Overview
Details
Giftology, an iOS app, aims to improve gift shopping by offering a comprehensive solution using A.I,
Duration
Q1 & Q2 2023
3 Months
Design System:
Atomic Design
iOS (Mobile)
Tools
Figma
ChatGPT
Otter.AI
Role
UX Research
UI Design
Prototyping
Revenue Strategy
Overview
Asset Links
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Overview
Problem Space
Gift giving has been a species wide behaviour for thousands of years. So why is it a problem now? Well, people seem to find more pressure, and choice paralysis in the experience of finding a “meaningful” and “curated” gift.
In my case study, I will explore AI solutions and design a method to use modern technology to bring back the human feeling of understanding the person next to us, and helping us reconnect through thoughtfully curated gifts.
Overview
Solution
Giftology will allow users to build user profiles, add birthdays, and every day add a new bit of information on that user from:
holidays/life events
interests and hobbies
observations and notes of their behaviour and needs
Harnessing machine learning and adding tags to each profile will allow the algorithm to suggest a series of curated gifts for users loved ones.
Overview
Design Considerations
Revenue:
How will the app make money?
How will the app control prices?
Revenue Solution:
Drop shipping and affiliate marketing to avoid the expenses of inventory on hand and upsell on accessories.
Socio-cultural
How will we make sure appropriate gifts are suggested?
Socio-cultural Solution:
Foster a diverse team to bring varied insights on culturally relevant gifts, considering appropriate customs.
Research
Interview Findings
Affinity Map Themes
After 2 rounds of decontextualized interviews, I summarized the key findings from the 3 interview participants to identify 3 core themes: Pricing, Specificity, and curation.
Motivation
Scanning various websites and stores for clearance items
Using websites that are familiar and have best filtering options
Searching for discounted items to stay within budget
Shopping journey 3+ months in advance
Pain Points
Not finding unique Gifts
Struggling to find affordable options
Overly generalized gifts (his & hers)
Lack of filters leading to overwhelming amount of options
Behaviour
Buying gifts within budget
Finding relevant gifts quickly
Feeling excited in shopping journey
Purchasing perfectly tailored gift
Using filters to narrow down number of options
Affinity Map Summary
Specificity emerged as the most crucial factor in the shopping journey. Moving forward, my focus is on crafting user stories and designing solutions that address the identified themes that will ensure an exceptional user experience.
Research
User Quotes
“I want to make people happy with luxurious items, without having to pay a luxurious price.”
“The most important thing is that the gift is tailored to the person. But when I’m shopping, the categories are suggested as “gifts for him” or “gifts for her” and the results are always generic.”
“Shopping online provides so many options but it’s frustrating when I see in my checkout that the item is out of stock or shipping will take over a two weeks.”
Research
Secondary Findings
60%
“of consumers will look for more deals this year than in previous years, and many will consider a wider assortment of retailers to ensure they find the best gifts at the best prices.”
- retail council
Thoughts
55+
“A person over 55 is more than twice as likely to consider themselves a terrible gift giver than anyone in their 20s and 30s.”
- nypost
58%
“Parents are also worried about their holiday spending, with 49 per cent of women and 58 per cent of parents reporting that they feel concerned.”
- slice
With my goal was to make the app to be inclusive and focused on human interests, I needed to find common traits among demographics that most struggle with gift shopping to identify a key demographic.
Fortunately, with my research findings, I was ready to get started on my Persona.
Thoughts
Sam: Working full time, with a growing family, and pressed on time, Sam wants to find meaningful gifts that make everyone feel special and seen.
I explored 4 different personas before creating my final design. I chose a name like Sam as it is a gender inclusive name and allows the opportunity to explore how Sam can evolve.
Persona & Experience
Pain point: Despite his efforts, his experience of exhaustive research leaves him unconfident of his purchases and budget.
Behaviour: This leaves him searching through various sites, using lots of filters, and spending months to find a meaningful gift.
