also look at items that sold out fast as well as a long list of listing ideas that can help the user think of items that they may with to sell. There is also an inbox page, which helps users organize their communication with potential buyers or sellers.
The overall interface of this app is very clean and easy to understand. It does not feel cluttered or confusing. Additionally, this app feels very secure, and all purchases are monitored for safety.
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Ebay
Provides users with ability to search for anything, save items, and view deals. Ebay is mainly used to purchase items through shipping rather than from local sellers. Ebay is well known for their bidding features, which allows sellers to auction off items at a starting price. Users a required to sign into an account order to view a variety of buying and selling options. Lastly, Ebay offers an easy in-app payment options with paypal or credit card.
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Overall, the Ebay mobile interface is a bit crowded, as there are quite a few functions listed that can overwhelm the user.
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Scenario
At this point in the project, I felt it was important to better understand the pain points of the target demographic. I created a scenario of my personas #1, Kate, in order to empathize with her situation as Cal Poly student moving into her new apartment on a low budget. This helps me iterate on my product so that is solved Kate's problems in a simple and convenient manner.
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Kate, Second Year Cal Poly Student
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Kate is a second year Cal Poly Student who has just moved into her new apartment near campus.
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She is feeling overwhelmed with all the items she needs to purchase to furnish her first ever apartment
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Her goal is make herself feel comfortable in her new living space.
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She is worried that she will not be able to afford brand new items such as furniture and kitchen supplies.
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She is also worried she will not have enough time to buy the things she needs, as she is about to start her quarter at Poly and her just accepted a job position at a local Coffee shop.
She is worried that she will not be able to afford brand new items such as furniture and kitchen supplies.
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Her roommate refers her to a new app called CPSWAP.
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In this app, Kate is able to find all the items she needs at an affordable price.
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She likes that the app feels safe and that she can browse various categories of items.
Kate purchases various items, such as a used couch, kitchen utensils and a plate / bowl set from a local resident at an affordable price that falls within her budget.
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Kate drives to pick up her items with her roommate, who has also purchased items.
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She safely delivers the items back to her apartment.
Kate is happy now that she has furnished her apartment at a low price. She is now ready to start the quarter!
The next step was to create a diagram that displayed the important flows of the app. I drew a very simple sketch of the item selection flow. This flow would begin when the user selects a category of item and is then followed by their selection of an item. Once they have selected an item, they are able to view all the details about this item, including extensive informaiton on the seller (ie: their grade level, selling history etc.). I then highlighted the content with images and graphics in red and the content with just text in blue.
Wire Framing Sketches
I moved to start prototyping by sketching my ideas out on paper. Though they are far from beautiful, this step was important because it helped me build a foundation for the screens I would later create in Figma. These sketches are meant to be straight to the point, so I didn't add too many details to them and left many boxes and frames blank.
Interaction Framework
Design Guidelines
Type
Colors
Icons
Final Product
In my final screens, I used Figma to produce three main flows: the on-boarding flow, the home / categories flow and the item details flow. Though this is not a complete app design, I believe it covers the most crucial elements of my design, which emphasize the idea of creating a safe and welcoming environment for students to sell old goods.
Login / Signup screen
Home screen
Get to know you / customization screen
Furniture categories screen (example category screen)
Logo / getting started screen
Tables screen (example category screen)
Example item screen with product info, seller info, pick up instructions, etc.
Future Enhancements
The first enhancement I would make would be to add more screens. These screens would cover the selling process, the messaging users tab, the favorites tab and the student profile section. Secondly, I would like to put in more time for user testing, to ensure that this product meets the needs of its potential users. Thirdly, I would add more categories of items such as housing rentals, vehicles, or categories within the furniture sections. If I had the time, I would also work on designing for different sized screens or for web application.
Lessons Learned
This project taught me how to work independently on something I am passionate about. From this, I better understand the value of spending time using only pen and paper to sketch out my ideas before incorporating them into Figma. With that, I too believe I strengthened my knowledge and skills in Figma.