Creating an interactive gift system
GIFTY
Overview
The process of finding a unique gift for someone can be challenging. Despite shoppers having endless options, they’re often overwhelmed with the plethora of offerings and struggle to find the perfect gift.
The solution we designed is Gifty - an interactive system that curates unique and personal results for the individual the shopper is buying for. At the end of the project, we were to present our research, prototype, and product to a pair of stakeholders to determine if the concept was fit for development.
Details
Role: UX Designer & Researcher
Methods: User Research, Interaction Visual Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Tools: Sketch, InVision, Photoshop
Timeline: 1 month
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
Exploring an opportunity space of our choice, we chose to solve a problem within the scope of personalized gifting. Finding gifts that are tailored to the person you are buying for is a pretty common problem. While they are a multitude of options and websites online, shoppers often experience disparity in search results.
GATHERING INSIGHTS
As a frequent shopper myself, the difficulty of finding the right gift for someone is a challenge that resonated with me, however, we wanted to validate these problems with other shoppers so we took the initiative to screen individuals who were equally frustrated.
In order to get a better understanding of the difficulties that shoppers face, we used a combination of online surveys, competitive and comparative analysis, and user research. We conducted several interviews to uncover insights on how shoppers went about buying gifts for the people in their life.
Following a screener survey, we interviewed 8 participants (seven of which were on the phone and one in person).
WHAT USERS SAID
EARLY INSIGHTS FROM THE USERS
People shop online mostly because it’s convenient
Shoppers prefer to give unique and memorable gifts
Finding personalized gifts for someone is difficult
People like to do extensive research on products by reading customer reviews, product ratings before purchasing
MEET JESS
Based on our research, we discovered our personification of our target user with the intention to better understand how to keep the design centered on users at every step in the process. Our key persona, Jess emerged.
“I really enjoy giving gifts to people and try to put thoughtful gifts into it. I spend a lot of time putting thought into it.”
Needs
Different gift ideas for various occasions
A site that narrows the search results in a way that is personal to who she is buying for
Pain Points
Indecisiveness and difficulty in finding gift ideas for family and friends
Doesn’t like using too many websites for gift idea inspiration; ends up experiencing disparity in search results
REFRAMING THE CHALLENGE
Users struggle today because it’s difficult to find a personal gift for the person they’re shopping for. We want to address the problem by making it easier to find personal gifts for those people who are “tricky” to buy for by creating an interactive system that will curate unique results based on the information the user gives.
VISION AND SOLUTION
After sketching out various concepts for a solution, we decided on creating an interactive gift finder system that curates unique results based on the information the user inputs. As a product, we wanted to position ourselves as the leading gift finding platform with 2 key focus areas:
Catered experience - by prompting users to answer a 4-step questionnaire about the individual they are buying the gift for, this will help individuals achieve their goal of finding a perfectly curated gift.
Importance of Surprise and Delight- by providing moments of surprise and delight, we attained to differentiate from competitors and give a competitive advantage. Additionally, we seek to create a connection and experience that is memorable.
MOVING INTO MID-FI
With an idea of the areas of focus and following an initial paper sketching session, we began wireframing in Sketch. We were careful to keep in mind the feedback that we had received during the paper prototyping sessions and continued seeking feedback while structuring the new layout. User testing was an iterative process where we met with users at each phase to ensure that we were capturing all areas of pain points with the current product.
Mid-fidelity homepage
Mid-fidelity questionnaire relationship
Mid-fidelity questionnaire (your name)
Mid-fidelity occasion page
Mid-fidelity questionnaire (interests page)
Mid-fidelity product page
MID-FIDELITY LEARNINGS
Our team conducted 4 usability tests on our mid-fidelity wireframes which was especially helpful to gaining feedback about our user flow.
High level results:
2/3 users expressed confusion about the question regarding the relationship to the person they were shopping for as they felt it was not relevant to product results.
1/3 users expressed interest in wanting to learn more about how it worked before getting started or making an account especially since she hadn’t heard of the brand before.
Recommendations:
Remove the question asking the user their relationship to the person they are buying the gift for.
Include a “How it Works” screen on the homepage to familiarize new users with the platform before clicking get started.
Main takeaway from this session was the importance in determining the right questions to ask in the questionnaire. Additionally, we needed to ensure that the questions being asked were unique but not too specific in case they were shopping for an acquaintance versus a significant other. With a solid idea of what changes were needed, we moved into the exciting phase of brand identity and color scheme.
BRAND IDENTITY
We started out by word mapping to organize words and thoughts around our product concept. We knew we wanted to go with something classic so that people would easily identify what our company does so we chose Gift which is a verb which means to “present someone with a gift” and decided to make it “Gifty” to add some flair.
The name represents the brand's mission to help people find personalized gifts that are unique and elicits the experience of giving.
FINAL DESIGN SOLUTIONS
User testing was an iterative process where we met with users at each phase to ensure that we were capturing all areas of pain points with the current product. Once feedback was gathered, we would revisit the prototypes and test again.
01. Homepage & How It Works
Based on the feedback from our mid-fidelity usability testing, we found that users wanted to learn more about how Gifty worked before clicking “Get Started” or creating an account. Taking this into consideration, we created 3 simple steps to communicate clarity on the platform.
01. Questionnaire
After synthesizing the research from the user interviews, we discovered that users enjoy buying gifts that are thoughtful and memorable. Additionally, we found that the type of gift differs based on the occasion. We used these key points in order to ensure that we were providing an experience to the user’s level by using simple questions with the right amount of customization to the individual. This feedback also informed the design of a traditional questionnaire that would be broken down question by question.
ITERATING USER TESTING
Following this, we ran 5 usability tests on our high-fi and provided the users with the same four tasks so we could test the improvements that were made. We found that all users were able to complete tasks successfully. We also found some users struggled with wording of personality page. Overall, users were very pleased with the site and said it improved their gift buying experience.
RESULTS AND TAKEAWAYS
One of the biggest takeaways we gained was how to improve user interviews and creating pointed questions that would uncover actionable insights. Also learned that this is an iterative process and we will still continue to perform research on the usability of the site.
NEXT STEPS
Research further on more personality and interest categories to add to our interactive site.
Continue testing the performance on the categories pages to ensure we are reaching a wide audience.
Create a Mobile responsive web design to accompany the Desktop platform.
Explore the opportunity of providing experiences as additional products.