Motivations: Although he wants to get a meaningful gift, and feel confident in his purchase, he ends up buying a gift card so he can stay within his budget.
Frustration: Although he knows he’s tried, the experience of not finding a meaningful curated gift makes him feel defeated.
Selective Sam
How Might We Statement - Now that we know selective sam, let’s discuss
How might we help parents over the age of 55 find affordable and meaningful presents that make them feel excited to give to their loved ones?
Ideation
Task Flow
Considering the top 10 user stories, I brainstormed 3 task flows in order to determine the key feature solutions users would want to see.
After participating in a peer critique session with three other UX designers, I finalized on a single task flow as a starting point for my app designs.
To identify key features, I analyzed user interviews and identified three core elements:
centralized platform for best-priced items
personalized gift shopping
curated gift recommendations based on unique qualities.
Through competitive analysis, I crafted a unique value proposition for Giftology users.
Key Features:
Users can
create "giftee" profiles,
save interests,
curate a gift shop,
set birthday reminders, and
receive guidance for perfect gifts.
This ensures that users can enhance their relationships through well-guided gift selection.
Ideation
Task Flow x User Journey
Objective is to buy a curated gift for Neira. She’s 32 and new to your team. You know she likes baking, technology, and the outdoors.
Step 1 Create a Giftee Profile for Neira.
Step 2 Proceed with creating the giftee profile and saving the profile.
Step 3 Navigate to Neira’s curated gift shop and add an item to your Gift List.
Step 4 From the gift list screen, review and select and item you want to add to your cart.
Step 5 Review your checkout, determine if your want gift wraps and proceed to payment.
Ideation
Sketches
With an established task flow in mind, I started my wireframes in a sequence of Crazy 8’s and decided to perform brief user testing with 5 individuals to determine how intuitive the initial sketches were. From my sketches, I moved forward into wireframes.
Ideation
Wireframes
Creating wireframes was exciting. I sourced inspiration from applications like Classpass, Uber, Reddit, WishUpon. While not all applications had the exact features I aspired to design, I was able to create the foundations of my application.
For this process, I performed a 14 hour sprint. I found that I wanted to get my ideas out into as many frames as possible to retain a consistent flow and train of thought. From there I performed 3 rounds of user testing to determine a version of the application that allowed users to perform the task flow with a 90% success rate measuring ease and intuitive design.
Design System
Design
Prototype
I heard someone in my program say “I want to explore and go beyond my comfort zone.”
And that made me think… I want to do that too. In this moment I want to completely challenge myself and try out something new, so let’s do something crazy and design in dark mode with glass morphism. Did I need to redesign it? Yes, but I’m happy I did as I challenged my design thinking and gained a stronger understanding of design principles.
Previous Design (April 2023)
Looking back, I’m grateful that I was brave to explore this direction. My UI inspiration board in this prototype consisted of Stripe, Spotify, and various Dribbble designs. Although I carefully curated and made my design decisions by always coming back to my my moodboard, and attending 5+ review sessions, I discovered that I thoroughly enjoy exploring in my design process before narrowing down my designs. Although it’s difficult to let go of certain designs, I found that it helped build my confidence and story as I became more acquainted with my idea and possibilites.
With that in mind, I would like to continue simplifying the application and expand the design to light mode.
Anyhoo! Feel free to browse around the prototype. I created a design library, UI inspiration board, and Revenue Strategy. If you’re curious to view these items, click the buttons below!
Design
Impact
Redesign Design (October 2023)
In a survey conducted with 25 individuals, 19 confirmed that they would download and use this app to help them organize and find greater success and ease in their gift shopping journey and showed excitement to learn of it’s development and growth.
The opportunity for local business to earn from partnerships on the application gives greater exposure and revenue as gift buyers gain awareness of their relevance and value.
Finally, alongside the great adoption of machine learning and A.I. there can be a great sweep of showing users the benefits and power of the advancing technology, providing solutions to daily events.